Sierra Lights
Where the holiday lights launch stands ten days in: the ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google, the enquiries so far, the new Google profile and website, and how Sierra Lights shows up when people search on Google and ask ChatGPT. Ad figures cover September 27 to October 4, 2026.
The holiday lights ads went live on September 27. In the eight full days to October 4 they put Sierra Lights in front of 3,044 people across Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton, who played the video 1,239 times, and there have been three enquiries from two people.
| Who | Where | Package | How it came in |
|---|---|---|---|
| DavidSep 28, 11:25 PM | Squamish | The Roofline | The website, through the link on the new Google profile. Meta records he had watched the video ad that day. |
| DavidOct 1, 11:25 AM | Squamish | Not asked on the form | The form inside Facebook, coming back with a full phone number. |
| PennyOct 3, 4:16 PM | Somewhere else | Not asked on the form | The form inside Instagram. |
Most of the money is on Facebook and Instagram at this stage on purpose. That is where people can be reached before they start searching, and it is what puts the name and the look of the lights in front of them first. Google only spends when somebody searches and clicks, and those searches are still building (section 3).
The first enquiry shows the channels working together. David watched the video ad, found the new Google profile, tapped through to the website and asked for a quote on The Roofline the same night. On October 1 he came back through the form inside Facebook. All three enquiries reached sales@ and the Sierra Lights sheet within minutes of being sent.
One campaign covering Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton and 17 km around each, at $25 a day through to December 15. As requested, it runs both ways of enquiring side by side: a tap through to sierralights.ca, or a short form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram with the person's details already filled in. Meta is set to find the people most likely to enquire, rather than the most clicks.
Your Home, Lit For The Season
See your own home lit up before you commit. We send you a mock-up of your property, then install, maintain and take everything down in the new year. One price, with nothing added on later.
- Spend
- $123.26
- Seen
- 4,583
- Video plays
- 758
- Link clicks
- 33
- Enquiries
- 2
Full Service Holiday Light Installation
Holiday lights, fully taken care of. We design, install and look after your holiday lights all season, then take them down and store them for next year. Nothing to buy and nothing to store. Serving Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton.
- Spend
- $44.38
- Seen
- 1,602
- Video plays
- 282
- Link clicks
- 12
- Enquiries
- 1
Rated 5.0 on Google
Stay off the ladder this year. Sierra has looked after 500+ properties across the Sea to Sky for over 15 years. Commercial-grade warm white LEDs, hidden wiring and a timer set for you. Packages from $600 + tax.
- Spend
- $34.65
- Seen
- 1,084
- Video plays
- 199
- Link clicks
- 5
- Enquiries
- 0
Over the ten days Meta has put most of the budget behind Option 3, the mock-up wording, giving it 61% of the spend, and both form enquiries came from it. The line it leads with is "See your own home lit up before you commit", the same promise the website and the quote form make. That is the most distinctive thing Sierra Lights offers, and so far it is drawing the most response.
Ten days is early. Meta is still in its learning phase, where it works out who responds, and it learns fastest when the campaign is left alone. The plan is to leave the set-up as it is until the photos and video from the installs are ready, then add them to this same campaign.
The Christmas lights search campaign now sends people straight to sierralights.ca, with a new ad that went live on September 28. It covers Whistler and 20 km around it, and a second lights ad reaches people searching from further away, such as second-home owners. It spends only when someone searches and clicks.
Christmas Light Installation | Packages From $600 + Tax | Sierra Lights Whistler
Full service holiday light installation in Whistler and the Sea to Sky. Free quotes. We install, maintain all season, then take down and store your lights for next year.
One of the combinations Google shows. The ad carries 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, including "See Your Home Lit Up First", "Stays-Lit Season Guarantee", "Nothing To Buy Or Store" and "5.0 Google Rating", and Google mixes them to suit each search.
last year
The chart is last season's version of this same campaign, and it is the best guide to what comes next. The gold bar is this same week last year, before the searching had really started. By mid-October the ad was being shown nearly twice as often, and the busy stretch ran from mid-November to just before Christmas, peaking in the first week of December. Two thirds of last season's clicks came in the eight weeks from early November.
Searches are still light at this time of year, and this week the ad showed for just over half of the searches it qualified for.
The new Sierra Christmas Lights Whistler profile is verified and listed as a Lighting contractor, the category Google uses for holiday light installers. On September 28 it was filled in with the website link, a description, nine services, the new Sierra Lights logo and real photos from Sierra's own installs.
Sierra Christmas Lights Whistler
Lighting contractor · Whistler · (604) 905-9089 · sierralights.ca
- Profile views
- 52
- Directions
- 13
- Website clicks
- 3
- Calls
- 0
- Reviews
- 0
| Search on Google Maps | Position | Listing |
|---|---|---|
| christmas light installation whistler | #3 | Sierra Christmas Lights Whistler |
| holiday light installation whistler | #3 | Sierra Christmas Lights Whistler |
Within weeks of going live, the profile is already third in Google Maps for both installation searches in Whistler, ahead of Whistler Lights and its 27 reviews rated 5.0. The website link went on September 28, and that same night David found the profile, tapped through to the site and asked for a quote.
Reviews. The main Sierra profile has 236 reviews rated 5.0, but they belong to that profile and do not carry across, so this one starts from zero. Reviews are one of the main things Google uses to decide who sits at the top of the map results, and the profile is already in the top three without any. Asking last season's lights customers now, and every new install as the lights go on, is the quickest way up. A QR code on the door hangers and yard signs that opens the review box would make it a one-tap job.
sierralights.ca has been live since September 19 and now carries the new logo. It is a single page built around the three packages, with quote buttons throughout and the before and after slider showing a home lit up.
Every enquiry, from the website or from the forms inside Facebook and Instagram, lands as a row in the Sierra Lights sheet and as an email to sales@ within minutes. The phone field checks the number before it can be sent, with a country picker for out-of-town owners, so a missed digit is caught on the spot, and the email for a Facebook or Instagram enquiry carries a warning line if the number looks wrong.
The site also has its own privacy policy and terms, and every enquiry made on it is reported back to Meta and Google, so each platform can see which ads lead to real requests and spend accordingly.
A new website has to earn its place in Google. Since launch the site has been set up so that Google and the AI assistants can read it properly: the packages, prices and frequently asked questions are marked up in the format search engines read, every photo is labelled, a site map has been submitted to Google and Bing, and the old Christmas lights page on sierraservices.ca now points to sierralights.ca so its standing can pass across over the coming weeks.
| Search on Google, Whistler | Position | Page |
|---|---|---|
| christmas light installation whistler | #6 | sierralights.ca |
| holiday light installation whistler | #7 | sierralights.ca |
Two weeks after launch, sierralights.ca is on the first page of Google in Whistler for both "christmas light installation whistler" (#6) and "holiday light installation whistler" (#7), and it is already bringing in visitors from the installation searches in the table beside.
A new domain takes some months to build trust with Google, so this season the Google profile and the ads carry most of the search work, while the website builds its standing underneath them for next year.
| What people searched | Shown | Clicks |
|---|---|---|
| christmas light installation whistler | 6 | 3 |
| whistler christmas lights | 2 | 1 |
| sierra lights | 1 | 1 |
| sierra lighting | 1 | 1 |
| christmas lights whistler | 2 | 0 |
I ran the searches a customer would type through ChatGPT, signed out so the answers are what a first-time searcher sees, at least twice each in a fresh browser so no earlier answer could influence the next. The columns count how many of those answers named Sierra Lights, put it in ChatGPT's own short list of recommendations, and quoted its prices.
| Search on ChatGPT | Named | In its picks | Prices quoted | Other companies named |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| christmas light installation whistler | 2 of 2 | 1 of 2 | 2 of 2 | Whistler Lights · Best Coast Christmas Lights · Pure View · LitUp Vancouver |
| holiday light installation whistler | 2 of 2 | 2 of 2 | 2 of 2 | Whistler Lights · Best Coast Christmas Lights · LitUp Vancouver |
| who installs christmas lights in whistler | 2 of 2 | 2 of 2 | 2 of 2 | Best Coast Christmas Lights · Whistler Lights · LitUp Vancouver |
| christmas light installation squamish | 2 of 2 | 0 of 2 | 0 of 2 | Whistler Lights · LitUp Vancouver · Pure View · IntuLight · Best Coast Christmas Lights · Red Alder Electric / Gemstone Lights |
| holiday light installation squamish | 0 of 3 | 0 of 3 | 0 of 3 | Whistler Lights · Best Coast Christmas Lights · LitUp Vancouver · IntuLight |
| christmas light installation pemberton | 0 of 2 | 0 of 2 | 0 of 2 | Whistler Lights · Best Coast Christmas Lights · Borealis Landscape Lighting · Super Natural Landscapes |
ChatGPT has already picked up the new website. Every answer that names Sierra now cites sierralights.ca as its source and reads the packages straight off it: "roofline installations start around $600 + tax, while their roofline + trees + pathways package starts around $1,400 + tax. They include installation, maintenance and takedown." A week ago, run the same way, ChatGPT was still reading Sierra's old lights page and quoted no price for it. Now it singles Sierra Lights out for its pricing: "particularly useful if you want transparent starting prices".
It also puts Sierra Lights in its own recommendation. On "holiday light installation whistler" one answer named it first: "Best overall for a polished residential display: Sierra Lights or Whistler Lights." On "who installs christmas lights in whistler" it called Sierra "particularly convenient" for an all-inclusive service.
Squamish and Pemberton are where there is room to grow. On "christmas light installation squamish" Sierra Lights is named in both answers, lower in the list and without its prices, and it is not yet named on "holiday light installation squamish" or "christmas light installation pemberton". There ChatGPT leads with the companies that are based in those towns or name them on their websites.
"christmas lights whistler" on its own is left out of the table. ChatGPT reads it as somewhere to go and see the lights, and answers with the Village lights, Whistler Winterlight and Vallea Lumina, the same as Google does.
The install photos and video
The photos from Scott's house and the Creekside install are the content the campaign has been waiting for. Once they are in, they go into the ads in the same campaign, and onto the Google profile and the website. By then the website-or-form test will have more to go on, so it will be clearer which to lean on.
Reviews on the new profile
The profile is third in Google Maps with no reviews at all. A handful from last season's lights customers, and a QR code on the door hangers and yard signs, is the quickest way to move it up before the November rush.
Google budget for November and December
The Google campaign is at $6 a day. Last season it ran at about $13 a day through November and December and still missed around a quarter of the searches it qualified for because the day's budget had run out. Worth deciding now how far to lean into Google for the peak, so the budget is in place before the searches arrive.
Let Meta keep learning
Option 3 is in front and the campaign is still learning. Leaving it untouched until the new content is ready gives Meta the best chance to settle on who is most likely to book.