Solved: Should I Pause Ads Over July 4th Holiday?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your question about running ads over the July 4th holiday. It’s a common query, but the standard advice to just pause everything is, frankly, a massive mistake that costs businesses a lot more than just a few days of ad spend.

The short answer is no, you absolutely should not pause your campaigns. In fact, you should see the holiday as a potential opportunity. The real issue isn't whether your ads are running, but that your lead capture process is tied to your office hours. We'll need to fix that so you can generate leads 24/7, regardless of whether you're in the office or not. Let's get into it.

Why Pausing Your Ads is a Financially Flawed Decision...

I see this all the time. A business owner looks at a public holiday, sees a closed office, and logically concludes they should turn off the ad spend tap to save money. On the surface, it makes sense. In reality, it's one of the most counter-productive things you can do to a healthy paid search campaign, especially on a platform like Google Ads. Here’s why it’s such a bad idea.

First and foremost, you have to understand that ad platforms like Google and Meta run on complex machine learning algorithms. When you launch a campaign, it enters what's called a "learning phase." During this period, the system is furiously testing thousands of variables: which users are most likely to click, what time of day they search, which devices they use, what combination of your ad copy resonates best. It's gathering data to build a predictive model of who your ideal customer is and how to reach them cost-effectively. This phase can take several days and consume a fair bit of budget, but it's an essential investment. Once the algorithm exits this phase, your campaign performance typically stabilises, and your Cost Per Lead (CPL) becomes more predictable and efficient.

When you hit the "pause" button, even for just a day or two, you're throwing a massive spanner in the works. You are effectively telling the algorithm to discard much of what it's learned. When you turn the campaign back on, it doesn't just pick up where it left off. It has to re-enter a learning phase. This means you'll likely see a period of volatility and inefficiency for a few days after the holiday. Your costs per click might spike, your click-through rates might drop, and your cost per lead will almost certainly be higher than it was before you paused. You're essentially paying to re-educate the system, burning budget to get back to the level of performance you already had. It’s a completely unforced error.

Secondly, you're willingly giving up market share to your competitors. Let's be honest, most of your competitors are probably thinking the exact same thing you are: "It's a holiday, let's pause the ads." When they all pull back, the auction landscape changes dramatically. With fewer advertisers bidding, the competition for keywords decreases. What does that mean for you? Lower Cost Per Clicks (CPCs). You could potentially acquire clicks—and therefore leads—for a fraction of the normal cost. By staying in the auction while everyone else leaves, you get to dominate the search results page, capture all that intent, and do it at a discount. Pausing is like packing up your stall at a market just as a huge crowd walks in because you assume they won't be buying. It’s a massive missed opportunity.

Your Customer Doesn't Take a Holiday From Their Problems...

Now let's talk about your customer. You're selling commercial insurance. This isn't an impulse buy. It's a considered purchase made by busy business owners, directors, and managers. Their week is filled with putting out fires, managing staff, and dealing with the day-to-day operations. When do you think they actually have the time to step back and think strategically about things like insurance coverage? It's often during the quiet moments—evenings, weekends, and yes, public holidays.

The July 4th holiday might be the one day that a business owner isn't swamped with meetings and has a spare hour to finally research that new policy they've been putting off for months. The search intent—the underlying need for a solution—doesn't vanish because the calendar says it's a holiday. If anything, the freedom from the daily grind can actually *increase* search volume for B2B services. They might be sitting on their sofa, scrolling on their iPad, and finally decide to type "public liability insurance for contractors" into Google. If your ad isn't there, you can be sure your competitor's ad will be. You've lost a potential lead before you even knew they existed.

Remember, your website is your 24/7 salesperson. It doesn't take holidays. Your ads are simply the signposts directing traffic to that salesperson. Turning off the signposts because the back office is closed is a fundamental misunderstanding of how digital lead generation works. You need to untether your lead capture from your physical office presence. This is the core strategic shift you need to make.

The Real Problem: Your Lead Capture is Stuck in the Office...

So, we've established that pausing is bad for the algorithm and that your customers are still searching. This brings us to the crux of the issue. The problem isn't the ads running on July 4th; the problem is that your process for handling the resulting leads is entirely dependent on someone being physically present to answer a phone.

This is a fragile, outdated model. In today's digital world, you need to build a system that can capture intent the moment it arises, whether that's at 2 PM on a Tuesday or 10 PM on a Sunday. By forcing every potential lead down the single path of a synchronous phone call during office hours, you are creating unnecessary friction and losing a huge number of potential customers who are ready to engage on their own terms.

Think about the user journey. Someone searches, clicks your ad, and lands on your site. They are interested. They want to take the next step. But your call to action is "Call Us Now," and it's a holiday. What happens? Best case, they make a note to call you back next week (unlikely, they'll forget). Worst case, and far more likely, they hit the back button and click on your competitor's ad, who has a simple "Get a Free Quote" form they can fill out in two minutes. You've paid for the click, sparked their interest, and then handed the lead directly to someone else. It's madness.

How to Capture Leads 24/7 (Even While You're at a BBQ)...

The solution is to diversify and automate your lead capture methods. You need to give potential clients multiple, low-friction ways to signal their interest and provide their details, none of which require a live person on the other end. Here’s the practical toolkit:

1. Google Ads Lead Form Extensions: This is probably the most powerful and immediate fix. It's an ad extension that, when clicked on mobile, opens a pre-filled form directly within the Google search interface. It pulls the user's name and email from their Google account, so all they have to do is confirm their phone number and hit submit. The friction is almost zero. The lead data can be emailed directly to you or, even better, piped straight into a CRM or a simple Google Sheet via a webhook. It's a self-contained lead generation machine that works completely independently of your website or your office hours.

2. A Prominent Website Lead Form: Your landing page should have a clear, simple, and compelling form right at the top. Don't hide it. Don't make them hunt for it. The headline should promise value ("Get a Custom Commercial Insurance Quote in 24 Hours"), and the form should ask for the absolute minimum information required: Name, Company, Email, Phone. Every extra field you add will reduce your conversion rate. Make it as easy as possible for them to give you their information.

3. A Callback Widget: These are fantastic tools. A small button sits in the corner of your site, saying something like "Request a Call Back." The user clicks it, enters their phone number, and the system confirms that someone will call them back during business hours. I remember one campaign we worked on for an HVAC company where their callback widget became a huge source of leads, especially for out-of-hours traffic. It gives the user a sense of control and captures their intent at its peak, without you needing to have staff on standby.

4. Set Up an Automated Follow-Up: This is the final, crucial piece. The moment someone submits a form or requests a callback, they should receive an instant, automated email. This email does two things: First, it confirms you've received their request, which provides immediate reassurance. Second, it manages their expectations. The email should say something like, "Thanks for your interest! Our office is currently closed for the holiday, but a member of our specialist team will be in touch on the next business day to discuss your quote." This simple step builds trust, positions you as a professional outfit, and keeps the lead warm until you can make personal contact.

Okay, So What's the Actual Plan?...

Putting this all together, the strategy for the July 4th holiday isn't to retreat; it's to adapt your tactics. You should absolutely keep your campaigns running. If you're particularly worried about a change in search behaviour, you could implement a modest budget reduction of, say, 20-30% for the day itself, but do not pause. The main effort should go into setting up your automated lead capture system. This isn't just a fix for one holiday; it's a permanent upgrade to your entire marketing operation that will pay dividends every single evening, weekend, and future holiday.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a clear, actionable format. This is the exact approach we would take for a client in your situation to not only protect their campaign performance but to actively capitalise on the holiday opportunity.

Getting This Right is More Than Just Flipping a Switch...

Implementing these systems is a significant step forward. But it's really just one piece of the wider paid advertising puzzle. True success in generating a consistent, profitable flow of leads for a business like yours comes from relentless optimisation. It involves constantly testing ad copy to find messages that resonate, refining keyword targeting to eliminate wasted spend, analysing auction insights to stay ahead of the competition, and making data-driven adjustments to your landing pages to improve conversion rates.

For B2B services like insurance, the sales cycle is longer and the value of a client is high. This means you can't just look at the cost per lead; you have to understand the entire journey from click to closed deal. This is where deep expertise becomes invaluable. An experienced eye can spot trends and opportunities in the data that are invisible to the untrained user, turning a campaign that's just "ticking over" into a powerful engine for business growth.

If this all seems a bit daunting, don't worry. This is what we do day in, day out. We help businesses navigate these complexities and build robust, scalable lead generation systems. If you'd like to have a chat, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we can take a look at your current ad account and provide some specific, actionable advice on how you can improve performance.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh