At a certain point, you may be paying twice as much for something as you would on any other day. It’s simple economics—supply and demand. Everyone wants the best deal, but if everyone tries to buy at the same time, then costs will inevitably rise.
A great example of this phenomenon is the holiday season. As brands strive to get the most bang out of their Q4 budget, advertising costs steadily rise between Black Friday and Christmas Day. This results in astronomically high CPMs and CPCs that prevent most brands from generating any proper visibility. Historically, CPMs are at their highest following Thanksgiving with spikes on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the week leading up to Christmas.
But what about a decrease in CPMs, and as a result, CPCs? Market conditions never remain the same and ad placements are no different. Using in-house data from our clients across eight different verticals, we’ve determined that fluctuations in Facebook CPMs and CPCs in the post-holiday season period are unparalleled. Travel & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, and the Meal Kit verticals experienced the greatest drop in CPMs (with drops across every vertical), while Travel & Entertainment (“T&E”), Health & Wellness and Education saw the biggest decrease in CPCs. This signals an untapped opportunity for any and all digital marketers.
Advertisers often think that just because the holidays are over, people are no longer in a spending mindset. In reality, the opposite is true. Data from Google’s Search Console shows an extremely high volume for search terms related to popular brands and products. While the gift-giving season may be over, there is still an opportunity to sell those must-have items that weren’t unwrapped on Christmas morning.
Discretionary income also increases after the holiday season with cash gifts and seasonal bonuses, which means that purchase intent is relatively high. And with 30-60% decreases in CPCs across certain verticals, this also means that you can generate high click-through engagement at the lowest price possible.
That’s why January is the best time to ramp up your budget and start testing more. Not only will this allow you to buy up more ad space than you would otherwise be able to, you also increase the awareness and visibility of your brand. Take advantage of a unique opportunity for multivariate testing at an extremely low cost. Advertisers can test different messaging, front-end creatives, LPs, and more while maximizing their budget in the process.
Still, properly allocating your budget is much easier said than done. That’s why GeistM is here to help you take advantage of these lower CPMs and CPCs through robust testing across content, publishers, networks, and more. Our unique blend of proprietary technology, content marketing, and performance-driven results allows us to carefully ideate and optimize your campaigns around your brand’s goals and KPIs.
Get started with GeistM today and email us at bd@geistm.com