HVAC marketing measured in booked jobs, not leads.
Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Meta for heating and cooling contractors — run around the three things that decide HVAC margin: the weather, the after-hours phone, and whether a repair call becomes a replacement quote.
Where HVAC budgets leak
Five places HVAC ad spend goes missing.
Each one sits between the click and the booked job. Most accounts we look at have more than one — the budget leak check scores yours in two minutes.
- 01HVAC leak
Budgets that react a month late
Demand jumps on the first hot or first freezing day of the season. A flat monthly budget runs dry in the spike and sits idle in mild weeks.
The fix: Daily pacing that follows the forecast, with caps raised before the heat wave or cold snap — not in next month’s review.
- 02HVAC leak
Repairs and replacements bid as one
A no-cool repair call and a full system replacement can cost about the same click and be worth very different amounts.
The fix: Separate campaigns and landing pages for repair, replacement and maintenance, each with a target set from its own ticket and margin.
- 03HVAC leak
The tune-up that never becomes a quote
Maintenance offers fill the schedule cheaply. If aging equipment is never flagged on site, the replacement opportunity walks out the door.
The fix: Track which visits produce a replacement estimate, and bid toward the offers and areas that create them.
- 04HVAC leak
After-hours no-heat and no-cool calls
Peak-weather emergencies often land in the evening and at weekends. A caller who reaches voicemail rings the next company in the results.
The fix: Answering cover for every hour you advertise — or an ad schedule that matches the hours someone actually picks up.
- 05HVAC leak
Leads counted, installs not
If the account counts any call over a minute as a conversion, bidding learns to find more of those, wrong numbers and price shoppers included.
The fix: Import booked jobs and sold installs from your CRM as offline conversions, with their value, so bidding learns what a customer looks like.
How we run it
Every service line gets its own lane.
Different jobs, different searches, different value. Each line gets its own campaigns, pages and target — and its own definition of a win.
Emergency repair
No heat, no cool, today.
Local Services Ads and high-intent search, call-focused in peak weather, scheduled to the hours calls are answered.
Counted as a winBooked repair calls
Replacement & installation
The highest ticket, and the longest decision.
Search on replacement terms, financing-led landing pages, and retargeting through the comparison window.
Counted as a winSold installs and revenue
Maintenance & plans
The schedule-filler that feeds everything else.
Tune-up and membership offers on search and Meta, pushed hardest in the shoulder seasons.
Counted as a winBooked visits, plan sign-ups, replacement estimates created
Indoor air quality
Add-ons that ride on visits you already have.
Mostly attached to service and maintenance traffic rather than bought on its own.
Counted as a winAttached revenue per visit
The HVAC year
Budgets that move when demand does.
A typical pattern in most U.S. markets. Your own call data decides the real curve — we build pacing from it, not from a template.
Spring
Tune-up offers and early cooling checks; the best time to build the maintenance list before demand spikes.
Summer
No-cool emergencies and the replacement peak. Budgets need headroom on hot days, and after-hours cover matters most.
Fall
Furnace tune-ups and heating checks. Replacement quotes from the summer still closing.
Winter
No-heat emergencies and replace-on-failure jobs in colder markets. Warm-climate markets shift the curve toward cooling.
HVAC marketing questions
How much should an HVAC company spend on Google Ads?
There is no single right number: it depends on your market, the season and how much crew capacity you have. Start from what a job is worth. Break-even cost per booked job is average ticket × gross margin; spend can keep rising while your real cost per booked job stays comfortably under that line and you can still run the work. The cost per lead calculator does this arithmetic on your own numbers.
Are Local Services Ads worth it for HVAC?
For emergency repair, usually yes. They appear above regular search ads and charge per lead rather than per click (how we manage them). They work best alongside search campaigns rather than instead of them, and only if calls are answered quickly — responsiveness and reviews affect how often they show.
What is a good cost per lead for HVAC?
It varies too much by market, season and service line to quote one figure, and a replacement lead can be worth many repair leads. Judge leads by cost per booked job against your break-even instead; a cheaper lead that books less often is not cheaper.
How long does HVAC marketing take to work?
Campaigns are typically live two to four weeks from a signed scope, with measurement built first. The comparison that matters is a full season against the same season before, in booked jobs and revenue.
The free 90-day account audit
We'll show you the leak before you pay us anything.
Three business days. A written three-fix priority list, and your real cost per booked job — calculated properly, probably for the first time.