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In this issue: bad news, in 2025 customers were more expensive than ever. But if you're hearing that for the first time from me, you have bigger problems. 🐇

This week in data

Vicious losses in efficiency in the run up to the Super Bowl. Marketers are hammering their deranged gameday omnichannel campaigns with hopes of being crowned the best advertiser. This leads many to make dadaist decisions, either to our amusement, chagrin, or confusion. The algorithm has broken advertising and I think it's hilarious. 

For the average performance marketing team, this is a frustrating week. Massive brand awareness campaigns flooding the feed are pushing out conversion performance. Best to just shake it off and prepare for Valentine's Day sales. 

We broke down the 2025 winners and losers.

If you squint, it looks like 2025 was a good year for ecommerce. Generic websites predict 2%-8% growth across new customers and total purchases for the year. A less informed operator than you might leave it at that. 

But we can do better, right? Northbeam dug into the data to identify the nuances. What industries succeeded? Which struggled? What specifically happened across the winners and losers that dictated they become such?

Read CJ's excellent blog breaking down each industry and it's 2025 performance. 

Here's some highlights:

🏈 Sports & Fitness: every marginal customer earned cost more to gain and delivered less efficient revenue. 

👠 Fashion & Accessories: first time CAC rose by 9% year over year. No, it's not just you.

💄 Beauty & Personal Care: poor new-customer economics made growth "feel bad." Take a seasonal approach to mitigate the ouch. 

Read the full report here.

🚀 ICYMI: Northbeam Incrementality is here. Sign up now to join the future of incrementality. 

🗑️ Why early stage businesses struggled in 2025. Understanding the downward pressures on SMB and why growth marketing is harder than ever. 

🚨 JOB: Head of Growth / Javvy Coffee / Remote: join the best marketers in the game, $5m budget, and freedom to make infinite scale happen. This is one of the most exciting roles we've seen in a while. 

🚨 JOB: Kuiu / Planning Director + Apparel Planner / Dixon, CA: this rapidly-growing apparel grand is seeking some experts. Contact garry@kuiu.com for more deets.

🚨 JOB: Jones Road Beauty / Senior Manager of Social Media / Montclair, NJ: longtime friend of Northbeam is seeking a skilled organic guru. Is it you?

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