Unlocking post-holiday success for your mobile app in Q5

As 2024 comes to a close, app marketers are already beginning to shift their focus to their new goals for 2025. Mobile spending for the end-of-year shopping season has already reached $69.8 billion [1], with more opportunities on the horizon. Advertisers looking to make the most of this key moment should plan beyond the holiday season to take advantage of another key sales period: the so-called fifth quarter (Q5). 

In this article, we’ll dive into how Q5 offers a chance to amplify your impact and finish the year with a powerful boost to your ROI. Here’s what we’ll cover:

1️⃣ What’s the fifth quarter or Q5?

2️⃣ Why is Q5 important?

3️⃣ Q5 best practices to grow your mobile business

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Let’s get started! 🙌

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What is the fifth quarter or Q5?

Also known as the “invisible” or “hidden” quarter, Q5 is the period between Christmas and mid-January when people are still on vacation, or slowly returning to work. While there are no major shopping events in Q5, consumer habits formed during the preceding holiday season continue, offering marketers a valuable opportunity to boost their mobile campaigns.

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Why is Q5 important?

Lower traffic costs

Q5 brings lower competition in the mobile marketing ecosystem, reflected in a significant drop in eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) rates. In January 2024, traffic costs for iOS banners in the US experienced a 27% drop month-over-month, followed by a gradual recovery in February-March [2].

A similar trend can be observed with Android banners in the US. eCPM rates dropped from $0.86 to $0.65 in January (a 24% decrease) before rising to $0.71 in February [2].

Higher engagement rates

Our analysis of internal data revealed that leading Shopping apps saw an 18% increase in clicks during Q5 last year (vs the previous period). This spike in engagement presents a strategic opportunity for app marketers to drive meaningful interactions: users bring behavioral shopping patterns shaped by key dates like Black Friday and Christmas, making them more likely to engage with ads in Q5, when traffic costs decrease.

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Actionable insights to optimize your campaign

The fifth quarter is the perfect time to leverage learnings from previous campaigns. This data will give you a competitive edge, allowing you to optimize your results based on the days of the week or times of the day that saw more conversions, the creatives that resonated the most with your audience, or the channels that had a bigger impact on your growth goals.

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Q5 best practices to grow your mobile business

#1 Optimize your budget allocation strategy

Maximize the efficiency and ROI of your campaigns with a strategic budget distribution around key events like seasonal trends, product launches, and special promotions.

‍💡Pro Tip: Partner with growth experts who can help you unlock key campaign trends, answering questions such as “Which days drive the most conversions?” and “What hours see peak user engagement?”. Once you've identified these high-performing windows, here’s what to keep in mind:

• Before the key event: Allocate a significant portion of your monthly budget to gain valuable insights and ramp up performance before the special date you want to promote. The days leading up to the key event are crucial for building hype.
• During the key event: Assign a higher percentage of your budget to maximize the reach of your campaign.‍
• After the key event: Scale back spending and focus on optimizing for a higher ROAS.

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#2 Drive more attention to your deals

Users are constantly being exposed to multiple ads—the key to making a difference is creating units that stand out. Instead of relying solely on traditional formats like banners and native ads, try testing new types of ads and creative concepts designed to grab user attention and drive meaningful conversions.

‍💡Pro Tip: Focus on formats that create relevant and interactive experiences, compelling users to engage with your message.

• Weather and Time-Based Ads: Take personalization to the next level by creating ads tailored to specific times of the day or weather conditions. Integrated with widgets or APIs, these ads are automatically updated and always relevant.
• Tutorial Ads: Ideal for demonstrating how your app or a specific service works. These ads combine step-by-step guides with illustrative visuals for higher user engagement.‍
• Gamified Ads: Add an element of gamification to your campaigns with interactive features, offering rewards like discounts, free shipping, or other perks.

#3 Go beyond User Acquisition

Make the most of your acquisition efforts by incorporating new strategies and channels to maximize user engagement and improve retention.

• App Retargeting is a powerful tool to target different audiences, whether you're aiming to encourage users to finish the registration process, complete a purchase, become frequent buyers, explore new services or products within your app, or even reactivate lapsed users.

📚 Recommended read: Discover how industry leaders like Burger King, Serasa Experian, and AB InBev’s TaDa Delivery are driving incremental conversions with App Retargeting.

• CTV-to-mobile emerged as a hot channel this year and is set to continue its momentum in 2025. CTV offers app marketers an innovative way to harness the large-screen impact of TV and the scale of programmatic advertising. The best part? It can be seamlessly integrated with leading MMPs, allowing you to track the real-time impact of your CTV campaigns. 

📚 Recommended read: Find out how app marketers are leveraging this channel for performance campaigns, or check out some creative best practices to elevate your CTV creatives.

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Ready to drive incremental revenue this Q5?

Use Q5 to unlock new growth for your mobile business! Lower inventory cost gives you the opportunity to focus on keeping users engaged while leveraging insights from past campaigns. This is also a great time to experiment with interactive creatives and explore fast-growing channels like CTV. Don’t let this window slip by 😉.

 Looking for the ideal Q5 growth strategy for your app? Contact us to connect with one of our experts—we’ll help you make it happen 🙌.

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References

[1] Adobe, 2024.

[2] Appodeal, 2024.

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