Advertisers need a new approach for this uncommon fourth quarter.

As the 2024 election hits countdown mode and political ads take over screens, the inevitable spike in CPM and CPC rates will once again price many advertisers out of their desired media. With political strategists now prioritizing short-form video and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok to reach younger voters, the traffic jams and high tolls extend across more media than prior cycles. Add in the compressed holiday advertising season the election creates and reach goals will get out of reach.

The solution for most marketers is to go off-road. Done right, it can prove a lasting opportunity, not a detour.

Play to your base—loudly

As the cost of acquiring new visitors hits new heights through October, let others fight the crowds while you redirect your focus to areas more in your control. Concentrate on your current customers and prioritize conversion rate optimization (CRO) over CPM. 

Make your website the primary media vehicle for the moment. It’s a customer platform, not just a product showcase. Treat it accordingly. Use funnel reports to analyze how people are flowing into the site (e.g., from acquisition, email and search campaigns). Then use page path reports to uncover roadblocks on site.  

Look for three things: friction, noise and confusion. Focus first on friction points—where consumers get stopped, or where they toggle back and forth between pages. Your site needs to be frictionless this fall, and friction points reveal underlying issues around noise and confusion. You lose a percentage of targets with every toggle. It means there’s something confusing about the product presentation, or there’s just too much to consider.

Explore solutions with A/B testing and get used to it—so it becomes a reflex rather than a periodic event. For example, you can test different visual hierarchies on mobile, then prioritize graphics that link to pages with the highest conversion rates. Or test adding links to empty carts based on a user’s site history with tools such as ReBuy (a Shopify cart plug in). And keep testing to evolve as patterns shift.

Start Christmas even earlier

The holiday shopping season will be notably compressed this year, with fewer days between Black Friday and Christmas. Not only will competition for consumers’ attention and dollars be more intense; many marketers will chase the media impressions they couldn’t buy down the election stretch.

September is the time to start experimenting with promotional offers, messaging and user flows to determine what resonates most with your audience. For example, test free gifts with purchase above your average product value. Find the threshold at which customers drop off and analyze whether the added revenue more than offsets the lower conversion. Or try different creative for the detail pages of products you’re promoting. That way, you’re ready for the rush.

Make AI your running mate

Experiment with AI tools that provide the personalized shopping experiences more consumers are seeking out. For example, use AI to suggest relevant product bundles or discounts based on user behavior. Many of these tools offer trial periods, so you can test their impact before committing long-term.

You can’t just turn on AI and have it work. You have to train it. Look at upselling and cross-selling tools to create curated bundles. Also, personalizing the website for return visitors. Or adding popup modules that ask visitors questions to determine what they should compare in different varieties.

Brand from the bottom up

Focusing on conversion for the holiday season doesn’t mean giving up on branding. In fact, Google ranks websites in part on how well their ads convert. By taking advantage of the natural flow of prospects you’re already getting—without having to pay for more—you improve organic awareness going forward.

Emphasize search marketing to capitalize on local distinctions. The original performance medium plays a key role in CRO, particularly as political shifts make video-based media prohibitive in more markets. Then zero in on your existing audience with targeted email and organic social media.

Flexibility is a winning ticket

Fourth-quarter strategies that worked in past election years are apt to fall flat this time around. So, adaptation is everything. Cultivate a culture of flexibility in your teams by establishing a direction rather than setting a fixed course. The team needs to pivot based on the insights data reveals continuously. And they need a new level of autonomy and trust in their judgment.

Instead of a stopgap, shifting to CRO this fall can set the foundation for a more efficient brand engine. When the traffic jam eases after the holidays, you can have a powerful system to translate advertising impressions into sustainable commerce. The brand-performance connection will be clearer, and richer, than ever.