What To Test in Q4: Advice from Haus Experts

The days are getting shorter. The kids are back at school. And, believe it or not, Black Friday is less than 90 days away — which means it’s time to get your marketing ducks in a row and prepare for peak demand.

“How?” you ask. Testing.

You don’t want to be flat-footed when November and December roll around, which means now is the time to fill up that funnel, optimize your core channels, and make some small-but-impactful bets.

Naturally, the Measurement Strategists at Haus have already been having these conversations with customers and prepping them for the peak period ahead. We decided to pick their brains about some of the tests they recommend as Q4 rolls around. 

In the time it took you to read that intro…Black Friday just got a bit closer. So without further ado…

Test your upper-funnel media

Moving up the funnel ahead of BFCM was a piece of advice we heard from multiple Measurement Strategists. And the reason is simple: Q4 isn’t just about capturing demand at those peak periods — it’s also about generating demand ahead of time. That requires an effective combination of engaging brand marketing and efficient performance marketing.

“You need to teach prospects why your brand matters and why you’re different from the competition,” says Haus Measurement Strategy Lead Stephen Barston. “Naturally, a move up the funnel with your media can help drive that growth — and I suggest tying an incrementality test to that move.”

Stephen has three big reasons why you might as well tie a test to that upper-funnel move:

• It's low risk. You were already planning on putting those dollars in the market. Now you can also get a read on the incremental efficiency of that media.
• The learnings are transferable. What you learn now can benefit you during future promo periods (e.g. Black Friday/Cyber Monday for next year).
• It's flexible. You can test entirely new campaign objectives on Meta like video view or traffic. Or you can branch into true reach channels like CTV or OTT. Or test a combination of upper-funnel and lower-funnel on a specific channel to see how they work in tandem.

“Promotions are a great time to see if upper-funnel tactics work,” adds Measurement Strategist Hoon Hong. “These moments spike demand and consolidate lift that may have otherwise been slowly generating over time, so it’s a good time to see if these tactics drive enough interest to justify including them in your mix.”

Hoon also notes that the result of the test wouldn't mean you keep them on at the same spend in BAU periods — it can just show that they can have a place in your mix, especially as you go into other promotional periods in your annual marketing cycles.

Trialing upper funnel campaign types (Meta reach, YouTube reach) specifically can also help counterbalance rising CPM costs — which can sometimes double during peak periods. You get the benefit of not limiting the reach of your offer while getting a well-timed insight into the efficacy of this additional tactic into your mix.

Take a chance on a new channel

“I’ve definitely talked to customers who are hesitant about running a holdout during a peak period,” says Haus Measurement Strategist Kimberly Waldbillig. “That’s why I suggest testing into new channels during the Turkey Twelve where the risk is lower.”

If you have budget to reallocate from less performant channels, a new channel launch can be an excellent Q4 incrementality test, as you’re not holding out a channel that you feel (or that you already know) is incremental for your business during this high-impact time.

The caveat: Keep in mind that marketing at any level of spend may be more effective during a period of high demand as compared to low season. If you compare the results from a Q4 test with a test run in Q1, you may see varying degrees of incremental lift.  

No holdout, no problem

There’s another way of getting around the opportunity cost of holdout testing during peak…just run a test without a holdout.

“Running 2- or 3-cell tests with no holdout that put buying tactics, audience, or creative strategies head to head can be really powerful during this time,” says Kimberly.

You might find that an A/B/C test helps you refine your creative strategy ahead of a peak period. Maybe you decide to run Black Friday creative before Black Friday to test that creative against your standard top-performing creative. Then, prioritize the creative that drives higher incremental lift once BFCM is in flight.

Ad creative options aren’t the only thing you can A/B test. Haus Measurement Strategist Wesley Andrews also suggests A/B testing different media mixes.

“If you’re not confident in your current mix, build an A/B test and test different mixes of media on important channels,” says Wesley. “You have the advantage of not going dark on any channel during a high impact time and potentially unlocking a more efficient mix to carry into the new year.”

Wesley adds the caveat that this strategy does require campaign duplication, so give the campaigns a few days to ramp up before your test begins.

Now’s a good time to re-test brand search

“People tend to assume Brand Search isn’t very incremental, but that can change depending on seasonality and competition,” says Wesley. “This test is especially helpful if you had a low incrementality result for Brand Search earlier in the year and reduced budget as a result — kick it off pre-BFCM to make sure you get those learnings in before traffic really ramps up.”

As a bonus, Brand Search often doesn't need a post treatment window due to very little lag effect on the channel, so this allows the test to be shorter than mid- and upper-funnel tests.

Keep calm and test

Yes, we understand: Q4 can get stressful. You’re staring down lofty revenue targets and aggressive growth goals — and these final few months are when it all comes together. Testing proactively will make it all easier, helping you confidently steward your media spend during this peak period. 

And remember: this isn’t your first rodeo. You hopefully ran some tests during Prime Day. If you’ve been continuously testing, you should have a bunch of previous test results during promotional periods that you can draw on heading into Q4 2025. 

“Thoughtfully design the experiment in a way that directly addresses the exact questions or ideas swirling around your org,” says Stephen. “The ones that you're hearing week in week out in your meetings. As always, Haus is here to help.”