Episode 255: Inside Smart Marketer's Black Friday Strategy - Wins, Curveballs and Campaign Secrets

Episode 255: Inside Smart Marketer's Black Friday Strategy - Wins, Curveballs and Campaign Secrets Episode Description

Black Friday may be over, but the insights are just getting started. In this behind-the-scenes breakdown, Smart Marketer's Director of Advertising, Denis Paskalev, joins Content Coordinator Zach Dampier to reveal what actually moved the needle during Cyber Week 2025.

From Meta's surprise budget update to a Shopify outage on Cyber Monday, Denis shares exactly how the team prepped, pivoted, and profited; and what you can still apply to your end-of-year campaigns. They also dive into evergreen creative, first-click attribution, and how a smart lead gen strategy made all the difference.

"The results that we're going to see during Black Friday Cyber Monday are always going to be highly impacted by what you have been doing throughout the rest of the year." – Denis Paskalev

You Will Learn

• How to use evergreen creative for seasonal promotions

• What changed with Meta's budget controls (and how to adapt)

• The role of lead gen campaigns in doubling client revenue

• How to structure your ads using first-click attribution

• Smart ways to combine email and retargeting for higher conversions

• Why you should start your BFCM promotions early (and beat the CPM spike)

• How community support helped the team move faster and stay informed

• What to do if your BFCM didn't perform, and how to make your holiday sale count

Links & Resources

• Mentor Table Mastermind: Mentor Table

• Smart Marketer: smartmarketer.com

• Instagram: @smartmarketerig

• Omnisend Email & SMS Platform: smartmarketer.com/omnisend Use code SMART for 50% off your first 3 months

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro - What Happened Behind the Scenes This BFCM 01:16 – Ezra's Favorite Email Tool (And an Exclusive Offer) 02:19 – Meta's Budget Update - Daily Spend is Now +75% 04:03 – Shopify Outage on Cyber Monday (and What They Did) 05:22 – Why Evergreen Ads Still Win 06:42 – The Power of Starting Promotions Early 07:49 – Younger Shoppers Drove Most of the Sales 08:51 – Client Wins - 20–30% YoY Revenue Growth 10:00 – Lead Gen Campaigns that Actually Worked 11:28 – Repurposing Creative From Previous Years 12:29 – Using Meta's Dynamic (Flexible) Creative Format 13:44 – Full-Funnel Thinking and Attribution with Triple Whale 15:14 – How to Adjust Copy for End-of-Year Promotions 17:06 – Where AI Helped (and Where It Didn't) 18:46 – Buy Now, Pay Later's Role in 2025 20:02 – Make It Scarce, Make It Smart - Crafting Better Messaging 21:57 – How Ads Supported Flooded Email Inboxes 23:56 – The Rise of Mobile and Why Desktop Still Matters 25:07 – Staying Agile Thanks to Community Slack Threads 27:23 – Final Thoughts - What to Do If BFCM Underperformed

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