Don’t Start The “New Year, New Me” January Paid Media Push Too Late

We all know that a January “New Year, New Me” paid media campaign has the power to capture attention and drive sales for the rest of the year.

But it’s also true that every wellness brand is fighting for the same audience on January 1st and beyond… and most are leaving their planning to December. 

At Fueld, we recommend you get ahead of the game. The best time to start planning is October, to help you gain a clear advantage over your competitors.

Here’s a handy guide on how to do just that. And if you need our expert advice, we’re only ever a click away. 

Why are all the wellness brands fighting for the same audience?

With a new year comes a fresh start, new promises to ourselves, and the yearning to make (and maintain!) New Year’s resolutions is strong. We’re all going to get fit, stop smoking, lose weight, and crush our goals at work, and we’re going to do it consistently from now on (promise).

Whether you’re marketing a gym, a supplement brand, a wellness app, coaching services, or any other product/service that fits into the wellness and wellbeing sector, January can be yours for the taking. The trouble is that every brand is using similar messaging, and audiences can end up feeling overwhelmed and confused by the wealth of choice, and end up not engaging with any of them.

Your job is to do things differently; to cut through and get your brand noticed in the noise.

Not convinced it’s worth putting some extra planning in? These stats might change your mind:

• According to WebTonic, fitness Facebook ad costs follow seasonal patterns that smart advertisers use to their advantage. January is the most competitive month, with CPCs rising 15%–30% as gyms compete for New Year’s resolution-driven prospects.
• Conversion rates spike by 40–60% in January.
• Gym visits in January are roughly 28% higher than in December, and around 11 to 12% of all annual gym sign-ups happen in that single month.

The planning and timing of your paid media have the potential to pay off in dividends, and it starts by understanding these seasonal patterns – starting with Quitter’s Day.

What’s Quitter’s Day, and why should wellness marketers care?

Picture the scene: you bounce into January with spirit and energy, ready to take the new year by storm. A couple of weeks in, and things start to feel a little different. Welcome to mid-January. The weather seems to be endlessly bleak, the days are short, energy is low, and things are starting to feel a little… meh.

As we reach the second Friday in January, we reach what has come to be called ‘Quitter’s Day’. It’s the day that, statistically speaking, most people who’ve set a resolution have given up by. In 2027, Quitter’s Day falls on Friday 8th January.

Is the real opportunity before January 1st, or after Quitter’s Day?

To be honest, both present opportunities, but they need different approaches.

Before January 1st, broad prospecting to find people at peak motivation can be really effective. But be aware that your costs will be higher because your volume and conversion rates will also be high.

It’s easy to hit January and turn your attention to spring planning, but Quitter’s Day and beyond present an opportunity that many marketers miss out on. The people still showing up after this date tend to be the ones who have signed up for a free trial or have already engaged with your ads. There’s higher intent and more commitment, which can mean lower acquisition costs for you. This is where retargeting and retention messaging can start to deliver results.

What does a full-funnel January wellness campaign look like?

Let’s take you through it stage by stage.

Regardless of where you are in the funnel, it’s important to track CPM/CPC/CTR by stage (not blended averages). While we’re on metrics, make sure you’re keeping track of CPA and ROAS by campaign objective, frequency, and downstream retention metrics.

Top of funnel (mid-December through to early January)

Focus on broad prospecting creative that’s been built around aspirations, goals, fresh starts, etc.- all aimed at a cold audience.

Middle of funnel (early to mid-January)

Look at retargeting people who have already engaged with your ads and therefore have higher intent. Reinforce your messaging with social proof, testimonials – anything that helps to build trust in your brand.

Bottom of funnel (on and after Quitter’s Day)

Shift your messaging from ‘fresh starts’, ‘new beginnings’, to ‘you can still do it’, ‘stick with it…’. Acknowledge the fact that just because you’ve not stuck rigidly to your resolutions, you can still get back on track.

Learn more: How full-funnel paid media works for UK health and wellbeing brands

Reactivation phase (mid to late January onwards)

Here’s where you retarget your most loyal audience with retention offers, community-driven messaging, etc.

What timelines should you be working to?

If you want to maximise your chances of success in January, this is a pretty perfect timeline to follow:

September/October: Strategy, audience research, budget approval.

November: Start developing creative in batches, build email segmentation.

Early December: Warm up/awareness phase begins to start building retargeting pools.

Mid-late December: Prospecting campaigns go live.

First week of January: Peak spend, peak competition. Your full funnel campaign goes live.

Quitter’s Day & beyond: Budget and creative shift towards retargeting, retention and reactivation.

Fueld can manage the process end-to-end, taking the planning, strategy and execution off your plate. Get in touch to find out how.

What needs to be set up in advance?

There are four main areas that you can focus on getting set up in advance:

Email segmentation: Make sure you’ve separated new sign-ups and past customers for an efficient segmentation process, along with high intent/not converted leads. That way, you can target messaging that’s relevant to the specific point they are at.

Retargeting audiences: Track all interactions gathered through November/December so the moment your prospecting campaigns go live, you’re working with a warm pool.

Creative: Get your ad creative built in batches, well in advance, bearing in mind multiple hooks, angles and formats. Bear in mind that, especially for high-volume platforms like TikTok, you’ll need your creative to be refreshed every couple of weeks, so a single batch in December isn’t going to cut it. The sooner you start building banks of content, the easier you’ll find it to maintain momentum when January hits.

Landing pages and special offers: build and test all of this before the rush, or risk bad UX costing you warm leads.

What should I do if I’ve left paid media planning too late this year?

If you’re reading this in September/October, then you’re not late at all – you’re early! You’re in a great place to start planning and get the ball rolling. (Most brands only start thinking about this in December). 

If you’re reading this later in the year, there’s still plenty you can do to get back on track. The trick is to be deliberate about which stage of the funnel you’re going to focus your efforts and budget on (based on which stage is realistic to compete in).

Starting in November? Compress the timeline above, prioritising creative production and retargeting audience setup.

Starting in December? Skip the broad top-of-funnel stage. Consider using AI tools to speed up content production.

Starting in January? Don’t compete for the immediate ‘new year, new you’ messaging. Skip ahead to post-Quitter’s Day (the bonus of this approach being that the audience is cheaper to reach).

How do I find a digital marketing agency to help with paid media planning?

At Fueld Media, we’ve got your back. We’re 100% focused on the health and wellbeing industry, which means we bring a level of knowledge and expertise that is hard to beat.

We’re experienced in running successful full-funnel campaigns, and we can help you too. Ideally, January campaigns need to be activated by November, so get in touch now to plan your paid media strategy before the window closes.