• by Gareth Noonan , Columnist, November 30, 2018

With both ad spending and app usage reaching their annual peak, the holiday season is full of in-app opportunities for publishers to maximize revenues and advertisers to engage audiences. Given the hustle of the holiday season and tremendous activity leading up to Christmas, it’s understandable that many publishers and advertisers lapse into a quiet period starting Dec. 26. However, in doing so, they miss a tremendous sweet spot to reach mobile users, one marked by high attention and low eCPMs.

Even after the presents are unwrapped and the stockings are emptied, the holidays still have plenty left to give. The period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve represents a unique opportunity for publishers to capitalize on users’ free time and for advertisers to grab some extra impressions at a lower price.

Consumers’ app usage is at its highest during the post-Christmas period. Last year, according to Apple, the App Store saw a record number of app downloads and in-app purchases during this period (December 24, 2017 to January 1, 2018).

This increased app usage translates to an upsurge in mobile ad requests, a number that stays high into the new year, according to data on the Smaato platform. Meanwhile, eCPMs begin falling following the Saturday before Christmas, creating the optimal time for advertisers to reach engaged users inexpensively.

For publishers, despite dipping eCPMs, this post-Christmas period represents a significant opportunity to capture new users who can be retained into the new year. To capitalize, it’s important that publishers continue to prioritize user experience when choosing ad placements in this period to ensure new users stick around.

For advertisers, capitalizing on this timely opportunity is simple: Adjust your post-holiday media buys in a way that takes advantage of the increase in inexpensive mobile inventory from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 ,while the rest of the advertising world sleeps.