Every year in late November, the same question lands from trade businesses: should we turn the ads off over Christmas? The crew’s going on holiday, the phone’s going quiet, and paying for clicks while the van’s parked up feels like burning money.
Most of the advice online won’t help. It’s written for American retailers: keep running for “gift card redemptions”, chase the “post-Christmas sales”. None of that fits a builder shutting the site for three weeks in January heat.
So we looked at our own numbers. Below is what happened last summer across the Google Ads accounts of 13 trade and home-service businesses we manage, then what we’d do with it.
What happened last summer
We compared November 2025 through February 2026 across the same 13 accounts: trades like plumbing, electrical, painting, landscaping, heat pumps and building-related work. Each one spent in every month, so the comparison is like for like. “Enquiries” means the conversions each account tracks (calls from the website, form enquiries and similar), and cost is ad spend as Google Ads reports it.
| Period | Clicks a day | Average cost per click | Clicks that became enquiries | Cost per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | 84 | $2.01 | 11.3% | $17.90 |
| 1 to 19 December | 90 | $2.15 | 12.2% | $17.60 |
| 20 December to 5 January | 85 | $2.07 | 8.2% | $25.20 |
| 6 to 31 January | 107 | $1.81 | 9.8% | $18.50 |
| February | 92 | $2.19 | 12.1% | $18.20 |
Four things stand out.
Early December was the best stretch of the season. More clicks than November and the highest share turning into enquiries: people trying to get the job booked before Christmas.
People kept searching over the break, but fewer enquired. Clicks a day barely moved and the price of a click didn’t change. What dropped was how many of those clicks became enquiries, so each enquiry cost about 40% more than in November. Over the deepest part, 24 December to 2 January, it was about 60% more ($28.40).
January came back fast, and cheaply. From 6 January there were more clicks a day than any other month, at the lowest cost per click of the four months. Cost per enquiry was back to normal straight away.
It wasn’t the same for everyone. Over the break, enquiries per day fell in 7 of the 11 accounts that recorded any, and actually rose in 4. A trade that does emergency call-outs, or whose customers are at home with time to plan, can have a perfectly good Christmas.
One summer and 13 businesses is not the whole country, so treat this as a pattern rather than a law. It does match what we’d expect.
Why the break behaves like this
- People are home and looking at the house. Searches for decks, repaints, heat pumps and gutters don’t stop just because the trades do. People browse, compare and save numbers for later.
- Fewer of them are ready to book. Plenty know nobody will start until mid-January, so they enquire later, or enquire with whoever answers.
- Your competitors close too. Some switch their ads off, which is part of why January clicks were so cheap.
- Enquiries go cold while you’re away. A lead that sits in an inbox for 17 days isn’t a lead by the time you read it. That’s a bigger cost than the clicks.
Your options
1. Keep running, trimmed
Best for most trades who take a normal break.
- Use an ad schedule. Google lets you set the days and hours your ads can show. Cut it back over the break rather than off.
- Drop the budget for the dead week (roughly Christmas Eve to 2 January), and keep your best keywords and core areas only.
- Change the ad text to say when you’re booking from, for example “Booking jobs from 11 January”. Customers who enquire now still need to know.
2. Emergency only
For trades who do call-outs over the holidays.
- Pause the planned-work campaigns or ad groups, and keep the emergency ones running.
- Make sure every call actually gets answered. A missed emergency call over Christmas is the most expensive click of the year. After-hours calls when you don’t do emergency work covers the other side of this, and an AI receptionist can take the calls nobody’s there for.
3. Pause with a restart plan
Fine if the business is properly closed and you’d rather not pay for any clicks.
- Pause only the dead stretch, not the whole of December. Early December was the best part of the season.
- Switch back on a few days before you want the phone ringing. Google’s automated bidding shows a “Learning” status when a bid strategy has been recently created or reactivated, and it can take a few conversion cycles to settle. Pausing doesn’t delete your history, but give it a run-up.
- Diary the restart. The most expensive mistake we see is ads left off until someone remembers in February. January was the cheapest month to buy clicks in.
What not to do
- Don’t make big budget swings up and down every few days. Automated bidding works best with steady settings.
- Don’t use seasonality adjustments for the whole break. They let you tell Google to expect a change in conversion rate, but Google says they’re ideal for short events of 1 to 7 days and may not work as well over more than 14. They’re a tool for experienced hands, not a holiday switch.
- Don’t let enquiries pile up unanswered. Pausing the ads doesn’t stop people finding you through Google Maps and your website.
Tell people you’re on holiday
Whatever you do with the ads, this part costs nothing.
- Google Business Profile. Set special hours for the public holidays and your closed days. Google suggests confirming your hours for official holidays even if they don’t change. Special hours run up to 6 days in a row, so a longer shutdown needs more than one entry. Our Google Business Profile checklist covers the rest of your profile.
- Your website. A short banner with your closing and reopening dates, and what to do in an emergency.
- An automatic email reply that gives the return date and says you’ll be in touch. A reply that sets expectations keeps the lead warm. Silence doesn’t.
- Your phone. Update the voicemail greeting with your dates, or let the AI receptionist take the details for when you’re back.
- Day one back: work through every holiday enquiry before anything else. They’re the warmest leads you’ll get all January. Do you actually follow up your leads? has a simple routine.
A simple plan for a typical trade
If you close from about 20 December to the second week of January and don’t do emergencies:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| All of November and early December | Full budget. This is prime booking time. |
| A week before you close | Update ad text, Google Business Profile special hours, website banner and email auto-reply with your dates. |
| Your last day to about 2 January | Trim hard with an ad schedule and lower budget, or pause. |
| 3 to 5 January | Back to full budget, so it’s running properly when people get back. |
| First day back at work | Reply to every holiday enquiry. |
If you’re not sure what a sensible budget is in the first place, our Google Ads cost guide has real numbers by trade.
What about Facebook ads?
Meta is a different case. November and December are the dearest months on Facebook and Instagram, because retailers are bidding for the same people (we cover that in what Facebook ads cost in NZ). For most trades, pausing Meta from mid-December and restarting in early January is reasonable, as long as you’re not right at the start of a campaign that’s still learning.
Christmas ads FAQ
What happens if I pause my Google Ads?
Your ads stop showing and you stop paying straight away. Your campaigns, keywords, ads and history all stay in the account. When you switch back on, automated bidding may show a “Learning” status for a short while, so restart a few days before you need the phone ringing.
Can you stop Google Ads at any time?
Yes. You can pause a campaign whenever you like, and it doesn’t cost anything to stop. With an agency, check the contract: ours is month to month with no lock-in, and pausing over the break is a normal conversation.
Is it worth running ads over Christmas?
For a short break, usually yes at a reduced level. In our data people kept clicking at the same price, but each enquiry cost about 40% more. For trades with emergency work, or anyone who can reply quickly over the break, it can be well worth it.
When should I turn my ads back on after Christmas?
A few days before you’re back at work, so they’re running smoothly when you return. In our data, January had more clicks than any other month and the cheapest cost per click, so there’s no reason to wait.
Will pausing my ads hurt my Google ranking?
No. Ads and organic rankings are separate. Pausing your ads doesn’t change where your website or Google Business Profile shows in the free results.
Want a holiday plan for your own account, with your numbers? Get a free leads audit: 20 minutes with the people who wrote this guide, no obligation. Our Google Ads management is month to month, so the plan can change with the season.