How to Make the Most of Q5

We made it through BFCM and the holiday season is in full swing. But there's another lesser-known opportunity to unlock growth for your business coming up in the next couple of weeks — Q5.

What is Q5?

Q5 is the period between Christmas and the new year. It runs from December 26th to December 31st. And it's an important time of year for eCommerce businesses as purchase intent is still high, but fewer brands are running campaigns, so advertising costs can be lower.

Why does Q5 matter?

In Q5, ads tend to be cheaper than during the peak holiday season. But purchase intent is still high as consumers will have gift cards, cash gifts, gifts they wish to exchange, and increased intent to complete their new 'look' or buy any products they wanted for Christmas and didn't get.

A study from Ware2Go, a UPS-owned 3PL company, found that 94% of shoppers plan to participate in post-holiday shopping, and 88% expect to make holiday gift returns.

You can expect a reduction in CPMs during Q5 compared to the rest of the holiday season on many advertising platforms due to less competition in ad auctions between Christmas and the new year. For example, Snap reports that CPMs on its platform during Q5 are up to 44% lower than the Black Friday peak.

Keep reading below for our best tips on getting ahead in Q5...

4 Tips for winning in Q5

1. Focus your message on individuals

As Q5 starts, adapt your existing messaging from holiday and gifting-focused to messaging targeted towards individuals. This is time to connect with your audience on their level while they look for their new year, new me goals.

You can keep the creative you've been using throughout Q4 and just tweak the messaging in many cases. For example:

Gifts for others → Treat yourself/start the new year right
Holiday traditions → New year, new opportunities
"The holidays are almost here" → "Don't wait until the new year."

Try to incorporate the 'new year, new me' language into your copy to help encourage shoppers to use the new year to put themselves first, prioritize health, seek adventure, or create new routines.

2. Create Q5-specific offers

With consumers ready to spend their holiday gift cards and cash gifts, the week between Christmas and the new year is a great time to run some end-of-year offers to clear out any inventory leftover from the holiday season.

Facebook reports that 60% of holiday shoppers also research gifts for themselves, so Q5 offers are also a great way to drive sales from people who were browsing in the build-up to the holidays.

The messaging for any Q5 sales should be similar to BFCM — it's all about urgency and time-sensitive offers:

Year-end sale, don't miss out!
25% sitewide until January 1st

You could also create time-sensitive bundles or free shipping offers to tempt consumers across the week of Q5.

3. Build audiences for the year ahead

With reduced competition in ad auctions, Q5 can also be a good time for brand marketers to make a splash. Use Q5 to run brand-focused campaigns targeting new prospects and building out your funnel. It’s the perfect time to set your business up for a big year in 2022.

During Q5, people are home on their devices, so it's a great time to connect with them. While at home, people are more likely to not only see your content but to spend time engaging with it.

Creating content that captures engagement will also enable you to create an audience you can retarget later in the year with more sales-focused ads. If you're advertising on Facebook, Reach campaigns that’ll maximize the number of people who see your ads and how often they see them are perfect for Q5 prospecting.

Bonus: Grow your owned channels

Our BFCM 2021 report found that email and SMS were the top two converting marketing channels. With potentially reduced CPMs across the Q5 week, this could be an excellent opportunity to run campaigns to increase your subscriber numbers so that you have larger email and SMS lists ready to monetize in the new year.

4. Experiment with new ideas and platforms

The time between Christmas and the new year is ideal to try new things. People spend more time on their devices during Q5, and it's also cost-effective to market to them as ad auctions are cheaper, and there's less competition for ad spaces.

If you've been debating testing out new creative ideas or even new ad platforms like Snapchat or TikTok, Q5 gives you an excellent opportunity to test and learn while the CPMs are a little cheaper than the peak holiday season.

If you'd like to give Snap ads ago, Snapchat and Wayflyer have partnered to provide you with ad credit — get $500 in credit for every $500 you spend here.

Be sure to keep a close eye on any experiments you run across the Q5 week — look out for CPMs creeping up or CPA rising as people are beginning to switch from holiday mode back to work once the new year arrives. And as we recommended in our BFCM report, it’s always worth keeping around 10% of your ad budget aside for new channels and experimentation.