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By Destaney Wishon · December 15, 2025 · Curated by George's Blog
Black Friday / Cyber Monday / T12
Here’s what I’m actually seeing across the portfolio (Does NOT include CPC charts):
1️⃣ Price sensitivity is real.
Premium products are converting lower than last year even with similar offers. Consumers aren’t just bargain-hunting—they’re more skeptical. You can’t show up with a 10/10 price strategy and 4/10 positioning anymore.
2️⃣ Offers aren’t just discounts.
This year, customers needed more convincing. Brands who deliberately built demand before BFCM via influencer content, video, external traffic, education didn’t have to race to the bottom. The ones who didn’t? They won sales… but sacrificed margin.
3️⃣ The full-funnel brands are the ones crushing it.
Several of our brands passed 200% YoY growth because they didn’t treat BFCM like a 48-hour sprint. They warmed the audience early, invested in frequency, and showed up during cart-building days. (And yes, people window shop all week. If you’re optimizing only for same-day ROAS, you’re cutting off your own legs.)
4️⃣ Conversion > ROAS.
Your ROAS is a lagging indicator. But conversion rate tells you the truth about where you’re winning and where you’re losing. Every high-price brand that leaned into Top of Search placements, video, and AMC audiences outperformed the ones dialing back bids too early.
5️⃣ Time-to-conversion is WILD right now.
One brand we analyzed?
60% of conversions happened within 15 minutes.
But 30% didn’t complete for ~3 days.
If you’re lowering bids on Monday because performance “looks bad,” you’re literally turning off the customer journey right before they convert.
So what does all of this mean?
If you want to stop being compared on price, you have two choices:
➡️ Build demand off-platform. Influencers, video, education, storytelling, DTC.
➡️ Or compete harder on-platform. Stronger offers, faster positioning, better ad structure.
But pretending you don’t have to choose is what kills performance.