The end of the year and the holidays are around the corner. Don't assume everyone is on vacation, though it may be tempting to go dark on your advertising.
The reality is that this is one of the most important periods for your B2B marketing strategy. By turning off your ad campaigns, you risk losing momentum for the next year.
The end of the year is a time to close deals and prep the pipeline for your ambitious Q1 and new year goals. As an advertiser, you have the chance to connect with prospects when many of your competitors are mistakenly turning off campaigns.
This guide will teach you how to take advantage of the holiday season for a definitive competitive advantage, with expert advice from our team and their years of experience helping AdRoll’s ABM customers navigate the end of the year.
The assumption that B2B professionals are completely offline during the holidays is untrue. Nearly half of non-retail employees will be working during the winter holidays.
The numbers are likely even higher for key decision makers — critical ICs, VPs, and the C-suite. Many of these high-visibility roles log on even on their vacation days.
The key difference is how your audience is spending that time. Instead of only searching for work-related solutions on professional resources like LinkedIn, they’ll likely be shopping and browsing personal sites like news outlets, social media, and e-commerce sites.
With the year wrapping up, companies with the use-it-or-lose-it budget model will need to spend any remaining funds before the fiscal year ends.
At AdRoll, we’ve found that the last week of the year is our B2B sales team's biggest week for closing deals.
For a marketer, this period is a gold mine. Your advertising efforts are the final push to get a deal across the finish line. You can and should run campaigns that directly support your sales team during this period, and your ad copy should reflect the urgency of the moment.
This is a period of increased consumer spending and thus brands are competing for limited ad inventory. Therefore, competition for ad impressions escalates, which means higher CPMs in Q4.
However, despite this disclaimer, this doesn’t mean you should pull your ads.
You can use your ad strategy to finish the year strong, even with increasing CPMs and greater competition around the holidays.
Given the CPM increase, the most effective strategy is to maintain a consistent reach. For B2B companies that can't increase budget, the best strategy is to be deliberate with every dollar. Remember: if your B2B marketing disappears during those months, someone else’s content will fill the gap and win the mindshare.
Here’s your to-do list to keep the lights on:
Accept the Q4 cost of business. Maintaining reach in Q4 requires more spend, but it’s temporary. Think big picture and longer sales cycles.
Shift budget to high-impact holiday channels. For example, display advertising is a key channel for B2B in Q4, because it reaches buyers anywhere they spend time online.
Strategic shift in targeting. Be sure to focus on buyers you can’t afford to lose (those that are in-market and engaged), but be sure your persona targeting opens up to be wider. You want to avoid reaching the same people multiple times and also maximize your reach during this focused time.
Balance urgent campaigns with brand awareness. While some companies are looking to spend remaining budgets and make purchases in Q4, you’ll also have prospects who have been in research mode and will circle back in Q1. After all, the average consumer has 56 branded touchpoints before making a decision, and according to Gartner, the average B2B buying cycles average 6-11 months.
Your messaging needs to adapt by prioritizing top-of-funnel (TOFU) content. Many decision makers are focused on end of year strategy and budgeting. This time lets you build brand awareness, establish trust, and fill the sales pipeline for the upcoming year, while competitors may be slowing down.
A lack of TOFU will weaken the top of the funnel at the beginning of the year, which eventually raises cost per lead and slows conversion long term. You don’t want to make re-entering into Q1 harder.
Here’s how you use air cover campaigns to wrap up the year:
Move your budget from platforms where buyers typically research (like search engines or LinkedIn) and instead redirect it to display.
Run a broad brand awareness approach — introduce yourself to unaware accounts and build touchpoints.
This strategy is less about direct, immediate conversions and more about nurturing your audience and influencing their decisions for the future.
Measure KPIs that build your pipeline for next year, such as accounts reached, influenced vs. non-influenced, and accounts visited.
In ABM, the focus is on quality over quantity. B2B sales cycles are often long, which means the goal of your Q4 campaigns isn't necessarily to generate a high volume of new leads that turn to closed deals that same quarter. Instead, use Q4 to nurture high-value accounts.
Q4 was made for ABM. For instance, AdRoll ABM uses data points to identify, reach, and engage high-fit accounts, ensuring that even in Q4 during high CPMs you’ll find the right audience.
Most companies will be working with their leftover budget to wrap up Q4.
To make your budget count, find the sweet spot between spend and reach. Spending more will always get you more reach, but with diminishing returns. Advertisers should aim for 60-85% reach through Q4.
Avoid overly-themed or generic holiday messaging, but still use the Q4 holidays to your advantage. Consider running campaigns focused on:
End-of-Year gifting: Use holiday gifts to reinforce relationships and give sales something to kickstart conversations in Q1.
Planning for the New Year: Try messaging and ads that remind your audience of the coming new year. This could be a whitepaper about the coming year, a template for building a Q1 budget, or a checklist for a new software implementation.
Fast-moving deals: Your ad copy can reflect the urgency of the moment, with CTAs that encourage immediate action, such as “Secure your pricing before January 1."
Don’t turn off Q4. Year after year, we see accounts that keep campaigns running having the strongest Q1. What Q4 requires is a few simple strategy shifts that keep B2B companies visible, but not overextending their budget.
It is worth noting there’s a post-holiday dip, also known as “Q5,” where CPMs drop from the end of December into January. If you are able to ride the end-of-year months with the lights on, you can begin the new year with cheaper CPMs and your funnel already warmed up! For B2B marketers, calendar Q4 isn’t just the end of the year, it’s the foundation of the next one.
Our dedicated account managers walk advertisers like you through each season and challenge. Want to have your best year yet? Learn more about AdRoll ABM.
Last updated on September 25th, 2025.