It’s Hangover Season—Here’s How to Prep for and Overcome the ‘Sale Hangover’

In the fast-paced world of marketing, a successful sale can often lead to an unexpected aftermath: the sale hangover. 

This period, marked by a sudden drop in consumer engagement and sales momentum, can leave brands feeling disoriented as they transition back to business as usual. Understanding the implications of a sale hangover and identifying effective strategies to maintain momentum is crucial for brands looking to capitalize on their hard-won success. In this article, we’ll define what a sale hangover is, explore its impact on various fronts, and provide actionable tips to fine-tune the marketing strategy for a smoother transition.

What is the sale hangover period?

As marketers, we work hard to educate consumers about and generate demand for specific products and services. One proven way to harvest demand is to sell products and services at a discounted or ‘sale’ price. 

Enter… the ‘sale hangover’, the post-sale period when messaging from the brand no longer surrounds the sale and reverts to general or ‘evergreen’ messaging. Throughout this period, we generally expect to see a decrease in revenue as users were most likely engaged with the markdown pricing/promotion and are much less likely to convert directly after the sale has ended. Based on client data, this period lasts between 10-30 days until metrics stabilize again. 

Each business experiences the sale hangover period differently. Established and well-known brands may observe a less pronounced decline in performance, while companies with lower brand awareness are likely to experience a more significant drop in revenue. 

Why do sale hangovers happen?

This phenomenon occurs because sales often attract new customers who are inclined to try a product at a discounted price rather than committing to the full price without prior experience. These new customers often do not continue to engage post-sale, leading to a substantial decline in overall performance. 

Other factors that can affect how a sale hangover period manifests are the length of the sale, how price-motivated the customer base is, and how often the brand promotes off-price messaging. Brands that run more consistent promotions or sales may experience more significant hangovers, as consumers are trained to wait for discount pricing to make a purchase. 

Understanding how a major sale impacts a brand is important for developing an effective post-sale strategy. 

Impact of Sale Hangovers: Backbone Client Case Studies

To illustrate the impact of sale hangovers, we analyzed two distinct case studies. The first highlights a brand facing a typical post-sale decline, showcasing common challenges. The second features an established brand that successfully maintained performance and customer engagement throughout and after a sale. A key difference between clients A and B, is that A tends to discount the entire site during sale periods, whereas B discounts selected products only. These examples offer valuable insights into the varying effects of sale hangovers and effective mitigation strategies.

Typical Sale Hangover – Client A

Sale Details: Client A runs frequent sales throughout the year to increase revenue during key periods. July 4th and Labor Day are two of those sale events.

Hangover Effect: Looking at both the July 4th and Labor Day sales, we see a very clear decline in daily revenue following the end of the promotional period. After the 4th of July sale, we observed a 12% drop in the first 12-days post-sale in comparison to Business as Usual metrics observed prior to launching the promotion. As for the Labor Day sale, that drop was even steeper at 27%.

Mitigation Tactic: Media costs were adjusted to match the stages of the sale and hangover. After investing heavily to drive sale purchases, we scaled back for a few days before ramping back up to standard spend levels. With Client A’s decision to run several sales in a short period of time, the impact of this mitigation tactic is challenging to measure. However, based on the data available, we have seen a measurable positive impact on Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) when scaling back spends post-sale.

A Smooth Transition – Client B

Sale Details: Client B is a high-awareness, established industry leader who ran a month-long sale. Only a portion of the website was discounted, whereas other products remained at full price. Their average daily revenue increased by over 200% in comparison to the previous period.

Hangover Effect: Coming off the sale period, daily revenue numbers went back to BAU levels almost immediately. In fact, we saw even higher revenue numbers post-sale in comparison to the pre-sale period (by almost 30%), indicating that the promotion helped keep the audience engaged and purchasing even after prices went back up.

Mitigation Tactic: Spends were increased during the sale, and then returned to pre-sale levels immediately after. This brand also did not turn off non-sale creative during the promotional period, which helped maintain engagement with an audience less price-motivated who continued to convert regardless of the sale dates.

Strategies to Help Mitigate a Sale Hangover

• Prepare in Advance: In the 3-4 weeks leading up to the sale, build a robust retargeting pool. This proactive approach enhances the likelihood of engaging a qualified audience during the sale, ultimately increasing conversion rates. Most importantly, engaging this audience effectively can foster long-term brand loyalty beyond the sale period, ultimately helping offset future hangovers.
• Design the Sale to Align with Your Business Objectives: The structure of your sale will directly influence the severity of the post-sale hangover. Offering deep discounts across your entire product line may drive higher short-term sales but often leads to a more pronounced drop-off afterward. On the other hand, discounting only certain products can help reduce the impact of the hangover by limiting the number of discount-driven purchases, allowing for a quicker return to normal revenue levels. Tailor your sale strategy to your broader business goals—whether that’s maximizing immediate revenue or fostering long-term customer loyalty.
• Maintain Engagement Post-Sale: Utilize the post-sale period to keep your audience engaged through brand awareness and storytelling initiatives, as well as cross-selling opportunities. These strategies can help strengthen relationships with customers who purchased during the sale and potentially drive additional sales for related products. Consider diversifying your approach beyond paid media; tactics such as email marketing and SMS campaigns can be highly effective for ongoing engagement.
• Reevaluate Marketing Spend: During the sale, many brands invest significantly to maximize returns. In the subsequent hangover period, it is wise to reassess marketing spends. Scaling back during this time can help recover financially while ensuring a positive return on ad spend (ROAS).
• Exercise Patience: Avoid making sweeping changes to your media strategy based solely on post-sale performance. Wait until the hangover period has concluded to ensure that observed performance metrics are not influenced by the temporary instability following the sale.
• Monitor Data Closely: The impact of sale hangovers can vary widely across businesses. To prepare for future instances, closely track how this period affects your brand by monitoring key metrics such as revenue, media ROAS, and net profits over time. This data-driven approach will provide valuable insights for future marketing strategies.
• Brand-Building Activities: Investing in brand building activities over time builds more consistent demand. When executed correctly, this contributes to both successful sales (harvesting demand) and less painful sales hangovers. 

Have questions about how Backbone helps clients manage sales hangovers? Reach out to us at info@backbone.media.