Case study:

November’s Biggest Win Yet: +22% MoM and +77% YoY Through a Conversion-First BFCM

Overview

Total Direct Furniture partnered with Connected Culture in mid-July 2025, with Black Friday / Cyber Monday looming as the first major peak test. The priority in the first three months was building a best-practice foundation across Meta and Google Ads—clean conversion tracking, conversion-optimised campaign structures, and sale-ready creative and targeting frameworks.

By November, those foundations allowed us to shift quickly into a conversion-led Black Friday month, launching the sale early and scaling smartly into the highest-intent windows, turning BFCM into the brand’s strongest month on record.

Industry:

Furniture & Homewares

Services:

Paid Social (Meta) | Paid Search (Google Ads) | BFCM Strategy | Creative Optimisation | Performance Reporting

Objectives

Make BFCM a full-month revenue driver (not just a weekend spike) by launching early and sustaining momentum through Cyber Monday.
Scale spend with precision while protecting efficiency in a highly competitive Black Friday auction environment.
Push hero sofa ranges with lower-friction paths from ad to product page (Brooklyn + Bentleigh sofas).

Challenge

Furniture BFCM performance is notoriously volatile: auction costs rise sharply, AOV compresses under discounting, and brands that wait until Black Friday week often miss early demand. Coming into November, Total Direct Furniture needed to win in three ways:

Capture demand early before peak competition hit full intensity.
Keep Meta efficient when audiences saturate quickly.
Increase Google budgets intelligently without ROAS collapsing under auction pressure.

Strategy & Approach

1) Foundations before peaks

Starting in July meant November wasn’t a scramble—it was a scaling test of fundamentals. With tracking cleaned up, conversion signals stabilised, and campaign architecture rebuilt, we entered BFCM ready to move quickly and confidently.

2) Conversion-first delivery in peak auctions

We launched the Black Friday sale on 4 November, shifting messaging to full Black Friday creative from the start. Meta strategy leaned hard into purchase optimisation, intentionally reducing upper-funnel campaigns so spend flowed into buyers, not browsers. In peak auctions, this ensured budget chased intent and profitability first.

3) Paced scale around real demand windows

To avoid retargeting ceilings during promo week, we broadened targeting and let the algorithm find new conversion pockets while still optimising to purchase. Spend increases were then paced into proven high-intent windows—mid/late-November weekends and the Black Friday build-up—capturing volume without sacrificing efficiency.

4) Product-led paths in Search

On Google, we refreshed ads to highlight sale offers and improved the customer path from search to priority categories, ensuring high-intent shoppers landed where conversion likelihood was highest.

Execution

Google Ads

Budgets were lifted by ~26% into the strongest BFCM intent period.
Scaling was guided by efficiency signals and store-visit quality, not spend alone.
Search coverage was protected throughout the month to prevent demand leakage to competitors during peak auctions.

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram)

Month-long shift to conversion-led Black Friday delivery, running BF creative from 4 Nov onward.
Spend moved from Traffic/Engagement into Conversion to prioritise profitable growth.
The focus was on efficient reach and purchase volume, even if top-funnel metrics softened.

In-store timing alignment

The strongest results clustered around mid–late November weekends and BF build-up windows, validating our pacing model: build early, then scale smartly into proven demand days.

Our Results

Record month performance

Total revenue was up +22% month-on-month (Nov vs Oct).
Total revenue was up +77% year-on-year (Nov vs the previous November).
November became the highest-performing month on record for the brand.

Google Ads performance highlights

Spend +26% to capture peak BFCM intent.
Purchases increased ~20% and revenue rose despite ROAS softening under auction pressure (expected during heavy discounting).
Cost per Store Visit improved by 46%, showing stronger in-store efficiency even while scaling.

Meta Ads performance highlights

Upper-funnel delivery reduced by design as budget shifted into conversions.
Click quality improved and CTR strengthened despite lower reach.
Costs increased during BFCM (expected), but revenue growth outpaced spend, confirming profitable scale.

Key Insights

1. Foundations built early unlocked peak performance
The three-month runway ensured stable conversion signals and clean structures, making BFCM an execution phase rather than a setup scramble.

2. Conversion-first Meta delivery protected profitability
In peak auctions, optimising to purchase ensured spend went to buyers, not browsers—driving strong revenue even as costs rose.

3. Smart pacing beat blunt scaling
The biggest wins came from scaling into real demand windows (weekends and BF build-up), not pushing evenly across the month.

4. Product-specific creative lowered friction
Clear sale messaging and hero-range focus helped capture high-intent shoppers faster while maintaining relevance at scale.

What We’d Repeat (Agency Learnings for Future BFCM)

Build foundations early (3+ months out) so peak periods become scaling exercises.
Launch earlier than the market to win pre-BF demand and algorithm learning.
Go conversion-first on Meta for the full promo window, accepting lighter reach for stronger intent.
Scale with precision around proven demand windows, not just Black Friday weekend.
Expect AOV compression and measure success on total revenue + profit, not ROAS alone.

Testimonials

As a new business, Connected Culture was instrumental in executing a successful launch. Elzanne and her team are extremely dedicated, and the knowledge and expertise they brought to our business was invaluable. I'd definitely recommend Connected Culture for anyone wanting an invested agency partnership - they definitely walk the walk, not just talk the talk!

We are very pleased with the work of the Connected Culture team. They take the time to truly understand our goals and offer personalized solutions that have been able to drive results. Elzanne and Daniella are always happy to offer advice while we are learning these new avenues of digital marketing.

Elzanne and her team of amazing superstars at Connected Culture have, in a very short space of time, developed and executed the entire digital marketing strategy for our newly launched business. To add to their credit, this was all done amongst a tight budget and with limited resources (and during the COVID-19 crisis!).

Amazing company to work with. Connected Culture was recommended by a business associate. Elzanne has an in-depth understanding of marketing and branding and how to deliver outcomes driven by strategy through to detailed execution. She is a member of our advisory team and an invaluable contributor. Our team works with Connected Culture on a truly collaborative basis.

Connected Culture has been great to work with. They have helped our business considerably, shifting from predominately a retail business into e-commerce. Their approach to digital marketing has been impressive and their strategy, analytics and use of data have been incredible. It's an added bonus that all of their team are legends to work with too!

Connected Culture are amazing. These people go above and beyond to help your business grow. My business is an ecommerce Furniture business that is only 12 months old. When I first met Elzanne from Connected Culture I told her that I am after transparency and honesty as I was previously burnt by another Digital Agency who took my money and did no work. Elzanne and her team picked up the pieces and put all the right things in place and were very honest and transparent and explained everything to me about the next steps to help achieve our goals and help my business grow. These people really care about your business and I highly recommend Connected Culture.

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