Sort your services by season
Start with your own records, not a calendar. Pull last winter's calls, form leads and booked jobs by service. You will likely see two groups: work that holds steady or spikes in cold weather, such as furnace repair, frozen pipes, ice dam leaks, snow removal and interior remodels, and work that mostly waits for spring, such as paving, excavation, decks, landscaping and exterior painting.
Michigan adds its own wrinkle. The National Weather Service notes that lake-effect snow is common across the Great Lakes region in late fall and winter, and that heavy snow can fall in one place while the sun shines a mile or two away. Storm demand can be intensely local, so plan for it town by town rather than statewide.
Paid ads: follow the calls, not the calendar
Keep Google Ads running for winter services, and pause or trim campaigns for work you cannot schedule until spring. Google lets you change a campaign's average daily budget whenever you like, and ad scheduling lets you limit ads to the hours someone can answer the phone, which matters for emergency calls on cold nights.
Plan for storms. If you sell snow removal or emergency repairs, have ads, budgets and a short storm message ready to switch on when a forecast firms up, and target only the areas your trucks can actually reach on bad roads.
Skip seasonality adjustments for a whole slow season. Google describes them as best for short events of one to seven days, says they may not work as well beyond 14 days, and limits them to certain bid strategies. For a quiet quarter, change budgets and campaigns directly.
Winter is website season
The slow months are the best time to rebuild or improve a website. Google recommends timing a site move for a seasonal traffic dip, which for exterior trades usually falls in the coldest months, so a problem during launch costs you little.
Use the time to add a page for each service you want more of in spring, a page for each main community you serve, and fresh photos from last season's jobs. Google notes that some changes take months to show their full effect in search, so pages published in January have time to settle before spring searches pick up.
Reviews and your Business Profile
Ask last season's customers for reviews while the finished job is still fresh in their minds, and add photos of completed work to your Google Business Profile. Set special hours for holiday closures so nobody calls or drives out to a closed office; Google's special hours cover closures of up to six days in a row. While you are there, check that your service areas match where you want spring work. You can list up to 20.
Book spring work before the thaw
Michigan's spring weight restrictions, often called frost laws, are another reason to plan ahead. MDOT puts seasonal weight limits on state highways during the spring thaw, and county road commissions and city public works departments set their own, which usually but not always line up. In 2026, MDOT lifted the last state restrictions on May 15. If your work depends on heavy trucks or equipment, your season may start later than the weather suggests, so fill the calendar before it opens.
Late winter is the time to email or text past customers with your spring schedule and a simple way to request an estimate, and to offer site visits while your crew has room.
Your winter checklist
Work through this list between Thanksgiving and the thaw. If you want help with any of it, Modern Apex is based in Michigan, planning happens on video or phone calls, and the first step is a free 30-minute strategy call with Nick.
- Review last winter's leads by service and decide which campaigns stay on.
- Set ad schedules and budgets for winter services, and build storm-ready ads.
- Rebuild or improve the website, starting with service and community pages.
- Collect reviews and upload last season's project photos.
- Add holiday special hours to your Business Profile.
- Contact past customers about spring scheduling before the thaw.
Related questions
Should I turn off Google Ads in the winter?
Turn off what you cannot sell, not everything. Keep campaigns for winter services running, pause or trim campaigns for work that waits until spring, and restart those before spring demand returns. Google lets you change daily budgets at any time, so you can adjust as the calls change.
Do frost laws affect contractor marketing?
They affect timing. MDOT and local road agencies restrict heavy loads during the spring thaw, and in 2026 the last state restrictions lifted on May 15. If your trade depends on heavy trucks, book spring jobs in late winter so the calendar is full when the restrictions end.
When should Michigan contractors start advertising for spring?
Before the work can start. Watch impressions for spring services in Search Console and Google Ads, and turn campaigns back on as those searches begin to rise rather than on a fixed date, so estimate requests are already coming in when crews can get back to work.
Is winter a good time to redesign my website?
For most exterior trades, yes. Google suggests timing big site changes for a seasonal traffic dip, and launching in winter gives new pages time to be crawled and settle before spring searches pick up.
Sources
- National Weather Service: What is lake effect snow?
- MDOT: Lifting all remaining spring weight restrictions, May 15, 2026
- Google Ads Help: Set and change an average daily budget
- Google Ads Help: About ad scheduling
- Google Ads Help: About seasonality adjustments
- Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes
- Google Search Central: SEO starter guide
- Business Profile Help: How to set special hours
- Business Profile Help: Manage your service areas