I'm so glad it's Friday! Is that just because you are ready to crash from a long week of problem solving and managing expectations? Or is Friday the only business day when you are able to carve out some time to do what you do best? After speaking with a few list brokers, I believe we've got something in common here.
"There is no better day than Friday when it comes to doing list research," according to Donna Belardi, President of Belardi/Ostroy. "I've been making new test recommendations for 20 years, and the best ones are created on the days with the least interruptions."
Rather than rely soley on insights from industry veterans, take a look at some recent results from the NextMark CTA program. 
As indicated in the following graph, there is little variation between business days in regards to the number of impressions. The coefficient of variation for impressions is only 10 percent. What does that mean? Simply stated, about 90 percent of the search activity is consistent throughout the week.
Therefore, it makes more sense to look at the number of firms who are advertising on a given weekday and target your audience when your message will stand out the best.
If you're wondering about click-through rates, then take a look at the next graph.
The number of data card pageviews, for the same list management advertising campaign, reflects a similar pattern. The coefficient of variation is a little higher at 12 percent, but that is insufficient to disprove the hypothesis that Friday's are not so bad after all. So what's the take-away in all of this? How should this affect my advertising decisions when the reality is that Monday through Friday are 'almost' (10 - 12 percent) equal in regards to reaching my target audience of list brokers?
Again, all you need to do is look at the when your competitors are advertising and promote your list titles on the days of the week when your message will stand out the best.
For some reason, list managers seem to prefer Wednesday for search engine marketing, at least with NextMark. Surprisingly, only a few have decided to avoid the traffic and stand out in the crowd. 
Why would this be happening? Although we've consistently shared this message with list managers, we just recently ran the numbers to back it up. We wanted to wait until we had a valid test sample to do that properly. Now that we've quantified a few of our assumptions, it's time to spread the word.
List research is happening Monday through Friday with little variation, so spend your list marketing ad dollars wisely and take advantage of the open opportunities while they last. Based on this simple study, you might want test your next campaign on a Friday. I'm so confident that this will work for you that I'll guarantee it. If you sign up for NextMark's Contextually Targeted Advertising Program and do not get at least 1,000 top ranked impressions on at least one given Friday (holidays excluded), then I will personally send you a $100 gift card to T.G.I. Fridays. Either way, you'll be able to 'Dip Into The Down Time'.
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