Without fail each year, seasonal trends will impact a publisher’s ad revenue. As specific holidays or events roll around, it’s important to ensure that your website is optimized to take advantage of these trends.

What happens during seasonal upticks?

Different seasons and events attract different audiences, and impacts their spending habits and interests. In general, publishers may notice the following during seasonal periods:

• Increased online traffic: People are more likely to be online during certain seasons, such as the holidays and the summer. This creates more potential for your ads to be seen by more people.
• Increased spending: As well as increased traffic, people are also more likely to spend money during certain seasons, such as the holidays and the back-to-school season. 
• Increased competition: There is more competition for ad space during popular seasons. Ensure that your ads are well-targeted and relevant to your audience.

How can publishers take advantage of seasonal trends?

As mentioned above, well-targeted ads are important, which means understanding your audience to remain relevant. A couple other ways to take advantage of trends are: 

• Use a variety of ad formats: Run a variety of ad formats, such as display ads, video ads, and native ads. This will help you reach a wider audience.
• Optimize ad viewability: It’s important for publishers to optimize ad viewability on their most-viewed pages to decrease bounce rates. Don’t forget about mobile users when implementing viewability optimizations.
• Track your results: It’s important to track the results of your seasonal digital advertising campaigns so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you improve your campaigns over time.

What seasonal periods can publishers take advantage of?

Though there are times of the year that revenue slumps—especially during Q1—there’s still plenty of opportunity to take advantage of digital advertising trends.

• Holidays: People are more likely to be online and shopping during the holidays. Some of the most popular holidays for digital advertising include:
  • Christmas
  • Thanksgiving
  • Black Friday
  • Cyber Monday
  • Mother’s & Father’s Day
  • Memorial Day Weekend
• Seasons: The fall season (Q4) is when publishers see the highest uptick in revenue, due to the abundance of commercial and cultural holidays. Several holidays in spring (Q2) will bounce publishers out of the Q1 slump, and while some publishers may experience a “summer slump” in Q3, digital ad spend will pick up again as Q4 approaches.
• Events: Some events can cause an uptick in advertising spend as well. This is mostly because people are more likely to be online and looking for information about these events. Some of the most popular events for digital advertising include:
  • Super Bowl (February)
  • March Madness (March)
  • World Series (October)
  • NBA Finals (June)
  • The Olympics

When do seasonal downticks occur?

Publishers typically see a drop in earnings during periods when advertising spend is either paused, or slows down. The Q1 slump is the largest offender in seasonal downticks. This slump generally encompasses the end of December through most of February, though Valentine’s Day may cause a small uptick in revenue. The first halves of March, April, and August generally have low-to-average performance, as there are few-to-no holidays or events to bolster these months. July can also see a summer slump, excluding Independence Day.

How can publishers gain insights on seasonal trends?

Each quarter, note trends that cause upticks on your website and use that information to help you increase future earnings. Understanding and leveraging these opportunities is how publishers best take advantage of seasonal trends.