DTC Podcast Ep 565 Summary

Episode Title: BFCM + Meta in 2025: Shorter Promo Windows and Scrappy Pivots That Crushed
Date: December 5, 2025
Host: Eric Dick (C)
Guests: Jacob (A) and Jocelyn (B), leaders on the Meta team

Episode Overview

This episode delivers a hands-on breakdown of key trends, tactics, and lessons learned from Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2025. The discussion unpacks why brands performed the way they did, explores evolving promotional windows, dives deep into Meta advertising strategies, and looks ahead to shifting eCommerce approaches for the new year.

Main Discussion Themes

1. Shifting Trends in BFCM Promo Windows

• Shorter, More Focused Sales:
  The panel observed that the most successful BFCM brands in 2025 leaned into tighter, more intense promotional periods — primarily Black Friday and Cyber Monday themselves.
  • "Mid November's in general, like the earlier launches didn't seem to hit quite as well as they have in previous years... leading up to Black Friday we saw really strong like actual, you know, Black Friday, the actual day of across the board." (A, 01:11)
  • "Saturday Sunday after the Black Friday it seemed to be quite a bit softer honestly across the board." (A, 01:40)
• Strategic Budget Preservation:
  Budgets are being concentrated on those tentpole days, with softer spend during the weekend lull in between.

2. The Power of Flexibility and Fast Pivots

• Adaptability Sets Winners Apart:
  Brands willing to iterate—updating offers, optimizing creative, and making last-minute tweaks—outperformed more rigid competitors.
  • “The brands that we saw the most success with this year…willingness to pivot really comes down to your offer… adjustments more on the fly. That’s where we saw more success as well as pivoting on the creative side.” (B, 03:28)
• Post-click Adjustments Drive Success:
  Changes to shipping thresholds and bundle offers in response to real-time data helped sustain high conversion rates.
  • “One of our clients changed their offer on Monday and...removed their free shipping threshold. So...changed their free shipping threshold back and also added an additional discount to the bundle to make it more enticing and that has helped performance.” (B, 04:54-05:26)

3. Winning Offers: Simplicity and Clarity

• Don't Overcomplicate Offers:
  The clearest, boldest offers—straight percentage discounts, occasionally enhanced with free shipping or limited-time BOGO—had the best performance.
  • “The worst thing you can do is stack a bunch of offers … and just confuse everyone… They just want a simple number, big percent off.” (A, 00:14, 08:29)
  • “Just really basic percentage off. And then the Bogo offer did well from what I could see.” (B, 07:36)

4. Creative: Variety, Humor, and Scrappiness

• Creative Range and Humor:
  More experimental, “scrappy” creative assets stood out, including warehouse shots, stick-figure cartoons, and humorous takes.
  • “Scrappy content did really well this year. Warehouse shots worked for a couple of brands… product packaging...laid out on a floor.” (B, 00:24)
  • “Those ads were really out there... all of her ads had an element of humor. There was a lot stick figured, you know, cartoons and things like this.” (C, 09:12)
  • “If you could make someone crack a smile or chuckle... it is a form of brand affinity that you're creating in that moment.” (C, 11:28)
• Meta Rewards Variety:
  The shift in Meta’s ad delivery favors creative variety over minor iterative changes.
  • “Variety is king now. Not iterations, it’s varieties… If you're stopping that scroll for an extra half a second, your ads engagement score is going to be much better than all the standard polished ads from your competitors.” (A, 10:23)

5. Platform Tactics and Technical Insights

• Meta Campaign Structure
  • Lighter exclusions (excluding only past purchasers) allowed Meta to optimize better.
    • “What I really have found success with... was only excluding past purchasers... For the most part… the majority of spend ends up going to new audiences anyway.” (B, 11:54)
  • Segmented retargeting saw continued importance during high intent periods.
• Scaling Approaches
  • Vertical scaling (funneling more budget into top campaigns) outperformed horizontal scaling (spreading budget across more campaigns or specific hours).
    • “Generally we want to really go vertical and funnel more budget into the campaigns that are working really well ... With doing [lifetime and dayparting], we didn't see as much success.” (B, 14:02)
  • Fast testing and cutting underperformers was crucial.
    • “You know, pretty quickly if something is going to scale or not. So yeah, launching those types of tests but being ready to either scale them out really quickly or cut them if they don't pan out as expected.” (B, 15:46)
• Technical Challenges
  • Bugs and unexpected Meta account restrictions were flagged but actively monitored.
    • “You need to be like triple checking your Facebook page name now… a lot of that seemed to be like popping up during Black Friday.” (A, 15:53)

6. Post-click and Landing Page Learnings

• Keep It Familiar During High Intent:
  For most brands, the highest performing landing pages during BFCM were the standard homepage or established collection pages.
  • “For high intent sale periods, collections or home whatever typically works for your brand is what worked the best.” (B, 18:18-18:49)
• On-site Urgency Tools:
  Countdown timers (“24 hours and reset daily”) and stock badges (“only 500 left”) successfully increased urgency and conversion.
  • “Adding different badges to collections pages like limited stock only 500 left... actual site optimizations as opposed to pre-sell pages is where post click is really heading towards for meta ads.” (B, 19:24-19:49)

7. Emerging Channels and Tools

• Applovin and Axon:
  These newer ad platforms are delivering promising results, especially as extensions of strong Meta campaigns.
  • “Applovin, yeah, definitely has worked for a few brands...” (B, 21:48)
• Pinterest for Targeted Demographics:
  Proving useful as a supplementary channel, especially for women 35+.
• AI Tools:
  Efficiency-boosting, though not yet affecting creative quality directly.

8. Looking Ahead

• Short-term: Ride the Momentum:
  Brands that won big on BFCM are fine-tuning their holiday and New Year planning in real-time, seeking to maintain momentum.
  • “A lot of clients are pivoting... we just tripled our sales in November... Now we got to adjust our January projections.” (A, 22:56-23:58)
• Long-term: Creative-First Focus:
  The biggest lesson for 2026 is double down on creative variety and flexibility; less on over-optimizing landing pages.
  • “Definitely a really heavy focus on creative and less on the post click side. I suspect that it'll be the same next year as well.” (B, 17:49)

Notable Quotes

• On Offer Clarity:
  "The worst thing you can do is stack a bunch of offers during Black Friday and just confuse everyone... They just want a simple number, big percent off." — Jacob (A), [00:14, 08:29]

• On Fast Pivots:
  "Having that additional stronger offer post click can really leverage CBR. If someone clicks on an ad that says 45% off and then they get to site and it's actually 50% that increases your urgency to purchase." — Jocelyn (B), [04:54-06:07]

• On Creative Variety:
  "Variety is king now. Not iterations, it’s varieties... you need to stand out, like that’s the main key." — Jacob (A), [10:23]

• On Meta Platform Changes:
  "For the most part, within the first two days of launching, the majority of spend ends up going to new audiences anyway." — Jocelyn (B), [11:54]

• On Consumer Buying:
  “30% off was a good number, easy. No thought decision to just to snap those up. So keep it simple, right?” — Eric (C), [20:20]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:14 – Why simple, bold offers work best
• 02:50 – Shrinking promotional window and peak sales days
• 03:28 – Importance of offer and creative pivots
• 04:54 – Real-time offer adjustments example
• 08:29 – Dangers of overcomplicating offers
• 09:12 – Humor and flexibility in creative; Millennial targeting
• 10:23 – Meta’s shift: creative variety over iteration
• 11:54-14:00 – Technical tactics: campaign structure & exclusions
• 15:53 – Monitoring platform bugs and account issues
• 17:49 – Next year’s creative and post-click focus
• 18:18 – Best landing pages for BFCM
• 21:46-22:24 – New platforms: Applovin, Axon, Pinterest
• 22:56 – Holiday to post-BFCM: Maintaining sales momentum

Memorable Moments

• Hosts share their own purchases: Black Friday is so busy for marketers they barely shop themselves but can still be swayed by a last-minute extra discount. [19:49+]
• Discussion about experimental “weird” creatives: Stick figures, warehouse shots, and humor are now at the center of scroll-stopping ads.
• Quick cut decision-making: Brands no longer have the luxury to “wait and see” during BFCM; if a tactic isn’t working, it gets cut immediately.

Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• The BFCM landscape is shifting toward ultra-focused, simple offers and more creative experimentation rather than drawn-out, layered promotions.
• Winning brands are those ready to pivot and optimize both their ad campaigns and offer mechanics literally hour-by-hour.
• Meta’s ad ecosystem now rewards creative variety while technical campaign structuring should prioritize spend consolidation and rapid optimization.
• New channels like Applovin and Pinterest are becoming valuable supplements to Meta, especially for certain demographics.
• Keep post-click experiences intuitive; urgency elements work, but don’t reinvent what already performs for your core audience.
• In 2026, plan to be even faster, funnier, and more adaptable—and don’t forget to keep your offer dead simple.

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