Cyber Season isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon

Over the course of the last 10-ish years, we’ve watched the “holiday shopping” sprint, which included a Black Friday to Cyber Monday dash and last-day-to-ship panic purchasing evolve tremendously. As a result of companies attempting to get ahead of these moments with earlier promotions and steeper discounts, the customers have wisened up and are jogging through the season. 

In 2025, the season stretches across three full months, with shopping behavior now starting in October and lingering into January.

For marketers, this new rhythm requires a different playbook:

• Start acquisition early to build affordable remarketing pools.
  Ramp hard on Black Friday when conversion efficiency begins to peak and don’t hold the budget for Cyber Monday if it’s looking good. 
• Stay live after Christmas to seize Q5 opportunities—when CPMs collapse and “New Year, New Me” intent surges.

Why is 2025 Different? 

We hear a lot of these talking points every year. Start earlier. Spend more here. Spend more there. But truly, there are a few factors that differentiate this year from prior, including:

• A Late Thanksgiving: Falling on Nov. 27, 2025, the late holiday compresses the traditional promo window—forcing consumers and brands to start earlier.
  
  
• Mobile Dominance: In 2024, 70% of Cyber Week orders came from mobile devices, and shoppers spent a record $76B online in the US during the week.
  
  
• Early Shopping Is the Norm: The National Retail Federation reported nearly half of shoppers start before November, a pull-forward trend that keeps accelerating.
  
  

“Early” is now “on time.”

What the Data Says

Speaking of the consumer, when reviewing performance data we see the following:

• October is the efficiency window. Lower competition means cheaper reach—perfect for prospecting and seeding remarketing audiences.
  • CVR up +12% YoY heading into the season (2024 vs. 2023), as demand rises before peak.
  • Half of U.S. holiday shoppers plan to start before Thanksgiving (16% already started + 34% before Thanksgiving = 50%; up from 44% in 2023).
    
    
• Black Friday = ROAS. Cyber Monday = Volume. Treat Friday as your efficiency driver and Monday as your scale moment.
  • ​​2024 Cyber Five U.S.: Thanksgiving $6.34B, Black Friday $11.45B, Cyber Monday $14.16B, Total $43.47B—with strongest growth early (Thanksgiving +6.3%, Black Friday +7.6%)
    
    
• Full-funnel creative still pays off. Don’t starve upper-funnel content. In addition to our enhanced overlays of social proof and reviews explore using creator content that will fuel conversion later. Ask us about our UGC Creative Engine that can help fuel your creator content plans for the holiday!
  • Enhanced Overlay Performance:
    • Best ROAS: Percent Off + Free Shipping at $46.39 ROAS; PLV at $25.43 ROAS.
    • Lowest CPA: PLV $3.42, Logo + Product Offering $4.21, Star Rating $5.48.
    • Highest CVR: PLV 9.92% (next: Logo + Product Offering 4.95%, New Arrivals 4.72%).
    • Best CTR: Multi-Image + Price Strike 7.13%. Lowest CPC: Percent Off + Free Shipping $0.17.
• Note: If you’re stuck on a last-click ROAS attribution window, you’re doing more harm than good in this window.
  
  
• TikTok and GPT Search are the new discovery engines. While Google remains king of search overall, consumers have begun flocking to social and AI to answer their questions, changing traffic sourcing behavior incredibly in this upcoming season. Measure beyond last click—its view-through influence is real.
  • Gen Z uses TikTok most for research: 42.5% (vs. 16.9% non-Gen Z) and are twice as likely as average to buy gifts via social media (Gen Z 36% vs. overall ~20%).
  • 34% of Gen Z use AI chatbots for search, far above other age groups. They favor platforms like YouTube (68%), Instagram (65%), and TikTok (58%) over traditional search engines like Google.
    
    
• Ratings, reviews, and PLV overlays win.
  • What drives social purchases in consumers aged 18–44?
    • Discounts 51%, Unique products 48%, Convenience 40%, Friends/family recs 38%, Brand reputation 36%, Influencer recs 35%—clear mandate to feature ratings/reviews and peer validation in creative.
      
      

Q5: The Most Overlooked Window in Paid Social

The week after Christmas is no longer an afterthought. It’s well established as the 5th quarter (Q5), the “bonus quarter” that savvy marketers now plan for.

Here’s why it matters:

• CPMs on Meta and TikTok drop sharply after Dec 25.
  
  
• Audiences shift toward wellness, organization, and renewal. Perfect for health, fitness, finance, dating and home brands. However, it is not only limited to these categories as even fashion can serve as a goal in the New Year as well.
  
  
• Gift card redemptions and returns drive fresh purchase intent, especially on mobile and in social discovery platforms.
  
  

This is not a “wind down” period. It’s a soft reset for performance advertisers.

Measurement Guardrails

• Consider the impact of impression based conversions by reviewing view-through attribution windows for short-form placements and platforms. For instance, Snapchat offers a 1-hour view-through window to accommodate for non-clickly behavior of its user base who end up directly visiting the retailer and converting.
  
  
• Compare mobile vs desktop share—expect 75%+ mobile orders during Cyber Week.
  
  
• Keep incrementality in mind throughout the season and leverage social as a means to boost re-engagement efforts of CRM, SMS and direct mail by targeting new customers and bringing them into your community before the New Year. 

In 2025, Cyber Season isn’t a week—it’s a quarter.
Start earlier, push harder on Black Friday, and don’t hit pause after Christmas.

If you play it right, Q5 may become your highest-return window of the entire year.