Ads keep spending while you are away unless somebody changes them. Before closing, pause every campaign with a scheduled rule, or rewrite the ads to say when you reopen, and hide the phone number while nobody answers.

Closed for two weeks, still advertising

The shop closes on the first Friday of August and reopens two weeks later. The sign is on the door, the voicemail gives the date, and the out-of-office reply is on.

The search ads carry on as though nothing has changed. Each day the budget is available again, and the ads go out to people searching for exactly what the business does.

Some click and land on a site that still says call today. Some tap the number in the ad and reach the voicemail. Some fill in the form and wait.

Every one of those clicks is charged in full. What it buys is a customer meeting a closed business, often at the moment they were ready to book.

What keeps running

The second costs the most. A tap on the number is charged like a click, and many people who reach voicemail on a weekday do not leave a message. They call the next business.

Why nobody notices

Ads do not read the sign on the door or the greeting on the voicemail. Unless somebody changes the campaign, it runs exactly as it did the week before.

Nothing breaks, so nothing warns you. The reports show clicks at the usual rate, and nobody reads them, because the person who would is the one on holiday.

The cost appears weeks later on the card statement. The enquiries that went elsewhere never appear at all.

Pause, or keep running and say so

There are two honest choices, and the right one depends on whether anything can happen while you are away.

If nobody answers the phone and nothing can be booked, pause. Every click in those two weeks buys a disappointment.

If somebody covers the phone, or customers usually book weeks ahead, keep the ads running and change what they promise.

Somebody searching in August may be planning work for September. That enquiry is worth having, as long as the ad says when they will hear back.

What does not work is the default: ads promising today, for a business that is closed until the 19th.

Pausing properly

Pause whole campaigns, in every account. Pausing one ad group leaves the rest spending, and an old account opened by a previous supplier is easy to forget.

Use automated rules rather than memory. Google Ads can pause a campaign at a set time on a set date and enable it again on another, without anybody logging in. Microsoft Advertising can do the same.

Set the pause for closing time on the last day, and the restart for the morning you reopen, or a day earlier if customers usually phone ahead.

Pause rather than remove. A paused campaign keeps its settings, keywords and history, and comes back exactly as it was.

Ad schedules for the hours you answer

The same thinking applies outside holidays. By default a campaign runs around the clock, every day of the week.

An ad schedule limits it to the days and hours you choose. Call extensions can carry a schedule of their own, so the number shows only while somebody can pick up, and everyone else is sent to the form.

A worked example

A two-person trophy and engraving shop in a row of light industrial units closes for the first two weeks of August, as its owners have for years.

Last summer they set the voicemail and the email reply and forgot the ads. Three campaigns ran all fortnight, one with a call extension and the line same-week engraving, call today.

Callers reached a greeting saying the shop was closed. Form enquiries waited in an inbox nobody opened. By the time the owners returned, several teams had ordered their end-of-season trophies elsewhere.

The mechanism was plain. The ads promised an immediate answer, and the business had arranged to give none.

For this year, rules pause two campaigns at closing time on the Friday and restart them on the reopening Monday.

The third keeps running with its call extension switched off and new wording: closed until August 19, send your order now for engraving on our return. The form's confirmation message says the same.

Telling the ads what has changed

Ads that stay on need wording that matches the closure. Remove anything that promises speed: call today, same-week appointments, open Saturdays.

Put the reopening date in the ad itself, so searchers know before they click. Say the same near the top of the page the ad leads to, and set special hours on your Google My Business listing.

Make the changes several days before you leave. New and edited ads are reviewed before they run, which usually takes a day or so, and a holiday is a poor time to find one was held back.

The first morning back

Check that every campaign is running, that the rules actually fired, and that the call extension is showing again.

Restore the normal wording, take down the closure notice and clear the special hours. An ad still saying closed until August 19 in September costs as much as the reverse.

The counter-case

Not every business needs all of this.

One that never closes, or always has somebody on the phone, needs only a schedule that matches its hours. One whose busiest weeks are in summer has no August closure to plan for.

A very small campaign spends little in two weeks, though the unanswered calls still cost goodwill, which matters more than the budget.

For any business that does close, match the ads to what can actually happen on each day you are away.

Before you leave

  1. List every campaign in every ad account.
  2. Decide pause or adjust for each one.
  3. Set rules to pause and restart on the right dates.
  4. Schedule the call extension off while closed.
  5. Rewrite ads that promise what cannot happen.
  6. Set special hours on your Google listing.
  7. Check everything restarted on the first morning back.

Step three is the one that protects the whole fortnight. The pause depends on somebody remembering at closing time on the busiest day before a holiday, and the restart on the first morning back. Rules remember both.

Making sure the ads reach only people you can serve is covered in location targeting that includes people who are not there.

Frequently asked questions

Do Google Ads stop when my business closes?

No. Ads do not read the sign on your door, your voicemail or your listing. Unless somebody changes the campaign, it keeps spending exactly as it did the week before.

Should I pause ads or keep them running?

Pause if nothing can be answered or booked while you are away. Keep them running only if somebody covers the phone or customers book ahead, and change what the ads promise.

How do I pause campaigns without remembering?

Use automated rules. Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising can pause a campaign at a set time and date and enable it again later, without anybody logging in.

Why switch off the call extension?

A tap on the number is charged like any click. If it rings an empty shop, you pay for a caller who reaches voicemail and usually calls a competitor instead.

What should ads say during a closure?

Remove promises of speed such as call today, and give the reopening date in the ad itself. Make the changes days before you leave, since new ads are reviewed first.

What should I check when I get back?

That every campaign is running again, the rules fired, the call extension is back, the normal wording is restored, and the special hours and closure notice are gone.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Closing the business for part of the summer?

Tell us your dates. We will set your campaigns to pause and restart on time, and fix what the ads promise.

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