With the end of the year fast-approaching, now can be an uneasy time for publishers whose content distribution efforts are closely tied to their bottom lines. Having worked with hundreds of publishers during these critical months, we’re here to reassure you that there’s no need to worry. In fact, we argue that Q4 is a great time for content distribution, and includes some of the year’s best opportunities to grow and scale your campaigns.

To help publishers navigate Q4, we recently hosted a webinar where we walked through an easy-to-follow content distribution checklist. In it, we covered the necessary steps to avoid the season’s most common pitfalls, and shared our best advice for thriving during the industry’s most competitive quarter.

Let’s recap:

Plan an Air-tight Media Strategy:

  • Tis’ the season to advertise during peak days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, along with the the long-tail in December. Somewhat of a scary stat: 67% of attendees who tuned into our webinar revealed that they did not take advantage of these opportunities.
  • Front-load your campaign spending during the cheapest times of the month. Generally speaking, CPCs are more cost-effective at the beginning of the month, when competition is relatively lower.
  • Babysit your campaigns as they scale. Make sure to check up on results daily, and pay close attention to opportunities for improvement.
  • Prep your creative brief. When taking content risks, having a creative brief can ensure that content is appropriately aligned with your brand voice.
  • Don’t forget about 2020. Our data shows that the CPCs are significantly lower at the beginning of the New Year when compared to December.

December and January Facebook CPC Prices

Bonus: Because the beginning of January is so inexpensive, we advise testing fresh content once Q4 wraps. This is an ideal time to take risks and glean insights that you can carry with you through the rest of the year.

Preparing for Performance Plights:
Some days, your content will be the underdog and that’s okay. Don’t be deterred by negative ROI, but start to question the cause if the trend continues. Why is specific content underperforming? Are your tracking parameters set up correctly? It always pays to be proactive. Try checking back on past quarterly performance to see what historical data is available to use for benchmarking.

Since holidays in Q4 can greatly impact CPCs, we advise planning for inevitable fluctuations:

Facebook CPC Trends in Q4

Creating a spend strategy is the best solution for handling these fluctuations. Learn to predict them to organize spending accordingly.

Create ‘Thrilling’ Content that Drives Revenue:

  • Test new content while scaling existing campaigns that you know performs well.
  • Try creating year-end recaps like Best TV Shows of 2019, 2019’s Biggest Tech Stories, or whatever else fits within your brand and editorial voice.
  • Use seasonal content and campaigns to drive your acquisition strategy. For example, you can encourage users to have their New Year’s Resolutions be to read the news each morning, which can be the perfect opportunity to nudge them toward a paid subscription.
  • Remember, evergreen content is timeless. Literally. It always works, even during peak acquisition times. Historically good performance makes for great staying power.
  • Launching affiliate campaigns in Q4, despite the competitive landscape, can be ideal. The higher traffic will help you test what content works best, and since people are in a buying state of mind, it’s likely to give a boost to your attribution rates.

Growth Potential:
The most exciting part of Q4 is the great potential for publishers to optimize and distribute compelling content before the year comes to a close. At Keywee, we’ve witnessed countless publishers thrive in Q4. If you’d like some help with your growth strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Your Q4 Content Distribution Checklist
We’ve been fortunate to work with many of the most forward-thinking content creators during during the critical months of Q4. To help make your holiday season a little brighter, we’ve compiled the most important lessons that we’ve learned over the years in the checklist infographic below.

Interested in learning more? In our recent webinar, Don’t Be Spooked in Q4: Your Content Distribution Checklist, we took a closer look at Q4 and discussed a variety of optimization opportunities and strategies that you can use to your advantage during this time.

Fill out the form below to begin watching the webinar: