Black Friday 2025: How Businesses Can Survive the Competition and Why a Marketing Strategy Is Key to Success

The holiday season and Black Friday are times of peak competition in digital advertising. To ensure a business doesn't get lost among hundreds of offers, it is important to consider current trends and maximize the use of new opportunities from Meta.

Every year, Black Friday becomes a challenge for businesses. It is not just a day of sales, but a real marathon where companies that know how to work with data, customer trust, and marketing tools win.

In 2023, global online sales on Black Friday grew by 7.5%, reaching $9.8 billion in the US alone (Adobe Analytics data). Worldwide, the volume exceeded $70 billion. In Ukraine, e-commerce grew by 20% during this period, but the average order value decreased by 12% — buyers became more economical.

In 2025, the market has become even more competitive. It is no longer enough for a business to simply "give a discount" — a strategy is needed.

What changed in advertising approaches in 2023–2024:

1. Average order value is decreasing, but the demand for value is growing. People no longer fall for "-70%" if service and logistics fall short. Brands that offer a complex package win: price + service + delivery + loyalty program.
2. Mobile shopping dominates. In 2023, over 60% of purchases were made via smartphones; in 2024, this figure grew even further. If a site is not adapted for mobile, a business can lose up to half of its customers.
3. AI changes the rules of the game. Companies that used AI to analyze demand and personalize offers received an ROI 20–30% higher. For example, AI algorithms predicted that home appliances and gaming consoles would be top categories in 2023 — and these goods sold out the fastest.
4. The fight for trust. After a wave of fake "discounts" in 2023, buyers began checking prices more carefully. Brands with transparent communication win: honest percentages, real promotions, clear delivery conditions.
5. Social shopping and TikTok Shop. In 2024, TikTok, Instagram Shopping, and other social networks became sales drivers in fashion and beauty.

Key trends in targeted advertising for 2025 to use during the discount period

AI and automation
Artificial intelligence is becoming the marketer's main partner. It creates creatives, tests ads, and optimizes budgets in ways that a team of specialists used to take weeks to do. This means faster scaling and cost savings.

Short videos (Reels, Stories, Shorts)
In the fight for attention, the first 2–3 seconds decide everything. The vertical 9:16 format and subtitles are no longer an option, but a mandatory standard. The faster a brand hooks the user, the higher the chance of conversion.

UGC and micro-influencers
People trust people. Content shot by users or small bloggers inspires more trust than perfectly polished advertising. Micro-influencers bring businesses not only traffic but also genuine interaction that converts into sales.

Social SEO and trendjacking
Instagram and TikTok are becoming new search engines. Optimization for keywords, hashtags, and the use of current memes help businesses be "on the wave" and appear where their specific product is being searched for.

Transparency and first-party data
Those who build their own client bases remain winners. Loyalty and repeat purchases become more important than one-time clicks.

Early campaign start
"Black Friday" no longer lasts just a day. It is a season that starts in the autumn. Therefore, brands should start warming up the audience as early as September-October so as not to lose the chance for maximum sales.

Meta updates worth using

• Advantage+ Campaigns - automation of targeting, creatives, and budgets.
• Value Rules - the ability to prioritize more valuable audience segments.
• New formats - vertical videos, 4:5 format, ads in Threads.
• Reels Ads - expansion of advertising capabilities in short videos.
• AI creative tools - auto-translations, subtitles, creating video from static photos.

Among relatively new and interesting updates, ads on the Threads platform should be highlighted. This is a relatively new platform from Meta that is growing actively, and businesses now have the opportunity to take good positions.

Supported campaign objectives

• Awareness
• Traffic 
• Sales conversions 

Not all objectives, such as Leads or other narrow goals, are available or work stably for Threads.

Threads today is not about dry official texts, but about live communication that resembles ordinary posts from friends in the feed. Users expect lightness, speed, and authenticity. Therefore, it is important for brands to speak simply, personally, and a bit informally.

Why you should trust experts

Black Friday 2024 proved: it is not those who give the biggest discounts that win, but those who have a systemic approach. Strategy, transparency, and technology are the key success factors.

For small and medium-sized businesses, cooperation with a marketing agency is not an expense, but an investment in profitability. An agency possesses the tools (Meta, PPC, SEO, AI) and analytics. 

Combining all these channels and tools into one effective system is not a simple task. But thanks to the competent integration of advertising platforms, a business receives:

• maximum reach at peak demand,
• higher trust from the audience,
• lower cost per sale,
• stable results from Black Friday right through to the end of the holiday sales.