Q3 is your opportunity to fine-tune your affiliate strategy before the holiday season gets busy. Whether you're planning gift guides, testing new commission structures, exploring paid placements, or looking for opportunities to expand your merchant relationships, now is the time to test what drives results.
The publishers who use Q3 to build relationships, test placements, optimize their programs, and secure holiday opportunities will be better positioned to capitalize on Q4 traffic.
Use this guide to make Q3 count.
1. Recruit New Merchant Partners
Q3 is a great time to expand your portfolio of merchant partners before holiday content and promotional calendars are finalized.
Take a proactive approach to recruitment rather than waiting for brands to reach out. Identify merchants that complement your audience and begin conversations about potential Q4 opportunities.
Consider targeting:
- Brands with products that fit your audience
- New or emerging brands
- Seasonal and giftable products
- Merchants with strong Q4 promotional calendars
- Brands that offer competitive commissions
- Merchants open to testing new partnership models
Be Open to Hybrid Partnership Models
If your business model allows it, consider offering merchants a combination of performance-based and paid opportunities.
For example, you might offer:
- CPA-based affiliate placements
- Paid newsletter placements
- Sponsored content
- Dedicated emails
- Homepage or category placements
- Gift guide inclusion
- Hybrid CPA + placement packages
Being flexible with partnership structures can create opportunities with brands that may not be able to achieve their goals through a traditional affiliate arrangement alone.
2. Build and Share Your Media Kit
Your media kit is one of your most important sales tools when approaching merchants for Q4 opportunities.
Make sure it clearly communicates your value and gives brands enough information to determine whether your audience is a good fit.
Include:
- Audience demographics
- Website traffic and engagement
- Email subscriber information
- Social following and engagement
- Content categories
- Past performance or relevant case studies
- Available advertising placements
- Holiday-specific opportunities
- Pricing and package information
- Important deadlines
Keep your media kit current and make it easy for merchants to understand what you can offer during the holiday season.
3. Stay Engaged With Merchant Communications
Don't overlook the information merchants are already providing through their affiliate program communications.
Pay attention to:
- New product launches
- Upcoming promotions
- Commission changes
- Coupon codes
- Holiday offers
- Free-shipping promotions
- Creative updates
- Product availability
- Seasonal best sellers
This information can help you identify content and promotional opportunities before they become widely available.
If a merchant provides a Q4 promotional calendar, use it to plan your editorial calendar, email campaigns, social content, and promotional placements.
4. Proactively Pitch Holiday Packages and Ideas
Don't wait for merchants to ask whether you'd like to promote them.
Reach out proactively during Q3 with specific ideas for how you can feature their brand during Q4.
Instead of simply asking, "Would you like to advertise with us?", consider pitching a specific opportunity:
"We're developing our holiday gift guide and think your product would be a strong fit. We have an available featured placement and newsletter opportunity during the first week of November."
Specific ideas make it easier for merchants to say yes—and give them a clear understanding of the value you're offering.
Consider developing packages around:
- Holiday gift guides
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Holiday shopping guides
- Product roundups
- Newsletter features
- Dedicated emails
- Social campaigns
- "Best of" or "Top Products" content
- Last-minute gift ideas
5. Optimize Declining Merchant Relationships
Q3 is also the right time to evaluate merchants that are no longer performing as well as they once did.
Look at your performance data and identify programs experiencing declines in:
- Clicks
- Orders
- Revenue
- Conversion rate
- Commission earnings
Then determine whether the issue is the merchant, your content, or the overall opportunity.
Ask yourself:
- Is the merchant still relevant to my audience?
- Are their products competitive?
- Have commissions changed?
- Are there better offers from competitors?
- Does the merchant have compelling Q4 promotions?
- Have I updated my content recently?
- Are there new products worth testing?
- Would a new placement or promotional opportunity improve performance?
Use Q3 to optimize or replace underperforming relationships before Q4 traffic arrives.
6. Test Placements in Q3
Q3 is the perfect time to test placements before the holiday season.
If you're considering a new newsletter placement, homepage feature, sponsored article, or dedicated email, test it now and use the results to refine your Q4 strategy.
Consider testing:
- Newsletter placements
- Dedicated emails
- Homepage placements
- Sponsored content
- Product roundups
- Editorial features
- Gift-guide placements
- Social promotions
- Category pages
Testing now gives you data you can use when negotiating larger Q4 opportunities.
7. Plan Holiday Content Early
Holiday content often requires significant lead time. Begin building your Q4 editorial calendar in Q3 so you aren't scrambling to create content once holiday shopping begins.
Consider developing:
- Gift guides
- Best-of lists
- Product comparisons
- Holiday buying guides
- Black Friday content
- Cyber Monday content
- Stocking stuffer guides
- Last-minute gift guides
- Seasonal product reviews
Think about the products and categories your audience will be searching for and start communicating with merchants early about potential inclusion.
8. Identify Last Year's Best Sellers and Current Trends
Use your historical performance data to understand what worked last holiday season.
Review:
- Top-selling products
- Highest-converting merchants
- Most profitable content
- Highest-performing promotional placements
- Best-performing email campaigns
- Products with strong click-through rates
Then compare those insights with current trends and merchant product launches.
This can help you identify products that are likely to perform well during the upcoming holiday season.
9. Ask Merchants for the Information You Need
The best affiliate content depends on having accurate, timely information from merchants.
Ask your merchant contacts for:
- Q4 promotional calendars
- Holiday offers
- Commission changes
- Featured products
- Product availability
- Free-shipping thresholds
- Holiday shipping deadlines
- Last-chance shipping dates
- Creative assets
- Product feeds or updated product information
Shipping information is particularly valuable during the holiday season because consumers want to know whether their purchases will arrive in time.
10. Take Advantage of Dynamic Creative
If a merchant offers dynamic ads or regularly updated creative, make sure you're taking advantage of them.
Dynamic text and banner ads can automatically update as promotions change, reducing the need to manually swap creative throughout the holiday season.
Before Q4, verify that:
- Your creative is current
- Promotional messaging is accurate
- Links are working
- Seasonal creative is available
- Your placements are using the latest assets
This can save time while helping ensure shoppers see current offers.
11. Look for Q4 Commission Opportunities
Q3 is a good time to ask merchants whether they are planning special commission incentives for the holiday season.
Short-term commission increases can make a merchant more competitive when publishers are deciding which brands to prioritize.
Ask about opportunities such as:
- Black Friday commission increases
- Cyber Monday incentives
- New-customer bonuses
- Featured-placement commissions
- Gift-guide incentives
- Seasonal performance bonuses
If you have a specific placement or campaign in mind, consider proposing a commission structure that aligns with the opportunity.
12. Get the Q4 Calendar Locked In Early
Don't wait until November to finalize your holiday partnerships.
Top placements can fill quickly, and publishers often need time to create content, schedule emails, and coordinate promotional campaigns.
As a general best practice, aim to have key Q4 merchant relationships, promotional information, and major placements confirmed by October 1 whenever possible.
The earlier everything is locked in, the more time you have to execute—and the less likely you are to miss important holiday opportunities.
Q3 Publisher Preparation Checklist
- Identify and recruit new merchant partners
- Evaluate opportunities for hybrid CPA + paid partnerships
- Update your media kit
- Share your media kit with priority merchants
- Stay engaged with merchant communications
- Reach out proactively with Q4 packages and placement ideas
- Evaluate declining merchant relationships
- Test new placements during Q3
- Build your Q4 editorial and promotional calendar
- Identify last year's best-selling products
- Research current product and category trends
- Request merchant promotional calendars
- Request holiday shipping deadlines and free-shipping information
- Review available dynamic creative
- Ask merchants about Q4 commission incentives
- Secure priority Q4 placements before availability becomes limited
- Aim to have major Q4 opportunities confirmed by October 1
Conclusion
Q3 is your testing and planning window. Q4 is your execution window.
Use Q3 to identify the merchants, products, placements, and promotional strategies that have the greatest potential for your audience. Build relationships early, pitch specific ideas, test new opportunities, and use your performance data to determine where to invest your time and resources.
By the time the holiday season arrives, your strategy shouldn't still be taking shape—it should be ready to execute. As always, if you have any questions or want to discuss in detail any of the strategies presented in this article, don't hesitate to reach out to am@avantlink.com.