Preparing for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025: Insights from Marketing Experts

As the holidays approach, marketers face the crunch of finalizing strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). This year, with evolving consumer behaviors, AI-driven tools, and increasingly competitive social channels, preparation is more crucial than ever. In a recent webinar hosted by Rockerbox, a panel of experts shared actionable advice for brands looking to maximize performance over this critical period. Here’s what we learned:

Content is King – But Testing is Key

Christopher Parrett, Founder of Social Hustle and a current Rockerbox customer, emphasized that content remains the differentiator in campaigns. “Brands should be testing a variety of content now,” he said. The goal is to identify what resonates before scaling spend. TikTok, in particular, requires a focus on engagement metrics such as thumb-stop rates and interactions. Success on TikTok often comes from creating entertaining content first and measuring its incremental lift before prioritizing profitability.

Joe Quadara, Founder of Q1 Consultants and former Rockerbox customer, added that the post-click experience is equally important. “Even the best ads fail if the landing experience is confusing or broken,” he noted. He also stressed the importance of tracking and connecting every event to an attribution platform to enable quick optimization.

Kelsey Kearns, Head of Revenue at Rockerbox, highlighted a strategic layer: setting KPIs isn’t enough. “If we’re hitting goals, we should know how to allocate additional budget and scale beyond initial plans,” she explained.

Predicting, Not Just Reacting – AI and Data Infrastructure

Armen Rostamian, CIO of SmartData Analytics AI, brought the perspective of AI and analytics to the discussion. He emphasized that beyond measurement, prediction is crucial. Brands can leverage AI models to forecast promo performance, allowing them to set automatic thresholds and action plans. “Rather than reacting to actuals, brands should react to variance from predictions,” he said.

Armen also highlighted the importance of understanding customer types: new, returning, or lapsed customers. Each segment responds differently to promotions, and having the right data infrastructure to monitor this in real time can significantly improve decision-making.

Will Burghes, Head of Professional Services at Rockerbox, added that brands are in various stages of evolution with their data infrastructure. “Start with generalized predictions—total orders, revenue, margin—and refine over time to more granular insights,” he said. Monitoring metrics like funnel compression and shortening time to conversion enables brands to act quickly during high-volume periods.

Discounting, Bundling, and Offer Strategy

Panelists stressed that Black Friday offers should be simple, scalable, and communicated in multiple ways. Joe cautioned against overcomplicating discounts: “Pick a simple offer and come up with ten different ways to say it.” Chris reinforced that new offers should first be tested on Meta or email, rather than TikTok, to ensure statistical confidence before scaling.

Armen added that the ultimate goal of discounting and bundling is to balance acquisition and retention. Re-engaging existing customers with upsells or bundles funds broader acquisition efforts while maintaining profitability.

Pivot Plans and Execution

Chris outlined a tiered Plan B, C, D approach:

• Plan B: Adjust creative sets and offers within campaigns.
  
  
• Plan C: Launch backup campaigns with new creatives or offers.
  
  
• Plan D: Shift budgets across platforms to chase performance.
  
  

He emphasized daily monitoring and adjustments, especially for high-spend accounts. Execution should dominate innovation during BFCM: knowing the playbook ahead of time and avoiding last-minute experimentation is key to success.

Testing and Measuring Effectiveness

Measurement frameworks are critical for BFCM success. Armen advised focusing on actionable metrics: customer mix, immediate revenue, and long-term value (LTV). Brands should understand which channels saturate quickly and predefine how to shift budgets in response.

Will added that diminishing returns analysis should inform moment-to-moment decisions. “You can’t figure this out in real time—you need to have planned which levers to pull weeks ahead,” he said. Using methodologies like multi-touch attribution (MTA) and Rockerbox’s incrementality testing helps brands track both upper- and lower-funnel performance accurately.

Looking Ahead: Trends and Macro Shifts

This year, macro trends will influence BFCM strategies:

• AI-driven shopping: Tools like ChatGPT are becoming integrated into e-commerce, shaping search and purchase decisions.
  
  
• Decreasing attention spans: Marketers have fractions of a second to capture consumer attention.
  
  
• Tiktok Shop maturation: TikTok’s platform continues to grow as a competitive, value-driven channel.
  
  
• Deal fatigue: Consumers are conditioned to expect discounts throughout the season, requiring more unique value propositions.
  
  

Joe noted that marketers should also consider reputation management in the age of AI. Consumers can instantly access reviews and aggregated sentiment, so brands must ensure purchase paths are transparent and optimized.

Final Thoughts

The consensus from the panel is clear: success during Black Friday and Cyber Monday requires meticulous preparation, rigorous testing, and smart use of predictive analytics. From content validation to discounting strategy, from pivot plans to data-driven measurement, brands that combine planning with real-time adaptability are positioned to outperform the competition.