Case study:

A High-Profit Black Friday Month Powered by Best-in-Class ROAS Across Google, Meta & TikTok

Background

Urban Sales is a performance-driven ecommerce brand operating in a highly competitive retail category where profitability is won in the details—smart budgeting, channel diversification, and maintaining efficiency under seasonal pressure.

Connected Culture partnered with Urban Sales to scale performance through a multi-channel paid media strategy spanning Google, Meta, TikTok, and Microsoft.

With November representing the peak pressure period of the year, the objective was clear:

maximise revenue during BFCM
protect profitability
lean into what works
scale high-performing channels while maintaining ROAS discipline

continue improving efficiency year-on-year

Industry:

Furniture & Homewares

Services:

Meta Ads | Google Ads | Email + SMS

The Challenge

1. Scaling into BFCM without sacrificing profitability

Black Friday and Cyber Monday create one of the most expensive auction environments in paid media. Brands flood platforms with promotions, pushing CPMs and CPCs upward across the board.

Urban Sales needed to scale into this period while maintaining profitability—without chasing volume at the cost of efficiency.

2. Balancing growth with smarter investment

The goal wasn’t just “spend more”. It was to ensure every dollar worked harder:

scale channels that could hold ROAS
protect margin
improve efficiency versus last year

3. Unlocking incremental growth beyond traditional channels

To future-proof performance, Urban Sales needed to diversify revenue streams beyond Google and Meta—finding new channels capable of driving both volume and high return.

Our Strategy

1. Full-funnel, multi-channel execution

We orchestrated a channel ecosystem where each platform played a distinct role:

Google: High-intent demand capture and revenue scale
Meta: Qualified purchase volume + high-value conversions
TikTok: Expansion and incremental revenue growth, scaling beyond awareness
Microsoft: Small-budget efficiency layer, capturing incremental profitable conversions

Rather than relying on a single channel to carry results, performance was stabilised through diversification—allowing growth while protecting profitability.

2. ROAS-protection frameworks at scale

November’s approach prioritised:

disciplined spend increases only where ROAS was stable
efficiency-focused scaling into peak periods
reducing wasted spend and improving cost per conversion
ensuring channel performance remained resilient under auction inflation

3. Growth through qualified audiences, not just more traffic

Efficiency wins were driven by a focus on high-quality segments:

more qualified purchasers
stronger conversion intent
improved cost efficiency
fewer low-quality clicks

This ensured performance improved even when traffic volume didn’t.

Our Results

Urban Sales delivered one of its most profitable Black Friday months on record, achieving exceptionally strong ROAS across every major channel.

Overall headline performance

Google ROAS: 13.11
Meta ROAS: 25.7
TikTok ROAS: 15.13 (breakthrough revenue driver)
Microsoft ROAS: 37.37 (highest ROAS channel at smaller scale)

This is rare: performance excellence across every platform, not just one.

Month-on-Month (Nov vs Oct)

Google: Stable growth at high efficiency

Conversion value +6% MoM
Spend +8.2% MoM
ROAS 13.11 (only a slight dip)
Cost per conversion –8.6%, showing improved efficiency under seasonal pressure

What this means: Google remained the core revenue engine, scaling profitably into BFCM.

Meta: Revenue grew even as clicks dropped

Conversion value +14.9% MoM
ROAS increased +8.1% to 25.7
Purchases +5.6% MoM, despite clicks falling –18.9%

What this means: Meta delivered higher-value purchases from a smaller, more qualified audience — the strongest signal of MoM efficiency improvement.

TikTok: Breakout channel performance

Conversion value +29.8% MoM
Purchases +52.2% MoM
ROAS 15.13 (+12.8%)
CPC fell –46.7%, improving cost efficiency and reach

What this means: TikTok transitioned from supporting awareness to driving real revenue impact—a major growth unlock.

Microsoft: Small scale, extreme profitability

ROAS 37.37 (highest of all channels)

What this means: Microsoft became a high-efficiency incremental contributor, proving profitable even at lower investment.

Year-on-Year (Nov 2025 vs Nov 2024)

Google: Maintained revenue with far less spend

Conversion value –0.9% YoY (virtually identical to last year)
Spend down –16.9% YoY
ROAS improved +19.2% YoY

What this means: Urban Sales achieved nearly the same revenue with significantly less cost—a major profitability win during the most expensive month of the year.

Meta: Lower scale YoY but still highly profitable

ROAS 25.7
Spend down –32.5% YoY
Conversion value down –47.7% YoY

What this means: Revenue decline was investment-driven. The channel remains extremely profitable, but reduced spend compressed volume.

TikTok: A completely new revenue stream

Conversion value NZ$51.2K YoY (new incremental revenue)
ROAS 15.13
105 website purchases YoY

What this means: TikTok added revenue that did not exist last year — a major diversification milestone.

Microsoft: Elite ROAS even at reduced investment

ROAS 37.37 (+581% YoY)
Lower volume due to 95.5% lower spend

What this means: Even with reduced investment, Microsoft continues to prove it can drive profitable conversions.

The Bigger Picture: What This Performance Shows

1. Urban Sales has a resilient, high-performing Google engine

Google held revenue steady MoM and YoY, while efficiency improved — a strong foundation for scalable growth.

2. Meta remains one of the most profitable channels in the mix

Even with lower traffic volume, Meta delivered exceptional ROAS and higher conversion value, proving the audience is highly qualified.

3. TikTok unlocked true incremental revenue growth

This is the breakout story: TikTok emerged as a genuine revenue-generating channel, not just a top-of-funnel investment.

4. The Black Friday strategy delivered both scale and efficiency

Urban Sales didn’t just survive the most competitive month of the year — it outperformed, delivering a rare combination of:

strong revenue growth
protected ROAS
improved efficiency YoY
diversification across platforms

Final Takeaway

Urban Sales achieved a highly profitable Black Friday month by scaling intelligently across platforms—not just spending more.

Google and Meta delivered best-in-class efficiency at scale, TikTok emerged as a breakthrough revenue driver, and Microsoft delivered standout profitability as an incremental layer.

The result: exceptional ROAS across every major channel, strong MoM momentum, improved YoY profitability, and a stronger, more diversified growth engine heading into the next peak season.

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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Connected Culture partners with lifestyle and furniture retailers across Australia and New Zealand — including Urban Sales, Shack, Glicks, and Luxo Living — to build brands that perform and scale.