It’s late September. Christmas feels like someone else’s problem. But if any part of your revenue spikes in November and December (gifts, food, events, beauty, even trades booked before the in-laws arrive), the work that decides your December happens in October. Leave it until the lights go up and you’ll pay more for ads, scramble on stock pages, and watch organised competitors take the easy sales.
Here’s the eight-week countdown we’d run for you.
The eight-week Christmas countdown
Christmas marketing is mostly logistics with tinsel on. The ideas matter less than the sequencing. Work backwards from your last realistic order or booking date, and slot the jobs in like this.
| Weeks before Christmas | What to do |
|---|---|
| 8 (early October) | Test your website speed, mobile checkout and forms. Fix now, not in November |
| 7 | Decide your seasonal offers and your last order or booking dates |
| 6 | Build or update seasonal pages so Google has time to index them |
| 5 | Set ad budgets and creative, ready to launch before auction prices climb |
| 4 (late November) | Launch ads, update Google Business Profile hours and posts |
| 3 | Push email and social hard, feature gift guides and deadlines |
| 2 | Repeat your last order dates everywhere, answer enquiries fast |
| 1 | Switch messaging to vouchers, gift cards and January bookings |
Print that, stick it by the kettle, and December stops being a panic.
Week 8 to 6: get the foundations ready
Your website takes the strain first. A checkout that creaks in July will fall over in December. Run through your site on your own phone: how fast does it load, does the contact form actually send, can someone pay without creating an account? If you sell products and the site itself is the weak link, it’s worth reading our breakdown of what an ecommerce website costs before the rush rather than after it exposes the problems.
Seasonal pages need a head start. A “Christmas gifts” category, a “book your December party” page, a “winter boiler service” offer. Whatever yours is, publish it six weeks out, because search engines need time to find and rank new pages. A page published in mid-December is a page nobody finds until January.
Sort your dates now. Last order date for delivery, last booking date, holiday opening hours. Decide them in October, then repeat them relentlessly later.
Week 5 to 4: ads, offers and your Google Business Profile
Advertising costs rise in the run-up to Christmas because every retailer is bidding at once. The practical response is simple: have your campaigns built and approved early, so you’re refining in December instead of building. If you’re new to paid traffic, our guides to Google Ads costs and Facebook ad budgets cover what UK small businesses really pay. As with everything we run, ad spend is separate from any management fee, so decide both numbers up front.
Keep offers simple. One clear seasonal offer beats five confusing ones, and “free delivery before 18 December” style deadlines work because they’re concrete. Never invent scarcity that isn’t real: fake urgency breaches advertising rules and customers smell it anyway.
Then give your Google Business Profile ten minutes. Add special opening hours for the holidays, post your offer as an update, and check your phone number and address are right. Every December, customers stand outside shut shops that told Google they were open. Don’t be one of them.
Week 3 to 1: make the noise
Now the visible bit. Email your list with your gift guide or seasonal offer, because the people who already know you are the cheapest sales you’ll make. On social, plan posts in batches rather than daily improvising. If the blank page is the blocker, steal from our 30 days of social content ideas and give them a seasonal twist.
The single most useful message in the final fortnight is the boring one: your last order or booking date. Say it in every channel, more than once. It converts fence-sitters better than any discount because it answers the only question that matters in December: “will it arrive in time?”
And in the last week, when your deadline has passed, don’t go quiet. Switch to gift vouchers, gift cards and January availability. For service businesses, “January slots are open now” quietly fills the worst month of the year.
The bit nobody does: January
Take an hour between Christmas and New Year to write down what worked: which offer sold, which post pulled enquiries, what your busiest week was. Next September, you’ll have a plan instead of a memory. That note is the difference between repeating this scramble annually and getting a little more out of every Christmas.
If you’d rather hand the whole countdown to someone else this year, that’s exactly the kind of thing we do on a fixed monthly price. See what each plan costs and get it off your plate before October.
Frequently asked questions
When should a small business start Christmas marketing?
Early October, roughly eight weeks out. That leaves time to fix your website, publish seasonal pages so they can rank, and build ad campaigns before costs rise with seasonal competition. The visible push (emails, social posts, ads) then runs from mid-November, with all the groundwork already done.
What are the best Christmas marketing ideas for a small business?
One clear seasonal offer, a gift guide or seasonal page published six weeks early, updated Google Business Profile hours, a simple email to existing customers, and relentless repetition of your last order or booking date. In the final week, switch to gift vouchers and January bookings so the season keeps paying after the deadline.
Why do ads cost more at Christmas?
Ad platforms sell space by auction, and in November and December far more businesses bid at once, so prices per click rise with the competition. You can’t control that, but launching early, targeting tightly and sending clicks to a dedicated seasonal page all help every pound work harder. Ad spend is always separate from management fees.
Do Christmas campaigns work for service businesses too?
Yes. Trades get booked before family visits, cleaners and beauticians see pre-Christmas surges, and accountants sit before January deadlines. The same countdown applies: a seasonal offer, updated hours, and a clear “book by” date. Gift vouchers work especially well for service businesses because they turn December goodwill into January revenue.
What should I do if I’ve left it too late this year?
Skip what needs lead time and grab what doesn’t. Update your Google Business Profile hours, email your existing customers with one clear offer, and state your last order or booking date everywhere. Then diarise early October next year. A late, simple push to people who already know you still beats silence.
Want this done for you? See our paid media services, or compare every service and price in one place.
