How to adapt Google Ads for summer as a tradesperson

The problem: your Ads are running in July in January

Handymen, painters, landscapers, roofers: most tradespeople let their Google Ads run on as if nothing has changed. Same budget. Same keywords. Same ad texts. While the world outside looks very different in the summer.

In the summer, people search differently. They are on holiday. They are busy with the garden. They call on a Tuesday afternoon while they are outside, not on a Friday morning behind their desk. The intention to have something done might be there, but the timing is different and the way they search is different. If you don't respond to this, you'll pay for clicks that won't convert anyway.

And on top of that: a good chunk of your competitors are simply pausing their Ads over the summer. They're already busy enough, or they don't want to take on new clients during the holiday period. That's your opportunity. Less competition, lower click prices. But only if you're there at the right time, with the right settings.

Know when yours busiest months are

Not every tradesperson has the same summer peak. A gardener has their busiest period from April to September. A roofer receives the most requests after the first autumn storm, not in August. An exterior painter is fully booked to the rafters during the summer. A heating engineer? They actually have a quieter time as soon as it gets warm.

Before you make any changes to your Ads, you need to know when people need you. Look at the historical data in your Google Ads account from last year. When did most clicks and calls come in? On which day of the week? At what time? Google Ads has standard reports where you can see this, even if your account is only a few months old.

If you don't have that data yet, just look at your own calendar. When are you normally booked solid weeks in advance? When do fewer people call? That pattern is your starting point. Everything you then adjust to your campaign, you build on that foundation. Without this, you simply won't know if you need more or less budget, and at what times.

Budget for season

This is the simplest advice in the entire article and, at the same time, the most forgotten: increase your budget if you want to grow, decrease it if you are already full. It sounds obvious, but almost no one does it.

Many tradespeople have a fixed daily budget in Google Ads. The same amount every month. But your schedule isn't the same every month. If you're already booked up three weeks in advance in June and still keep running Ads, you're paying for enquiries you can't actually take on. That's no longer marketing. That's burning money on people you'll then have to disappoint.

Slimming down means planning your budget in advance based on what you know. If you know that August is always a slower month for you, you can free up extra budget then to attract more enquiries. If you know that June is your peak month, increase it and grab as many enquiries as possible before you are full. In Google Ads you can adjust your daily budget at any time, and you can also work with a monthly budget that Google distributes across the days itself. But the strategy behind it really needs to come from you. Read more about how to approach this smartly in our article on Adjust budget pacing in June 2026.

A good rule of thumb: if your diary is full more than two weeks in advance, you can safely halve your daily budget. You're already full. You don't need that budget now. Set it aside for a quieter period or use it for other channels.

Update negative keywords before the summer

Summer also means different search queries. People are looking for things like “quick roofer before leaving for holiday”, “painter for my exterior facade before summer”, or “gardener who also maintains my garden while I'm away”. These are excellent search queries for you.

But in the summer, searches you don't want at all also rise. People search for “cheap DIY tips”, “summery garden do it yourself”, “how to paint my shed myself”, “roofer costs compare cheapest”. If you don't block those searches, you'll be paying for clicks from people who will never become customers anyway. They aren't looking for a tradesperson, they are looking for a way to do something themselves.

Take 15 minutes every three months to give yourself List of negative keywords walking through. At the start of summer, add words like: vacancy, self, course, DIY, cheapest, free, how do I, compare, student, internship. These variations occur more often in the summer than in the winter. Ten minutes of work, but it saves you a chunk of budget every month that now goes to the wrong people.

Dayparting: advertise only if you record too

This is something most local tradespeople never set up, but it makes a big difference. Dayparting means you set at which times and on which days your ads are active.

If you don't have a receptionist and answer the phone yourself, there's no point in running ads on a Saturday evening at ten o'clock. Or early on Sunday morning. Because if someone calls then, you won't be available. And if you don't answer, that lead is gone. People call twice, maybe three times. After that, they look for someone else. You've paid for the click, but you haven't gained anything from it.

In the summer, more people search online in the evenings or at weekends, from their gardens or while on holiday. These searches look promising in your statistics, but they convert less well if you are not available then. Set your ad schedule to the times you are actually available. For most handymen and tradespeople, this is Monday to Friday between eight in the morning and six in the evening, sometimes also on Saturday mornings.

In Google Ads, navigate to Campaigns, then Settings, then Ad schedule. From there, you can set hourly and daily times for when your ad is active or inactive. You can also set bid adjustments: increasing your ad's bid at times when you know people are likely to make a quick decision, and decreasing it at times when conversion is less likely.

To latch onto Summer opportunities

So far, we've discussed what you need to adjust and turn off. But there's another side to it: summer brings specific opportunities you don't get in winter. And you can actively take advantage of these by incorporating them into your Ads.

Gardens are being tidied up for the summer. Exterior walls are painted when it's dry. Roofs are checked before autumn begins. Patio roofs are installed for holidays in your own garden. If you are active in these specific services, there is much more search volume in the summer than the rest of the year. And that search volume is targeted. People aren't searching vaguely; they are specifically looking for someone who can do it.

Consider a separate campaign just for your most requested summer services. Not everything under one campaign, but specifically broken down by service. “Exterior painting for summer”, “Garden landscaping for summer”, “Roof check for autumn”. This way, you have sharp ad texts that precisely match what people type, and you can also set a separate budget per service.

And if you're not yet working with Local Services Ads, then summer is the time to start. With Local Services Ads, you appear above the normal search results and above the regular paid advertisements. You only pay if someone actually calls, not per click. In summer, when search volume is high and people want to find someone quickly, that's a strong position to be in. More on how that works can be read in our article about Local Services-advertenties voor vakmensen.

Frequently asked questions about Adjusting Google Ads in the summer