Inside the UK Peak Season: an analysis of what really works in Q4

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day… in the United Kingdom, the last quarter of the year is not just a commercial season: it’s the battlefield of digital marketing. Over these three months, brands allocate up to 30% of their annual ad spend, trying to capture attention in a saturated, emotional, and extremely competitive environment.

But in 2025, the game has changed.
It’s no longer about shouting the loudest, but about those who understand data better, automate intelligently, and personalise their messages at scale.

With this context, Adsmurai’s team analysed the behaviour of the British market during the Peak Season, identifying which strategies truly drive results, which channels concentrate investment, and which trends will set the course in 2026.
The result is a report with exclusive data, sector benchmarks, and practical learnings that are already transforming how brands approach Q4.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The most competitive moment of the year

• From massive spend to smart investment

• Retail Media: the epicentre of the new advertising ecosystem

• Technology, creativity and personalisation: the new standard
• Omnichannel and experience: the new value metric
• The role of advanced measurement in a cookieless world
• Key learnings: how to win Peak Season in 2026

The most competitive moment of the year

Every year, the British market faces its own Grand Finale: the Peak Season, that period between November and January which concentrates the highest share of advertising investment in the calendar. According to Adsmurai’s report, this window represents almost one third of total Q4 spend.

Retail, fashion and technology brands lead the charge, aiming not only to capture attention around Black Friday or Christmas, but to remain relevant during January clearance. This year, however, there is a notable shift: the most successful strategies are not the ones that spend more, but those that better connect data, creativity and measurement. 

Today, Peak Season in the UK is a marathon of more than ten weeks that starts in November and runs through mid-January.

During this time, consumers research, compare and buy nonstop, while brands deploy multichannel strategies to capture both gifting demand and self-gifting and post-holiday sales.

In this context, early planning and full-funnel marketing have become essential. It’s not just about being present, but about staying consistently relevant in an environment where buying decisions happen increasingly in real time.

💬 Report insight: British consumer behaviour has evolved toward a more emotional, mobile, and value-centred purchase model.

Adsmurai’s analysis shows how UK advertisers are shifting towards a much more data-driven and technological approach, where every pound invested is backed by intelligent decision-making and automation.

👉 Download the full report with all benchmarks, charts and investment trends.

From massive spend to smart investment

For years, Peak Season was synonymous with spend more to sell more. Today, that logic is not enough. Advanced advertisers are shifting the paradigm: it’s not about spending more, but spending smarter.

According to Adsmurai’s findings, growth in platforms such as BVOD, Paid Social and Retail Media is driven by the constant pursuit of measurement, optimisation and flexibility.
Instead of committing to large budget blocks, brands are adopting modular and adaptive strategies, where AI and predictive analytics allow real-time campaign adjustments based on consumer behaviour.

💡 Key insight: 68% of brands using AI-based optimisation models report efficiency improvements above 25%.

Retail Media: the epicentre of the new advertising ecosystem

If there’s a clear protagonist in this year’s report, it’s Retail Media. This channel has become the true meeting point between advertising and sales, allowing brands to activate campaigns with real purchase data inside retailers’ ecosystems.

In the UK, major retailers have turned their platforms into genuine internal ad networks, offering advertisers first-party data and high-intent audiences.
The impact is tangible: Retail Media campaigns show a 34% higher average ROAS than traditional channels during Peak Season.

But the most relevant aspect is not only the return, but the integration: brands that connect Retail Media with Paid Social or Search achieve a multiplier effect thanks to omnichannel orchestration.

Technology, creativity and personalisation: the new standard

During Peak Season, the challenge is not only to reach people, but to keep their attention.
Winning campaigns combine dynamic creativity, AI and automation, creating personalised experiences that connect with each user without losing visual coherence or brand consistency.

In an environment saturated with messages, creativity remains the key competitive lever, now powered by technology.
The report shows that the fastest-growing Q4 formats are:

• Dynamic product ads, especially in retail and fashion.
• Adaptive video, with messages tailored by audience and funnel stage.
• Shoppable formats in social and BVOD, shortening the path to purchase.
  
  

Thanks to creative automation tools, brands can personalise thousands of ads from a single feed. With Optimized Feeds and Creativ_ in AMP, teams can automatically generate variations by category, price, or inventory, keeping visual consistency and optimising results.

💡 Report data: campaigns applying dynamic personalisation achieved a 28% higher average CTR and a 21% lift in conversions versus static campaigns.

Master high seasons with strategy, data, and automation.

Check out the peak season playbook to plan, automate, and optimise your upcoming campaigns with a data-driven approach.

Omnichannel and experience: the new value metric

More and more British consumers combine online and in-store within the same purchase. What used to be a differentiator is now a basic expectation: researching online, buying in store, and returning by courier are part of the same journey.

During Peak Season, experience consistency becomes as decisive as price or promotion. The brands that master omnichannel understand that marketing doesn’t end at the click — it extends to delivery and post-purchase experience.

The role of advanced measurement in a cookieless world

Peak Season 2025 has also been marked by the consolidation of first-party data and new measurement models.
With the progressive deprecation of third-party cookies, UK brands have accelerated the adoption of solutions like Google First Party Mode, Meta Conversion API, or Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM).

These tools make it possible to measure true incrementality per channel and optimise investment based on real outcomes, not just direct attribution.
Unified dashboards, like those offered by AMP through its analytics module, have enabled marketing teams to make faster decisions based on first-party data and cross-platform comparisons.

Key learnings: how to win Peak Season in 2026

The report’s results point to a structural change in how UK brands approach the last quarter of the year.
The winners are not necessarily the biggest, but the most agile. Their recipe combines:

1. Automation and efficiency: AI applied to budget management and campaign optimisation.
2. Connected data: platform, CRM, and first-party measurement integration.
3. Iterative creativity: continuous testing and multi-format scalability.
4. True omnichannel strategy: coherence across retail, social, search, and video.
   
   

This new approach reflects the natural evolution of modern marketing: a technological, intelligence-driven discipline, where creativity is executed with surgical precision and data becomes a competitive advantage.

📘 Adsmurai’s full report analyses in detail the sectors, formats, and strategies that truly work in Q4.