Q4 isn't one event

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In this newsletter, you’ll find:

📊 Q4 isn't one event. your benchmark is treating it like one.

🤖 AI agents are changing how people shop and search online

🏆 Ad of the day

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Together with Omnisend

They Switched Before Black Friday and Made $113K

BFCM is the last time anyone wants to risk deliverability or rebuild revenue-driving automations. Yet weeks before Black Friday, Ecom2Win moved a client from Klaviyo to Omnisend.

The migration paid off with $113,000 in attributed email revenue, while email generated 53% of the store’s total revenue during BFCM.

Omnisend made the switch manageable:

• Move without migration costs: Omnisend transfers your setup for free within five business days.
• Protect peak-season revenue: Ecom2Win had the migration completed in 24 hours and its automations rebuilt and checked within four days.
• Reduce ongoing costs: Plans can cost up to 35% less than Klaviyo, while Omnisend customers generate an average of $79 for every $1 spent.

More than 150,000 ecommerce brands now use Omnisend to turn email and SMS into measurable revenue.

With Klaviyo’s SMS pricing increasing, waiting only means paying more while leaving less time to switch safely before peak season.

📊 Q4 isn't one event. your benchmark is treating it like one.

Every Black Friday guide reads the same way: here's what good looks like in Q4. The number underneath that advice is almost always a blended average across every category, and blended averages hide the thing that matters most heading into peak, which is that each category peaks on a completely different calendar with a completely different definition of good.

Apparel treats Black Friday as a volume play, deliberately trading ROAS for total revenue as it scales spend into December. Health & Beauty runs a tighter margin story, where a 30% hook rate that would look strong most of the year is just average during Q4 because every competitor in the category is running its best creative at once. 

Business & Industrial, a category most Q4 guides skip entirely, had its best month of last year in December, proving even B2B brands catch a real holiday lift if anyone bothered to benchmark it.

A brand comparing its own numbers against a cross-category average is either declaring victory early or panicking over a number that's actually fine for what it sells.

Find your category's actual shape before comparing anything

Before reacting to any benchmark, plot your own account's performance by month for the last two Q4s and identify where your peak actually falls, not where the generic guide says it should.

A brand that assumes its category peaks on Black Friday weekend when its real data shows a slower build into mid-December is optimizing creative refresh, budget pacing, and inventory messaging around the wrong week.

Recalibrate what "strong creative" means for your specific category right now

Meta's own research into 2026 holiday shopping now points toward product-focused, deal-forward creative over lifestyle brand storytelling as what holiday shoppers actually respond to, but how far a category has shifted toward that format varies enormously.

A category still running lifestyle-first creative into a season where competitors have moved to product-forward messaging is judging its hook rate against the wrong style of ad entirely. Check what your closest competitors are actually running before assuming your current creative approach is the right category to benchmark against at all.

Get the number built for your category, not the industry

Seeing your own category's peak month, benchmark, and the specific fix that closes the gap, rather than a cross-industry number that flatters some categories and misleads others, is what Billo's free calculator is built to surface. You can check your Q4 benchmarks and see where your category actually lands.

The guide treating Q4 as one event wasn't wrong that the season matters. It was wrong about which number you should be chasing.

🤖 AI agents are changing how people shop and search online

Meta’s Muse can now browse and buy products for users, while AI agents already account for a growing share of web traffic. Meanwhile, Bing and Google are testing search experiences designed to answer more follow-up questions before users ever visit a website.

The Breakdown:

Muse can shop and check out for users - Meta’s buyer agent can open websites, fill forms, negotiate and complete purchases through Stripe Link using one-time-use cards, with Shop Pay support planned next.

AI traffic can help and hurt advertisers - Bots and agents now represent more than half of web requests. Mellow Sleep says AI-assistant traffic converts several times above average, while another agency saw bot traffic rise 80% YoY and CPMs climb 20%.

Search engines are keeping conversations inside results - Bing is testing “Ask follow-up” in Copilot, while Google AI Mode is experimenting with table-based follow-up questions and paginated answers with a skip button.

Google is shrinking visibility for cited sites - Smaller link cards being tested in AI Overviews and AI Mode remove site descriptions, potentially giving publishers less context and branding even when they receive citations.

AI is reshaping web traffic from both directions. Shopping agents can arrive with stronger purchase intent, while AI search handles more of the discovery and consideration process itself. Marketers will increasingly need to separate valuable agent traffic from bots while measuring visibility beyond clicks.

🏆 Ad of the day

What Works:

Contrast Creates Clarity - The split comparison between “45 random supplements” and one targeted product makes the value proposition instantly understandable, reducing cognitive load and sharpening message-market fit.

Visual Simplifies Choice - The handful of mixed pills represents complexity, while the single bottle represents simplicity, using visual hierarchy to make the preferred decision feel obvious without heavy explanation.

Product Feels Focused - The minimalist bottle, muted palette and clean typography make the product feel deliberate and premium, while the one-capsule message reinforces ease and lower routine friction.

Show the messy, complicated alternative beside your simpler solution. Strong contrast can make the product benefit self-explanatory and push the viewer toward the easier choice. 

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