Last week, I wrote about my biggest findings from our benchmark report.
This week, I’m going deep on a really interesting finding even your AI won’t notice.
The $10M to $50M cohort saw the most red last year. We tend to think of this level as “easier” – past the scrappier startup phase and starting to create real scale.
But what separated the winners and worst performers in this cohort is something everyone can learn from.
When I dug into what separated them, it wasn’t the usual issues.
What happened across cohorts
EBITDA % across cohorts
The <$10M cohort had a solid year. They grew 24% on average and more importantly, EBITDA margins jumped from 5% to 8%. The median climbed even more indicating this wasn’t outlier-driven. The typical small brand meaningfully improved profitability in 2025.
The largest brands found scale. Over $50M revenue grew 41% on average, 33% at the median. They added massive overhead in dollar terms (G&A up 65%) but revenue growth absorbed it. That’s the benefit of operating at that size. The cost structure holds as a percentage even when the absolute numbers get large.
But…
The $10M–$50M cohort went the other direction on almost every metric. Revenue down 4.6% and the average and median are nearly identical, which matters. This isn’t a story about a few brands having a terrible year. The typical mid-market brand genuinely shrank.
EBITDA dropped from 10% to 7.25%. Contribution margin compressed. Fixed marketing costs climbed 32% as a percentage of revenue while ROAS fell 9%.
More money into the machine, worse results out of it.
Same cohort. Wildly different outcomes.
The spread between the 5th and 95th percentile for revenue growth in the mid-market was 53 points. Negative 35% to positive 18%.
I wanted to understand what separated the top ones from the ones at the bottom so I went into the individual financials.
It wasn’t gross margin. It wasn’t ROAS. It wasn’t even how much revenue they lost.
Every brand in our mid-market data running G&A under 15% of revenue either held or improved profitability in 2025.
Every brand running G&A over 25% saw EBITDA decline — regardless of gross margin or revenue trajectory.
Two brands make this concrete.
Brand 1: Standout Winner
- 2025 Revenue: $20.8M (up 12% YoY)
- Gross Margin: 79%
- G&A % of Revenue: 8%
- Fixed Marketing Spend % of Revenue: <2%
- Ended the year with EBITDA at 23% — nearly three times the cohort average
What actually drove results was their cost structure. The gross margin created the room. The G&A is why they got to keep it.
Brand 2: The Other Side
- 2025 Revenue: $28.2M (down 4% YoY)
- Gross Margin: 65.9%
- G&A % of Revenue: 32.72%
- Fixed Marketing Spend % of Revenue: <2.9%
- Ended the year with EBITDA at negative 7.5%
Yes, revenue declined. But the real impact was their cost structure. This brand was 4x G&A the standout winner. And the impact is being in the top percentile and bottom percentiles of profitability
Two different stories leading one brand to 23% EBITDA and the other to −7.5%.
Why we do benchmarking
This is why the benchmark report matters. Not to give you the answer — but to show you directionally what you should be marching toward. What elite looks like.
We’re using the mid-market as an example here, but these patterns hold across every stage.
The brands that held or improved profitability were running it under 15%. The ones that saw EBITDA decline were above 25%. If you’re in that upper range and revenue is flat or declining, the math gets bad fast.
Growth doesn’t fix it either. Three brands in this data grew revenue and still got less profitable. Revenue buys time, but it doesn’t repair a broken cost structure.
Frankly, most of the overhead bloat I see isn’t reckless. It’s decisions that made sense when revenue was growing that nobody revisited when it stopped. That’s how you end up at 33% G&A without really meaning to.
I keep telling clients to cut a little deeper than feels comfortable and the data this year gives me more confidence in that.
What’s possible when the cost structure is right? The benchmark report shows you.
Put our Benchmark Report in your AI
If you haven’t already, download our 2025 Benchmark Report get your AI to tell you about it.
What will you find?
— Sam
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