Black Friday creative is not one big launch. It is a series of connected decisions: how often to upload new creatives, what to say, how long each video should be, and what Interactives to use. The 2025 AppLovin results show how those decisions can work together. These insights provide a practical starting point for the 2026 BFCM creative plan.

1. Refresh creatives throughout November

In November 2025, 63% of advertisers added new creative in three or four weeks of the month. The remaining 37% added creative in only one or two weeks.

Advertisers that added creative almost every week had 23% higher median BFCM D7 ROAS than those that added creative only once or twice.

The comparison between new and older creative points in the same direction. During BFCM, creative uploaded in November delivered 20% higher D0 ROAS and 15% higher D7 ROAS than creative more than 60 days old. Its CPP was also 19% lower at D0 and 13% lower at D7.

2. Balance promotion messaging with product storytelling

A steady refresh creates more opportunities to learn, but the message also matters. BFCM creatives should answer two questions: Why this product, and why buy now? Product messaging explains benefits, brand, and use cases. BFCM promotion messaging adds urgency through offers.

In November 2025, advertisers uploaded more product-focused creatives than BFCM promotion creatives. Yet promotion-led ads made up only 41.8% of uploaded creative sets while receiving 62.2% of spend through AppLovin’s delivery. They generated 64.2% of D7 attributed revenue and returned $1.38 for every $1 spent, compared with $1.26 for product-focused creative.

Promotion messaging performed well during BFCM, but that does not mean every creative should be promotion-led. Figure 4 looks at how each advertiser’s overall creative mix performed.

3. Short video gained the most at BFCM, but the size of the gain varied by category

By the time BFCM arrives, many shoppers have already researched the products they are considering. Short, direct videos may therefore be especially effective at turning existing interest into action.

Compared with June through September non-promotion weeks, new-customer D0 ROAS increased 83% for videos of 15 seconds or less during BFCM. The gain was 39% for videos between 16 and 29 seconds and 24% for videos of 30 seconds or longer.

4. HTML endcards gained more efficiency at BFCM than static-image endcards

After the video captures attention, the endcard shapes what shoppers see next. From the June through September non-promotion baseline to BFCM, ads with HTML Interactive endcards and ads with static-image endcards moved in different directions.

HTML Interactive endcards improved 35% in D0 ROAS and 40% in D7 ROAS. The same pattern appeared in new-customer ROAS: HTML endcards improved 48% at D0 and 58% at D7, compared with 6% and 14% for static-image endcards.

5. Your 2026 BFCM creative plan

• Refresh throughout November: Prepare enough creative assets for a weekly refresh, keep strong ads running, and continue testing and iterating as performance data arrives.
• Balance the message: Start with roughly 50 to 74 percent of the creative mix in BFCM promotion messaging and use the remainder for product, brand, and use-case storytelling.
• Optimize video length by category: Add more short videos to the plan, then adjust the mix based on category and brand performance.
• Test Interactive formats: Build HTML Interactives using AppLovin Ads Manager templates and AI tools, then compare against static image Interactives using similar products and offers.

For the full BFCM campaign preparation and customer growth plan, check out these resources:

BFCM Part 1: Start earlier, scale smarter

BFCM Part 2: Black Friday is your biggest new-customer opportunity

AppLovin Q4 Campaign Playbook

Period-over-period charts use matched advertiser groups across the relevant baseline and BFCM periods. Results are observational and meant to guide planning, not guarantee outcomes.