eCommerce Evolution

Hosted ByBrett Curry

eCommerce Evolution is hosted by Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. Tune in for fresh interviews with the merchants, vendors, and experts shaping the eCommerce industry. We take an in-depth look at what's new and what's next in eCommerce.

eCommerce Evolution | 333: BFCM Breakdown: How Top Brands Won Black Friday with Strategy, Not Just Sales

eCommerce Evolution Podcast
eCommerce Evolution Podcast
eCommerce Evolution | 333: BFCM Breakdown: How Top Brands Won Black Friday with Strategy, Not Just Sales
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Black Friday just got more interesting.

While most brands were bracing for skyrocketing ad costs and fierce competition, something unexpected happened during BFCM 2025—and it’s reshaping how smart brands should approach next year’s holiday season.

In this jam-packed episode, OMG Commerce CEO Brett Curry sits down with four of the agency’s top strategists—spanning Google, YouTube, Amazon, and retention marketing—to dissect what actually worked (and what flopped) during one of the most surprising Black Friday weekends in recent memory.

You’ll also get the 2026 prep checklist, including why AI is about to eliminate every excuse you have for not planning year-round promos, how to break down channel silos that are costing you sales, and the exact timing strategies that separated winners from everyone else.

Whether you crushed it this BFCM or are wondering where you went wrong, this episode gives you the data, insights, and tactical playbook to make next year your best yet.

Featured experts:

  1. Bill Cover, Google & YouTube Director
  2. Luba, Amazon ABM Strategist
  3. Barry Bowman, Amazon Ads Specialist
  4. Nick Flint, Retention Marketing Director

Sponsored by OMG Commerce – go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!

Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(02:06) Meet the panel

(05:52) Google/YouTube: weekend “plateau” + CPM/CPC drops and why it happened

(08:50) Amazon: expanded event length, strong YoY, and the “off-Amazon” halo effect

(12:28) SMS surpasses email + why brands still underuse it

(13:47) What worked across all channels

(19:33) Save Money and Connect Your Marketing Channels with Channable

(20:35) Top-of-funnel and offer strategy

(24:02) What didn’t work on Amazon: skipping promos, waiting too late, and thinking margin over LTV

(27:42) Best brands vs. struggling brands

(42:22) Playbook for next year

(47:02) Channel strategy + 2026 planning

(51:00) Final thoughts: AI’s impact on creative + planning

(53:11) Fast Funding the Way You Need It with Wayflyer

Connect With Brett:

  1. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/
  2. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce
  3. Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/
  4. Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact

Relevant Links:

  1. Keranique: keranique.com
  2. Sponsor Offer | Channable (Mention Ecommerce Evolution): https://www.channable.com/
  3. Sponsor Offer | Wayflyer: https://wayflyer.com/en/partners/omgcommerce
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Hey, this episode is brought
to you by OMG Commerce.

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That’s the agency that I get
the privilege of running.

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You ever feel like it’s Groundhog Day
when it comes to your marketing where

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every day’s the same, you’re still
relying on the same channels,

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got the same ads you’re leaning
into? Maybe it’s time to diversify.

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Maybe it’s time to unlock new
growth. That’s what we specialize in.

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My guess is if you’re like most brands,

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you’re probably leaning heavily into
Meta ads and long live Meta. We love it,

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but you’re probably missing YouTube ads.

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And my guess is maybe Google
is underleveraged as well.

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We’ve helped multiple brands
go from zero to five, 10, 15,

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even $25,000.

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A day we helped Karenik a hair regrowth
product go from zero to $1 million

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in YouTube ad spend in 90
days while hitting their CAC

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target.

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And we’d love to see if we could do
the same for you. So we’d love to chat,

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talk about what it takes to scale on
YouTube and how ready you are right now.

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So let’s chat and go to omgcommerce.com,
click the Let’s Talk button,

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and we’d love to help you
dominate with YouTube ads. Well,

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hello and welcome to another edition
of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast.

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I’m your host, Brett
Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce.

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And today we are unpacking Black
Friday Cyber Monday and/or the

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Cyber Five, Cyber Week, Cyber 12, Turkey
12, whatever name you want to give it.

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We’re breaking it down. We’re
letting you know what we experienced,

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what we observed.

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We’re going to unpack some of the data
behind the weekend or behind the period,

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but more importantly, we’re going to
talk about what worked, what didn’t,

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and what lessons you should take
as you start thinking about next

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holiday season. And so you can tell
by looking here, if you’re watching,

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there’s a lot of folks on this call,

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not just me today.
I always usually have one guest,

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but today there are four guests. So we got

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the five amigos here on the pod,
but I’m going to do quick intros,

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just have you guys kind of
give a wave and a, “Hey,

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what’s up?” And then we’ll dive
right in. So we got Bill Cover, OMG,

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Google director. What’s
up, Bill? How’s it going?

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Great.

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Yeah, excited to talk some Google,

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YouTube nerdiness and goodness here as
we go and some recommendations there.

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So that’s going to be fun. We got Luba.

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She is the supreme Amazon ABM

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strategist. She launches big brands.

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She helps people just scale to
20 million plus a year on Amazon.

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She knows her stuff. So Luba, how’s
it going? It’s going great. Okay,

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good. Off to a great start.
I love it. I love it.

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And then we got Barry Bowman. This
dude lives, eats, sleeps, breathes,

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Amazon ads, but not only that,
he’s runn his own businesses.

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Dude just knows his stuff.
So Barry, how’s it going.

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Man? Very good. Glad to
be here. Thank you, Brett.

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Yes, indeed. Excited to get your
insights on this. And last but not least,

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Nick Flint runs our retention
marketing department,

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going to talk email and
SMS. What’s up, Nick?

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What’s up? I’ve been staring at Klaviyo
and Slack for the last two weeks,

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so it’s nice to be out of those and
seeing some people in real life-ish.

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Yes. I stared at Shopify.

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I stared at Google Ads
dashboard and Slack. Yeah,

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that weekend was a marathon.
Super fun. It’s our Super Bowl.

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It’s our top performance. It’s just the
most hectic weekend, super, super fun.

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You’re wearing a Bucks hat right now.

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How are you feeling about your
Bucks as we’re hitting record here?

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You know what? We’re leading
the division at the moment.

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We got three games left in the
year, two against the Panthers.

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If we can sweep then,

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then we’re moving on to the playoffs
and we’ll have that first round exit.

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I love it. I’m going to have to live
vicariously through other people.

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As a Chiefs fan, this is something I have
not experienced in a long, long time.

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We’re not even making the
playoffs. It’s a sad, sad day.

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But that’s okay because what’s better
than NFL? It’s the game of business.

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It’s a game of e-commerce.
And so let’s dive right in.

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I want to highlight a couple things
here before we get into some specifics

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and some takeaways and
some lessons. Globally,

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this was a good Black Friday
Cyber Monday. If we all remember,

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leading up to Black Friday, Cyber Monday,

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there was a little bit of
chatter on D2C Twitter/D2CX

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that waters were looking
a little bit choppy.

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Consumer sentiment was
down for a little while.

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There was renewed talks of tariffs,

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tariff madness kind of stringing
up, which that causes PTSD, I think,

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in the hearts and minds of most people
in D2C. There was also the government

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shutdown, which depending
on the category you sold in,

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that caused negative consumer sentiment.

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Even people that are affluent looking
at the shutdown thinking, “I don’t know,

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maybe it’ll pull back a little bit.”
Once that all cleared up leading up to

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Black Friday,

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Cyber Monday kind of paved the way
for really what was an excellent,

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excellent weekend. And
so we’re happy to report.

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OMG clients outperformed
the industry standard.

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Shopify showed they were up 24 to 30%
depending on the day for the weekend.

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OMG clients were up more than
that on average, which is awesome,

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which we really love to see.
And what’s also interesting,

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so Cyber Monday,

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biggest day of the weekend globally,

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but Black Friday almost always biggest
for our clients and for most D2C brands.

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We saw 20% of our clients have bigger
Cyber Monday than Black Friday,

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which is super interesting. So yeah,
something kind of crazy. And in fact,

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that’ll be a good little segue. Let’s
talk first about what were your surprises?

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What was surprising this
weekend that you did not expect?

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I’ll kick things over to
you. First, Bill Cover,

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what’d you see that surprised
you on the Google YouTube side?

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Yeah, you bet. Well,
and actually a couple.

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So one surprise was that Saturday
and Sunday looked more like a

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plateau.

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Usually it reflects almost like
a Cathead with a Black Friday.

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And then Saturday, Sunday, I turned
it down and then a Cyber Monday,

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like two ears.

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But this year was more like a plateau
where Saturday and Sunday performed

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really, really well compared to years
before. But my biggest surprise.

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Was- They were still down
over the other group. Yeah,

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I’m exaggerating a little bit.

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So what’s interesting though is that
Saturday and Sunday grew at a much higher

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percentage, lower numbers,

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but Saturday and Sunday grew
tremendously year over year. Yeah.

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Yep. Yep. 100%.

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So one of the biggest surprises
was CPMs and CPCs were down

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and it was noticeable. So
we ran the numbers. It is.

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It is. We ran the numbers and demand gen,

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which powers most of our YouTube VACs.

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That was down quite a lot.

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So it was in 2024 on average

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1795 CPMs.

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And then this year for Black Friday
Cyber Monday weekend, we were at 1091.

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So a drop of $7 and
change on the CPM side.

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And then there were drops across all of
our channels, search, performance max,

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standard shopping. Or I’m sorry, standard
shopping went up just a little bit,

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but the rest were down. So yeah,
so that was really interesting.

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Yeah. I mean, you can pretty much book
it, go to the bank, just expect it.

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CPCs and CPMs over the weekend,
they’re going to go up. Amazon,

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Meta, Google, doesn’t matter.
They’re going to go up 10, 15,

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25% in some cases. And yeah,

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we saw CPMs down across a lot
of channels. Search was down.

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To your point, yeah, CPMs on demand gen,

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which is how we run YouTube down 40%.

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And so a few potential reasons there.

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It did seem like there were
more advertisers this year
opting for a little more

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efficiency over the weekend.
So they were ramping up.

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A lot of our clients did this as well,

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ramped up in the months and weeks
leading up to Black Friday Cyber Monday,

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and then they were able to be kind
of conservative during the weekend.

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And so just a moderate spend
increase maybe year over year,

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which less inventory pressure,
less auction pressure on ads,

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which actually resulted in CPCs decreasing
a little bit and CPM’s decreasing

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a little bit. So hey, we probably can’t
book that or plan on that for next year.

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You never know, but I’ll take
that as a pleasant surprise.

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So Barry, on the Amazon ad side,

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or just as you observed Amazon and
manage our teams and our clients,

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what surprised you for the weekend?

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I’m always kind of wondering when
they keep expanding this event,

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it’s four days and now it’s
seven days, now it’s 12 days.

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Is it just going to dilute the
entire event? Year over year,

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we were way up over last year.
So the sales were super strong.

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The first day the event was a strong day,

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and then it still looked
like Black Friday,

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Cyber Monday were still our two
other biggest days of the event.

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Kind of Bill’s point, the weekend,
it was actually pretty low.

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It was still good year over year, but it
was still just comparatively speaking,

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it was just low compared to that
Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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And then the other thing that we’ve just
kind of been seeing all year long is

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just the brands who are really
focusing off marketing offline,

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off of Amazon. Those brands,
huge wins, huge wins for them,

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the ones who didn’t and the ones who just
waited to run promos during the event

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that they were way behind. They were
way behind their competitors who got way

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ahead of the game just by advertising
offline, getting their events ready,

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doing top of funnel activities. So.

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Yeah, it was a strong.

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Year.

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Yeah. Amazon continues to encourage
merchants to start their sales earlier and

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earlier, which we see that. Even though
when that happens, like this year,

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Black Friday, Cyber Monday still crushed
a little bit. And yet that final point,

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Barry,

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just had this happen recently
with a giftable product
food product that we sell,

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tremendous product, doing
a lot on YouTube for them.

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They’ve been scaling YouTube. They
just pulled back a few days ago,

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I don’t know, five days
ago, something like that.

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And they just got access and they’re
like, “Hey, Amazon sales are down.

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Let’s ramp YouTube back up.” It’s one of
those things where you always know that

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there’s a halo, you believe it. There’s
certain ways you can measure it,

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but sometimes when you really see it
when you turn those dials down on top of

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funnel and so- 100%. … saw that
across the board. Yeah. Awesome. Luba,

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what else on the Amazon side
surprised you this year?

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I would have to agree with everything
that Barry said because for most of our

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clients, we handle both brand
management and PPC management.

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So Barry and I work very closely
together with just few exceptions

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of the clients who only have
advertising. But in majority of cases,

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same sentiment, brands that
did not … Well, first of all,

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brands that did not work off
Amazon did not succeed on Amazon.

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I would say 15 years ago,

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even a little bit less than 15
years ago, circa 2015 through 2018,

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you could launch Amazon-only
brand and scale up to 2030.

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In some instances, $100 million, but a
mistake that a lot of those brands did,

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they never really built brand equity.
They remained Amazon only brands,

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and those are the brands that did not
have successful Q4 and Black Friday,

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Cyber Monday.

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It’s such a good call. We’ve been
talking about that for years, haven’t we,

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that, hey, you’ve got to build a brand.

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If you want long-term success regardless
of the channel and ideally your

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omni-channel where you’re selling D2C
and Amazon and other marketplaces and

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retail stores, you got to build a brand.

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And so those that live and die by Amazon
having a tough go of it for the most

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part. And even during
Black Friday, Cyber Monday,

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if you’re not building a
brand outside of Amazon,

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you’re probably on a decline,

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00:12:24,960 –> 00:12:28,560
which is not where you want
to be for sure. So Nick Flint,

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00:12:28,720 –> 00:12:32,000
what about you on the retention
side, email and SMS? What surprises?

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I would say this is the first year
that we can definitively say SMS has

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surpassed the email as far as revenue
and engagement goes. No way. Yep.

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Looking at revenue, looking at clicks.

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So the brands who are
focused on it year round,

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actively collecting emails and SMSs,

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we’re to getting more
action on the SMS side.

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I think people are just more likely
to see those texts come through,

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especially towards the end of the day.
If it’s like a last call at 6:00 PM,

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then I might not see that
email. I will see that text.

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And the secondary surprise here is that
brands still aren’t fully utilizing

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this. Even some brands that
we’re currently auditing
and pitching, they’re like,

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“Yeah,

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I’m not sure about SMS.” And we see
these backend numbers of it crushing it.

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So surprised that it finally surpassed
email for our clients and then secondary

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surprise, not everyone is fully utilizing
it yet because it’s so powerful.

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Man, that is amazing.

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And just underscores you
got to lean in to SMS

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rather to compliment
email. And I noticed it.

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I noticed for the few of the brands that
I was following and a few of the brands

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that I bought from over the
weekend, even on Thankssgiving Day,

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some people were messaging then.
I was more likely to notice it.

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00:13:41,800 –> 00:13:45,280
Those late in the evening ones, I was
more likely to notice as well. So awesome,

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00:13:45,520 –> 00:13:47,600
awesome call out. Okay. Let’s talk about,

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00:13:47,840 –> 00:13:50,520
because one of the things I really
want to underscore here is, hey,

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00:13:50,680 –> 00:13:53,680
how can we extract learning
to apply to next year?

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Let’s talk about what worked
and what didn’t. And so Nick,

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00:13:57,160 –> 00:13:58,800
I’ll actually start with you. What worked,

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00:13:58,920 –> 00:14:01,280
what didn’t with the clients you observed?

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So one tricky thing here that you just
said is comparing it year over year,

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because there’s just so many
factors 12 months apart.

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You’re trying to remember back to
last year, what were we launching?

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00:14:11,880 –> 00:14:14,320
How was the total sales looking?
How was the economy looking?

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00:14:14,380 –> 00:14:17,480
Was there a different president in
office? All those things come into play.

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00:14:18,200 –> 00:14:22,200
So the way we’re trying to look at it
for our clients is calling it like a sale

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00:14:22,480 –> 00:14:26,560
playbook versus just a Black Friday
playbook. So we get this strategy,

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00:14:26,800 –> 00:14:31,480
this process, the system dialed in for
hyping up the sale, running the sale,

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00:14:31,760 –> 00:14:33,440
analyzing the sale while it’s going on,

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00:14:33,640 –> 00:14:37,080
and then having that debrief after to
see what works and what doesn’t work.

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00:14:37,400 –> 00:14:41,080
And then that same playbook,
you can now tweak for your St.

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00:14:41,080 –> 00:14:45,200
Patrick’s Day sale coming up, your
summer sale, your next product drop.

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00:14:45,380 –> 00:14:49,080
So looking at this as more of a specific
sale that you can continue to iterate

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00:14:49,100 –> 00:14:52,060
and test on a few months
apart versus a year apart,

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00:14:52,120 –> 00:14:53,020
it’s one of the biggest things.

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00:14:53,940 –> 00:14:57,490
It is just a sale, right? It’s biggest
sale of the year, but it is just a sale.

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00:14:57,590 –> 00:14:58,270
I like that.

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00:14:58,270 –> 00:15:02,770
Still putting it in a playbook so you can
duplicate that and apply that not just

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00:15:03,090 –> 00:15:06,510
next Black Friday, Cyber, Monday.
Awesome. What worked and what didn’t then?

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00:15:08,390 –> 00:15:10,410
I know we’re thinking email SMS here,

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00:15:10,470 –> 00:15:15,370
but what really worked is when brands
have their marketing strategy dialed

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00:15:15,410 –> 00:15:18,950
in across the board, yes, I can
be sending out those texts. Yes,

254
00:15:19,010 –> 00:15:20,510
I can be sending out those emails,

255
00:15:20,570 –> 00:15:23,030
but what does the messaging
look on your website?

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00:15:23,350 –> 00:15:25,950
What kind of ads are you running on Meta?

257
00:15:26,230 –> 00:15:28,370
What does your organic social talk about?

258
00:15:28,690 –> 00:15:33,370
The brands that saw the most success from
email and SMS had their system dialed

259
00:15:33,430 –> 00:15:37,010
in and they were hitting their customers
everywhere where their customers are at

260
00:15:37,310 –> 00:15:39,210
to remind them about the
sale that’s going on.

261
00:15:39,990 –> 00:15:41,370
Yeah, it’s so important.

262
00:15:41,430 –> 00:15:44,750
And I think one of the things underscore
is you don’t want to make people work

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00:15:45,050 –> 00:15:48,310
and you don’t want to make people have
to try to remember because they won’t.

264
00:15:48,730 –> 00:15:51,750
And so everything needs to be saying
the same thing needs to be consistent

265
00:15:51,790 –> 00:15:54,610
across the board. And I’m actually going
to bounce over to you really quick,

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00:15:54,670 –> 00:15:54,850
Luba,

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00:15:54,850 –> 00:15:57,390
because I love a point you made as we
were prepping and kind of chatting on

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00:15:57,430 –> 00:15:59,190
Slack and stuff internally
getting ready for this.

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00:15:59,930 –> 00:16:03,010
You talked about the fact that people
don’t read during Black Friday Cyber

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00:16:03,070 –> 00:16:05,770
Monday, and I actually
totally agree with you,

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00:16:05,910 –> 00:16:10,710
but talk about what you meant by
that and then tie that into what

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00:16:10,990 –> 00:16:12,530
works and what doesn’t
during this time period.

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00:16:12,870 –> 00:16:14,310
People don’t read, period.

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00:16:15,210 –> 00:16:16,043
They don’t.

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00:16:16,950 –> 00:16:21,430
And we’ve run multiple tests.

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00:16:21,510 –> 00:16:26,390
We’ve run tests where we
would be conducting video
surveys of people shopping

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00:16:26,470 –> 00:16:28,110
on Amazon product detail page.

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00:16:28,690 –> 00:16:31,490
We’d be asking people questions
on what matters to them,

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what would make them buy the product,
what they would’ve changed in the listing.

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00:16:36,010 –> 00:16:40,640
And one thing we notice test after
test after test is eight out of 10

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00:16:40,890 –> 00:16:44,950
people who we survey do
not go below the fold,

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00:16:45,490 –> 00:16:47,190
so- called below the fold on Amazon.

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00:16:47,870 –> 00:16:52,870
So if your main image
wasn’t attractive enough to

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make them click on the main image,

285
00:16:56,850 –> 00:16:58,190
you’re probably going to lose the sale.

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00:16:58,630 –> 00:17:02,910
If your second image didn’t
immediately convey to the customer

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00:17:04,630 –> 00:17:07,980
what problem this product
itselves, because remember,

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00:17:08,850 –> 00:17:12,390
people who shop online, they’re
driven by problem and solution.

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00:17:13,480 –> 00:17:16,370
So what was the problem? How we solve it?

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00:17:17,950 –> 00:17:21,330
The true conversion happens
by image number three.

291
00:17:21,390 –> 00:17:26,090
Everything after image number three
is a graveyard. So unless you have the

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00:17:26,170 –> 00:17:28,510
content really tied

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00:17:30,390 –> 00:17:34,650
in main image, above fold infographics,

294
00:17:35,870 –> 00:17:40,570
easy to read title and easy
to read bullets, less is more,

295
00:17:43,610 –> 00:17:48,110
that’s the winning recipe.
Sellers tend to- It should become.

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00:17:48,290 –> 00:17:50,970
Instantly clear, instantly
clear why I should choose this.

297
00:17:51,250 –> 00:17:52,083
Yeah. Yeah.

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00:17:52,790 –> 00:17:57,490
The entire new Amazon ecosystem
is geared towards solving

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00:17:57,810 –> 00:18:00,010
a problem that the consumer may have.

300
00:18:00,990 –> 00:18:01,510
Yeah.

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00:18:01,510 –> 00:18:06,250
And it makes sense because still
most people shop on Amazon by search.

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00:18:06,510 –> 00:18:11,170
And so they’re searching for a solution
or this particular need they’re

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00:18:11,190 –> 00:18:15,450
trying to satisfy. And so
it totally makes sense. So

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00:18:17,210 –> 00:18:21,260
what did you recommend people do then in
preparation for the event? Anything to

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00:18:23,110 –> 00:18:24,710
capitalize on that fact
that people aren’t reading,

306
00:18:24,790 –> 00:18:26,570
they’re just kind of scanning quickly?

307
00:18:29,270 –> 00:18:33,310
I don’t treat Black Friday Cyber Monday
as one of, just like as Nick was saying,

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00:18:34,050 –> 00:18:35,450
it’s just one of the sales.

309
00:18:36,350 –> 00:18:40,390
And treating Amazon channel as if
you only had two major events a year,

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00:18:40,490 –> 00:18:43,130
Prime Week in July and Black Friday,

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00:18:43,190 –> 00:18:47,270
Cyber Monday week in November
is going to set you up for loss.

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00:18:48,470 –> 00:18:50,210
What you need to do is
you need to develop,

313
00:18:50,330 –> 00:18:53,510
just like you develop in direct to
consumer, just like you develop on Google,

314
00:18:53,570 –> 00:18:55,550
on YouTube, in email,

315
00:18:56,010 –> 00:19:00,730
you develop an evergreen marketing
promotional calendar that you constantly

316
00:19:00,850 –> 00:19:04,390
nurture. That’s the first
shift brands should do.

317
00:19:04,850 –> 00:19:09,670
The second shift is constantly
testing and optimizing both backend

318
00:19:10,150 –> 00:19:12,170
and front end content on Amazon,

319
00:19:12,850 –> 00:19:16,570
because backend is going to
determine who will see your ad.

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00:19:16,730 –> 00:19:19,730
Front end will determine
who will buy your ad.

321
00:19:20,810 –> 00:19:25,430
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s both optimizing to
increase visibility through ranking,

322
00:19:25,970 –> 00:19:30,190
optimizing to increase conversion rate
by making that listing more appealing,

323
00:19:30,610 –> 00:19:33,330
and you got to do both.
Totally, totally makes sense.

324
00:19:33,610 –> 00:19:35,150
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325
00:19:35,290 –> 00:19:39,550
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335
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Mention e-commerce evolution to get
started, no strings attached. Bill,

336
00:20:21,250 –> 00:20:22,250
what about for you? What worked,

337
00:20:22,310 –> 00:20:25,710
what didn’t across the clients you
observed and Google YouTube specifically?

338
00:20:26,210 –> 00:20:27,043
Yep. So

339
00:20:29,290 –> 00:20:33,950
an amazing correlation between success
and killing it year over year. I mean,

340
00:20:34,030 –> 00:20:35,950
for our clients across the board,

341
00:20:36,970 –> 00:20:40,590
we were up 31% year over year
for Black Friday Cyber Monday.

342
00:20:40,770 –> 00:20:43,900
This is great. So above the average, a
few of those clients were up like 80,

343
00:20:43,990 –> 00:20:47,850
100%. But the average, we beat the
industry average, which is awesome.

344
00:20:48,210 –> 00:20:51,490
We did. And when you break it
down to a per client basis,

345
00:20:51,550 –> 00:20:53,550
we were up 22% per client.

346
00:20:55,110 –> 00:20:56,850
What we noticed was a strong,

347
00:20:57,250 –> 00:21:01,370
very strong correlation between
running YouTube, top of funnel,

348
00:21:01,630 –> 00:21:05,850
awareness level marketing and success for
Black Friday Cyber Monday and starting

349
00:21:05,890 –> 00:21:09,290
those efforts early. And you
might be wondering, well,

350
00:21:09,610 –> 00:21:11,290
VACs or VBCs.

351
00:21:11,770 –> 00:21:12,250
Yes. We.

352
00:21:12,250 –> 00:21:13,590
Have examples of both.

353
00:21:13,850 –> 00:21:15,850
Maybe explain the difference because
I think some people will know,

354
00:21:15,920 –> 00:21:18,890
but what’s a VVC, what’s a
VAC for those non-verbals?

355
00:21:19,040 –> 00:21:22,050
Yeah, you bet. So a VAC,
a video action campaign,

356
00:21:22,390 –> 00:21:25,450
you’re telling the smart bidder
that I’m aiming for a conversion,

357
00:21:25,770 –> 00:21:28,730
I’m aiming for that event. On a VVC-.

358
00:21:28,950 –> 00:21:31,450
That’s all through demand. That’s
all through demand gen now.

359
00:21:31,510 –> 00:21:33,990
So not technically a VAC, but that’s
what a lot of people still call it. Sure.

360
00:21:34,050 –> 00:21:34,870
Yep.

361
00:21:34,870 –> 00:21:38,330
Thanks to Google who I think they aim to
make things more confusing every year.

362
00:21:38,390 –> 00:21:38,950
It’s not run.

363
00:21:38,950 –> 00:21:42,330
Out of- Let’s change the name
every year or less, please.

364
00:21:43,090 –> 00:21:45,130
And then a VVC, you’re
aiming for the view.

365
00:21:45,550 –> 00:21:49,890
And so your strategy might be to
do some CTV or something like that.

366
00:21:50,030 –> 00:21:54,650
That would be part of that. And so
just to give you a picture of that.

367
00:21:55,330 –> 00:21:59,010
View based, view as the goal
versus conversion as the goal,

368
00:21:59,070 –> 00:22:00,710
that’s how you’re setting up
the campaign. Totally makes.

369
00:22:00,770 –> 00:22:02,890
Sense. Yep. And so we
have examples of both.

370
00:22:02,970 –> 00:22:07,050
So if you ran YouTube top of funnel and
had an awareness or consideration level

371
00:22:07,670 –> 00:22:12,350
effort to get new customers, you
did very well this Black Friday.

372
00:22:12,970 –> 00:22:14,290
Yeah. That’s awesome.

373
00:22:14,910 –> 00:22:17,330
Love that. Any other call
outs, what worked, what didn’t?

374
00:22:17,710 –> 00:22:21,090
Yeah, you bet. So a couple things.

375
00:22:21,790 –> 00:22:23,850
If you want to get your
pen and paper handy,

376
00:22:24,470 –> 00:22:27,870
here’s the playbook for next year.
Site-wide discount.

377
00:22:29,510 –> 00:22:31,630
If you can afford it on your margins,

378
00:22:32,680 –> 00:22:37,650
10 to 20 is kind of the standard,
but if you can go 25, 30, do that.

379
00:22:37,950 –> 00:22:40,230
If you can’t afford it on your margins,

380
00:22:40,690 –> 00:22:44,090
create a premium such as, I don’t know,

381
00:22:44,190 –> 00:22:48,470
you buy the product for X and then
you add on some sort of premium,

382
00:22:49,150 –> 00:22:52,190
personalizations, the
hat or the ride along,

383
00:22:52,730 –> 00:22:56,530
discount out of the premium if you can’t
afford to cut into your margins on the

384
00:22:57,450 –> 00:23:00,930
main product. So clever discounting.

385
00:23:02,550 –> 00:23:06,570
I would say also have a whole system,
a whole plan. Start in August.

386
00:23:06,670 –> 00:23:10,350
I like what Luba said after Prime
Event in July, start planning,

387
00:23:11,530 –> 00:23:13,050
get everything together and

388
00:23:14,770 –> 00:23:18,750
launch your promo in November and
run it long. Start early, run long,

389
00:23:18,890 –> 00:23:23,890
and have holiday assets and
content. So Holiday Landers,

390
00:23:24,550 –> 00:23:29,210
we used AI on our PLAs to switch the
backgrounds to holiday. Maybe you

391
00:23:29,950 –> 00:23:34,950
have some sort of MSRP restrictions or
map pricing where you can’t discount

392
00:23:34,990 –> 00:23:35,450
very much,

393
00:23:35,450 –> 00:23:39,030
but you can at least change the background
on your PLAs to make them stand out

394
00:23:39,050 –> 00:23:40,130
amongst other retailers.

395
00:23:40,430 –> 00:23:45,030
So you can run little tactics
like that to stand out.

396
00:23:45,670 –> 00:23:45,990
Yeah.

397
00:23:45,990 –> 00:23:50,490
That’s excellent. I love it. I think it’s
fantastic. I do like starting earlier.

398
00:23:51,030 –> 00:23:53,770
If you can capture a
share of wallet sooner,

399
00:23:54,610 –> 00:23:58,730
that ensures that you get the sale
and don’t get squeezed out by another

400
00:23:58,770 –> 00:24:01,890
merchant. And so all those
really good takeaways. Barry,

401
00:24:02,130 –> 00:24:06,210
what about what you saw, what you managed
on the Amazon ad side? What worked,

402
00:24:06,270 –> 00:24:07,103
what didn’t?

403
00:24:07,210 –> 00:24:09,570
Well, sort of echoing some
of what Bill said. I mean,

404
00:24:09,850 –> 00:24:10,970
I’ll tell you what doesn’t work,

405
00:24:11,090 –> 00:24:14,190
not running a promo during the
biggest event of the year. I mean,

406
00:24:14,490 –> 00:24:19,470
you’re going to make some sales, but
your competitors are running promos.

407
00:24:20,090 –> 00:24:22,310
So the sales likely to go to them. I mean,

408
00:24:22,930 –> 00:24:26,370
for some of the people I’ve
spoken to, they talk about margin.

409
00:24:26,470 –> 00:24:27,950
I don’t have the margin to do this,

410
00:24:28,630 –> 00:24:32,570
but then I try to take the conversation
to LTV, lifetime value, like, well,

411
00:24:32,750 –> 00:24:35,810
let’s look at getting this
customer at a discount.

412
00:24:35,870 –> 00:24:38,010
Then what does the LTV of
that customer look like?

413
00:24:38,070 –> 00:24:39,910
And that’s where I think a
lot of people are missing.

414
00:24:40,310 –> 00:24:42,290
They’re just worried about their
margins right then and there.

415
00:24:42,410 –> 00:24:45,790
So that’s number one. That’s
what’s not working. Number two,

416
00:24:45,910 –> 00:24:50,330
it’s not really working is waiting until
the event to start running your promos.

417
00:24:51,430 –> 00:24:56,070
The brands that did very well
that OMG currently manages,

418
00:24:57,150 –> 00:25:02,150
we were pumping bids about a month before
because a lot of people knowing that

419
00:25:02,190 –> 00:25:05,530
this event’s coming up, they’re putting
in their cart. It’s in their wishlist.

420
00:25:05,910 –> 00:25:08,570
So they’re doing their research.
They’re adding it to their cart,

421
00:25:08,630 –> 00:25:10,690
but they’re not buying because
they know the discount’s coming.

422
00:25:11,850 –> 00:25:15,090
So why not pump your bids hard in advance,

423
00:25:15,270 –> 00:25:17,230
do the top of funnel activities as well?

424
00:25:17,810 –> 00:25:22,670
Because there’s even a lot of brands
that they’re looking more for the

425
00:25:22,730 –> 00:25:27,270
KPIs, hitting their tacos, hitting
their A cost levels. But I’m like,

426
00:25:27,590 –> 00:25:30,670
prior to this event, they’re going
to be higher. They should be higher,

427
00:25:31,110 –> 00:25:33,070
but that’s just getting
you brand equity out there.

428
00:25:33,130 –> 00:25:35,970
You’re getting your name in front
of people. Come time of the event.

429
00:25:36,550 –> 00:25:39,630
They’ve probably already got your product
in their cart and they’re going to

430
00:25:39,650 –> 00:25:42,410
purchase it and your conversions are going
to be off the charts during that time

431
00:25:42,430 –> 00:25:43,263
period.

432
00:25:43,930 –> 00:25:46,710
Super interesting. And actually, one
thing that I wanted to underscore,

433
00:25:46,770 –> 00:25:48,550
because this kind of ties into
several points that were made.

434
00:25:49,230 –> 00:25:51,010
I think there legitimately
are some brands that are like,

435
00:25:51,130 –> 00:25:53,530
“I can’t run a discount
because discount, ads,

436
00:25:53,830 –> 00:25:57,770
I don’t make any money.” You’re probably
playing the wrong game then, right?

437
00:25:58,050 –> 00:26:01,790
That means you probably aren’t charging
the right price most of the time.

438
00:26:02,330 –> 00:26:06,570
You haven’t built brand
equity, you’re playing a price,

439
00:26:06,810 –> 00:26:10,350
you’re fighting a price war throughout
the year rather than building a brand.

440
00:26:10,490 –> 00:26:15,490
And so likely a few things that
need to shift right there. But Luba,

441
00:26:15,590 –> 00:26:18,310
I think you’ve got something on
your mind you want to share with.

442
00:26:18,330 –> 00:26:18,670
Us. Yeah.

443
00:26:18,670 –> 00:26:22,390
I just want to add on top of it on
the whole margin and ads conversation.

444
00:26:23,410 –> 00:26:28,170
This is going to be totally
non-scientific observation based on

445
00:26:28,270 –> 00:26:32,610
running multiple direct to consumer
brands on Amazon for years,

446
00:26:33,090 –> 00:26:35,610
but anytime we increase
promotional amount,

447
00:26:36,030 –> 00:26:38,810
we saw decrease in total
acquisition costs on Amazon.

448
00:26:39,710 –> 00:26:44,170
There is a reason why Amazon
puts deals, promotions,

449
00:26:44,250 –> 00:26:45,030
coupon,

450
00:26:45,030 –> 00:26:49,610
and any other promotional activity
as part of their advertising

451
00:26:49,690 –> 00:26:50,523
console.

452
00:26:51,670 –> 00:26:56,390
So what I always recommend
brands is come up with a maximum

453
00:26:56,430 –> 00:26:59,230
percentage you can spend
on consumer acquisition.

454
00:26:59,290 –> 00:27:02,710
That percentage should include Tacos,

455
00:27:03,790 –> 00:27:08,670
total cost of advertising, plus
promotional discount on a catalog club.

456
00:27:10,130 –> 00:27:10,550
Excellent.

457
00:27:10,550 –> 00:27:14,350
That’s going to be your max
that you comfortable with.

458
00:27:15,290 –> 00:27:19,930
Increased promotions, Tacos goes down.
Decreased promotions, Tacos goes up.

459
00:27:20,430 –> 00:27:24,090
Just based on my own observations
over the last 15 years.

460
00:27:24,950 –> 00:27:27,250
Yeah. Yeah. Really good call out. Yeah.

461
00:27:27,350 –> 00:27:31,810
So lump discounts in with some
of your ad spend and yeah,

462
00:27:31,870 –> 00:27:36,170
your ad spend is going to be more
effective. You can have better A cost,

463
00:27:36,370 –> 00:27:40,250
better Tacos if you have discounts
there, but all the math’s got to work.

464
00:27:40,990 –> 00:27:42,010
Awesome, awesome point.

465
00:27:42,850 –> 00:27:47,550
Let’s talk about what you saw the
best brands doing versus what you saw

466
00:27:47,670 –> 00:27:51,570
those that struggled doing. And
one of my observations here,

467
00:27:51,630 –> 00:27:56,550
because I was watching Shopify like a
Hawk hitting refresh almost obsessively,

468
00:27:56,750 –> 00:28:00,730
right? We were Slacking all weekend. I
was looking at the Amazon dashboards.

469
00:28:01,250 –> 00:28:03,570
But one of the things I
noticed, only a few clients,

470
00:28:03,650 –> 00:28:07,610
only a few were down year over year
struggled. And do you know who they were?

471
00:28:07,870 –> 00:28:10,850
They were clients or brands that
have been struggling all year.

472
00:28:12,070 –> 00:28:13,610
Failing to find momentum,

473
00:28:13,690 –> 00:28:16,690
just not getting the right offers going
throughout the course of the year.

474
00:28:17,090 –> 00:28:18,690
Something in their business slipping,

475
00:28:19,310 –> 00:28:21,290
inventory issues that have
plagued them all year.

476
00:28:22,230 –> 00:28:26,370
And so I think it’s really important to
underscore if you don’t have momentum

477
00:28:26,450 –> 00:28:31,250
going into the weekend or any sales
event, you’re going to underperform.

478
00:28:31,570 –> 00:28:32,190
You just are.

479
00:28:32,190 –> 00:28:36,430
And so the greatest time to win for
holiday is starting probably like

480
00:28:36,630 –> 00:28:40,290
January or summer prepping for holidays.

481
00:28:40,350 –> 00:28:44,910
So momentum coming into the weekend can’t
overstate how important that is. But

482
00:28:46,490 –> 00:28:51,030
what did the best brands do
versus the rest? Nick Flynn.

483
00:28:51,090 –> 00:28:53,870
Why don’t you go? The best brands,

484
00:28:53,950 –> 00:28:56,790
other than having that game
plan coming into the season,

485
00:28:57,010 –> 00:29:01,590
they had some very specific points they
were hitting throughout this pretty long

486
00:29:01,690 –> 00:29:06,070
stretch. And I’m even looking at the
data post Black Friday Cyber Monday.

487
00:29:06,510 –> 00:29:08,430
So instead of saying,
“Hey, Black Friday is here,

488
00:29:08,490 –> 00:29:12,130
come shop our site.” They had early
access for their VIPs and they made that

489
00:29:12,170 –> 00:29:17,130
very clear who is a VIP and how you
can become a VIP before that timeframe

490
00:29:17,150 –> 00:29:20,530
actually hit. They have the
general access of Black Friday.

491
00:29:21,050 –> 00:29:25,710
They shifted the offer when Cyber
Monday came around and they had the

492
00:29:26,190 –> 00:29:29,750
last calls on Black Friday,
early access and Cyber Monday.

493
00:29:29,810 –> 00:29:34,150
So some very clear differentiated
offers and timeframes.

494
00:29:34,550 –> 00:29:36,010
And then the Soar the Magic comes in,

495
00:29:36,430 –> 00:29:40,250
they then shifted that when
they exited Cyber Monday,

496
00:29:40,550 –> 00:29:44,310
now we’re looking at the gifting season
and how they can apply their marketing

497
00:29:44,350 –> 00:29:46,530
to that.
Then the holiday cutoff,

498
00:29:46,630 –> 00:29:49,890
we’re hitting that right now like
December 15th through 17th order now,

499
00:29:49,970 –> 00:29:51,010
so it arrives in time,

500
00:29:51,530 –> 00:29:54,410
you get the people who get their money
for the holidays and then you can run

501
00:29:54,450 –> 00:29:58,670
that end of year sale. So
having some very segmented,

502
00:29:58,830 –> 00:30:01,150
targeted timeframes that
You clearly communicate.

503
00:30:01,290 –> 00:30:03,950
That goes from Black Friday
to the end of the year.

504
00:30:04,070 –> 00:30:05,210
That’s what the best brands are doing.

505
00:30:05,770 –> 00:30:09,570
Love it. So having that early access
for VIPs, main part of the sale,

506
00:30:10,190 –> 00:30:12,470
last call for the different
segments of the sale.

507
00:30:12,570 –> 00:30:13,710
It is really important to note,

508
00:30:13,770 –> 00:30:16,330
and when we saw this play out
definitely with some of our brands,

509
00:30:16,390 –> 00:30:19,870
that Black Friday, Cyber Monday, often
people are buying for themselves.

510
00:30:21,170 –> 00:30:24,270
I was buying supplements and stuff
that I was not going to give as a gift,

511
00:30:24,350 –> 00:30:27,450
but they were deals. And so I
was loading up, stocking up.

512
00:30:27,510 –> 00:30:31,370
So a lot of times we buy for ourselves
for Black Friday, Cyber Monday,

513
00:30:31,470 –> 00:30:34,810
not exclusively. The gift giving
really kicks in after that.

514
00:30:34,870 –> 00:30:38,730
And we see that with
our most gifted brands.

515
00:30:39,770 –> 00:30:43,370
They have the bigger Decembers than they
do Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekends.

516
00:30:43,430 –> 00:30:47,270
And so having that seamless
transition to Nick,

517
00:30:47,410 –> 00:30:51,410
I love that from one part of
the sale to the next. And hey,

518
00:30:51,690 –> 00:30:55,930
throw in a little SMS for that
final call or SMS early and off,

519
00:30:56,010 –> 00:30:59,890
and I’m thinking you would probably say.
So awesome.

520
00:31:00,170 –> 00:31:01,110
Who wants to go next?

521
00:31:01,630 –> 00:31:02,463
Yeah.

522
00:31:02,650 –> 00:31:06,810
I was just thinking about what Nick was
saying about how SMS passed up email

523
00:31:06,910 –> 00:31:09,470
this year. And I think
you said it too, Brett,

524
00:31:09,530 –> 00:31:13,770
true of my own behavior
in looking at brands.

525
00:31:13,890 –> 00:31:16,430
And I think there’s a takeaway there,

526
00:31:17,750 –> 00:31:21,570
and that’s that this is the
time to aim for new customers.

527
00:31:21,710 –> 00:31:25,890
And you want to give new
customers every ability to scan.

528
00:31:26,390 –> 00:31:30,370
As Luba was saying, they scan, they
don’t fully read everything, but scan,

529
00:31:30,910 –> 00:31:34,790
show an interest, get on your
SMS or email and/or email list,

530
00:31:35,290 –> 00:31:39,790
and then come back later in the day or
come back the next day and buy because

531
00:31:39,830 –> 00:31:42,410
they’re scanning, they’re on
social media, they’re shopping,

532
00:31:42,670 –> 00:31:44,590
they’re doing comparative
shopping and that stuff.

533
00:31:44,970 –> 00:31:46,950
They may not be sure that
they want to buy right then,

534
00:31:47,030 –> 00:31:50,170
but give them the ability to come
back to your brand and purchase.

535
00:31:50,630 –> 00:31:55,490
And I think the goal through this
holiday season is to aim for that

536
00:31:56,130 –> 00:31:59,690
new customer acquisition. You can
certainly have a retention goal. In fact,

537
00:32:00,050 –> 00:32:02,410
if LTV is part of your
strategy, more power to you.

538
00:32:02,550 –> 00:32:07,170
But I think I would focus on new
customer acquisition if that’s a need

539
00:32:07,870 –> 00:32:08,670
for your business,

540
00:32:08,670 –> 00:32:13,310
because this is the time when customers
are more likely to purchase from a brand

541
00:32:13,330 –> 00:32:16,150
that they’ve never purchased
from. And as you said, Brett,

542
00:32:16,390 –> 00:32:18,630
a lot of them are
shopping for self as well.

543
00:32:18,690 –> 00:32:20,550
They’re not necessarily
buying everything as a gift.

544
00:32:20,630 –> 00:32:24,530
Those decision windows are compressed
from when I first hear about you to when I

545
00:32:24,570 –> 00:32:26,810
buy potentially for the weekend.

546
00:32:26,890 –> 00:32:31,630
So it’s a great time to convert
new buyers. 100% agree. Yeah.

547
00:32:32,230 –> 00:32:33,610
And what else did you see, Bill,

548
00:32:33,710 –> 00:32:37,470
that the best brands did that
those that struggled did not?

549
00:32:38,610 –> 00:32:39,990
Yeah, I mean, for sure,

550
00:32:40,090 –> 00:32:44,210
I can’t emphasize enough just doing
that top of funnel YouTube awareness,

551
00:32:44,410 –> 00:32:48,310
but having also just a systematic approach
Going into it.

552
00:32:48,510 –> 00:32:52,390
So looking at your sale or your promo and

553
00:32:52,950 –> 00:32:56,730
understanding that this needs
to be communicated to customers,

554
00:32:56,790 –> 00:33:00,850
but it also needs to be communicated
to different facets of your team.

555
00:33:01,110 –> 00:33:05,130
You have different platform specialists
and growth strategists and everyone

556
00:33:05,210 –> 00:33:08,710
working on your behalf. So think
of the utility that goes into that.

557
00:33:08,870 –> 00:33:12,670
Give them the information as soon
as your brand can come up with it.

558
00:33:13,130 –> 00:33:16,290
Allow them to start setting things
up early, preparing, say, “Ah,

559
00:33:16,390 –> 00:33:18,030
I need this piece of creative,” or,

560
00:33:18,390 –> 00:33:22,210
“We need that link for the landing page.”
And then also equip them to work on

561
00:33:22,250 –> 00:33:25,510
your behalf. What’s your source of
truth? What are your goals and KPIs?

562
00:33:26,310 –> 00:33:29,290
Maybe that looks different for new
customer acquisition versus retention.

563
00:33:29,730 –> 00:33:33,410
Give them as much information as you
can to allow them to work on your behalf

564
00:33:33,470 –> 00:33:38,110
because they’re making
decisions real time on Thursday,

565
00:33:38,230 –> 00:33:41,410
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, cyber
Monday, all of those days,

566
00:33:41,890 –> 00:33:46,690
which need decision making on
an hourly basis in order to

567
00:33:46,790 –> 00:33:48,590
bring success through that holiday period.

568
00:33:48,790 –> 00:33:50,590
Yeah, exactly. We saw that so much. “Hey,

569
00:33:51,330 –> 00:33:54,350
our budget for this day is $150,000,

570
00:33:54,730 –> 00:33:56,790
but I want you to be watching these things
and we’re going to check in a couple

571
00:33:56,810 –> 00:33:59,210
times during the day and
things like that. So yeah,

572
00:33:59,310 –> 00:34:03,010
teams got to be on the same page
and well equipped for sure. Luba,

573
00:34:03,070 –> 00:34:07,230
what about for you? What do the best
brands do versus those that struggled?

574
00:34:08,090 –> 00:34:09,310
What do they do? What’s the difference?

575
00:34:09,370 –> 00:34:13,650
It’s going to sound maybe cliche,

576
00:34:14,070 –> 00:34:16,450
but the best brands
don’t run out of stock.

577
00:34:18,110 –> 00:34:18,943
Ever.

578
00:34:21,070 –> 00:34:24,010
It’s not as simple of a task on Amazon,

579
00:34:24,090 –> 00:34:28,050
especially for brands with
large extended catalogs,

580
00:34:29,170 –> 00:34:33,890
but Amazon specifically
punishes you in brutal ways for

581
00:34:33,990 –> 00:34:37,510
running out of stock because
the minute you run out of stock,

582
00:34:37,630 –> 00:34:40,110
you drop in organic rank.

583
00:34:41,350 –> 00:34:43,250
And then when you go back in stock,

584
00:34:43,390 –> 00:34:48,310
you have to pay premium dollars
through Berry’s team to get

585
00:34:48,410 –> 00:34:52,930
back where you were. So the worst
thing you can do is run out of stock.

586
00:34:53,870 –> 00:34:55,170
From personal anecdotes,

587
00:34:56,770 –> 00:35:00,270
I’ve had to fly inventory
overnight from China

588
00:35:01,670 –> 00:35:06,630
just not to go out of stock because
the cost of flying inventory in

589
00:35:06,790 –> 00:35:10,990
was minimal compared to
the losses we would have,

590
00:35:11,830 –> 00:35:16,070
especially if you have the coveted
best seller batch in a category,

591
00:35:16,870 –> 00:35:20,870
the minute you lose that spot,
it’s taken over by other people.

592
00:35:22,170 –> 00:35:24,350
Yeah. Then somebody like, ” Well,
if I can’t buy this product,

593
00:35:24,410 –> 00:35:27,790
I guess we’ll try a new one and now
you maybe lose that customer forever.

594
00:35:28,130 –> 00:35:29,770
“It’s just really, really dangerous.

595
00:35:29,830 –> 00:35:34,790
So I would say the number one thing that
the brands who succeed do is stay in

596
00:35:34,870 –> 00:35:38,490
stock, always stay in stock.
Not overstock, not under stock,

597
00:35:38,550 –> 00:35:43,110
but just proper inventory
management. Clean catalog,

598
00:35:44,630 –> 00:35:49,010
having correct attributes on the backend
can make a difference in Amazon Cosmo

599
00:35:49,450 –> 00:35:53,130
environment. Yeah.

600
00:35:53,270 –> 00:35:54,990
So talk about that a little bit,
actually, Luber, really quickly.

601
00:35:55,230 –> 00:36:00,190
So we got Cosmo on Amazon, like the
AI shopper assistant sort of thing.

602
00:36:00,870 –> 00:36:03,290
Did we see that shift the game any at all?

603
00:36:03,710 –> 00:36:04,580
Think about it.

604
00:36:05,090 –> 00:36:05,910
That’s Rufus.

605
00:36:05,910 –> 00:36:06,230
Yeah.

606
00:36:06,230 –> 00:36:08,530
That’s Rufus. Sorry. Cosmo’s
the back end. But yeah,

607
00:36:08,790 –> 00:36:12,130
how do we see AI play out or
did it impact Amazon this year?

608
00:36:14,050 –> 00:36:18,730
If you shop on mobile versus on desktop,
and something to remember about Amazon,

609
00:36:19,370 –> 00:36:21,990
any major change comes on mobile first,

610
00:36:22,050 –> 00:36:25,350
and then within next 12 months
it shows up on desks up.

611
00:36:25,750 –> 00:36:27,650
So when you shop on mobile,

612
00:36:27,910 –> 00:36:32,890
the filters that allow
you to minimize number

613
00:36:32,930 –> 00:36:35,210
of search results showing up in your feed,

614
00:36:35,970 –> 00:36:40,750
the filters are very prominently
displayed on the top and majority of

615
00:36:40,790 –> 00:36:44,690
those filters are based
on backend attributes.

616
00:36:45,250 –> 00:36:46,090
And as an industry,

617
00:36:46,330 –> 00:36:50,610
we used to use those backend
attributes for years very

618
00:36:50,710 –> 00:36:54,970
frivolously using them to type stuff in
that we wanted to get into the listing.

619
00:36:55,750 –> 00:37:00,530
The game changed. You need to have clean
dropdown values in those attributes.

620
00:37:01,370 –> 00:37:06,230
And I see that the brands where
the catalog is clean on the backend

621
00:37:07,610 –> 00:37:09,870
outperform inefficiency on the front end.

622
00:37:12,210 –> 00:37:14,310
You cannot not play that game anymore.

623
00:37:15,630 –> 00:37:18,750
And the rest of your content,
which is now all scannable,

624
00:37:19,790 –> 00:37:23,850
you have to have premium A. You
absolutely have to have premium A on your

625
00:37:23,910 –> 00:37:27,870
listings. You have to use as much
native text as only possible.

626
00:37:28,870 –> 00:37:33,310
And I always say design above the fold
for the consumer and below the fold for

627
00:37:33,590 –> 00:37:34,423
Amazon AI.

628
00:37:35,430 –> 00:37:36,263
Nice.

629
00:37:36,430 –> 00:37:39,270
Nice. Because that’s where
the customers rarely scroll,

630
00:37:40,150 –> 00:37:44,310
but that’s where Amazon
reads every word. Totally.

631
00:37:44,310 –> 00:37:44,900
Makes sense.

632
00:37:44,900 –> 00:37:46,710
Lots but not least on a high level,

633
00:37:46,870 –> 00:37:50,830
I would say combining
hard data from Amazon

634
00:37:52,270 –> 00:37:56,190
with the real life consumer
perception studies like those video

635
00:37:56,910 –> 00:37:57,743
reviews,

636
00:37:57,750 –> 00:38:02,390
that’s a project we’ve been working
on in 2025 and we’re rolling it out

637
00:38:04,590 –> 00:38:09,190
in 2026 where we ask real
shoppers how they felt.

638
00:38:09,350 –> 00:38:12,710
So combining the data with perception.

639
00:38:14,150 –> 00:38:15,950
Yeah. Love it. Yeah.

640
00:38:17,330 –> 00:38:21,350
Real Amazon data mixed with actual videos
of watching people shop your product

641
00:38:21,370 –> 00:38:24,570
and getting that feedback
from real customers,

642
00:38:24,790 –> 00:38:28,910
combining that quantitative and
qualitative data, it’s real unlocked.

643
00:38:29,350 –> 00:38:30,390
It’s a real game changer for.

644
00:38:30,430 –> 00:38:32,790
Sure. No, fair warning. It
can be extremely painful.

645
00:38:35,110 –> 00:38:38,150
Painful because people are hard on
your product or just painful workshops?

646
00:38:38,350 –> 00:38:38,990
People because.

647
00:38:38,990 –> 00:38:39,910
People are hard on your product.

648
00:38:40,590 –> 00:38:45,390
Painful because things that you
thought are state of the art are not

649
00:38:45,550 –> 00:38:49,470
state of the art, things that you thought
… But here’s the biggest discovery.

650
00:38:49,990 –> 00:38:52,870
Discovering what you thought
matters to your customer,

651
00:38:54,470 –> 00:38:57,030
not to matter at all and vice versa.

652
00:38:57,510 –> 00:39:00,610
Yep. That’s one of those
painful awakenings, but man,

653
00:39:00,710 –> 00:39:03,190
do you need to know it when you think
these are the reasons people care,

654
00:39:03,470 –> 00:39:06,190
these are the reasons people buy,
they don’t even pay attention to that.

655
00:39:06,430 –> 00:39:07,750
In some cases, you got to get-.

656
00:39:07,870 –> 00:39:11,790
And you’re surprised that the price
is usually not the major factor.

657
00:39:13,310 –> 00:39:14,630
We’ve seen, and Bill,

658
00:39:14,990 –> 00:39:18,350
which was very interesting when you
said that on a direct to consumer,

659
00:39:19,030 –> 00:39:23,270
people had to run promos
up to like 35%. On Amazon,

660
00:39:23,390 –> 00:39:28,270
a standard 20% promo did just
well if you had a visibility

661
00:39:28,410 –> 00:39:29,710
going into the event.

662
00:39:30,270 –> 00:39:31,690
Yeah. And just to clarify,

663
00:39:33,410 –> 00:39:37,470
I think the sweet spot or our 80 / 20
when I looked across all of our promos was

664
00:39:37,470 –> 00:39:40,810
10 to 20, but there
were certain categories,

665
00:39:40,910 –> 00:39:42,710
probably more competitive ones,

666
00:39:43,350 –> 00:39:46,670
ones with more margin
where they did 25 to 30.

667
00:39:47,750 –> 00:39:50,070
So that’s kind of the high
water market say is 30%.

668
00:39:50,850 –> 00:39:55,370
But I really liked what you said about
the filters because I think that kind of

669
00:39:55,390 –> 00:39:56,310
makes a lot of sense.

670
00:39:57,890 –> 00:40:00,550
If I’m shopping for a gift
for somebody on Amazon,

671
00:40:00,790 –> 00:40:05,650
I really need to know size and color
and whatever in order to find that

672
00:40:05,730 –> 00:40:06,563
gift because …

673
00:40:06,890 –> 00:40:10,370
And it kind of also makes sense with
regards to price not being number one.

674
00:40:10,890 –> 00:40:14,970
What’s really painful is getting something
that doesn’t fit somebody or you have

675
00:40:14,990 –> 00:40:19,430
to return. That’s more painful than
paying five more dollars for an item.

676
00:40:20,750 –> 00:40:25,350
Yeah. I got to the point where I begin
with catalog backend optimization

677
00:40:26,030 –> 00:40:28,670
long before we even touch
anything on the front end.

678
00:40:30,990 –> 00:40:33,930
Yeah. Yeah, that’s important
for sure. Love it. Barry,

679
00:40:34,390 –> 00:40:37,970
what about from your perspective? Best
brands versus those that struggle,

680
00:40:38,250 –> 00:40:41,970
what do they do different
on an Amazon ads level? I.

681
00:40:42,030 –> 00:40:46,690
Mean, Luba touched a lot of points. For
me, it’s like this whole conversation,

682
00:40:46,790 –> 00:40:49,270
the keyword in my head is momentum.

683
00:40:50,270 –> 00:40:52,670
And just thinking about these events,

684
00:40:53,390 –> 00:40:56,450
instead of thinking about these
events as isolated events,

685
00:40:58,010 –> 00:41:02,790
Amazon has the spring day deals, they’ve
got July Prime, they’ve got the fall,

686
00:41:02,930 –> 00:41:07,130
October Prime, we’ve got Black Friday,
Cyber Monday, Christmas holiday.

687
00:41:07,210 –> 00:41:10,090
And it’s like, so instead of just
looking at this as an isolated event,

688
00:41:10,730 –> 00:41:15,310
got to start early. You got to start
prepping for every one of those events.

689
00:41:15,870 –> 00:41:17,050
Get your brand out there.

690
00:41:17,670 –> 00:41:20,370
You keep touching on a bill
with top of funnel awareness,

691
00:41:20,830 –> 00:41:23,970
getting your brand name out there,
getting exposed to this audience,

692
00:41:25,050 –> 00:41:27,310
starting your ads early.
I touched on this earlier,

693
00:41:27,370 –> 00:41:31,290
like getting out there about a month in
advance of the actual event and start

694
00:41:31,770 –> 00:41:33,610
pumping your bids, getting
your name out there,

695
00:41:33,690 –> 00:41:37,330
making sure that your brand comes to
mind when people are thinking about the

696
00:41:37,370 –> 00:41:42,330
products to purchase. Those are
the best things I’ve seen most.

697
00:41:42,810 –> 00:41:47,450
The inventory thing is just so huge.
Like Lifupa said, that is such a killer.

698
00:41:47,930 –> 00:41:52,570
And the other thing I don’t think people
understand about Amazon too is sales

699
00:41:52,630 –> 00:41:53,910
velocity and conversions.

700
00:41:54,370 –> 00:41:58,760
And so in order to really rank
well organically on Amazon,

701
00:41:58,980 –> 00:42:03,320
you need those two factors. And you
need to be doing that all year long.

702
00:42:03,380 –> 00:42:04,840
You shouldn’t just be focused about,

703
00:42:05,180 –> 00:42:08,090
what can I do during this event
or that event? It’s all year long.

704
00:42:08,200 –> 00:42:10,640
How do I get my name out there?
How do I get people to click on

705
00:42:12,540 –> 00:42:15,460
my product detail page and put
it in the buy box eventually?

706
00:42:15,520 –> 00:42:18,610
And so those are just things that need
to be thought of twenty four seven,

707
00:42:19,210 –> 00:42:20,160
365 days a year.

708
00:42:21,420 –> 00:42:22,740
Totally makes sense. Love it. Well,

709
00:42:22,860 –> 00:42:27,300
as we kind of wrap up guys and just so
much good information here, good tips,

710
00:42:27,860 –> 00:42:32,050
good tactics, good data. What’s
going in the playbook for next year?

711
00:42:32,300 –> 00:42:36,200
And now you guys have convinced me
too, this is not just about next year,

712
00:42:36,260 –> 00:42:38,070
this is about the next
sale or the next event.

713
00:42:38,140 –> 00:42:41,820
But what’s shifting in that playbook? I
know we’ve talked about a lot of things,

714
00:42:41,880 –> 00:42:46,880
so you can reemphasize something or
talk about something specifically that’s

715
00:42:46,940 –> 00:42:47,590
shifting here,

716
00:42:47,590 –> 00:42:51,000
but what’s going in the playbook for
the next sale and for the next Black

717
00:42:51,020 –> 00:42:51,853
Fridays every Monday?

718
00:42:51,980 –> 00:42:52,220
Yeah,

719
00:42:52,220 –> 00:42:57,110
so definitely YouTube top of
funnel going into it and give

720
00:42:57,300 –> 00:43:02,300
yourself enough of a pre
Black Friday Cyber Monday

721
00:43:02,420 –> 00:43:05,900
holiday window to really ramp
that up in a meaningful way.

722
00:43:06,700 –> 00:43:11,020
We talked about CPMs being down this
year. That was comparing year over year,

723
00:43:11,110 –> 00:43:15,740
but CPMs still do climb
going into Black Friday.

724
00:43:16,020 –> 00:43:18,820
Yeah. So take advantage of
those lower- And year over year,

725
00:43:18,980 –> 00:43:22,980
CPMs always go up across
the whole year. So yeah,

726
00:43:23,040 –> 00:43:24,460
you got to get better at
what you’re doing for sure.

727
00:43:24,540 –> 00:43:25,340
Right.

728
00:43:25,340 –> 00:43:29,940
And so you can guarantee that as
you march towards that Black Friday

729
00:43:30,570 –> 00:43:33,550
day, that CPMs and CPCs
are going to go up.

730
00:43:33,980 –> 00:43:38,660
So use that time before October-ish to be

731
00:43:38,760 –> 00:43:41,260
running some heavier
awareness level marketing.

732
00:43:41,820 –> 00:43:44,400
And then as you get
closer to Black Friday,

733
00:43:44,460 –> 00:43:47,000
just depending on what makes sense
for your brand and your strategy,

734
00:43:47,480 –> 00:43:50,260
you kind of pull back a little bit on
some of that YouTube just a little bit,

735
00:43:50,380 –> 00:43:54,740
just kind of tease it down and allow
that retention and demand capture

736
00:43:55,680 –> 00:44:00,280
marketing to play its role
in getting those sales,

737
00:44:00,340 –> 00:44:03,800
capturing those sales for your awareness
audience that’s already aware of you.

738
00:44:04,180 –> 00:44:05,300
So love it.

739
00:44:06,040 –> 00:44:08,320
I will add from the PPC side,

740
00:44:08,380 –> 00:44:11,560
so I’ve already mentioned this about
starting early, obviously top of funnel,

741
00:44:11,660 –> 00:44:14,160
which Bill’s talked about
multiple times as well.

742
00:44:14,220 –> 00:44:17,300
But I know a couple of
my clients have really,

743
00:44:17,540 –> 00:44:19,320
when we’re looking through
the numbers this year,

744
00:44:21,720 –> 00:44:25,090
it’s really utilizing day parting
during this time as well and really

745
00:44:25,220 –> 00:44:29,080
understanding the days of those
events that are just really cranking.

746
00:44:29,160 –> 00:44:33,200
So we know for a fact Black Friday,
Cyber Monday continues to crush it.

747
00:44:33,880 –> 00:44:35,280
Weekends are a little bit flatter.

748
00:44:35,440 –> 00:44:39,080
So been having discussions already
with clients just like next year,

749
00:44:39,220 –> 00:44:43,520
let’s really pump the budget hard
on those two days just knowing.

750
00:44:44,000 –> 00:44:47,710
So if we’re increasing budgets 50% on
those days, next year, let’s go 100%.

751
00:44:47,990 –> 00:44:52,920
Let’s really just make sure we own top
of search during these huge days of

752
00:44:52,940 –> 00:44:53,773
these events.

753
00:44:55,040 –> 00:44:58,260
Love that. Love that. Nick, what about
you? What’s going in the playbook?

754
00:44:59,140 –> 00:45:03,000
If your head isn’t already spinning from
everything we’ve dumped at you over the

755
00:45:03,020 –> 00:45:05,960
last 40 minutes, hopefully you
got room in there for three more.

756
00:45:06,040 –> 00:45:07,120
We’ll make them quick.

757
00:45:07,580 –> 00:45:12,300
So one thing on the staffing side is
find a way to ramp up your staff or your

758
00:45:12,340 –> 00:45:16,440
staff’s output, especially for the
customer support and the fulfillment side.

759
00:45:16,960 –> 00:45:18,660
I ordered some stuff during Black Friday,

760
00:45:18,720 –> 00:45:21,640
which is almost two weeks ago that still
hasn’t shipped out because I’m guessing

761
00:45:21,660 –> 00:45:25,080
that 3PL or that warehouse is backed
up. So the faster you get out the door,

762
00:45:25,380 –> 00:45:26,800
the better the customer experience.

763
00:45:27,260 –> 00:45:31,180
Exact same thing with any kind of chat
on the site or any kind of email tickets

764
00:45:31,200 –> 00:45:33,540
that come in. Someone has a
question about their order,

765
00:45:33,640 –> 00:45:34,860
they put the wrong address in.

766
00:45:34,920 –> 00:45:38,900
Let’s go ahead and get those answered
super fast to make that experience better

767
00:45:38,920 –> 00:45:43,640
for them. Get your staffing in line.
Next is that post-purchase journey.

768
00:45:44,000 –> 00:45:46,360
It doesn’t stop when I give
you my credit card information.

769
00:45:46,780 –> 00:45:48,740
What does that order
confirmation look like?

770
00:45:48,800 –> 00:45:50,580
What does that post-purchase
flow look like?

771
00:45:50,940 –> 00:45:54,040
Tell me I just got the best deal of
the year. And then the post-purchase,

772
00:45:54,100 –> 00:45:56,860
tell me to share this with
a friend because they’re
going to love these savings

773
00:45:56,900 –> 00:45:59,060
too. And then in the package itself,

774
00:45:59,120 –> 00:46:03,740
you could slip some kind
of postcard/insert with a
second exclusive offer on a

775
00:46:03,760 –> 00:46:06,040
specific product, specific collection.

776
00:46:06,640 –> 00:46:11,360
That way that one-time sale on Black
Friday might turn into a second one

777
00:46:11,480 –> 00:46:13,280
from their friend who
they passed it along to,

778
00:46:13,440 –> 00:46:17,700
and a third from them opening up
their package and seeing that offer.

779
00:46:18,320 –> 00:46:22,440
Ready for the last one? I’m ready. Ooh,
this takes a little bit of planning,

780
00:46:22,680 –> 00:46:25,680
but if you can get a launch
stacked in there with the sale,

781
00:46:26,080 –> 00:46:29,100
it gets a little bit more excitement
in there and gives them another talking

782
00:46:29,160 –> 00:46:34,000
point. Just like Lubo was saying, people
scan, they’re seeing 10% off, 20% off.

783
00:46:34,100 –> 00:46:37,660
They’re not seeing brand new product
launch for the first time ever coming from

784
00:46:37,700 –> 00:46:38,440
every different brand.

785
00:46:38,440 –> 00:46:42,180
So stack the launch with the
sale to add to the excitement.

786
00:46:43,120 –> 00:46:47,740
So holiday exclusive, holiday
kit, new holiday release.

787
00:46:47,800 –> 00:46:51,840
So launching a new product with the event.

788
00:46:53,160 –> 00:46:56,380
I dig it, man. We saw a few brands
do that. Tougher to coordinate,

789
00:46:56,620 –> 00:47:01,060
tougher to pull off, but can really
add fuel to the fire. I love it.

790
00:47:01,420 –> 00:47:02,253
Luba, what about you?

791
00:47:02,300 –> 00:47:06,580
What else are you adding to the checklist
or the playbook for next year and next

792
00:47:06,600 –> 00:47:07,433
to sale?

793
00:47:07,560 –> 00:47:09,180
Two very different advices.

794
00:47:10,120 –> 00:47:14,800
One is for Amazon only brands and
one is for multi-channel brands.

795
00:47:15,820 –> 00:47:19,480
Advice for Amazon only brands,
stop being Amazon only brand.

796
00:47:20,620 –> 00:47:24,540
Start thinking big. Start developing
your brand equity outside of Amazon.

797
00:47:24,600 –> 00:47:25,760
Your real brand. Yeah.

798
00:47:25,860 –> 00:47:26,960
Yeah. Become a real brand.

799
00:47:27,980 –> 00:47:32,640
Advice for omnichannel brands is start

800
00:47:32,720 –> 00:47:35,480
breaking down silos between your channels.

801
00:47:36,200 –> 00:47:40,740
The worst thing you can do for your
business is maintain this philosophy of,

802
00:47:41,600 –> 00:47:45,600
I don’t want my D2C customers to
know that I have Amazon listings.

803
00:47:45,700 –> 00:47:50,020
I don’t want my Amazon customers to know
that they can buy a product in retail.

804
00:47:50,740 –> 00:47:53,600
A sale is a sale, is a sale, is a sale.

805
00:47:54,100 –> 00:47:58,220
And I think one of the smart marketing
books once said that you have to touch a

806
00:47:58,300 –> 00:48:03,140
customer six times, either through
a billboard ad, YouTube, ad, Amazon,

807
00:48:03,800 –> 00:48:08,720
store six interactions with a
potential consumer that could lead to

808
00:48:08,880 –> 00:48:10,030
sale. And

809
00:48:11,540 –> 00:48:15,020
stop thinking that you’re going to
force the consumer to buy where it’s

810
00:48:15,060 –> 00:48:19,480
convenient for you. The consumer is going
to buy where it’s convenient for them.

811
00:48:21,840 –> 00:48:26,670
And last thing, start
planning your entire 2026

812
00:48:27,720 –> 00:48:29,660
promo calendar on Amazon,

813
00:48:30,180 –> 00:48:34,830
just like you would in any real
business in December of 2025,

814
00:48:36,000 –> 00:48:37,560
because we’ve got the boxing day,

815
00:48:37,720 –> 00:48:42,340
that’s the last holiday available
in Canada right now that

816
00:48:42,420 –> 00:48:46,290
starts this week. We’ve got new
year, new you. Then we have …

817
00:48:46,960 –> 00:48:51,500
Amazon is shifting from two
large events to constant

818
00:48:51,560 –> 00:48:56,500
retaining holiday promotion
practically every month.

819
00:48:57,320 –> 00:49:00,880
Identify, let’s say you
have a catalog of five SKUs,

820
00:49:01,600 –> 00:49:06,300
five heroes, run a hero
on a promo at least.

821
00:49:07,580 –> 00:49:10,760
Alternate them. Have
something interesting, fresh,

822
00:49:11,580 –> 00:49:15,000
show up into today’s
deal filter on Amazon.

823
00:49:15,900 –> 00:49:18,300
I know about you guys,
but when I shop on Amazon,

824
00:49:18,760 –> 00:49:23,340
there are two buttons that I filter
everything out. Prime and today’s deals.

825
00:49:25,900 –> 00:49:29,720
If your product doesn’t get into
Prime delivery and today’s deals,

826
00:49:29,940 –> 00:49:33,040
I’m not going to see your product,
no matter how great it is.

827
00:49:33,880 –> 00:49:37,040
I love it. I love it. Guys,
this has been phenomenal.

828
00:49:37,180 –> 00:49:40,620
You got me all psyched and ready
for the next event. I mean,

829
00:49:40,680 –> 00:49:43,800
maybe ready for a vacation first
because it’s been a pretty wild season,

830
00:49:43,920 –> 00:49:46,220
but excited about the next event for sure.

831
00:49:46,860 –> 00:49:50,620
And if it’s not already
overwhelmingly obvious,

832
00:49:50,960 –> 00:49:52,560
these are some smart people.

833
00:49:52,980 –> 00:49:57,460
And if you underperformed in any way
during Black Friday, Cyber Monday,

834
00:49:58,020 –> 00:50:01,780
it’s probably because you need some
OMG people working on your account.

835
00:50:02,280 –> 00:50:05,680
On the Amazon side, hey,
it’s merchandising, it’s
marketing, it’s promotion,

836
00:50:05,740 –> 00:50:09,400
it’s optimization, it’s inventory
management, all those things.

837
00:50:09,540 –> 00:50:10,380
We can help you with that.

838
00:50:10,440 –> 00:50:14,760
You need people like Luba and Barry
growing your business on Amazon.

839
00:50:14,820 –> 00:50:17,100
We’ve helped multiple brands
ramp up to 20 million,

840
00:50:17,110 –> 00:50:21,980
30 million a year and
beyond on Amazon. And yeah,

841
00:50:22,200 –> 00:50:26,400
maybe you didn’t see things improving
for you on the Google side and maybe you

842
00:50:26,640 –> 00:50:30,900
haven’t tapped into YouTube or maybe
your Google shopping wasn’t great. We

843
00:50:30,920 –> 00:50:35,080
actually saw a bit of a renaissance
with Google shopping this year over last

844
00:50:35,100 –> 00:50:36,080
year, which was super interesting.

845
00:50:36,140 –> 00:50:40,740
You need people like Bill Cover and his
team running your Google and YouTube.

846
00:50:41,320 –> 00:50:45,180
And on the retention side, man, you
got to be leaning into SMS and email.

847
00:50:45,240 –> 00:50:49,040
You need some Nick Flint in your
life as well. So thanks everybody.

848
00:50:49,240 –> 00:50:52,660
Any final thoughts? And you guys
all wrapped it up beautifully,

849
00:50:52,720 –> 00:50:55,940
but if there’s any final
thoughts that you did not cover,

850
00:50:56,120 –> 00:50:59,760
I want to give you one final opportunity,
but if you’re good, we’ll sign off.

851
00:51:00,720 –> 00:51:05,000
I am actually sitting here
thinking about 26 is going to be,

852
00:51:05,420 –> 00:51:08,200
I think it’s going to be a massive,

853
00:51:08,560 –> 00:51:13,160
massive year in change with AI in
our world now. It will. It will.

854
00:51:13,220 –> 00:51:16,160
And AI is going to
absolutely explode next year.

855
00:51:16,420 –> 00:51:20,980
And so I think like Luba talks
about a promo calendar for the year.

856
00:51:21,040 –> 00:51:25,600
And I think for a long time people sort
of stresses people out because it’s like

857
00:51:25,680 –> 00:51:29,300
all the effort it takes for
creative now, people with AI,

858
00:51:31,100 –> 00:51:32,780
you give a prompt, you push a button.

859
00:51:32,960 –> 00:51:36,260
It is absolutely mind
blowing what can be done now.

860
00:51:36,680 –> 00:51:38,020
So there’s no excuses anymore.

861
00:51:38,640 –> 00:51:41,400
We’ve got AI on our side and
we should all be utilizing it.

862
00:51:42,080 –> 00:51:44,240
Got to partner with AI.
There’s AI helping people shop.

863
00:51:44,320 –> 00:51:45,700
There’s AI helping with optimizations.

864
00:51:45,800 –> 00:51:48,360
We’ve got AI helping and assisting
with creative and unpacking things and

865
00:51:48,380 –> 00:51:50,480
understanding data. And yeah,

866
00:51:50,600 –> 00:51:53,480
we’ve got to be leaning in for sure.

867
00:51:53,800 –> 00:51:58,520
Yeah, very specifically on the
creative piece. I mean, like I said,

868
00:51:58,600 –> 00:52:02,420
landing pages that were
holiday focused did well.

869
00:52:02,480 –> 00:52:07,300
There’s strong correlation there and
we’re able to get really creative with our

870
00:52:07,380 –> 00:52:09,700
shopping PLAs. So in the feed,

871
00:52:09,800 –> 00:52:13,240
we can use Google tools
to change the background.

872
00:52:13,300 –> 00:52:17,840
And so you don’t have to
hire a photographer anymore
to have your same product

873
00:52:17,920 –> 00:52:20,860
be in front of some sort of
holiday themed background,

874
00:52:20,920 –> 00:52:24,110
which helps it stand out amongst
competitors in the PLAs. Love that.

875
00:52:25,300 –> 00:52:26,360
Yeah. If anything,

876
00:52:26,580 –> 00:52:31,200
AI tools highlight the
importance of planning and

877
00:52:31,300 –> 00:52:33,820
vision. If you don’t plan for the year,

878
00:52:34,860 –> 00:52:39,020
you’re just going to run around the
latest AI tool and not accomplish,

879
00:52:39,740 –> 00:52:40,740
I would say planning.

880
00:52:41,640 –> 00:52:46,180
Dig it. Dig it. All right, guys,
thank you so much. This is tremendous.

881
00:52:46,400 –> 00:52:49,900
I think one of my favorite parts about
what I do is I get to work with really

882
00:52:50,020 –> 00:52:54,160
freaking smart people every
day. So thank you all so much.

883
00:52:54,240 –> 00:52:58,200
And thank you for tuning in.
We’d love to hear your feedback.

884
00:52:58,260 –> 00:53:00,320
What would you like to
hear more of on the pod?

885
00:53:00,960 –> 00:53:03,960
If you think this would be helpful
for another merchant friend of yours,

886
00:53:04,020 –> 00:53:08,020
another marketing friend of yours,
please share it. It would make my day.

887
00:53:08,560 –> 00:53:10,820
And with that, until next
time, thank you for listening.

888
00:53:11,140 –> 00:53:14,280
This episode is brought to you
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889
00:53:14,600 –> 00:53:17,020
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890
00:53:17,080 –> 00:53:21,440
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895
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897
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