Cyber 5 2025: A Huge Week for Consumers and Commerce Media 

Cyber 5 set a new record in 2025, as consumers delivered: $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday, $11.8 billion on Black Friday, $44.2 billion across five days, and 202.9 million shoppers engaging across channels!

While Cyber 5 is a key indicator of holiday-season consumer spending, it’s also a key period for understanding how digital advertisers view the market and where they’re reallocating investment for maximum efficiency. 

These aren’t just interesting data points. They’re signals for how to optimize the remaining three weeks of Q4 and how to structure 2026 strategies. The brands that read these signals correctly are already capturing advantages.

Here’s what Skai’s exclusive performance data reveals:

Key takeaways

• Amazon DSP was the hero: clicks tripled while CPCs dropped 52%, proving programmatic delivers full-funnel conversion, not just awareness
• Walmart Connect delivers: 52% spending surge with conversion rates more than double Amazon’s 
• Amazon Ads formats showed distinct performance profiles: Amazon DSP delivered the strongest efficiency, while Sponsored Products provided 60% of revenue
• CPG categories sustained strong conversion rates across all five days, while premium categories like Computers & Consumer Electronics concentrated their revenue on Black Friday

Cyber 5 by the numbers: Channel performance across five days

Total retail media investment grew 19% across the five-day period, according to ad spend in Skai’s platform, but that headline masks the real story. Conversion volume expanded 14% while clicks grew 24%. That math matters. Conversions outpacing clicks means targeting improved, not just budget.

Brands reached more qualified traffic, not just more traffic.

The channel mix tells you where confidence shifted. Retail media saw the most dramatic reallocation. Amazon DSP investment surged 39% as brands discovered programmatic reach beyond saturated sponsored ad auctions. Clicks exploded 190%, nearly tripling year-over-year, while CPCs dropped 52%. That’s the rare “efficiency at scale” combination that doesn’t exist in mature auctions. Walmart Connect hit critical mass with 52% spending growth, the largest increase of any channel, with conversion rates more than doubling Amazon’s baseline.

Paid search maintained steady reliability. Google investment grew 10% with clicks expanding 12%. CPCs declined modestly, suggesting healthy competition without prohibitive costs. In a year of significant experimentation across retail media, Google remained the predictable foundation that enabled brands to take calculated risks elsewhere.

Paid social repositioned strategically. Facebook clicks increased 26% while CPC efficiency improved 29%. The refinement: brands optimized Facebook for upper-funnel engagement rather than expecting direct attribution to tell the whole story. Some brands pulled back baseline Facebook spending and reallocated to Amazon DSP, capturing better overall portfolio performance. Strategic absence sometimes beats presence everywhere.

Cross-channel performance revealed distinct daily roles. Thanksgiving for efficient entry. Black Friday for maximum volume capture. Weekend for sustained presence at better economics. Cyber Monday for high-intent conversion. Brands treating all five days identically left efficiency on the table.

What the four weeks before Cyber 5 can tell us about 2026 marketer holiday strategy

How advertisers pace budgets through November from the first to the Cyber 5 weekend reveals their strategic maturity: controlled acceleration that positions for event-day efficiency vs. aggressive early spending that burns budgets before peak conversion windows arrive. With this ramp-up (Nov 1 – Nov 27) vs. event (Nov 28 – Dec 1) analysis, we can see exactly when brands committed budget and how those decisions impacted performance.

Retail media strategy followed three phases. Early November saw baseline management with spending close to typical levels, conserving budget while maintaining essential presence. Mid-month brought controlled acceleration by November 15, building momentum without premature spend. The week before Cyber 5 showed disciplined ramping, positioning for conversion capture without exhausting budgets early.

Event days delivered concentrated firepower: Thanksgiving saw elevated spending, Black Friday peaked at more than triple baseline levels, the weekend sustained approximately double baseline levels, and Cyber Monday remained at triple baseline. The sophistication was shown in the moderation. Brands learned that sustainable high peaks with precise targeting outperform extreme spikes with looser controls.

Paid search validated its playbook through consistency. Google’s 2025 pattern nearly mirrored 2024. Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending remained remarkably stable year-over-year. Pre-Thanksgiving week ranges stayed consistent across both years. This wasn’t a coincidence; it was validation. Advertisers found a winning formula in 2024 and executed it with precision in 2025. When performance proves consistent, sophisticated advertisers repeat and refine rather than experiment unnecessarily.

Paid social deployed precision timing over blanket coverage. Early November showed conservative investment below baseline during the first two weeks, representing strategic budget conservation. Mid-month acceleration was selective, building moderately in the week before Thanksgiving. Event days showed focused deployment with controlled increases on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.

This contrasted sharply with 2024’s approach: aggressive mid-month levels well above baseline and event days reaching more than double typical spending. The week before Thanksgiving in 2025 showed much more restraint than in 2024. Strategic budget reallocation freed resources for better-performing channels without sacrificing traffic generation. Sometimes the right move is a strategic absence.

Amazon deep dive: Format performance and daily dynamics

Amazon Ads advertising saw 12% growth in spending as brands navigated competitive maturity. Conversions grew 4%, clicks expanded 9%, demonstrating more sophisticated targeting despite intensifying competition.

Daily performance revealed each day’s distinct strategic role. Thanksgiving delivered the efficiency sweet spot with the lowest CPCs of the period and strong performance metrics. Black Friday dominated revenue concentration, capturing 30% of the five-day total with peak traffic volume and strong conversion rates, though CPCs hit their highest point. This remained the volume peak, but brands paid maximum cost for maximum scale.

The weekend sustained performance that most advertisers undervalue. Saturday and Sunday each maintained consistent revenue levels, with CPCs dropping 10-15% below Black Friday. Conversion rates stayed within two percentage points of Friday’s performance while traffic remained substantial. This wasn’t drop-off; it was a sustained opportunity at better economics.

Cyber Monday brought the conversion peak with the highest rate of any day. Competition remained elevated but conversion efficiency justified the investment. Monday captured shoppers who researched all weekend and were ready to convert.

Format performance showed the distinct advantages of each Amazon Ads format. Amazon DSP delivered the strongest efficiency metrics, nearly double the platform average, with conversion rates proving programmatic works for lower-funnel conversion, not just awareness. Amazon DSP demonstrated both reach and conversion capability across the five-day period.

Cyber Monday showcased DSP’s strategic timing advantage. The format peaked Monday with conversion rates significantly better than its Black Friday performance. Amazon DSP builds awareness all week and converts at the end, unlike search-driven formats that spike Friday.

Sponsored Products remained the foundation, generating 60% of Amazon Ads revenue on 76% of all Amazon Ads clicks. With the lowest CPC among formats and solid conversion rates, this accessible, scalable base delivered consistent performance. Black Friday accounted for 30% of Sponsored Products revenue on one day as high-intent search volume peaked.

Sponsored Brands attracted premium traffic, had the highest CTR among formats, and achieved strong conversion rates. The format maintained steady conversion rates across all five days, showing stability that made forecasting and optimization easier than volatile formats. Computers & Electronics on Brands achieved the highest category/format combined performance.

Sponsored Display converted warm audiences at premium economics with strong conversion rates and the highest average order values. With quality over quantity as its hallmark, Display demonstrated targeted efficiency. Apparel on Display delivered exceptional performance. Display peaked Thanksgiving and Black Friday, converting warm traffic fastest on deal days, while DSP built all week and converted Monday.

Walmart Connect hits its stride during the Cyber 5

Investment increased 52% YoY with conversion rates more than doubling Amazon’s baseline and efficiency metrics beating mature platforms significantly. CPCs ran 40% lower than Amazon’s while click-through rates exceeded double Amazon’s rate. These aren’t test budget advantages anymore; they’re platform-defining characteristics.

But competition is intensifying. The CPC increases year-over-year show more advertisers entering the platform. Current efficiency advantages will compress as Walmart Connect matures, following the same trajectory Amazon experienced. Brands testing now capture learnings before auction dynamics shift. The first-mover window is 12-18 months.

Walmart’s daily pattern differed from Amazon’s extreme concentration. Black Friday generated 25% of the five-day total vs. Amazon’s 30%. All five days performed within 20% of each other with no extreme peaks or valleys. This suggests Walmart Connect advertisers view it as an “always-on” value destination rather than an event-driven one, which means consistent presence beats extreme peaks.

Weekend performance proved particularly strong with conversion rates hitting the highest levels of the entire Cyber 5 period, both Saturday and Sunday. CPCs dropped further, creating exceptional value opportunities. Weekend volume offset lower average order values, yielding substantial conversion totals.

The diversification argument extends beyond efficiency. Walmart Connect captures different shopper demographics: value-conscious consumers, subscription-focused households, and grocery-integrated shopping missions. CPG and household essentials perform exceptionally on Walmart Connect, while luxury and premium categories may skew better on Amazon’s audience. Portfolio diversification reduces platform risk while capturing distinct audiences.

Which categories won the event?

As we saw with both Prime Days this year, everyday essentials converted at significantly higher rates, while considered purchases required more touchpoints. CPG showed minimal daily variance, maintaining steady conversion rates across all five days. This consistency means these categories don’t need extreme event-day concentration. Steady investment year-round outperforms event-spiking for replenishment-driven products.

Premium categories validated full-funnel investment strategies. Computers & Consumer Electronics dominated category performance, leveraging exceptional average order values that ran significantly higher than the platform average. While conversion rates appeared modest, the high value per conversion more than compensated. The category succeeded across all formats, justifying full-funnel investment.

Computers & Consumer Electronics also demonstrated a concentrated timing strategy with 34% of five-day performance occurring on Black Friday alone, proving premium products spike hardest on peak deal days when consumer expectations align with promotional depth. This event-concentration approach differs fundamentally from CPG’s sustained presence strategy.

Volume categories mastered efficiency at scale. Apparel achieved strong performance through fundamentally different economics than the premium categories. With the platform’s lowest CPC (50% below average), Apparel enabled massive scale with 22% of all Amazon Ads clicks. The category generated substantial conversion volume through scale rather than high-value transactions.

Year-over-year efficiency breakthroughs created scale opportunities. Apparel’s 32% CPC improvement enabled 21% click growth. Hobbies gained 10% CPC efficiency. Food & Grocery improved 9%. Home & Garden saw 13% improvement. These CPC compressions signaled reduced competition or better inventory, creating expansion windows for brands that recognized the opportunity.

The strategic frameworks were clear: Premium categories with high average order values justify full-funnel investment across all four Amazon formats. Volume categories with low CPCs should lead with Sponsored Products for scale while layering Display for retargeting. CPG categories with strong conversion rates prioritize Products and Display, while using DSP sparingly due to lower average order value economics.

What this means for December and beyond

Cyber 5 2025 proved that a sophisticated strategy beats budget size.

The brands that won paced deliberately, peaked sustainably, and diversified across platforms. They timed category investments to natural demand cycles instead of panic-bidding on Black Friday.

You’ve got three weeks left in Q4.

Don’t go dark like your competitors.

Many advertisers have virtually blown through their holiday budgets, creating post-Cyber 5 opportunities. December 10-15 historically delivers lower CPCs with strong conversion rates – that’s efficient volume most advertisers ignore. You should maintain 100-120% of the November baseline through December 15, then execute a strategic acceleration in the final week to capture last-minute shoppers and gift card redemptions.

Conclusion: The 2026 sophistication gap is already widening

The window for strategic advantage hasn’t closed. It’s shifted to those willing to evolve beyond legacy event-driven playbooks.

Skai’s Retail Media solutions enable marketers to plan, activate, and measure campaigns across 200+ retailers (including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart) as part of a broader commerce media strategy. AI-powered pacing, product intelligence, and keyword tools help teams meet shoppers across the journey and tie spend to sales with confidence.

Ready to finish Q4 strong and build your 2026 strategy? Schedule a quick demo.

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