What Top Shopify Brands Spend on BFCM Ads, and What They Get Back

BFCM ad spend benchmarks 2026

BFCM is the biggest revenue weekend of the year, and the numbers make the case on their own. Shopify merchants hit a record $14.6 billion in sales over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend in 2025, up 27% from the year before, with more than 81 million shoppers buying from Shopify-powered brands. When demand climbs that high, so does the cost to reach it, and every brand advertising into the season pays more per impression than they do the rest of the year.

That leaves a lot of brands asking the same question heading into Q4: how much should we actually spend on ads, and what should we expect to get back? The honest answer is that both numbers rise during BFCM, but they do not rise evenly. The brands that come out ahead are not simply the ones with the biggest budgets. Here is what the data shows about BFCM digital ad costs, what a strong return looks like across the industry, and what our own clients pulled off last Cyber 5.

Expect your ad costs to climb, because everyone else's are too

The first thing to understand about BFCM is that the auction gets crowded. Every ecommerce brand is bidding for attention in the same few weeks, and that competition drives prices up sharply. Meta CPMs climb from October, peak in November, and on Black Friday and Cyber Monday commonly run two to three times the annual baseline. Across the broader holiday season, cost per click can rise 30 to 35% and CPM can surge anywhere from 25 to 66% above normal.

This is not a sign that something is wrong with your account. It is the cost of doing business in the highest-intent shopping window of the year, and it is the same premium every brand is paying. The brands that handle it well plan for the higher cost in advance and build their budgets around it, rather than getting caught off guard when their usual daily spend suddenly buys far less reach.

What a strong return actually looks like

Higher costs are only half the equation. The reason brands keep investing through the spike is that returns climb right alongside spend. Meta ROAS tends to rise roughly 50% during BFCM compared to the annual average, as buyer intent peaks and shoppers who have been waiting all year finally convert.

The bigger story is the gap between the average brand and the top ones. The median ecommerce ROAS on Meta sits around 1.93x, meaning the typical brand earns about $1.93 for every dollar spent. The average account lands closer to 2.98x, a figure pulled up by the strongest performers. That gap is the whole game, and it is exactly where the brands who prepared for the season separate themselves from the ones who did not.

Here is what that separation looked like in our own client accounts. Across the brands we ran through Cyber 5 last year, blended ROAS came in at 5.80x across all channels, with Meta alone returning 4.77x. That is well above the average Meta account and more than double the median. All in, those campaigns drove roughly $1.9 million in Shopify revenue on about $169,000 in ad spend over the five-day window, at an average order value near $117.

The typical Meta brand
Meta ROAS: 1.93x median / 2.98x average
Blended ROAS: not typically tracked
AOV: varies by category

Our client accounts, Cyber 5 2025
Meta ROAS: 4.77x
Blended ROAS (all channels): 5.80x
AOV: ~$117

Numbers like these are not the result of spending more than everyone else. They come from walking into the season with the right creative and the right campaigns already in place. Which brings us to the real difference.

The difference isn't budget, it's creative

If bigger budgets alone won BFCM, the outcome would be decided before the season started. It is not. On Meta today, the creative itself drives more of the performance difference than targeting does. Meta's delivery has shifted so far toward automation that creative quality now determines more of the variance in results than audience precision, and the platform favors accounts running a healthy volume of active creatives rather than one or two hero ads. Advantage+ Shopping campaigns now account for roughly 62% of ecommerce spend, and creative formats like UGC and testimonial-style ads consistently outperform product-only creative on conversion rate.

What this means for BFCM is simple: two brands can spend the exact same amount and walk away with completely different results based on what they put in front of shoppers. The returns above did not come from outbidding the market. They came from more creative, better creative, and creative built specifically for the season, while most brands recycle the same ads they have run all year.

How to spend like a top brand this BFCM

The brands that get the most back from BFCM share a pattern, and none of it is about having the deepest pockets. They plan their budget around the higher Q4 cost of entry instead of being surprised by it. They prepare their creative weeks ahead, so they walk into the season with a full lineup ready to go rather than scrambling to produce ads during the busiest weekend of the year. And they lean into the creative formats that actually convert, built fresh for the offer instead of pulled from the evergreen library.

The through line is preparation. Industry data points the same direction: brands that start their BFCM prep well ahead of the season consistently generate more revenue than those who wait. The cost of BFCM ads is not something you can control. What you put in front of shoppers, and how ready you are when the traffic arrives, absolutely is.

Get your BFCM creative ready before the costs climb

The takeaway from every number here is the same. BFCM ad costs are going up for everyone, returns reward the brands that are ready, and creative is what separates the top performers from the pack. Our clients did not clear 4.77x on Meta by spending the most. They did it by walking in prepared.

That is exactly what our BFCM Creative Packs are built to deliver: a full lineup of ad creative and email campaigns designed for Q4, done for you and in place before the season starts. Want results like these for your brand this BFCM? Book a call with our team.