By Danny Ireland, Head of Paid Media, Launch
I recently attended an exclusive, invite-only event in Manchester, where Meta shared their strategy for peak season 2025 with a select group of leading agencies.
It was great timing for me – traditionally a Google specialist – to be in the room. We’re fielding a lot of questions at Launch about the spending mix across channels, and in an unusual twist, Meta did share stats on how its tools have driven improvement across Google channels, including PMax. That’s not something I normally see at platform events, but it’s testament to the fact that as digital marketing leaders we can’t think about platforms in silos any more.
Here’s a breakdown of the actionable insights we’re bringing to our clients and how you can work with your agency to nail Black Friday/Cyber Monday and beyond.
1. Create a ‘Meta Moment’
We admit it – some of the team here at Launch endure light mockery for cranking up the Christmas tunes on 1 October. Well, Meta’s data suggests we’re not the only ones! The UK market is unique in that holiday shopping begins earlier than any other market. In fact, gift-related Reels content begins to grow as early as the first week of October.
This means if you wait until the end of November and start shouting ‘hey this is my product and it’s on 40% discount, buy it now!’ you may have missed out on a shed load of potential customers. And these are customers who are spending big: Meta stated that buyers who start earlier, spend more (£427 on average, dropping to £301 after November 1st).
These people have been browsing for peak for weeks and if you come out of nowhere with a burst of discount messaging they are likely to ask: who are you? Why do I need this? And, crucially, why would I buy it from you?
Meta’s antidote to this is to prime the audience for peak by creating a ‘Meta Moment’. Build up to new collection release, rather than funnelling a massive increase in spend during a week/weekend.
Being regularly seen in the days and weeks building up to peak will get your brand in the forefront of audience minds, aiding search at conversion point (bottom of the funnel),
The goal is to increase brand salience and send strong signals to Meta’s algorithm before the mad rush begins.
Your Action Plan: Work with your agency to create a multi-channel campaign starting in early October (that means now!). This includes “Fake Friday” and “Consideration Fortnight” promotions. This enables you to create a buzz and get your brand seen well in advance of Black Friday.
2. Eye-catching creative, scaled with AI
Meta’s recommendation engine has improved significantly, with up to 70% of all content now being recommended by AI.
This makes creative your primary targeting tool. It’s no longer about manual, hyper-specific audience targeting; it’s about giving the algorithm the creative assets it needs to find the right people. High-quality creative is responsible for 70-80% of ad performance.
This is a massive opportunity to scale your efforts with speed and efficiency. Meta is launching new generative AI tools which can help you create and test a high volume of ad variations.
These tools can automatically apply brand logos, fonts, and colors to your creatives and even turn static images into dynamic videos. Additionally, using AI tools for creative testing has been shown to result in a 7.6% higher conversion rate and an 11% higher click-through rate.
Important note: This isn’t about using AI to make your content. Users are more likely to engage with authentic creative – more on this and how to nail it below. This is about using AI to quickly adapt and edit content for different platforms.
Your Action Plan: Diversify your creative assets. Work with your agency to create a variety of formats, tones, and messages to speak to different audiences. This includes leaning into short-form video like Reels, which Meta reports now makes up 50% of time spent on Instagram.
Your agency should be using Meta’s new AI tools to generate and test new creative ideas quickly, ensuring you have a steady stream of fresh content to avoid ad fatigue.
3. The power of authenticity and partnerships
Authenticity is key in a video-first world. Meta’s data shows that ads with a human presence and expressive sound on Reels see 8% more conversions. Testimonials, founder Q&As, and “drama-set-up” scripts that present a problem and solve it with your product are all high-performing formats.
Another eye-opening stat: ads that tell a story are 50% more likely to be remembered.
Influencer and creator partnerships are also a top-performing strategy. It’s simple really: in an age of AI, users want to see real people with real products and how they use them/wear them.
Meta recommends partnership ads account for 20% of your budget. With most advertisers currently only allocating 2-3% of budget to these ads, this would be a big shift, and is an area where your agency can provide real value.
Your Action Plan: Work with your agency to blend creators into your core strategy. They can help you find and vet creators through tools like the Creator Marketplace and manage the creation of partnership ads. Also, push for user-generated content (UGC) from your team and your customers. It’s a cost-effective way to build trust and social proof by being authentic.
4. Test, test, test
Meta’s latest data shows regular marketing experiments can increase ROI by 20% or more. The key is to be methodical and calculated in your moves.
Your Action Plan: Trust your agency to handle the rigorous testing required to succeed. They should be running A/B and multivariate tests on creatives, copy, and CTAs to find what works best. This is about “isolating one variable at a time” to get a clear picture of what’s driving results. A good agency will have a robust testing plan in place and will be able to analyse the data to find new winners even if the algorithm isn’t giving them spend initially.
We have an in-house experimentation team here at Launch and would be happy to advise you on how to get the most out of your testing programme – let us know if that’s something you need.
5. Optimise your funnel with value optimisation
Meta is encouraging a shift from simply optimising for clicks or purchases to optimising for value. This means moving beyond standard events and focusing on what truly drives business goals. Work with your performance marketing agency to get your tracking set up correctly with tools like Pixel and CAPI (Conversions API) to pass back accurate value and currency data.
Your Action Plan: Ensure your agency is using Value Optimisation to drive better ROAS and Average Order Value (AOV). By implementing this, you can focus on driving not just conversions, but high-value conversions.
And did you say Meta offered up cross-platform insights?
I did – in brief, Meta data shows that campaigns which have 50%+ of budget in awareness objectives drive a 38% incremental increase in PMax traffic and a 10% increase in incremental search traffic. This could be an untapped way for marketing leaders to make their budgets work harder while also driving long term growth through brand awareness.
In summary – there’s a whole funnel. Use it.
Meta has developed some excellent new tools for marketeers to refine their creative, drive awareness and better measure the impact of their strategy.
On a more personal note, one of the most satisfying takeaways from the event was the reminder that Launch has placed its clients ahead of the game with our performance marketing approach. Every day we work with brands on moving their strategy away from a conversion focused, bottom-funnel approach towards full funnel thinking. We’re even running a whole event about it!
If short term gains are all you care about then ROAS and bottom of the funnel are always going to deliver, but the Meta guidance detailed here was clear.
Building demand and increasing brand recall are about pushing budget towards awareness and getting a split across bottom, to mid and upper funnel. Do that and you stand to not just win at peak, but in the long term, by being front of mind with the customers who matter.
Looking for help with your peak performance marketing strategy? Get in touch.
You can also access resources from our previous peak performance marketing events here.