Plan the year on one calendar. Sell renewals in winter, raise your Local Services budget before spring, sell sprinkler checks in March and April, cut spend when routes are full and push fall cleanups in October. Write the year of Business Profile posts in one afternoon. Never trade a discount for a review.
What Changed
- Google's Local Services monthly max is your weekly budget times 30.4, divided by 7.
- You can change that budget any time, so it works as a season dial.
- Business Profile posts can be scheduled and set to repeat.
- EPA says a leaky irrigation system can waste up to 25,000 gallons in a six month season.
- The FTC bans paying for good reviews, and Google can freeze your reviews for incentives.
A Flat Budget Pays Full Price for Leads You Cannot Use
We look at a lot of landscaping setups. The worst mistake is a flat year. The same ad budget in July, when every route is full and the crew is turning work away, as in March, when the phone is just waking up. Then January comes and there is no list to call.
A lawn crew does not have one business. It has four, one per season, and each wants something different from your marketing. Winter wants renewals. Spring wants new customers fast. Summer wants bigger jobs, not more mowing. Fall wants cleanups and next year's contracts.
Most guides on this topic hand you a list of channels. Website, ads, flyers, social. None of them says when to run what. That timing is the whole game. So this is the year on one page.
The 12-Month Landscaping Calendar
This is the framework. Each month has one job for the phone, one for your profile and one for your ad budget. Shift the rows a few weeks earlier in warm states and later in cold ones. Your own call log from last year is the best guide to where your spring starts.
| Month | Main job | Profile post | Ad budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Call last year's plan customers to renew | Snow work or winter pruning | Low |
| February | Call one time customers with a spring plan offer | Spring booking now open | Low, start to raise late in the month |
| March | Sell cleanups and sprinkler checks | Spring cleanup photos | Raise |
| April | Fill routes, answer every call | Sprinkler check and first mow | High |
| May | Offer a plan at every one time job | Before and after yards | High |
| June | Push bigger jobs like patios and beds | Finished project photos | Hold or trim |
| July | Ask every customer for a review | Watering tips for the heat | Trim if routes are full |
| August | Quote fall work to current customers | Aeration and seeding dates | Low to medium |
| September | Book aeration, seeding and fall cleanups | Fall cleanup booking open | Medium |
| October | Run cleanups, offer next year's plan | Leaf removal photos | Medium |
| November | Final cleanups, winterize sprinklers | Snow removal if you plow | Low |
| December | Build next year's renewal list | Thank you and spring dates | Low |
Print it. Tape it in the shop. The rest of this piece explains why each row is there.
Use the Local Services Budget as a Season Dial
Local Services Ads are built for this. You set an average weekly budget, and Google sets a monthly max from it. The help page gives the exact formula. The monthly max is your average weekly budget times 30.4, divided by 7. Once you hit it, your ad stops showing for the rest of the month.
The same page says you can change the budget any time and as many times as you like. When you do, the new number sets what you can spend for the rest of the month, no matter what you already spent. That makes it a dial, not a contract. Turn it up in March. Turn it down in July when the routes are full.
Take made up round numbers, using Google's formula. A weekly budget of $350 gives a monthly max of $1,520. Raise it to $700 a week for spring, and the max becomes $3,040. Drop it back to $350 in July, and you stop paying spring prices for leads your crew has no room to take.
Watch the missed calls while the budget is high. A crew on mowers all day misses a lot of them, and Google now bills some missed calls. We covered that in our missed call story. A text back on every missed call is the cheapest fix there is.
Write the Year of Posts in One Afternoon
Your Business Profile works all year, but most crews only touch it when they remember. Fix that on a rainy day in December.
Google lets you schedule a post to publish later and set it to repeat weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule. The same page says posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set. So sit down once, write one post per row of the calendar and schedule them all.
- Use real photos of real yards, with the town in the text.
- Use an Offer post for a spring cleanup deal, with dates and terms.
- Add a button that books or calls, not one that goes to your home page.
- Swap in a fresh photo the week each post goes live, if you have one.
Google also warns that a post with a phone number it cannot tie to the business might be rejected. Keep your number on the profile and out of the post text. If you have not claimed the profile yet, start with our guide to claiming a Business Profile.
Sell the Spring Sprinkler Check
March and April need a reason to call. Cleanups are one. Sprinkler checks are a better one, because the government is already telling your customers to get one.
The EPA's WaterSense program says residential outdoor water use is nearly 8 billion gallons a day, mainly for landscape irrigation. It also says the average household uses more water outdoors than for showers and laundry combined.
Its Sprinkler Spruce-Up page goes further. It says homes with clock timer irrigation use about 50 percent more water outdoors than homes without, and that a leaky system can waste up to 25,000 gallons and $280 over a six month season. It boils the fix down to four steps. Inspect, connect, direct and select.
That is a ready made spring offer. Call every customer with an irrigation system and offer the four step check. You find the broken heads and the leaks, and you quote the repairs on the spot. A small job opens the gate to bigger ones.
Sell the Second Visit
A maintenance plan is next year's lead you already closed. Every weekly mow, monthly bed cleanup or spring and fall aeration deal you sign is work you do not have to find again.
- Offer a plan at the end of every one time job, while the yard still looks good.
- Price it by the season, so the homeowner knows the total up front.
- Call last year's plan customers in January, before other crews knock.
- Use November and December to sell spring plans to anyone who booked a single job.
This changes how you read your numbers. If half your spring is already booked from renewals, you need far fewer new leads. Your spring budget can chase bigger jobs instead of filling every route.
The Review Rule Where Google Is Stricter
Reviews help every crew, so everyone wants more. Many owners have heard a small thank you for a review is fine. That is half right, and the wrong half can freeze your reviews.
The FTC published its rule on reviews in August 2024. Section 465.4 makes it unlawful to offer compensation or other incentives in exchange for reviews that express a particular sentiment, positive or negative. The same rule bans fake reviews and bans threats used to get bad reviews taken down.
Google goes further. It says it takes fake and incentivized reviews very seriously. If it finds a violation, it may stop your profile from getting new reviews, hide the reviews you have or show a warning that fake reviews were removed. So a ten dollars off your next mow card might pass the FTC test and still cost you your reviews on Google. Your reviews live on Google. Follow Google.
- Ask every customer, not just the ones who smiled.
- Ask the day the job is done, with a direct link.
- Reply to every review, good or bad, in plain words.
Our free review link generator makes the direct link in a few seconds.
What to Do This Month
It is October. For most crews that means cleanups now and a long quiet stretch ahead. Use the October and November rows.
- Post five real cleanup photos to your profile this week.
- At every cleanup, offer a spring plan before you pull out of the driveway.
- If you plow, add snow removal to the profile now, not after the first storm.
- Pull your review request card or text. If it promises anything in return, rewrite it.
- Block one afternoon in December to schedule next year's posts.
Judge every channel on cost per booked job, from your own tracked calls. If calls come in and jobs do not, look at how fast you call back before you blame the source. Our piece on sites that rank but never ring walks through the usual leaks.
How We Keep Landscaping Crews Booked
We do not have a landscaping client to show you yet, so we will not pretend we do. What we can show is the same setup for other crews that work at the customer's house.
- The phone. Every channel gets its own tracking line that rings the owner's cell and texts back a missed caller right away. Our missed call calculator shows what a summer of missed calls costs.
- The profile. Services, towns, real photos, a year of scheduled posts and a review link sent after every job. That is the core of Clickflame's local search work.
- The ads. Local Services and Search, with the budget raised before spring and cut back when routes are full. See how we run paid ads.
Our own proof comes from a business that also works in the customer's driveway. Huey's Mobile is a mobile mechanic in Monroe, North Carolina, and he has more than 130 Google reviews, rated 5.0. That is in the Huey's Mobile case study. A steady review habit after every job is the same habit that fills a lawn route.
Evidence
Every number in this story comes from one of these. If a figure is ours, the paragraph says so.
- Google Local Services Help, how to edit your budget
- Google Business Profile Help, create and manage posts
- Google Business Profile Help, restrictions for policy violations
- EPA WaterSense, Sprinkler Spruce-Up
- EPA WaterSense, outdoors
- eCFR, 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials
Clickflame builds the websites and runs the local search and ads for service businesses that live on the phone ringing. See how we run local search for landscaping crews, look at the work, or pick a time and we will look at your numbers with you.
Help Desk Answers
When should landscapers start advertising for spring?
A few weeks before the phone wakes up on its own, not after. For many crews that is late February or March. Look at last year's call log for the week calls started to climb, and raise your budget two to three weeks before it.
How does the Local Services Ads budget work?
You set an average weekly budget. Google sets a monthly max equal to the weekly budget times 30.4, divided by 7, and your ad stops showing for the month once you hit it. You can change the budget any time, and the new number sets what you can spend for the rest of the month.
What should I post on my Google Business Profile as a landscaper?
Post real photos of finished yards with the town in the text, and time each post to the season. Spring cleanups and sprinkler checks in March, plan renewals in winter, leaf removal in fall. You can write them ahead and schedule them, and set some to repeat.
Can I give a discount for a Google review?
No. The FTC bans rewards tied to a positive or negative review, and Google goes further. It takes incentivized reviews seriously and can stop your profile from getting new reviews, hide the ones you have or show a warning to customers.
How do I get landscaping work in the winter?
Use winter to sell. Call every customer who booked a single job last year and offer a spring plan. Add snow removal to your profile if you plow. Write your spring posts and set your spring ad budget before the rush.
Should I offer sprinkler checks?
If your crew can do them, yes. The EPA runs a yearly push called Sprinkler Spruce-Up and says homes with clock timer irrigation use about 50 percent more water outdoors. A spring check is an easy reason to call past customers and a door into bigger repair jobs.
