The $500K BFCM Lesson: Why Your Retargeting Strategy Is Leaving Money on the Table

The $500K BFCM Lesson: Why Your Retargeting Strategy Is Leaving Money on the Table

How systematic retargeting methodology generated nearly half a million dollars in incremental revenue for one brand during Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025—and what most CRM teams are doing wrong.

The email went out. The campaign performed. You checked the revenue number, nodded, and moved on to the next send.

But here's what you probably didn't do: you didn't go back to that campaign three days later, analyze who engaged but didn't purchase, calculate what a second touch could yield, and execute a strategic retarget.

That's where nearly $500,000 in BFCM 2025 revenue came from for Tecovas—the Austin-based cowboy boot brand that's become a poster child for direct-to-consumer success. Not from louder ads. Not from bigger discounts. From disciplined, systematic retargeting of campaigns that had already proven themselves.

Most brands don't capture this revenue. Not because they don't have the data. Not because they lack the tools. But because they treat retargeting as an afterthought—something you do "when you have time" rather than a core revenue lever built into every campaign strategy.

Let me show you what changes when you treat retargeting like the science it actually is.

The Retargeting Problem No One Talks About

The industry loves to throw around retargeting statistics. Retargeting emails can achieve a 30% average conversion rate, significantly outperforming typical campaign conversion rates below 5%. Abandoned cart emails alone have an open rate of nearly 45%, with 21% click rates leading to 50% of those clicks resulting in a recovered purchase.

But here's what those statistics miss: most brands aren't actually executing retargeting at scale. They're doing cart abandonment (because every ESP makes that easy) and maybe—maybe—sending a non-opener resend on their biggest campaigns.

That's not a retargeting strategy. That's a checkbox.

When we analyzed the average CRM program's approach to retargeting, we found a pattern that explains why so much revenue gets left behind:

The Typical Brand's Retargeting Approach:

• Cart abandonment flows running (set it and forget it)

• Occasional non-opener resends on "big" campaigns

• No systematic process for evaluating which campaigns warrant retargeting

• No segment diversification beyond "didn't open"

• Zero cross-channel retargeting (email campaigns never get SMS follow-ups)

• No measurement of retargeting effectiveness over time

Compare that to what systematic retargeting actually looks like, and you begin to understand the revenue gap.

The Framework: How We Think About Retargeting

After managing retention programs that have generated over $200 million in client revenue, we've developed a methodology that treats every campaign as a potential retargeting opportunity—not just the obvious ones.

Here's the core philosophy: every campaign that performs above a certain threshold deserves a second look. The question isn't "should we retarget this?"—it's "what's the optimal way to retarget this, and what segments should we hit?"

Step 1: Establish Your Benchmarks

You can't know what "good" looks like without context. Most brands evaluate campaigns in isolation: "We got a 22% open rate—is that good?" Without segment-specific benchmarks, you're guessing.

The first step is building benchmarks that actually mean something. Not industry averages (those are useless for decision-making), but YOUR benchmarks, segmented by:

Engagement Tiers:

• 30-day engaged subscribers (your most responsive audience)

• 60-day engaged (still warm)

• 90-day engaged (standard targeting)

• 180-day+ (extended reach, different expectations)

Campaign Types:

• Holiday and seasonal campaigns

• Product launches and new drops

• Promotional sends (discount-driven)

• Evergreen content and brand storytelling

Segment Behaviors:

• VIP and loyalty members

• New subscribers

• Prospects (never purchased)

• Customers (at least one purchase)

When you calculate your averages within these groupings, you suddenly have context. A 15% open rate to your 180-day engaged segment might be exceptional. The same rate to your 30-day actives might signal a problem.

Step 2: Score Every Campaign

Once you have benchmarks, you can objectively score campaign performance. We use a points-based system that factors in both performance metrics and content type.

Performance Points:

For email, we look at open rate, click rate, and conversion rate—each compared to the segment benchmark. A campaign that beats its segment average on all three metrics earns a high performance score.

Content Modifiers:

Certain content types naturally warrant retargeting more than others:

• Promotional campaigns with time-sensitive offers? High retarget value.

• Seasonal content tied to holidays? Retarget before the moment passes.

• Product launches and new arrivals? People who missed it still want to know.

• Survey or feedback requests? Lower retarget priority.

The combination of performance score and content modifier gives you a clear verdict for each campaign.

Step 3: The Traffic Light System

Based on combined scores, every campaign falls into one of four categories:

GREEN (High Priority): Strong performers with retarget-worthy content. Execute full retargeting strategy across multiple segments. Don't just hit non-openers—go after opened-not-clicked, clicked-not-purchased, new subscribers who joined after the send, and even lapsed customers who might respond to a proven message. Look for excuses to show this message to larger segments of your lists.

YELLOW (Medium Priority): Good performers that warrant targeted retargeting. Focus on non-engagers with a new subject line and optimized send time. Consider A/B testing creative variations.

ORANGE (Low Priority): Below-average performers. If you retarget at all, keep it simple: non-openers only, new subject line, minimal effort.

RED (Do Not Retarget): Campaigns that underperformed their benchmarks. Retargeting a poorly-performing campaign just amplifies the problem. Move on.

This traffic light system removes subjective decision-making. You're not debating whether something is "worth" retargeting—the data tells you.

The Segments Most Brands Miss

Here's where the real money hides: segment diversification.

When most brands think "retarget," they think "resend to non-openers." That's one segment. The lowest-hanging fruit, sure, but only a fraction of the opportunity.

For a high-performing campaign, consider all of these segments:

For Email:

• Non-openers – The obvious one. People who didn't open deserve another chance with a fresh subject line.

• Opened but didn't click – These people were interested enough to open. They saw your content. They just didn't take action. What if you led with a different angle?

• Clicked but didn't purchase – This is money walking away. They engaged deeply. They visited your site. Something stopped them. A retarget to this segment with urgency messaging or a small incentive can convert at remarkable rates.

• Engaged 3+ times, no purchase – Subscribers who open and click repeatedly but never buy. They're clearly interested. They might just need a different value proposition or a trust signal like social proof.

• New subscribers since send date – Anyone who joined your list after the original campaign went out. They never saw it. It's not a retarget for them—it's a first touch with proven content.

• Lapsed customers – Previous purchasers who've gone quiet. A high-performing campaign that resonated with your actives might re-engage people who've drifted.

For SMS:

• Non-clickers – SMS doesn't have opens to measure (or rather, open tracking is unreliable). Focus on clicks.

• Clicked but didn't purchase – Same logic as email. High intent, no conversion. Follow up.

• Engaged subscribers who missed the send – Subscribers who were active around that time but didn't receive the original message due to timing or suppression rules.

The math is straightforward: if you only retarget non-openers, you're addressing maybe 60-70% of your list. If you expand to include clicked-not-purchased and new subscribers, you're potentially doubling your retarget audience with segments that have HIGHER inten

The Flow Integration Opportunity

There's another level beyond campaign retargeting that most brands never consider: turning proven campaign content into automated flows.

Think about it. If a campaign crushes performance—say, a best-seller showcase email that outperforms 90% of your other sends—why does that content live and die as a single campaign?

The answer is it shouldn't.

The Evergreen Test:

Not all campaign content belongs in automation. We use a simple filter: "Would this content make sense to send 6 months from now without modification?"

If the answer is no—because it references a specific sale, date, season, or promotional offer—it's not flow material. But if the answer is yes, you might be sitting on automation gold.

Content that passes the evergreen test includes:

• Product education and feature highlights

• Brand story and values messaging

• Best seller showcases (without promotional pricing)

• Styling guides and how-to content

• Customer reviews and social proof

• Size guides and fit information

When a campaign using this type of content dramatically outperforms benchmarks, we flag it for flow integration. That high-performing best seller email? It becomes part of the browse abandonment flow. The brand story that resonated? It goes into the welcome series.

This is how you turn campaign insights into compounding automation revenue.

Why Most Teams Won't Do This

I'll be direct: implementing systematic retargeting at this level requires work. It requires:

• Data infrastructure – You need to calculate segment-level benchmarks and track performance over time.

• Process discipline – Every campaign needs to be evaluated on a consistent framework, not gut feel.

• Segment building capabilities – Creating "clicked but didn't purchase on Campaign X" segments needs to be easy, not a multi-step manual process.

• Team bandwidth – Retargeting at scale means more sends, more creative variants, more analysis.

• Cross-functional coordination – When your email team and SMS team don't talk, you miss cross-channel retargeting opportunities.

Most CRM teams are already stretched thin. They're pushing campaigns out the door, responding to stakeholder requests, and trying to maintain deliverability. Adding a sophisticated retargeting layer feels like one more thing.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: the brands that treat retargeting as optional are leaving 20-30% of their potential campaign revenue on the table. Every single month.

The Revenue Math

Let's make this concrete.

Typical Brand Scenario:

• 12 campaigns per month

• Average $50,000 revenue per campaign

• Monthly campaign revenue: $600,000

With Systematic Retargeting (conservative 20% lift):

• Same 12 campaigns

• Average $60,000 revenue per campaign (original + retarget revenue)

• Monthly campaign revenue: $720,000

• Incremental monthly revenue: $120,000

• Annual incremental revenue: $1.44 million

And that's conservative. During peak periods like BFCM, when campaign performance spikes and retargeting urgency is highest, the lift can be significantly higher.

The $500K we generated for Tecovas during BFCM 2025 wasn't magic. It was math—applied systematically across every campaign that warranted a second touch.

What to Do Monday Morning

If you're convinced that your retargeting approach needs work, here's where to start:

Week 1: Establish Baselines

Pull the last 30 days of campaign data. Calculate your average open rate, click rate, and conversion rate by engagement tier (30-day, 60-day, 90-day). You now have benchmarks.

Week 2: Score Recent Campaigns

Take your last 10 campaigns and score them against those benchmarks. Which ones outperformed? Which ones underperformed? You'll immediately see patterns.

Week 3: Expand Your Segment Strategy

For your next high-performing campaign, don't just send to non-openers. Build segments for opened-not-clicked and clicked-not-purchased. Test what happens.

Week 4: Measure and Iterate

Track the incremental revenue from retargeting separately. Know your numbers. Refine your thresholds based on what actually moves the needle for YOUR brand.

The Bigger Picture

Retargeting isn't just a tactic. It's a philosophy.

The philosophy says: content that works deserves to work harder. Campaigns that resonate shouldn't live and die in a single send. Every performance signal in your data is an insight you can act on.

The brands that embrace this philosophy don't see their campaign calendar as a series of one-off sends. They see it as a continuous optimization machine—where today's campaign becomes tomorrow's retarget, next month's flow content, and next year's evergreen performer.

That's how you turn $600K in monthly campaign revenue into $720K. That's how you capture the $500K that competitors leave on the table during BFCM. That's how retention marketing stops being a cost center and starts being a growth engine.