Which summer are you in?
Peak-summer businesses — HVAC, roofing, landscaping, pools, tourism, restaurants with patios — have four months that determine the year. Off-summer businesses — tax and financial services, most B2B, indoor entertainment, some medical — watch demand fall while attention scatters.
The plans should look almost nothing alike, and yet most providers run the same plan year-round with a seasonal image swap.
If summer is your peak
Do not discount. You will be capacity-constrained; price accordingly and sell availability instead of savings.
Spend on capture, aggressively. Every search you miss in July is revenue you cannot recover in November. Raise budgets to the point where you are winning most of the available demand, and accept a higher cost per lead than you would tolerate off-season — a lead in peak converts better and is worth more.
And book the shoulder season now. The best time to sell September work is August, while you still have their attention.
If summer is your trough
Stop trying to force conversions that are not there and buy cheap attention instead. Summer is the best-value demand-creation window of the year — streaming, audio, and social reach are inexpensive while everyone is outdoors and distracted.
Use it to build the recognition you will convert in autumn. Then move the budget to capture the moment the season turns.
The mistake both make
Judging summer by the same cost-per-lead benchmark as the rest of the year. Peak-season leads should cost more and be worth more; off-season attention should cost less and convert later.
One number applied to two different jobs will tell you to do the wrong thing twice a year.