REESON

BFCM: 390% Meta Growth, 169% CRM Growth

RETENTION CRM KLAVIYO
Client logo
CRM Revenue
166%
Email Campaign Revenue
283%
Meta Revenue
309%
Email CVR
101%

REESON Beauty is a UK-based, skincare-infused makeup brand founded by beauty creator Really Ree. Its curated range blends makeup and skincare, with every product formulated with nourishing ingredients for an instant glow and lasting skin benefits, the kind of results that keep customers coming back again and again. As a direct-to-consumer brand selling through its own Shopify store, REESON relies on two key growth levers: paid social to reach new customers at scale, and owned CRM to turn them into loyal, repeat buyers.

The Challenge

Black Friday is one of REESON's most important trading periods, and FY24 showed opportunity for growth. The brand needed paid media and CRM working as one system: Meta Ads bringing new customers in at a sustainable cost, and CRM capturing that traffic and converting it before, during and after the sale.

Key challenges included:

  • Scaling Meta spend into peak season without CPAs spiralling as competition hit its peak.
  • Devising new creative concepts to feed peak-season demand
  • Preventing wasted conversion.
  • Opportunities for new subscribers whose first engagement coincided with the sale.
  • Increasing email frequency to capitalise on peak interest while protecting deliverability and list health.
  • Building a clear value story around REESON's offers, including tiered pre-BF discounts

REESON needed a joined-up strategy that drove significant Black Friday revenue across both channels, while still protecting long-term efficiency and customer engagement.

The Solution

Gravytrain ran a full-funnel strategy, covering the pre-BF warm-up, the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday. Meta Ads drove qualified new traffic; CRM made sure every visitor who signed up entered the Black Friday story and was guided through to purchase.

Meta Ads

We built a dedicated peak-season setup designed to scale spend while keeping acquisition costs under control.

  • Dedicated BFCM campaigns: one ABO and one CBO campaign housed every new creative, keeping learnings clean, while the always-on structure continued to support retargeting and blended efficiency.
  • A full creative suite: offer-led and benefit-led creative, with top performers reaching 2.85 ROAS, a 2.02% CTR and thumb-stop rates of up to 34%.
  • Agile weekend flash sales: a late switch to weekend flash sales performed strongly, so we carried the theme through the rest of the month.
  • Scaling at the right moment: budget increased on the final weekend as performance strengthened and CPAs settled.
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CRM

We made sure every shopper who signed up entered the Black Friday story and was guided through to purchase, without harming list health.

  • Flows ready before peak: welcome, browse abandonment and abandoned basket flows were rebuilt ahead of November to match the offers and convert new sign-ups from paid social.
  • Consistent messaging for new subscribers: the 30% off Black Friday offer ran throughout the welcome sequence, so new subscribers joined the sale narrative straight away.
  • Segmented campaigns: seven Black Friday campaigns plus two last-chance reminders, with frequency tailored by engagement to protect deliverability.
  • Sign-up growth and loyalty: new sign-up form copy grew the database by 6.6%, while a cross-sell flow and the new loyalty programme, now at 440 active accounts, encouraged repeat purchases.

The Results

Running Meta Ads and CRM as one system delivered one of REESON Beauty's strongest peak seasons to date, growing new customer acquisition, revenue and retention at the same time.

A step change across the business

In November, REESON welcomed 505 new customers, up 237% on October, while customer acquisition cost fell by 26% to £24.10. Website visitors rose by 84% and the conversion rate climbed 63% to 6%, so more people were arriving and more of them were buying. Returning customers also rose by 217%, a sign the new audience was already coming back.

Meta Ads scaled efficiently

Meta revenue grew by 390% month on month to £21,160, with purchases up 420%. Crucially, the account became more efficient as it scaled: ROAS improved by 28% to 2.11 and CPA fell by 26% to £18.69, while a 6% rise in AOV helped protect margin through a discount-heavy period.

+47%
Campaign Click Rate YoY
+283%
Campaign Revenue YoY
+101%
Email CVR YoY

CRM more than doubled year on year

CRM-attributed revenue grew by 169% compared with BFCM 2024, reaching £11,415, and campaign revenue alone rose by 283%. Email drove 29% of all BFCM revenue, and the first Black Friday email earned 54% more than its 2024 equivalent. The welcome series was the top-performing flow, showing how well new subscribers from paid social were converted. 

All of this came without compromising list health: bounce and spam rates both fell by around half in November, even as send volume increased.

Key Takeaway

REESON Beauty's Black Friday 2025 shows what happens when paid media and CRM are planned together rather than in silos. Meta Ads scaled new customer acquisition efficiently, and CRM made sure that traffic met a consistent message and converted, turning a single peak moment into a larger, more loyal customer base.

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