Just add more budget isn't a Q4 strategy

September is usually when conversations about Q4 ad budgets start getting serious.

How much more should we spend? When should we start increasing budgets? How much should go behind Black Friday? What should we be aiming for?

I think there's a more important conversation to have before any of that.

Having more money available to spend doesn't necessarily mean you should spend it. And a bigger Q4 budget doesn't guarantee a better commercial result.

For established Ecomm brands, the challenge isn't usually finding the budget for peak. It's making the right decisions about what you actually want that additional investment to achieve and where it has the best chance of doing it.

That might mean pushing harder at Black Friday. It might mean investing earlier. It might mean accepting a lower overall return in exchange for acquiring significantly more new customers. Or it might mean deciding there's a point beyond which spending more simply doesn't make commercial sense.

There isn't one Q4 formula I can give every brand I work with. But there are a handful of questions I want answered before I'd ever recommend increasing spend.

I've written more about how I approach Q4 planning, if you're already investing seriously in Meta and Google Ads, in this week's newsletter. 

And if you're already deep into your own Q4 plans and want to work through those questions for your own business, I've put together a free guide, The Q4 Framework I Use With Ecomm Brands Spending £20k+ a Month on Ads. It covers the five strategic decisions I want clients to make before heading into peak, with practical actions you can apply to your own planning.

Download the free Q4 Framework

Peak is an expensive time to discover that more budget wasn't the answer.