Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing can be a massive revenue opportunity for outdoor brands. It can also become an expensive race to the bottom if the entire strategy is “20% off everything.”
The brands positioned to win BFCM start early. They know what they can afford to discount, which products deserve the spotlight, who they need to reach and how every piece of the campaign connects.
That preparation matters. U.S. consumers spent $44.2 billion online during Cyber Week in 2025, according to Adobe. Cyber Monday generated $14.25 billion, while Black Friday reached $11.8 billion.
There is plenty of demand. The hard part is earning your share of it without torching your margins.
When Should Outdoor Brands Start Preparing for Black Friday Cyber Monday?
For most outdoor brands, serious BFCM planning should begin 8 to 12 weeks before Black Friday.
That does not mean launching holiday ads in September. It means getting the decisions that affect everything else out of the way early.
Start With the Numbers
Before anyone opens a creative brief, determine what the campaign needs to accomplish.
Are you trying to acquire new customers? Move seasonal inventory? Increase average order value? Drive revenue on a particular product category?
Then look at margin, inventory and allowable customer acquisition cost.
A $200 product discounted 25% is now a $150 product. Subtract cost of goods, shipping incentives, payment fees and paid media, and that exciting revenue number starts looking different.
Revenue alone does not tell you whether BFCM worked.
This is where a strong outdoor brand marketing strategy earns its keep. The offer has to make sense for the customer and the business.
What Should a Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign Look Like?
A strong BFCM campaign is an integrated system. Offer, creative, media, email and ecommerce should all be pulling in the same direction.
Here is the order we would prioritize:
The important part is the sequence. Running more ads cannot rescue an offer nobody wants or a site that makes purchasing painful.
How Much Should Outdoor Brands Discount for BFCM?
There is no magic discount percentage for holiday sales.
Adobe reported that sporting goods discounts peaked at 17% on Cyber Monday in 2025. That gives outdoor brands a useful benchmark, but it does not mean 17% is automatically right for your business.
Build an Offer Around the Business Goal
A premium gear company protecting its price positioning should approach BFCM differently from an apparel brand sitting on seasonal inventory.
Sometimes a straight discount makes sense. Other times, bundles, tiered spending incentives, gifts with purchase or category-specific promotions can create urgency without cutting as deeply into margin.
For example, instead of taking 25% off a $400 piece of premium equipment, a brand could maintain the product’s price and include a high-perceived-value accessory.
The customer still sees a compelling reason to buy now. The brand protects more of its positioning and potentially more margin.
How Should Outdoor Brands Use Email and Paid Media During BFCM?
Your email marketing strategy should start before the sale.
Build anticipation, grow the list and consider giving VIP customers or subscribers early access. When the promotion launches, segment the audience instead of sending everyone the exact same message.
A previous customer, abandoned-cart shopper and first-time subscriber have different reasons to buy. Treat them accordingly.
Paid Media Needs More Than a Bigger Budget
Paid search advertising during BFCM gets competitive. Decide before launch what performance justifies additional spend and what causes you to pull back.
Creative matters just as much.
“25% OFF” may earn a glance, but every other brand is shouting some version of the same thing.
Outdoor brands have an advantage here because the product has a story.
Show the pack halfway up the mountain. Put the fishing gear on the water. Show the grill doing what it was built to do. Demonstrate the product, surface customer proof and explain why it belongs in someone’s kit.
Then use the promotion to create urgency.
Why Should Mobile Be a BFCM Priority?
Because a huge share of Cyber Monday purchases now happen on a phone, responsive web design is critical.
Adobe found that 57.5% of Cyber Monday online sales in 2025 came through mobile devices, representing $8.2 billion in spending.
That makes mobile conversion a revenue issue, not a design detail.
Before BFCM, click your own ads from a phone and complete a purchase. Check page speed, navigation, product information, promotional messaging, cart behavior and checkout. Then have someone outside the marketing team do it.
You would be surprised how many expensive campaigns send customers directly into a digital obstacle course.
What Are the Biggest BFCM Marketing Mistakes Outdoor Brands Make?
Most BFCM failures are not caused by one catastrophic mistake. They come from small problems stacking up.
Planning too late forces rushed creative and reactive decisions. Discounting without understanding margin can produce impressive revenue and disappointing profit. Using the same message everywhere ignores the difference between loyal customers and cold prospects. Underproducing creative leaves paid media with nothing fresh when fatigue hits.
Then there is the advertising mistake outdoor brands rarely talk about: stopping after Cyber Monday.
A customer acquired at a heavy discount is not automatically a valuable customer. You need a plan to bring them back. That might include post-purchase education, complementary product recommendations, replenishment where appropriate and future full-price campaigns.
What Should Outdoor Brands Measure During BFCM Marketing?
ROAS is useful. But it is only one piece of the performance picture.
Outdoor brands should monitor revenue, conversion rate, average order value, customer acquisition cost, new versus returning customers, product-level performance and contribution margin.
Strong data-driven marketing means understanding what produced profitable growth, not just which dashboard produced the prettiest number.
Black Friday Cyber Monday Checklist for Outdoor Brands
If you are staring at a blank BFCM plan, work in this order:
- Lock the goal and economics. Know what you’re selling, why and how much margin you can give up.
- Build the offer. Choose the promotion that creates urgency without unnecessarily gutting price.
- Prepare the website. Test landing pages, mobile UX, checkout and tracking.
- Segment the audience. Separate prospects, customers, VIPs and high-intent shoppers.
- Produce creative. Build enough variations for different channels, products and customer motivations.
- Map email and paid media. Establish timing, budgets and decision rules before launch.
- Plan retention. Know what happens after the first purchase.
This requires coordination across ecommerce channels, including digital marketing, creative, paid media, analytics and email marketing.
The Bottom Line
Black Friday Cyber Monday is not won by the outdoor brand with the biggest red SALE graphic. It is won in the weeks before the sale starts.
At Unruled, we provide agency services to help outdoor brands navigate through strategy, creative, ecommerce, email, media and measurement built specifically around outdoor audiences. So, if your BFCM plan still feels like a pile of discounts, deadlines and disconnected tactics, connect with our team to help you turn it into a campaign built to perform.
