How the new year affects the affiliate marketing market: experts' opinions

It is hard to believe that the year 2024 is coming to an end. However, it is too early to summarize the results – we will do it on the eve of the New Year. And now we have one of the most difficult and at the same time the most profitable months of the year for marketers – December. 

On New Year’s Eve, people change the way they think and look at shopping. More searching, more buying and more vacationing. That’s why Affhub has prepared a special project for you and learned from affiliate marketers how the New Year affects their work.

How does the new year affect the affiliate marketing market? 

According to most experts, on the eve of the New Year, the activity of the affiliate marketing market increases significantly. This applies to both players – customers or users, as well as advertisers, webs and affiliates. 

“The New Year changes the rules of the game significantly: activity is increasing among both players and affiliates. Players are more active: more promotions, tournaments, bonuses – all this has a positive impact on partners’ ROI and key product metrics. The festive atmosphere increases engagement, creating ideal conditions for growth. 

For partners, the end of the year is a time for bonuses, vacations and the desire to end on a high note. The desire to close out the year beautifully, take a well-deserved vacation and re-energize in January makes December especially productive. The New Year is a time of opportunities, grab them,” say representatives of PIN-UP Partners UA

“At the beginning of December there is a significant activation of all market participants, associated with the closing of annual and quarterly plans. However, there is a clear regional specificity: in Tier-1 markets the activity decreases noticeably from the 20th of December to the beginning of January. In the CIS-region, the lull falls at the very end of December to the first half of January,” says Constantine, SEO Affiliates Team Lead 

“In general, traffic volumes increase significantly before the New Year holidays. Webs want to earn more before weekends and long holidays, plus they don’t want to lose the period of good conversion,” says Taras, PR-Manager at Traffic Cake.

“In my opinion, it’s like most markets. If we talk about the sacred meaning, people perceive the celebration of the new year as a ritual to ‘let go of the past, let the new emerge’.” Many companies are launching new projects, new innovations. But it’s not necessarily in the January/February plans. It’s a convenient and logical point to evaluate dynamics, summarize results and calculate finances. But globally – no more than that. Will there be new trends? Unambiguously. What does it depend on? Be a trendsetter, then it will depend on you,” notes Julia Donskaya, COO of DS Partners.

The Nutra vertical is also seeing an increase in demand for healthy & beauty products, as evidenced by Everad. 

“Speaking, directly, for the nutra vertical, there is an increase in demand. Before the holidays, people are actively looking for gifts, healthy plans for the new year (e.g. detoxes, weight loss) or products to help quickly improve wellness after the holidays. Year-to-year changes in consumer behavior are visible, i.e. shopping is becoming more emotional, people are more easily spending money on things that “guarantee” quick results. It is also influenced by the fact that the market is overflowing with discounts, sales and holiday offers,” say representatives of the Everad affiliate program. 

However, during the New Year holidays not everything is so rosy – because there are new challenges and complexities that need to be dealt with, says Vadim, a representative of Improve Team. 

“The New Year affects the traffic market cyclically from year to year. Traffic becomes more expensive, some teams stop for vacations from mid-December to early January because they can’t get a good ROI for themselves, and CA is fully focused on gifts and preparation for Christmas and New Year. This is especially true for European countries. But this is not the case with Improve Team: we have quite a lot of expertise, and our bying knows which GEOs you can safely flood even on New Year’s Eve,” explains Vadim, a representative of Improve Team. 

Do the approaches of web and affiliate companies change before the New Year?

If you are satisfied with the short answer, then mostly yes. After all, most teams are trying to use this New Year’s rush in their favor – to close the year productively and go on to a quiet holiday. 

“Yes, of course, everyone is trying to make the most of the New Year’s rush. Webs are adjusting funnels, adapting creatives, trying to improve quality and get more kapa (A specific amount of money involved in an arbitration agreement). However, this is often accompanied by an increase in rates, because the auction “warms up”, and the purchase becomes more expensive. It is important for affiliates to use all opportunities to increase the volume of purchases and strengthen relationships with partners. 

For this purpose we are preparing new tournaments, lendings, large-scale promotions for players and web players. By the way, very soon the final stage of our crazy Limitless 8 promotion will start, the main prize of which will surprise even the most sophisticated partners. As they say, stay tuned. Another wonderful tradition is to give gifts. Everyone is preparing, trying to surprise, and this year will not be an exception. Our partners will get something really special”, – explain the representatives of PIN-UP Partners UA.

Many of the companies add slots with New Year’s theme to better attract attention. 

“Before the holidays, we put more emphasis on slots with New Year’s design. More attention is paid to lendings with winter style, creatives are also adapted – snow, Christmas trees, etc. are added. Plus, importantly, our products always offer cool promotions for players before the holidays. This further encourages players to make deposits, and webmasters emphasize exactly on promotions in their campaigns,” notes Taras, PR-Manager at Traffic Cake.

“Affiliates’ approaches – no, webmasters’ approaches – yes, as the price of traffic in December is going up, as I said above. The main thing is that affiliates should be ready to accept traffic even during holidays – this is important for us,” says Vadim, Improve Team.

“Yes, because it’s constant testing and capturing new audiences. Affiliates can add promotions, bonuses for players, tournaments. And web sites willingly pick up this wave, because all marketing is a lot of split tests. But, as experience shows, such activity does not dramatically affect conversion or traffic growth,” adds Julia Donskaya, COO of DS Partners.

“Before the holidays, webmasters and affiliate networks are more active in adapting their tools to seasonal trends. Holiday creatives, special promotions appear, and emphasis is placed on products that promise quick results – for example, weight loss for the holidays or recovery after them, and a popular niche for this period is “liver health”. There is also an increased interest in low-cost starter offers, such as trial or test kits,” explains representatives of the Everad affiliate program. 

How do New Year’s holidays affect traffic?

Actually, everything is situational and depends on the vertical, GEO and target audience. For example, in Asian countries, where they do not celebrate New Year’s Eve on the dates we are used to, it does not affect traffic at all. In the nutra, for example, customer activity is increasing – some are looking for gifts for friends or relatives, others want to start the New Year more productively, achieve certain goals and the like. 

“There is definitely more traffic, the activity of players is growing, but the window of opportunity is limited, which requires partners to react quickly and maximize their involvement in the work (we will rest after the holidays). 

From the tips: actively communicate with the affiliate and advertiser, monitor the cost of traffic, optimize to achieve the desired ROI. Don’t forget that this is a period of impulsive decisions – take this into account in your creatives. And, of course, remember about the post-holiday slump in activity, without it there is no way. But this is the time to take a little break and start the new year with new strength”, – say the representatives of PIN-UP Partners UA.

“I won’t say anything new here – the conversion rate before the New Year holidays is always higher. People enjoy their weekends at home, go out less because of the frost, spend their time scrolling a smartphone. So the conversion rate during this period is always better than in the fall, for example. And it is precisely because of the high conversion rate that web sites increase their volumes, and we, as a result, also get more work. That’s why the New Year’s Eve stage in our PP is always a very active and productive stage,” notes Taras, PR-Manager at Traffic Cake.

“In general, starting from the beginning of December, customer engagement to anything online sags (no matter what kind of traffic you have – gambling, betting, nutra, etc.), and this continues until the beginning of January. During such periods, we focus our attention on the Asian market, as they don’t have New Year fever during this period – they have holidays at the end of January,” says Vadim, Improve Team. 

“There are no significant fluctuations in traffic during the New Year period. However, on the one hand, holiday promotions attract players, and on the other hand, the gift-giving season can somewhat affect game budgets, so some people save money. The latter is more my assumption, because if you look at the traffic, there is no significant amplitude. The key factor of successful work in this period is timely planning: it is important to coordinate all placements before mid-December, ideally before the beginning of the month. This is especially important for SEO direction because of the decrease in affiliate activity. Facebook direction, on the contrary, can remain highly active even on December 31,” explains Constantine SEO Affiliates Team Lead.

“In general – it contributes to the growth of the auction, which affects the rise in the price of a click. And beyond that – it depends on the vertical and country. Product ad spend can be much higher, while casino products don’t feel the difference as much. Talking about countries: 

– Post-CIS countries have a tradition of celebrating the new year, so before the holiday, the auction goes up and after – 3-7 days there is a drop in player activity.  

– European countries honor Christmas more, so there are changes in the auction in a different period of time.

– Chinese New Year is celebrated every year on different dates for 15 days and is a big holiday, so there is a drop in player activity,” explains Julia Donskaya, COO of DS Partners.

“Traffic starts to grow actively in December due to increased shopping activity and demand for seasonal goods. However, after the New Year holidays, there is a temporary decline in the first weeks of January. In the nutra vertical, this is offset by a gradual recovery in demand for detox and weight loss products towards the end of the month. It is also worth considering that in December competition for traffic increases, which affects the cost of advertising”, – say representatives of the Everad affiliate program. 

Summarizing the results

Does the approach of players and representatives of the affiliate marketing industry change during the New Year holidays? Mostly, yes. Player and client activity increases, as does the cost of traffic. It’s a time of increased spending and revenue. So get ready, test and ROI to all!