Last Thursday, September 26th, Lab6 Media‘s CEO and cofounder, Karen Garcia, was featured on Dustin Howes’s affiliate marketing podcast, Affiliate Nerd Out, to discuss strategies for success in Q4. With 25 years in the affiliate space, Garcia had myriad concrete, actionable pieces of advice for publishers, affiliate marketing managers and brands.
I. This Q4 is a Going to Be a Weird One
First, Garcia noted that 2024’s Q4 is going to be an odd one. Thanksgiving is the latest it can possibly be this year. Therefore, cyber weekend will also be very late, and, crucially, the time between Black Friday and Christmas this year will also be very short. This is also an election year, Garcia reminded, suggesting that the election will be a large distraction for consumers, brands, and affiliates, and add to the unpredictability of this year’s Q4.
Generally speaking, the average Q4 has four periods: pre-cyber week, cyber week, post-cyber week, and what some term “Q5,” the 2-week period between Christmas and New Years. This year, Garcia noted, we will have six periods:
- Period 1: September 1 – October 15
- Period 2: October 15 – November 11 (Veterans Day)
- With the week post-election (Nov. 5) likely being quieter
- Period 3: Pre-Cyber weeks (Veteran’s Day through Thanksgiving Day)
- Period 4: Cyber week (Dec. 2 – Dec. 8)
- Period 5: Post-Cyber weeks (Dec. 9 – 24)
- Q5
Notably, the majority of the additional holidays this year, like Singles Day, Free Shipping day, Giving Tuesday, Green Monday, fall within the Pre-Cyber weeks, so it’s going to be fast and furious!
II. Plan Around Shipping Cut-Off Dates
Garcia offered that some planning will have to be adjusted based on shipping cut-off dates, projected to be announced by USPS around October 7-10th. She urged folks to keep an eye out for those cut-off dates. In sum, in terms of planning, some of it can already be done, and some you have to be flexible on, depending on the vertical.
III. The Q4 Check List
Dustin asked Garcia to share a Q4 checklist for Affiliate Nerd Out’s listeners, which included the following:
- Calendar: Schedule your internal customer-facing and affiliate-facing promotions early. With consumer promotions, it will be more critical to be early in your planning. Garcia cited the 2024 Salsify Report, which found that 36% of consumers identified as bargain hunters, 32% as research mavens, 27% already having started shopping. 50% will shop before Thanksgiving. So the sooner you get your promotions out to consumers the better, especially this year.
- Controlling the controllables: Writing newsletters and other copy in advance, as well as preparing banners, will save stress in Q4!
- Outreach to partners: Make sure whatever you’re communicating in terms of promotions that you’re not stepping on other promotions! Garcia urged managers to figure out what days work best in terms of communication with affiliates. Hot tip: you can see how many affiliates are opening messages based on time sent, in the networks. Make sure you communicate to affiliates if they are not to post a promotion that is pre-loaded but might change down the line, as this can hurts trust between affiliates and their audiences.
- Write templates for emails to publishers that detail what is and isn’t allowed, take down requests, and reminders regarding coupons or brand-bidding. All of this should also be spelled out in your Terms & Conditions, which, Garcia urged, you should reread if it’s been a while. Templates for emails will save you precious time when having to deal with bad actors–and take screenshots of data so you can back up your emails!
IV. Q4 Execution
Beyond promotion, Garcia reminded, activation and recruiting don’t stop in Q4 (or ever!). At Lab6 Media, we’ve been running activation campaigns for Q4 since Q2 2024. We always have to be looking for who is talking about a brand that we’re not already connecting with. There might be someone you add in November, who will move the needle for you in December!
And remember that affiliates are in different places in their monetization journey. Some are brand new, some only do social media influencing, and some are media companies that are well-versed. Affiliate managers should consider a variety of campaigns and give specific cohorts specific tasks, and then reward affiliates for succeeding in those tasks, Garcia advised.
V. Compliance and Bad Actors
In terms of compliance and bad actors, the prep work you do will be your best friend, because it frees up time to deal with someone doing brand bidding, cookie clipping, etc. Garcia suggests paying close attention to your metrics. Investigate anything outside of the norm. Make sure you have clear Terms and Conditions statements that clearly outline what is and isn’t allowed by publishers.
Vanity codes are disliked or allowed, Garcia offered, depending on the brand. One of the problems we see this time of year is people vanity codes tend to get leaked. Brands get rightfully upset, because the influencer to whom the code was given is not driving the sale. Partners who allow that code to be leaked shouldn’t be rewarded for that sale because they’re not the intended source of the code. Making sure you have codes set up correctly, and that only the person it was intended for gets credit, will keep brands and C-suite folks happy.
VI. Key Takeaways
A key takeaway from the podcast episode was to plan ahead as much as you can. There are only 42 working days until Christmas! But that doesn’t mean you’ve run out of time: on day 42, there will still be opportunities, Garcia noted. But the earlier you prep, the better. For more tips on planning for Q4, reach out to the team at Lab6 Media any time.
You can rewatch the full conversation here:
