BFCM autopsy: What separated 7-figure weekends from everyone else

Hey friend!

Welcome back to The Brick-by-Brick Newsletter - where 7-8 figure brands learn how to scale efficiently.

Fair warning: this one's going to be long. We're diving deep into BFCM performance data, strategic patterns, and your holiday playbook for the next three weeks. Grab a coffee and strap in.

We just wrapped the most intense BFCM period I've experienced in years.

Our team spent the last two weeks running wall-to-wall war rooms with clients, analyzing performance data, and making rapid-fire strategic adjustments across dozens of accounts spending anywhere from $50K to $1m+ over the holiday weekend.

The dust has settled somewhat, the data is in, and I've been knee-deep in post-mortems with our team and clients all week. Several of our brands did 7-figures days over the BFCM weekend alone, and the patterns across these high-performers are telling.

Here's what I'm seeing: The brands that crushed it this year weren't just running deeper discounts. They made specific strategic decisions weeks in advance that compounded into massive results when it mattered most.

This week, I'm breaking down the patterns that separated the brands doing $500K weekends from the ones doing $2M+ weekends,

Let's get into it.

The Strategic Framework That Won BFCM '25

Most brands approached Black Friday like a sprint: turn on ads Friday morning, crank up budgets, hope for the best.

The brands that dominated treated it like a marathon with a strategic buildup.

Here's what separated winners from everyone else:

1. Extended Sale Windows Beat Short Bursts

The conventional wisdom used to be "create urgency with a 4-day sale window."

That's outdated.

This year, brands running sales for a full week or longer, starting the week of or weekend before Thanksgiving, dramatically outperformed brands that only ran Friday through Monday promotions.

Why?

Because customer behavior has shifted. People aren't waiting for Black Friday anymore. They're shopping when they're ready, and if your sale isn't live when they are, they're buying from a competitor who is.

We saw this play out with multiple clients. One brand started their sale the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. By the time Friday rolled around, they'd already captured a massive chunk of demand that would have otherwise gone to competitors. Their Friday-Monday performance didn't suffer; it was additive on top of the early week revenue.

The psychology here is critical: longer sales don't diminish urgency if you're messaging it correctly. You're not saying "eh, whenever you're ready." You're saying, "We're going bigger and longer than ever, don't miss this."

2. The Full-Funnel Approach Wasn't Optional

Here's a pattern I noticed across our high-performing accounts: they weren't just running Meta ads harder. They were orchestrating campaigns across Meta, Google, email, SMS, influencer partnerships, and organic content simultaneously.

The brands relying heavily on a single channel got crushed by rising CPMs and auction competition.

But here's the nuance: it's not enough to just "be on multiple channels." You need proper attribution infrastructure to understand how these channels work together.

The clients who invested in third-party tracking solutions like Triple Whale or Northbeam had a massive advantage. They could see that someone clicked a Meta ad, searched the brand on Google, opened an email, and then converted, and they could optimize accordingly instead of flying blind.

Without this visibility, you're making budget allocation decisions based on incomplete data. And during a high-stakes period like BFCM, incomplete data kills profitability.

3. Discount Strategy Was Make-or-Break

Let's be direct about this: discounts under 20% didn't move the needle for most brands.

Unless you're a luxury brand that quite literally never goes on sale AND you have a loyal, high-LTV customer base that doesn't need deep discounts to convert, anything under 20% got lost in the noise.

The sweet spot? 30%+ off.

This isn't a race to the bottom, it's about understanding market expectations during peak promotional periods. Customers are comparing your offer against every other brand in their inbox and feed. If you're offering 15% and your competitor is offering 35%, the math is simple.

One of our clients initially wanted to run 25% off to "protect margins." We pushed them to 35%. The incremental volume at 35% more than compensated for the margin compression, and their net profit for the weekend was 40% higher than their original projections at 25%.

The brands that performed best treated BFCM as a customer acquisition event, not just a revenue event. They optimized for volume and LTV, not just immediate ROAS.

The Creative Strategies That Actually Drove Revenue

Creative is always the difference-maker, but BFCM amplifies this 10x. Here's what worked:

Whitelisted Partnership Ads Outperformed Brand Content

This was one of the most consistent patterns across accounts.

Creator/influencer whitelisted ads, where you're running ads from the creator's handle instead of your brand page, consistently delivered lower CPMs and higher engagement than standard branded content.

Why? Because they feel native. They don't look like ads. And during a period when everyone's feed is saturated with promotional content, ads that feel organic cut through the noise.

If you're not actively building a roster of creators you can whitelist and scale through, you're leaving money on the table.

Your Evergreen Winners Got a Holiday Makeover

The brands that performed best didn't completely reinvent their creative strategy for BFCM. They took their top-performing evergreen ads from Q3 and Q4 and created "reskins" with holiday or BFCM-specific angles.

Same fundamental creative concept. Same hook structure. Same product demo or testimonial. But now it's framed as a Black Friday exclusive or holiday gift option.

This approach works because you're not gambling on untested creative concepts during the most expensive auction of the year. You're doubling down on what's already proven to work with a timely seasonal twist.

One client took their best-performing testimonial ad from October, a simple customer talking about results, and added a text overlay that said "Black Friday Only: 40% Off" with a countdown timer. That single variant drove 18% of their total BFCM revenue.

The BTS Content That Humanized Your Brand

Founder videos, warehouse footage, behind-the-scenes content showing your team packing orders during the BFCM rush…. this stuff worked incredibly well.

People want to buy from brands they feel connected to, especially during the holidays. Showing the humans behind the operation builds trust and differentiation in a sea of polished product ads.

One client ran a simple video of their founder saying, "We're absolutely slammed right now, but we're getting every order out the door because this community means everything to us." It was shot on an iPhone in their warehouse. That ad had a 4.2% CTR and a 6.8 ROAS.

Authenticity wins.

The Instagram Story Aesthetic

Organic-looking, lifestyle-focused 9x16 images that look like Instagram Stories, complete with in-platform text overlays explaining the sale and product, massively outperformed traditional static ads.

These don't look like ads. They look like a friend sharing a product recommendation. The text overlay gives you room to add context: "This is 40% off for Black Friday. I've been using it for 6 months and here's why it's worth it."

Super simple to produce. Incredibly effective at driving conversions.

The Budget & Bidding Strategies That Worked (And What Didn't)

Let's talk about the tactical execution side, because even great creative fails without smart budget management.

Patience Won the Day

The biggest mistake I saw? Brands trying to hit a specific daily spend target and panicking when morning performance looked slow.

Meta's delivery algorithm is designed to optimize throughout the day. If you're overspending in the morning and underspending in the afternoon, that's expected behaviour; the system is learning and adjusting.

The brands that performed best let their campaigns breathe. They didn't make knee-jerk budget adjustments every few hours. They set intelligent daily caps, let the algorithm work, and evaluated performance at the end of the day, not in real-time.

Conversely, brands that aggressively scaled budgets up in the morning and then slashed them in the afternoon created volatility that destroyed campaign learning and efficiency.

What Flopped: Manual Bids and Intra-Day Adjustments

Manual bidding was wildly inconsistent this year. Some accounts saw improved efficiency, others saw massive waste. The pattern? Manual bids required constant micro-adjustments throughout the weekend, and most brands don't have the infrastructure to manage that level of optimization.

Similarly, intra-day budget scaling (adjusting budgets up or down multiple times per day) consistently underperformed compared to setting intelligent daily budgets and letting them run.

Meta's machine learning works best with consistency. When you're constantly changing inputs, you're disrupting the learning process.

What You Need to Do Right Now for Holiday/Gifting Season

BFCM is over, but the opportunity isn't.

The next three weeks, from now until shipping cutoffs, represent a massive revenue window that most brands completely fumble.

Here's your strategic playbook:

1. Shift Your Creative Messaging Immediately

Stop running Black Friday creative. Shift to holiday gifting angles.

Your new creative should emphasize:

• "Perfect gift for [persona]"

• Product styled in front of Christmas trees or holiday settings

• Lifestyle images that evoke gift-giving moments

• Urgency around shipping cutoffs, not discounts

The psychology changes post-BFCM. People aren't hunting for deals anymore, they're hunting for the perfect gift and worrying about whether it'll arrive in time.

2. Introduce Shipping Cutoff Messaging

As soon as you know your absolute last order date for guaranteed Christmas delivery, you need to be screaming it from the rooftops.

Add this to ad copy: "If you're seeing this ad, you can still get [product] in time for Christmas."

Put it on creative overlays. Make it the primary CTA in your emails. Add countdown timers to your site.

The moment competitors start announcing shipping cutoffs and yours is still open? That's a massive competitive advantage.

3. Create "Last Chance" Urgency

As you approach your shipping cutoff, create urgency campaigns:

• "Only 3 days left to get this delivered by Christmas"

• "Last chance for guaranteed holiday delivery"

• "After [date], we can't guarantee Christmas arrival"

This isn't manufactured scarcity, it's real logistical constraint, which makes it incredibly powerful.

4. Maintain Strong Retention Efforts

Don't let email and SMS go quiet. Your existing customers are in gift-buying mode, and they already trust you.

Send dedicated "gift guide" emails highlighting your best products for different personas. Make it stupidly easy for someone to buy gifts for multiple people in one order.

5. Consider Gift Card Promotions After Cutoff

Once you hit shipping cutoff, don't go dark. Pivot to gift card promotions.

"Too late for physical delivery? Send them a gift card instantly."

There's a massive segment of last-minute shoppers with budget who just need a solution. Be that solution.

The Bottom Line

BFCM '25 rewarded strategic thinking over tactical execution.

The brands that started early, invested in full-funnel infrastructure, ran aggressive promotions, and maintained creative discipline throughout the weekend massively outperformed brands that tried to wing it with last-minute budget increases.

But here's the thing: the next three weeks might be even more valuable than BFCM itself for some brands. Lower competition, motivated buyers, clear urgency drivers, it's all there.

The brands that capitalize on this window will end the year strong. The brands that coast will regret it in January.

TL;DR - The Key Takeaways

If you skimmed or need the highlights, here's what matters:

What won BFCM '25:

• Extended sale windows (7+ days) beat short Friday-Monday promotions

• Full-funnel approach with proper attribution infrastructure

• Discounts of 30%+ (anything under 20% got buried)

• Whitelisted creator ads and holiday reskins of proven evergreen creative

• Founder/BTS content and organic Instagram Story-style ads

• Patient budget management (let campaigns breathe, don't panic-adjust)

What didn't work:

• Trying to hit exact daily spend targets

• Intra-day budget scaling up and down

• Manual bidding (inconsistent, required constant babysitting)

• Discounts under 20% for most brands

• Single-channel reliance without attribution visibility

What to do right now:

• Shift all creative to holiday gifting angles immediately

• Add shipping cutoff urgency to all messaging

• Create "last chance for Christmas delivery" campaigns

• Keep email/SMS active with gift guides

• Pivot to gift cards after shipping cutoff

The next three weeks are massive. Don't coast.

Work With Us

If you're looking at your BFCM performance and thinking "we left money on the table," or you want to finish the year strong but aren't sure how to execute, let's talk.

We're currently onboarding brands for Q1 planning and execution. Our team specializes in helping 7-8 figure brands scale profitably through strategic creative development, full-funnel media buying, and retention.

We don't just run ads. We build growth systems.

If that sounds like what you need, book a call with me below, and let's see if we're a fit.

Until next week,

Toby