We Accidentally Spent $100K Before 9 AM on Black Friday Weekend

**Question:** How should DTC brands plan their Black Friday ad spend and offers? **Direct answer:** Plan Black Friday around contribution margin, not a ROAS number. Run the exact offer weeks early so cart, checkout and discount-code problems surface before the big weekend, and set acquisition targets that account for the higher return rate after the promo ends. During the sale, use time-boxed incentives such as a one-hour free gift with purchase instead of a deeper percentage discount, track orders by channel by the hour against target, and put creative effort into founder-led storytelling ads rather than new landing pages. Zach Stuck's best customer cohort ever came from spending $100K before 9 AM on the Saturday after Black Friday, because the 12-month contribution margin on those customers still came out ahead. Last Black Friday weekend's ad strategy started with a mistake that paid off: Zach Stuck spent $100K before 9 AM on the Saturday after Black Friday, his team panicked, and those customers became his best cohort ever on 12-month contribution margin. Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch and Zach walk through how to plan BFCM spend and offers: test the offer in October, set ROAS targets that account for returns, run a one-hour free gift with purchase, pace orders by the hour, and film founder ads instead of building new landing pages. We discuss: \- Why your Black Friday ad won't save a weak business-as-usual setup \- Testing your Black Friday offer in October to find what breaks \- Setting ROAS targets that account for post-holiday returns \- Whether discount customers are really worse (and how to measure them) \- The one-hour gift with purchase that tripled hourly sales \- Building an hourly pacing sheet by channel, with Claude \- Why bonuses and gift cards beat a bigger percentage off \- Why a lower AOV can scale better on Meta \- Founder ads, yapper ads and the "source of the week" creative process \- AI character ads and turning blackhat tactics white hat Get the Scalability School newsletter (free, short, no spam): https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletter Watch last year's BFCM recap with Zach: https://youtu.be/3POPSecWu\_M Get the newsletter: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletter Learn more: https://www.scalabilityschool.com To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email Andrew@foxwelldigital.com To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad\_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It’s a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they’re offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you This episode of Scalability School is sponsored by Alia, the AI-powered pop-up platform. Head to aliapopups.com, book a demo, and mention AI DTC WTF for an extended 45-day free trial. Scalability School is a weekly show from Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch, and Zach Stuck about what is actually working right now in DTC growth. No theory, no recycled LinkedIn takes, just the numbers and decisions behind real brands and real ad accounts. Chapters 00:00 Black Friday ad strategy: the $100K morning and why the basics win 02:10 Test your Black Friday offer in October 03:58 Set Black Friday ROAS targets that account for returns 05:49 Sale cohorts, BOGO and keeping evergreen ads cranking 08:04 Are discount customers worse? The $100K Saturday cohort 11:13 The one-hour gift with purchase that tripled hourly sales 13:05 How to pace Black Friday by channel and by the hour 20:59 Why a lower AOV can scale better on Meta 23:40 Black Friday creative: founder ads beat new landing pages 34:45 AI character ads and turning blackhat tactics white hat