Whether your company provides services that generate customer queues in one month and silence in another? Perhaps you run an accounting office overwhelmed with orders before tax filing deadlines, or a fitness studio where everyone wants to sign up for training in September and January? Seasonality in service business is no accident – it’s a mechanism you can either leverage or become its victim. The key is proper planning of advertising activities in advance.

Why does service company advertising require a different approach to seasonality?

Unlike online stores that can immediately lower prices or launch a promotion, service companies must think much more strategically. Your operational capacity is limited – you have a specific number of hours, employees, appointments in your calendar. When the season arrives, you can’t simply “order more inventory.”

Take the example of a law firm specializing in divorce cases. January and September are months when the number of inquiries traditionally increases – after family holidays and after vacations, people more often make decisions about separation. If you launch a Google Ads campaign only when the phone starts ringing, it’s already too late for optimal use of your advertising budget.

Google and Meta advertising systems need time for machine learning. A campaign launched in December for January will have time to process data on user behavior, identify the right audience groups, and optimize bids. A campaign turned on January first will enter the most difficult period of advertising auctions with the highest cost-per-click, without any historical data.

How to plan advertising campaigns before the high sales season?

At least four weeks before the expected increase in inquiries, you should launch awareness-building campaigns. This isn’t about aggressive sales right away – first invest in Display campaigns in Google Ads or reach campaigns on Facebook that will show your brand to people potentially interested in your services.

A representative of a travel agency specializing in ski trips should start advertising activities in September, not waiting for October or November. In September, people are just returning from vacations, but they’re already starting to plan their winter holiday – comparing offers, reading reviews, checking availability of dates. It’s the perfect moment for your brand to appear in their awareness.

During this preparation period, use remarketing campaigns. A person who visited your website in September but didn’t make a decision will get a reminder in October – already with a specific promotional offer. Remarketing lists built in advance are gold when the actual sales season starts and service company advertising must work immediately.

When to increase advertising budgets in a service company?

Two weeks before the season peak is the moment to increase budgets and switch to conversion mode. Your campaigns should already be past the learning phase, algorithms have identified the right audiences, and you know which messages work best. Now you can safely raise bids and compete for the best positions in search results.

A beauty salon offering pre-wedding treatments knows that May and June are peak months. The owner who launches campaigns in March with a budget allowing data collection can precisely target brides-to-be looking for specific treatments in April. When May arrives, her ads will be displayed to the right people, at the right time, with messaging refined based on actual user reactions.

At the peak of the season, don’t introduce structural changes to campaigns. This is the worst possible moment for experiments with new ad groups, changing bidding strategies, or testing completely new creatives. Structural changes reset the algorithm learning process – and you need maximum efficiency now, not another few weeks of optimization.

What to do with ads after the season ends?

The most common mistake of service companies? Turning off all campaigns right after the season. This is strategic suicide. Yes, reduce budgets – but keep campaigns active at a minimal level. This way you’ll maintain data continuity, and algorithms won’t forget who and how to target.

A company dealing with tax return preparation has a natural peak in March and April. If it completely turns off ads in May, in February of the next year it will have to start from scratch. A better solution is running low-budget campaigns year-round that build a remarketing list and maintain minimal brand visibility.

The post-season period is an ideal time for building content and organic positioning. Prepare expert articles, guides, video materials – everything that will rank in Google and build your credibility. When the next season arrives in a few months, this content will already be generating organic traffic, supporting paid campaigns.

How to manage advertising budget in an annual cycle?

Instead of evenly distributing the annual budget over twelve months, divide the year into periods and assign appropriate resources to them. Three months before the season – low budget, focused on building awareness. A month before the season and during it – maximum budget, aimed at conversions. After the season – minimal budget maintaining continuity.

A personal trainer knows that January and September are months when people massively sign up for training. Instead of spending two thousand zlotys monthly throughout the year, it’s better to plan the budget: November-December one thousand zlotys each for building reach, January five thousand for conversions, February-March three thousand each for upselling, April-July five hundred each for maintenance, August one thousand five hundred for building reach before September, September five thousand for conversions.

This budget allocation delivers much better results than even distribution of resources. In months when people aren’t interested in purchasing, you don’t burn money. In key months, you have striking power in advertising auctions.

Seasonality in service business is not a sentence – it’s a predictable pattern you can use to your advantage. The key is planning in advance and understanding that advertising systems need time to learn. A company that launches campaigns a month before the season will always lose to competition acting for three months.

Don’t be afraid to invest in pre-season periods – these aren’t wasted money, but the foundation of effective sales at the peak. And after the season? Don’t turn off all the lights completely. Minimal advertising activity throughout the year is a much wiser approach than cyclically launching and turning off campaigns from scratch.