Fospha's Peak Playbook 2026: Top-Performing Brands Invest 2x More in Upper-Funnel Spend, All Year Round

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Across low consumer sentiment and tariffs squeezing pressure on margins, brands are approaching peak season this year (Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday season) with caution. A new analysis of retail brand behavior from measurement platform Fospha presents a brighter view. Examining its client base, Fospha found that brands grew peak spend 22% YoY in 2025, in a season the market expected to slow.

That confidence comes from what these brands can see. Last Click and pixel-based multi-touch attribution under-credit the channels that generate demand, like TikTok, Snapchat or Google Demand Gen. With full-funnel measurement, that impact is visible.

A core finding: the top 25% of brands for peak ROAS spent 2x more of their budget on upper-funnel campaigns than the remaining 75%, every quarter. By peak week, they held 24% of spend upper-funnel versus 10% for the rest.

The Peak Playbook 2026 breaks this down by channel, with pre-, during- and post-peak moves across 9 platforms.

More findings:

• Top performers ran 51% more campaigns during BAU than at peak, scaling proven winners in Q4.
• Brands are yielding better results from AI-driven formats: TikTok Smart+ revenue grew 15x, Meta Advantage+ revenue grew 94%.
• Top performers put ~30% of their peak budget into emerging channels, led by Reddit, RTB House, Pinterest and Google Demand Gen.
• Google Demand Gen continues growing in prominence, delivering 107% more peak revenue YoY.
• RTB House posted the highest ROAS growth of any platform in 2025, up 105% YoY.
• Reddit revenue grew 4.2x at peak, with new conversions up 168% YoY.

Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha, said: "Peak period is incredibly important for retail businesses, yet many brands still have little clarity on how to approach it, leading to wildly different approaches as a result. Bad measurement has a lot to answer for here: if you're relying on Last Click or platform-reported metrics for planning, brands underinvest in the demand-building activities that are vital for ensuring their demand-capture advertising is profitable during peak."

Download the Peak Playbook 2026: https://www.fospha.com/reports-and-guides/peak-playbook-2026

About Fospha

Fospha is the daily source of truth for enterprise commerce, delivering full-funnel measurement down to the creative level across every sales channel. Trusted by the world's fastest-growing brands, Fospha gives marketing, finance, and analytics teams the unified insight to spend smarter and grow faster.

Contact: Annabel Tan, [email protected]

SOURCE Fospha