Christmas Light Installation Advertising: Sell September to Thanksgiving, Then Install

Christmas light advertising is a seventy-day season, sold in the first thirty

Google Ads data puts "christmas light installers" at about 110,000 US searches in November and 2,400 in June, and "christmas light installation near me" at 60,500 in November against 4,400 in June (US monthly volumes via DataForSEO, pulled September 5, 2026). The installer who advertises in November is fighting every other installer for a calendar that is already full; the one who advertised in September booked the season at the early-bird price and spends November installing.

The second fact is the ticket. Our pricing guide puts the average install at $444, at $2 to $5 per linear foot with a $150 to $300 minimum, and permanent lighting at $20 to $40 per foot, $2,000 to $8,000 installed. "Permanent christmas lights" is searched 165,000 times in November, which is the biggest planned-purchase search in this guide, and it has its own ad. The Christmas lights page shows what a site for this trade looks like; this guide is the paid and printed channels, their prices today, and the copy.

Prices were checked on September 5, 2026, and each links to where it came from. Our Christmas light leads guide ranks the same channels by cost per booked roofline.

Before you spend: the per-foot price on the page

A Christmas light click that lands on "free estimate" in October loses to the installer who says a number. Three things have to be true first:

• The per-foot price, the minimum and a package, published. "Rooflines from $2 to $5 per foot, $250 minimum, lights included or yours; most homes run $400 to $1,200; permanent lighting $20 to $40 per foot" on the profile and every page, with the takedown and storage included in the number. Our Christmas light software roundup prices the tools that produce it, including the ones that measure a roofline from the address and quote it per foot. It is the line Google's AI answers quote.
• A page each for seasonal installs, permanent lighting and commercial. They are different searches, different tickets and different buyers.
• Reviews from last season, with the lit house in them. BrightLocal's 2026 consumer survey (BrightLocal sells local SEO software) found 47% of people will not consider a business with fewer than 20 reviews. Ask by text on the evening of the install, when the customer is standing in the driveway looking at it, and again at takedown in January.

Our Google Business Profile guide covers the profile; the category is "Holiday lighting service" or, if the same crew does the rest of the year, the primary trade with holiday lighting as a service.

The early-bird ad, September to Halloween

The one ad a Christmas light installer needs runs from Labor Day to Halloween and says: a price, a discount for booking now, and a deadline. In September the clicks cost about $7.23 for "christmas light installers", $7.56 for "christmas light installation near me" and $5.33 for "permanent christmas lights" (Google Ads averages via DataForSEO, September 2026), against a November auction where every installer in the county is bidding.

The Search ad:

Christmas Light Installation in [Town] | Book by Oct 31, Save 15% Rooflines, trees and columns from $2 per foot, lights, takedown and storage included. Early-bird install dates fill first. See prices and pick your week online. Sitelinks: Prices per foot · Photos from last season · Permanent lighting

The Facebook ad, $5 to $10 a day to a 5-mile radius around last year's installs:

Image or video: Last year's best house at dusk, lit, from the street. Primary text: We lit this house on [Street] last December. Book your install by October 31 and it's 15% off, with takedown and storage included. Install weeks in November are filling; pick yours. Button: Book now (to the install page with the price per foot)

The rules:

• Past customers first. An email and a text to last year's list in the first week of September, with their price from last year and the early-bird discount, books a third of the season before any ad runs. Include a photo of their own house lit.
• The deadline is real. The discount ends October 31 and the install weeks are assigned in the order booked; say both.
• Exact and phrase match on "installers" and "installation", negatives for "diy", "clips", "how to hang", "amazon", "walmart" and "jobs".
• $20 to $40 a day on Search from September 1 to October 31, then drop to $10 in November for the late bookers and stop at Thanksgiving.

The permanent-lighting ad: the $2,000 to $8,000 job

Permanent lighting (track-mounted programmable LEDs that stay on the roofline all year) is a different sale: a home-improvement purchase at $2,000 to $8,000, decided over weeks from photos, with 165,000 searches in November and a click that costs about $5.33. It is sold like a deck rather than like a seasonal install, and it deserves its own page, its own ad and its own season, which runs from August into the new year.

The Search ad:

Permanent Christmas Lights in [Town] | Any Colour, Any Night, $20 to $40 per Foot Track-mounted LEDs on your roofline, app-controlled, installed once. Photos of homes we've done, financing available. Free design from your address. Sitelinks: See homes we've lit · Prices per foot · Book a design visit

The Facebook and Instagram ad, $5 to $10 a day, August to December:

Video: 15 seconds. The same house cycling through Christmas red and green, Fourth of July, a birthday colour, then warm white. Primary text: Installed once, lit for every holiday. Permanent lighting on this roofline on [Street] runs about $X. Free design from your address; book a visit below. Button: Get a design

Two rules: send the click to a page with ten photos and the per-foot range, and follow up the design visit three times, because the buyer is comparing two quotes over a month. A company that sells five permanent systems in the fall has made more than a month of seasonal installs.

The street: door hangers and the display house

A lit house is the ad, every night, for six weeks, to every car on the street. The installer who uses that does not need much else.

The display house. Pick the most visible house on the busiest corner of your best neighbourhood and offer the owner a free install for the season in exchange for a yard sign. One free install at $600 of cost buys a six-week billboard on the corner every commuter passes at dusk. The sign: "Lit by [Company]. Yours next year? Scan to book." with a QR code and a number.

Door hangers on the street. One online printer lists 1,000 door hangers for $93.51. On the ten houses either side of every install, the evening it is lit:

Front: [Photo of number 42, lit, taken that evening.] We just lit number 42. Back: Same street, this week: rooflines from $2 per foot, lights, takedown and storage included. Install dates left in November: [count]. Book: [QR code, number.]

Hang them at dusk, while the display is on, because the homeowner reads the hanger and looks at the house in the same minute. In September, hang the early-bird version on last year's streets instead.

The truck. A crew on a ladder at a lit house is the ad; magnetic signs with the per-foot price and the number cost a fraction of a wrap, and one national shop's 2026 guide puts a full pickup wrap at $3,000 to $5,500 if the truck carries the summer trade too.

Social and Nextdoor: the house at dusk

The lit house at dusk, shot from across the street, is the most shared content a home service produces, and it costs a phone on a tripod. Post every install to the Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and the Nextdoor business page the evening it goes up, with the street and the per-foot price in the caption.

Boost the best one at $5 a day to a 3-mile radius from Halloween to the first week of December, with the copy: "[Street], lit last night. Rooflines from $2 per foot, takedown and storage included. November install dates left: [count]."

Two things that work in this trade and few others:

• The neighbourhood contest. A post in November inviting the street to vote on the best-lit house you installed, with the winner's takedown free. It gets shared by every customer on the street, and it produces next year's list.
• The January takedown post. "Taking down [Street] this week. If you want yours down and stored, $X." It sells takedowns to houses that hung their own, and every one becomes a September early-bird email.

Google Local Services Ads do not apply: as of June 2026, an industry list of eligible categories shows no holiday or Christmas lighting category in Google's home-services group. The map pack and the Search ads above are the Google channels.

What not to spend on

• Search ads in the last two weeks of November. The auction is full of installers and the calendar is full; the clicks book nothing.
• Shared lead marketplaces. A $444 install cannot carry a shared lead fee, and the customer goes back to the marketplace next fall. Our Thumbtack breakdown has the numbers.
• Discounting the minimum. A $150 roofline at the far end of the service area loses money on the ladder time; advertise the minimum and let the display house persuade.
• Cold social ads with stock photos. The real house on the real street at dusk is the channel.
• Radio and billboards. The lit house on the corner is a better billboard and it costs one free install.

Budgets by season, and the one number to track

The budget is concentrated in September and October:

• August: the permanent-lighting page and ad; the display-house offer to the owner on the corner.
• First week of September: the early-bird email and text to every past customer with their price and their photo.
• September 1 to October 31: the early-bird Search ad at $20 to $40 a day, the Facebook early-bird ad at $5 to $10 a day to last year's radius, the permanent-lighting ads on both. About $1,500 to $2,500 for the window.
• November: Search at $10 a day for late bookers until Thanksgiving; the lit-house post boosted at $5 a day; door hangers at dusk on every install.
• December: $0 on clicks; the neighbourhood contest post.
• January: the takedown post and the review request at takedown.

The number to track is installs booked per channel by October 31, and the share of the season booked before November 1. A $444 install at 45% gross margin leaves about $200; any channel booking installs under $60 each is working. Count permanent systems separately; one $5,000 system is worth eleven seasonal installs and it was sold from a photo.

Where ServicePro fits

Every ad above lands on a page, a profile and a phone, and ServicePro is those three at software prices: marketing agency support at $99 a month rather than a retainer. The free plan builds a site from your Google Business Profile in about five minutes, on your own domain, with up to five service pages (seasonal installs, permanent lighting, commercial, takedown and storage, and the summer trade) to carry the per-foot prices and send each ad to, a booking page the display-house sign's QR code opens, an inbox for every call and message, and five review requests a month.

Pro is $99 a month, no contract, and adds the pieces the September window depends on: a tracked phone number with two-way texting and missed-call text-back, Google Map rank tracking for "christmas light installers" across every town you serve, up to 25 location pages, 100 automatic review requests a month with AI-drafted replies, and the lit house posted for you to your Google Business Profile and to Facebook and Instagram.

We do not run your ads or hang your lights. The Christmas lights page shows what the site and the rank tracking look like for this trade.