Q5: The Quietest Weeks on the Local Media Calendar—and the Smartest Time to Build Q1 Momentum

Read Time: 6 minutes

The morning after Christmas, the local advertising marketplace can feel like a downtown strip at 7 a.m. on a Sunday: the lights are on, the sidewalks are empty, and the businesses that stayed open have a strange advantage.

Shipping deadlines have passed. Many retailers have pulled back spend. Some advertisers assume consumers are “done.” Media sellers brace for cancellations. Agencies shift into reporting mode.

And yet, consumers are still scrolling—often more than usual—spending gift cards, returning items, planning home projects, and flirting with New Year’s resolutions. That gap between advertiser behavior and consumer behavior is what’s increasingly being called Q5: the offbeat window from late December to mid- or late January when the ad auction quiets down while intent stays stubbornly alive.

Meta’s Jake Bailey, head of industry, specialty and disruptor, described the dynamic simply: many advertisers pause after the peak holiday rush, but consumers remain in a buying mindset and conversion rates can stay high—creating favorable conditions for brands that keep showing up.

For local media and agency professionals, Q5 isn’t just a digital buying trick. It’s a local-market opportunity to do three profitable things at once:

1. Convert post-holiday demand that didn’t get fulfilled in December
2. Fill pipelines (appointments, tours, consultations, calls) that become Q1 revenue
3. Win longer commitments while competitors go dark and decision-makers reset budgets

Think of Q5 less as “extra weeks” and more as the bridge that quietly determines how strong January and February feel.

Why Q5 works in local markets: fewer advertisers, same humans

Your local advertisers don’t all go dark—but enough do that the market often loosens. In paid social and search, fewer bidders can mean lower CPMs and less expensive actions. In local media, it can mean more flexibility: better placement availability, sponsorship openings, and clients finally willing to test something new because the pressure of holiday logistics has lifted.

Meanwhile, consumers move into what you might call discovery-and-recovery mode:

• Gift-card redemption and self-gifting
• “I should fix that” home and car purchases
• “New year, new me” habits (wellness, education, organization)
• Planning for taxes, insurance, and major life decisions
• Restarting routines—and booking appointments they postponed in December

In the source material you provided, a Meta-commissioned YouGov holiday shopping study noted that 74% of consumers say their shopping continues beyond the holidays. Whether it’s returns, upgrades, or self-purchases, the point is clear: intent doesn’t disappear when holiday lights come down. It simply changes clothes.

The local categories that win: “reset,” “repair,” and “rebuild”

Q5 tends to reward businesses that align with renewal—plus the practical services consumers can’t postpone forever. Clayton Clark of Big Rush Marketing called out strong Q5 performance from wellness, self-care, and parent-focused brands—anything that fits the “new year, better me” mindset.

In local-market terms, the winners usually include:

• Wellness self-care: gyms, studios, med spas, therapy, dental, vision
• Home services remodeling: kitchen/bath, HVAC, plumbing, flooring, windows
• Automotive: service, used, detailing, tires, winter packages
• Financial: tax prep, credit unions, debt consolidation, budgeting help
• Education training: certifications, continuing ed, trade programs
• Legal (select practice areas): consultations that benefit from fast response

Here’s the most practical way to sell this to a local advertiser:

Q5 is when people buy improvement—if the offer feels easy and the follow-up is fast.

The creative shift: from gifting to self-gifting—and from tradition to progress

Most advertisers don’t need brand-new creative for Q5. The better play is to reframe what already worked in Q4:

• “Gifts for them” becomes “Do this for you.”
• “Holiday tradition” becomes “Start the year right.”
• “Limited holiday inventory” becomes “January appointments are filling.”
• “Celebrate” becomes “Reset / upgrade / simplify.”

If December creative featured warmth and nostalgia, January creative can be crisp and forward-looking. Same brand, different emotional lane.

A local Q5 Offer Map (steal this for sales calls)

If you sell media, clients often ask, “What should we run?” Give them one clear answer per category:

• Auto service: “Post-holiday inspection + oil change bundle” (book online)
• HVAC/Plumbing: “January tune-up / winter check + priority scheduling”
• Kitchen/Bath remodel: “Free design consult + January slots”
• Fitness/Wellness: “Starter plan + accountability check-ins”
• Retail: “Self-gift + gift card redemption bonus”
• Credit union: “New-year debt reset / refinancing checkup”
• Tax prep: “Early filer bonus + appointment scheduling”

The goal isn’t the perfect offer. It’s an offer that creates immediate, trackable action.

The Q5 budget rule-of-thumb: reallocate, don’t reinvent

Q5 works best when you treat it like a bridge, not a brand-new campaign that requires new approvals.

A simple budget approach agencies and sellers can share:

• Keep a small always-on brand layer (so you don’t disappear)
• Move incremental dollars into response (calls, bookings, lead forms)
• Reserve 10–20% for creative refresh after week one results

This avoids the two most common Q5 mistakes: doing nothing—or throwing money at “cheap impressions” without a conversion plan.

Q5 is also a first-party data harvest (and local media is built for it)

A quiet auction is useful, but the real long-term leverage is building owned audiences while attention is abundant:

• Newsletter sign-ups
• SMS club opt-ins
• Loyalty program enrollment
• “VIP list” early access for sales
• Event registration or local guides (downloadable)

This is where local media companies should lean in. Newsletters, sponsorships, and local context are high-trust environments for “join the list” offers—especially compared to a chaotic social feed.

The pitch to agencies and advertisers:
Q5 is the cheapest time to acquire future demand—not just immediate sales.

Lead gen: the hidden bottleneck is follow-up speed

Clark’s point in your source material is the one that separates serious Q5 performers from dabblers: lead volume is meaningless if your nurture system can’t convert it.

So here’s a “Speed-to-Lead” mini playbook you can bake into Q5 packages:

• Respond to leads in 5 minutes when possible
• Use text-first follow-up (with an easy “yes/no” prompt)
• Include a booking link in the first message
• Make one human touch + one automated touch same day
• Call within the first hour if it’s a high-consideration purchase

Local agencies can operationalize this. Local media sellers can partner with agencies—or build a light “lead management” add-on with call tracking and templated follow-ups.

Leaning into automation without losing the local touch

Automation is not a replacement for local strategy; it’s a force multiplier when the offer and follow-up are right.

Use Q5 to test automation tools when the stakes are lower and the auction is calmer, then carry the winners into Q1.

The measurement checklist (what to install before January gets away from you)

If you want Q5 to feel credible, measurement can’t be vague. Here’s a checklist you can paste into proposals:

• Call tracking numbers (category-specific if possible)
• Booking links with basic UTM discipline
• One landing page per offer (not per platform)
• Lead quality tags in CRM (even if it’s “good / maybe / no”)
• A weekly scorecard: leads, cost per lead, booked rate, show rate
• For retail: offer codes, POS redemption, or other store-visit proxies

When local media sellers bring measurement to the table, they stop sounding like “inventory providers” and start sounding like growth partners.

Q5 isn’t one mood—there are three weeks inside it

One reason Q5 campaigns stall is that January changes quickly:

• Week 1: gift cards, returns, browsing, “treat myself”
• Week 2: resolutions, fresh-start energy, new routines
• Week 3+: resolution fatigue—messaging must shift to “make it easy”

Add weather triggers and local events, and Q5 becomes even more local: snowstorms move budgets and consumer behavior; local sports schedules change viewing habits; school calendars reshape daytime traffic. Agencies that refresh creative once or twice in January tend to look like geniuses by Valentine’s Day.

The local-market Q5 bundle that works almost anywhere

If you sell local media (or plan it), consider a simple three-part bundle that isn’t platform-dependent:

1. Reach: radio / CTV / OOH / high-impact display
2. Trust: newsletter sponsorship + native/feature + local credibility
3. Response: paid social + search + retargeting tied to one clear action

Choose one KPI and stick to it: calls, appointments, consultations, store visits, or qualified leads. Q5 rewards focus.

The 30-day Q5 → Q1 conversion plan (how to turn a “test” into a contract)

End the campaign with a rhythm that makes renewal the obvious next step:

• Week 1: launch + capture + baseline reporting
• Week 2: optimize + creative refresh + improve lead quality
• Week 3: retarget + proof points (testimonials, before/after, FAQs)
• Week 4: convert results into a 90-day plan (and lock it in)

This is the real Q5 win: you don’t just get January performance—you earn a Q1 commitment because you can show what’s working, with receipts.

The punchline: Q5 is where a great year quietly begins

The advertisers who disappear after Christmas often re-emerge in February saying, “We should have started earlier.” Q5 is that earlier. It’s a moment when attention is high, competition is lower, and local consumers are unusually receptive to improvement—if you meet them with a clean offer and a fast path to action.

For agencies, Q5 is a chance to start Q1 with a full pipeline. For media sellers, it’s a chance to sell outcomes and renewals, not just spots and impressions.

Because in local advertising—like in fitness—momentum is easiest to build when other people skip the gym.

Source:Digiday.com