What the Heck is Q5? And Why Are People Making Tons of Money During It?

The time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is reserved for turkey comas, annoying in-laws, and lengthy naps for most people.  For digital advertisers, it’s also known as the week of destiny.  Those in the know call it “Q5.”

The boredom, relative sedentary pace, and desire to escape from Grampa’s anecdotes drive people to their phones in drastically inflated numbers.  And eyeballs, as always, equal opportunity. 

The concept of Q5 is flexible, with marketers stating that it begins as early as mid-December, when companies can no longer assure delivery of packages before Christmas, and stretches till mid-January. It is closely related to advertising on Meta, and the company offers educational resources to promote marketers to make the most of this time frame.

What separates Q5 from the rest of the calendar is that it falls at the end of the busy holiday shopping season, where many brands direct the bulk of their advertising budgets. With holiday marketers out of digital auctions, theoretically, ad prices are cheaper while many people are still shopping, thanks to increases in time spent online.

According to data from performance marketing agency Tinuiti, in the last week of 2022, ads on Meta were 12% less expensive than the previous week. Additionally, the data from Tinuiti showed that the year-over-year growth in sales driven by the Sponsored Products ad unit was greater during Q5 compared to the rest of December.

This year, Q5 was an especially productive period for advertising. According to Adweek, the average cost per thousand impressions on Meta during Q5 dropped by 28% when compared to the previous year. This data is an average of the information received from three digital agencies, a Chief Marketing Officer and Varos, a firm that analyzes the spending of direct-to-consumer and software-as-a-service companies, all of which were calculated across slightly different timeframes.

Next year, make sure your media buyers have a game plan together to make the most of this epic buying opportunity.