What the ads say

Jaques of London had about 120 active ads in the UK view of Meta’s Ad Library when we looked, and we read 119 of them. Most are new: 96 started between 1 and 3 October. Almost half, 54, open a dedicated landing page, and 28 more go straight to a product. One creator ad that started on 1 October still talks about a summer sale.

Black Friday arrived on 19 September, in an ad that opens with the words “Leaked early” and says 65% off. A day later the same line ran at 77% off; one version shows a laptop with that figure on a sticky note. On 2 and 3 October, 24 more Black Friday ads followed. Fourteen show a single price with a code, and eight say up to 76% off once a 20% code is used at checkout. An ad for a September sale, live since 12 September, says up to 73% off and that the prices won’t be seen again this year.

On Google, the company runs about 300 ads in the UK, 81 of them text ads. The ones we read sell by age and by game: toys for one-year-olds, folding chess boards, a guide to playing backgammon. None of those mentions Black Friday.

Where they send people

The September Black Friday ads, and six of the newer ones, open an early-access page. Its headline promises at least 25% off and up to 50% off, and it gives a reason for starting early: the warehouse needs clearing before the Christmas stock arrives. Below sit 78 products, each with its old price, its new price and the saving. The page says every price is already reduced, so there is no code to enter, and that codes don’t stack on top. It is labelled as by invitation, but it opened for us without one.

The 18 Black Friday ads from 3 October open the Black Friday collection instead: the same 78 products at the same prices, under a banner offering 20% off with the code EARLY20. That code also runs across the top of the site as a sitewide offer. Nearly all the landing-page ads open a page about one toy or game.

What works

  • Landing pages built for the ads. 54 of the 119 ads we read open one of 31 landing pages, nearly all about a single toy or game. On the three we checked, the page’s title repeats the ad’s headline.
  • A reason to start early. The early-access page explains the September start: space is needed for Christmas stock. A sale with a reason is easier to believe.
  • Gifting risk removed. Anything bought in early access can be returned until 31 January, and orders placed before 1pm on a weekday go out the same day.
  • Heritage that does real work. Ads and pages keep saying since 1795, a claim no newer toy brand can make.
  • Search ads that answer questions. On Google, toys sorted by age and a backgammon guide meet real searches without leading on a discount.

The gaps we’d close

  1. The ad’s number isn’t on the page. The early-access ads say 65% off, then 77% off. The page they open says at least 25% and up to 50%. Its own list runs from 3% to 67%: of the 78 products, 11 are under 25% off, 50 sit between 25% and 50%, and 17 are over 50%. None is 77% off. The newer ads say up to 76% off with a code and open the collection, which holds the same products. None reaches 76% there either: the deepest discount is 67%, or 74% if the 20% code applies.
  2. A price that needs a code, on a page that takes none. Six ads from 2 October show a single price with a code and open the early-access page, which says there is no code to enter and that codes don’t stack. Two of those prices, £9.59 and £11.99, are exactly 20% below prices on the page’s list, £11.99 and £14.99. The ads from 3 October open the collection, where the same prices sit under the 20% code banner. We didn’t test the code at checkout, and a shopper can’t tell from the page whether it will work.
  3. Three deadlines on one page. A bar at the top of the early-access page says some deals end tonight and counts down to midnight. The page’s own answer on timing says the countdown at the top is the real end, when the page closes. But the page’s code counts to midnight UK time on any day, and holds a separate end for the event: 23:59 on 26 November, the eve of Black Friday. On our visit a sign-up pop-up showed a third time: 9 hours 31 minutes, when the bar said 6 hours 16 minutes. The page doesn’t say which deals end tonight.
  4. Two sales claim the year’s best prices. The September sale ad, live since 12 September, says its prices won’t be seen again this year. The Black Friday page says its discounts are the biggest of the year. Both were live when we looked, and 24 products sat in both the sale collection and the Black Friday collection at the same price.

The ad says 77% off. None of the 78 products on the page it opens is.

Under 25% off 11 of 78 products

25% to 50% off, the page’s promise 50 of 78 products

Over 50% off, up to 67% 17 of 78 products

77% off, the ad’s figure 0 of 78 products

None at 77%

Bar length shows the number of products. Worked out from the old and new prices on Jaques of London’s early-access page on 3 October 2026.

What we’d do next

  1. Lead with a number the page proves. Up to 67% off is true of the list today. Test it against 77% off, and make the page’s headline say the same as the ad.
  2. Decide what the code does. If EARLY20 works on early-access prices, say so on the page. If it doesn’t, take the code out of the ads that open it and show the page’s own price.
  3. Show the real deadline. Put 26 November on the page, or name the deals that end tonight, so the countdown is one a shopper can check.
  4. Give each sale its own claim. Retire the September sale ad and the summer line now that Black Friday has started, so only one event promises the year’s best prices.

We can’t see Jaques of London’s results, so none of this is a verdict on performance. With account access, the first number we’d want is how many early-access clicks reach a product page, split by the number in the ad.