Podcast Summary: DTC Podcast – Ep 571

Title: How Pilothouse Cut BFCM CPMs With Smarter Creative (2025 Recap)
Date: December 26, 2025
Host: Eric (DTC Newsletter/Podcast)
Guests: Grayson (Head of E-commerce, Pilothouse) & Abby (Lead Strategist, Pilothouse)

Episode Overview

This episode dives into how Pilothouse, a prominent e-commerce growth agency, tackled Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2025. With a strong focus on AI’s evolution, creative strategy, and post-click optimization, the roundtable discusses winning tactics that led to lower CPMs and better campaign performance when most predicted increased competition. The conversation delivers actionable insights into retention, creative development, data platforms, and new post-iOS 14 marketing realities.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Transformational Role of AI in E-commerce Marketing

• AI Evolution from 2024 to 2025:
  "It's actually crazy if you look back at how AI was in 2024 versus how streamlined it is this year." – Abby (00:00, 04:28)

• AI Use in Data & Creative:

  • AI now excels at reducing manual work (trend analysis, data aggregation) while human creativity remains critical for messaging and strategy.
  • ChatGPT, Gemini, and custom GPTs integrated with brand assets (guidelines, reviews) make analysis and creative groundwork rapid and actionable.
  • Quote: "I'm very anti AI when it comes to creator scripts... But where I'm pro AI is when I'm pulling like two years' worth of ad spend... You just click the Gemini button and... it just spits out the facts." – Abby (05:11)

• AI Use Cases at Pilothouse:

  • Data wrangling, review analysis, efficiency in media buying (not as much for creative ideation or note-taking).
  • "We've actually been using [AI] for media buying quite a bit... There's some help there. But I don't use it that often." – Grayson (06:49)

2. Retention, Baseline Revenue, and the Fall of "Growth at All Costs"

• 2025 marked a shift from aggressive customer acquisition to prioritizing retention and triggered (recurring) vs. paid revenue.
• Significance: “This was the first year really where it really, really hit, where it was like, you know, make or break... how many are actually coming back because they like have an emotional connection with your brand and you've built that through like your retention channels.” – Grayson (03:05)

3. Meta’s Andromeda Update, Creative Fatigue & New Creative Strategy

• Creative Diversity > Creative Velocity:

  • The Meta platform penalizes repetitive creative and ad fatigue. Brands must move from quick-turn iterations to authentic new concepts tightly aligned to segmented personas.
  • Quote: “People use the term like Andromeda like it's this big scary thing but it's really reshaped how we test creative and how we view creative.” – Abby (00:00)
  • Old “box shots and memes” playbooks no longer guarantee results — segmentation and empathy-driven messaging are now essential.

• Targeting with Creative:

  • “The creative that you end up making is the product of all the strategist Persona segmentation work. And it should be very clear within the creative who you're targeting... that's why a strategist is so important.” – Grayson (11:00)
  • Practical Example: Instead of a generic discount image, Pilothouse built persona-specific ads (e.g., personalized Christmas card visuals and names for millennial mom segments) leading to emotional resonance and measurable lift in performance. (12:05)

4. Humor, Trend Leveraging & Creative Personalization

• Humor’s Role:
  • Irreverent and trend-based ads (e.g., pop culture references like Justin Bieber soundbites) drive short-term wins if matched well to audience personas.
  • “There are those quick wins... And there's always room for humor no matter what the brand is and for cultural relevance.” – Abby & Grayson (14:17-14:58)

5. Diversification of Winners & CPM Reduction

• More Creatives Driving Results:
  • AI and creative diversification led to a more even spend distribution and, surprisingly, lower CPMs and click costs despite BFCM competition.
  • “Going in with an Andromeda mindset this year, we actually beat the algorithm... our CPMs dropped and our click cost dropped in the most expensive time of the year... with such steady spend across such creative diversity." – Abby (15:27)

6. The Evolution of UGC & Partnerships

• Authenticity Over Ubiquity:
  • UGC is only effective when the creator aligns deeply with the target persona — surface-level influencer content is no longer effective.
  • “If you're getting people who are already like embedded into the Persona's interests, it then becomes authentic... that's kind of the level you have to go now to create that authenticity.” – Grayson (17:21)

7. Deepening Post-Click & Funnel Optimization

• Custom Landing Experiences:

  • Post-click optimization (custom landers, bundles, improved conversion rates) is driven by earlier persona capture and creative resonance.
  • “We were setting up like custom funnels and campaigns both on the triggered side and the paid side where we were then pushing people to... bundles, [making] this now your day to day routine. So it's like here's a bundle where it's like this now becomes your day to day routine versus Black Flag is an opportunity for us to get a bunch of net new customers.” – Grayson (19:04)

• Role of Feedback Loops:

  • Post-purchase surveys and feedback inform next creative/campaign cycles for persona building and upsell strategy.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Strategy and Testing:
  “Thinking and intuition and experience is scarce. And so that's why a strategist is so key for us... the end product is creative that actually drives an emotional response.” – Grayson (11:00)

• On Creative Development:
  "You have to identify, like, who your Persona is. How are you going to tug on their heartstrings and, like, sell them your brand and get them to convert..." – Abby (12:05)

• On 2026 Professional Resolutions:

  • Grayson: “Focus more on trust, intuition... intuition around the human element is the resolution for next year.” (21:28)
  • Abby: “Finding new ways to spark creativity... how to put myself in different situations where I can come up with creative concepts outside of just the world that I already live in…” (22:12)
  • Eric: "AI is not going to replace humans. It's just going to free us up to do more human things..." (22:39)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00-01:00: The shift in AI's role and power in marketing workflows
• 03:05-04:28: Strategic focus on retention & baseline revenue
• 05:11-06:18: Real-world examples of effective AI usage
• 08:29-10:32: Meta platform’s shift, creative fatigue, and new testing paradigms
• 12:05-13:44: Persona-driven creative in action (emotive ad concepts)
• 14:17-14:58: Winning with humor and cultural relevance in creative
• 15:27-16:58: Data on CPMs, creative spend spread, and beating the BFCM algorithm
• 17:21-18:41: Advanced UGC strategies for authenticity
• 19:04-21:13: Funnel optimization, post-click mechanics, and using Black Friday for long-term gains
• 21:28-22:39: 2026 professional growth intentions for creativity and intuition
• 23:10-24:11: Shoutouts to hero apps (Rebuy for bundling/search, Triple Whale for attribution & creative insights)

Recommended Tools & Partnerships

• Triple Whale: Unified data platform with advanced creative reporting and AI analysis (Mobi)
• Rebuy: For gamifying bundling, increasing AOV, and smart search that optimizes purchase paths

Final Takeaways

Pilothouse’s BFCM 2025 successes stemmed from:

• Deep integration of AI for analysis and efficiency (not ideation)
• Reinvention of creative strategy—shifting from quantity to emotionally resonant, persona-driven variety
• Detailed funnel optimization and tactical use of partnerships/tools for leverage
• Embracing intuition and empathy as key assets in a landscape crowded with data and automation

"It's going to be really exciting having most of our brands on Triple Whale and being able to set up custom reports... and just quickly hop in, see top statics, videos, partnership videos, sort by angle... it's great for someone who's more creative and less technical." – Abby (24:11)

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