In this post-mortem episode, hosts Mike Ryan and Chris dive deep into the data behind the last peak season to reveal the true cost of Black Friday. They confirm what many performance marketers feared: the event is a "promotional bloodbath where margins are lost".

The numbers are shocking: Google Ads spend was up over 31% year-over-year, but revenue only grew 15%, resulting in a massive 12% drop in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). But the real trouble is profitability. Mike reveals an exclusive chart showing how the average gross profit margin dropped by 9 percentage points in the final week of November.

What else is covered in this data-driven post-mortem:

• The Dilution of Demand: Why Black Friday search volume has been on a secular decline since peaking in 2018, and why the "doorbuster" concept is dead.
• The Hourly Opportunity: A never-before-seen hourly analysis that pinpoints the exact time when Cost Per Order (CPO) cools down and conversion rates peak, revealing the best time to run your budget.
• Competitor Strategy: A look at how Amazon is continuously ramping up spend, while the competition from Teemu drastically fell off on Black Friday itself.
• The Final Warning: Why the relentless increase in CPCs is the single biggest threat to the middle-of-the-pack online retailer.

About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

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