What I saw this BFCM didn’t match the doom-and-gloom predictions. Demand didn’t disappear. It moved toward brands that came in prepared.

The brands that won didn’t wait for the market to improve. They created their own momentum.

Here was the myth I kept hearing:“Consumers just aren’t spending.”

Consumers ARE spending. But they skipped brands that weren’t ready.

The winners this BFCM did their work long before November.

They built offers that created real value instead of relying on discounts.
Their creative explained why the product mattered at that moment.
Their media plan started with unit economics instead of CPM guesses.

That last point is where many operators fall behind.

If you treat media planning like a simple budget exercise, you’ll miss how the business actually performs. This year confirmed something I have believed for a long time: media planning is business planning.

In our accounts, the gains came from knowing what changed when we spent more. AOV shifts. Shipping savings from bundling. Duties, tariffs, and SKU-level margins all play a role.

When these levers move, your media plan either scales profitably or drains cash.

I stopped thinking of myself as a media buyer years ago. The work often feels more like running operations than just buying ads. When you understand the economics, you stop chasing revenue and start shaping offers that create profitable growth.

For like minded DTC founders: what changed in your outcomes once you focused on unit economics rather than channels or budgets? And if you aren’t…why?