’Tis the Season for Poor Online Performance

It’s not you. It’s not your strategy. It’s capitalism.

Every year around this time, business owners and social media managers start noticing something strange: their social media reach and engagement begin to dip. Fewer likes, fewer views, and fewer comments, even when the content hasn’t changed. So, what’s really happening?

The truth is simple: advertisers have entered their biggest-spend season of the year, and that changes the online landscape for everyone.

Why Online Performance Drops During the Holidays

From mid-November through mid-January, ad spend skyrockets. Major corporations (think global retailers, e-commerce giants, and household-name brands) are investing heavily to dominate your feed. Every major social platform prioritises paid placements over organic content, which means your unpaid posts are quietly pushed further down the algorithm.

Your content hasn’t suddenly become less relevant. You haven’t lost your audience. You’re just competing against businesses with ad budgets worth millions. This isn’t a reflection of your marketing strategy, it’s a reflection of the system. Your reach is being outspent, not outperformed.

What to Expect

• The slowdown usually starts mid-November and can last until mid-January.

• You might see a 20–40% dip in overall content performance — even on your best posts.

• Your audience will likely experience content fatigue, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ads flooding their screens.

This can make it harder to hold attention or generate engagement, even among loyal followers.

What You Can Do

If you know performance dips are predictable, you can plan around them. Here’s how to stay smart (and sane):

• Don’t panic. This decline is cyclical and normal — not a reflection of poor strategy.

• Avoid running promotional content unless you’re planning to support it with ads.

• Shift your focus to brand awareness and community nurturing. Remind followers who you are and why they trust you.

• Lean into entertaining, relatable, or funny content. When audiences are saturated with product ads, shareable and personality-driven posts perform better organically.

• Repurpose existing content. This is the perfect time to refresh older, evergreen material instead of creating everything from scratch.

• Use this period to test new formats. Reels, memes, polls, or carousels — experiment while the pressure is low.

  
  

Should You Increase Ad Spend?

That depends on your business model.

If your business depends on holiday sales, it might be worth allocating some budget to ads. Even a small spend can help you stay visible while organic reach declines. Be strategic with your ad types and audience targeting to get the best bang for your buck.

If your business isn’t seasonally driven, sit tight and play the long game. Focus on nurturing your audience through meaningful, organic engagement and storytelling. By the time January rolls around and ad budgets cool off, your content will start to regain traction, and your audience will still be there.

In Short

The November-to-January online performance dip isn’t a failure. It’s just a pattern created by capitalism’s seasonal surge in advertising.

So, as your metrics drop, don’t second-guess your marketing strategy. Instead, stay steady, stay human, and trust your social media team. Your reach will bounce back.