Why the price falls
Two things happen at once on January 1st. Annual budgets reset and most businesses have not yet decided how to spend them, so they pause. And the retailers and brands that inflated the fourth-quarter auction stop bidding.
Supply of attention stays the same. Demand for it drops. In most local categories, cost per click falls 20 to 40 percent for three to four weeks.
Why the audience is better, not worse
January consumers are in planning mode: new year, new decisions, deferred projects, health resolutions, financial housekeeping. Intent is high and the competitive noise is low.
This is the rare window where you get cheaper attention and a more receptive audience simultaneously. Most calendar advantages are one or the other.
What to run
Your strongest core-service message, not a discount. You do not need to buy attention with price in a month when attention is cheap.
Consultation and assessment offers work unusually well — low commitment, fits the planning mindset, and gets you in front of a decision that will be made in February or March.
And run your customer list. Reactivating past customers costs almost nothing and January is when they are thinking about the year.
The catch
The window is short — roughly the first three weeks — and it closes as everyone else’s new budgets come online in February.
Which means the campaign has to be built in December, when you are least inclined to work on marketing. That is the entire reason this advantage is still available.