We are also in Illinois and close to Galesburg area. We have have been in business for over 15 years and cover the Quad City market and surrounding areas of about 75mile radius.
This time of the year is a great time to advertise. The goal of your advertising is to get the phones to ring and fill up your schedual. If by chance weather gets to cold, rainy, or hoilday seasons slow customers buying power down this is all fine. Because now you have a stock pile of customers for the spring time to get started.
So I would say YES, this is the best time of the year to advertise. We have a huge marketing campaign in the fall to keep all of our six full timers busy as long as possible. And if we can not get to all of the work our customers understand and waite untill spring. With the over load of those customers and new spring customers we are always busy.