National · HVAC PPC

PPC for HVAC, built for booked jobs not clicks.

HVAC advertising is emergency intent stacked on top of brutal seasonality and $30 clicks. We run campaigns that pair Local Services Ads with a disciplined Search account, respect weather-driven demand, and send traffic to landing pages built for one thing: a booked service call.

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Dispatch live

Managed spend

$100M+

Avg. portfolio ROAS

4.1x

Years in paid media

14 yrs

Why HVAC PPC is its own animal.

Three things separate HVAC from every other paid-search vertical. First, the intent split: an "AC repair near me" search at 9pm in July is a wildly different buyer than a "new HVAC system cost" search in October. Same account, opposite campaigns, opposite landing pages. Treat them the same and both underperform. Second, seasonality: peak demand can be 3x to 5x shoulder-season demand. Static monthly budgets waste money in April and starve you in July. Third, cost per click: emergency HVAC keywords are among the most expensive in home services, and one accidentally-broad-matched query can eat a daily budget before lunch.

The winning approach is boring on purpose: Local Services Ads for repair intent, Search Ads for installation and replacement, campaign structure split by service line and by season, ad copy that speaks to the actual problem (no heat, no cool, water on the floor), and landing pages that give a phone number, a live-answer promise, and a real service window.

The intake gap

The single most expensive mistake in HVAC advertising is a missed phone call. The majority of HVAC leads come in by phone, not by form. If the intake voicemail catches even 10 percent of them, you are paying for leads you never work. Fix intake before you touch bids.

Service lines

Every service line runs differently.

AC repair, system installation, and duct cleaning are not the same auction, not the same audience, and not the same landing page. Here is how we approach the most common HVAC service lines.

AC repair

The bread and butter of HVAC PPC. Highest intent, shortest decision cycle, phone-heavy. Every landing page needs a click-to-call above the fold and a live-answer promise. Weather-triggered bid strategies win here.

INS

AC and system installation

Higher ticket ($6,000 to $15,000+), longer consideration window. Landing pages should feature financing options, brand partnerships (Carrier, Trane, Lennox), and in-home estimate scheduling rather than emergency messaging.

FUR

Furnace repair and heating

Seasonal opposite of AC. December through February in most markets, plus cold snaps outside season. Emergency intent dominates: no heat in the house at night is a same-day call every single time.

DCT

Duct cleaning

Lower ticket ($400 to $900) but a strong shoulder-season play that keeps crews busy in April and October. Bundle offers convert better than per-vent pricing.

MTP

Maintenance plans

The most under-advertised HVAC service. Recurring revenue, predictable margin, better close rates from existing repair customers. Run these as a retargeting layer to everyone who touched a repair or installation page.

CML

Commercial HVAC

Different buyer (facility manager, GC), different sales cycle (RFP, bid). Separate campaigns, separate landing pages, LinkedIn retargeting layer. Do not run commercial and residential in the same account.

Channel mix

LSAs, Google Ads, and Facebook: what to run when.

Local Services Ads (LSAs): the top slot on Google for HVAC repair queries. Pay per lead, not per click. Requires Google Guaranteed screening (license, insurance, background checks) and steady review generation. LSAs usually produce the cheapest emergency-repair leads, but Google throttles volume by your review score and response rate. Every serious HVAC account runs LSAs first.

Google Search Ads: control, targeting, and landing-page precision that LSAs do not offer. Where installation, replacement, financing, maintenance plans, and commercial work belong. This is also where negative keyword discipline (DIY, jobs, wholesale, parts, salary) protects the budget. Our full approach is documented in the Austin PPC agency playbook.

Performance Max: useful once the account has enough conversion volume (a couple hundred per month across the account) to feed the algorithm. Do not turn PMax on early or it will cannibalize brand and eat budget without accountability.

Facebook and Instagram: not a strong direct-response channel for emergency HVAC, but excellent for maintenance plan enrollment, replacement financing offers, and retargeting website visitors who did not convert. See our Meta ads approach.

Weather-triggered bidding

The best HVAC accounts push bids up during heat waves and cold snaps automatically, using scripts or third-party tools tied to local temperature. A 5-degree spike in July can double search volume and triple close rates. Static bidding leaves that revenue on the table.

Landing pages

What an HVAC landing page actually needs.

Your homepage is not a landing page. An HVAC landing page has one service focus, one primary action (call now or schedule), no top navigation, and copy written for the exact search that sent the visitor there. Someone searching "AC not blowing cold" needs an AC repair page with a phone number, not a homepage that also mentions duct cleaning and commercial refrigeration.

The pattern that consistently wins:

Headline that names the problem and the city ("AC repair in Phoenix, live-answered 24/7").
Tap-to-call phone number sticky at the top on mobile.
Live-answer promise or a real service window ("technician at your door in 90 minutes or diagnostic is free").
Google Guaranteed badge (from LSAs) or license and insurance information.
Real Google reviews block, not stock testimonials.
Financing options for replacement pages (GoodLeap, Synchrony, Wells Fargo).
Short intake form as a secondary conversion for anyone who will not call at 11pm.
Page speed under 2.5 seconds on 4G mobile. Slow HVAC landing pages bleed leads to the next competitor in the results.

The site architecture that supports this is documented in our guide to structuring a local business website for SEO. Same principles apply for paid landing pages.

Call tracking is not optional

Every landing page number and every LSA number needs to be a tracked line. Without that, you are guessing which keywords produced which jobs, and Google's algorithm optimizes toward form fills instead of booked calls. Import qualified calls back as offline conversions so the auction learns from real revenue.

Budget

How much should an HVAC company spend on Google Ads?

Single-location, one metro: plan for $3,000 to $12,000 per month in media across LSAs and Search combined. Weight it 40 to 60 percent to LSAs during peak repair season. Below $2,000 in a competitive metro you cannot gather enough conversions to optimize.

Multi-location or major metro (Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, LA): $10,000 to $40,000+ per month in media, with July and August often 2x the shoulder-season number. Larger accounts unlock Performance Max, YouTube prospecting, and geo-fenced remarketing.

New HVAC company launching: $2,000 to $4,000 per month for the first 90 days, weighted almost entirely to LSAs and tightly targeted Search on emergency-repair terms in a small geo. Grow the review base before opening up installation and replacement campaigns. See our breakdown of how Google Ads pricing works for the full mechanics.

Management fees

The industry typically prices HVAC PPC management as either a flat monthly retainer ($1,500 to $6,000) or a percentage of media (10 to 20 percent). We quote transparently in every proposal, no long lock-in, cancel any month. Read our full PPC management approach.

Evaluating an agency

How to hire an HVAC PPC agency without getting burned.

Ask three questions on the sales call. First: "Show me an HVAC account you currently manage and walk me through how you split LSAs versus Search versus PMax." If the answer is vague or the account is one campaign with fifty ad groups, walk away. Second: "How do you handle seasonality in bidding and budget?" A real answer names weather-triggered scripts, monthly budget shifts, and specific negative keywords for shoulder season. A bad answer is "we will figure it out." Third: "What is the shortest contract you offer?" Any agency that requires a 12-month lock-in for a channel with a 60-day feedback loop is protecting themselves, not you.

How we work

Month-to-month, no lock-in. Weekly optimization, monthly reporting call, transparent access to your own Google Ads, LSA, and Meta accounts. You own the accounts. If we part ways, you keep the campaigns, the reviews, and the history.

FAQ

HVAC PPC, answered.

Is Google Ads worth it for HVAC companies?

Yes, when the ticket size justifies the cost per lead. An emergency AC repair in July is worth $400 to $900 on the low end and a full system replacement is $6,000 to $15,000+. HVAC companies with real call tracking, a fast landing page, and a live-answer intake typically book a service call for $60 to $220 through Google Ads and a system-replacement lead for $150 to $500. The math almost always works if the phones get answered.

What is a realistic monthly Google Ads budget for HVAC?

A single-location HVAC company in a mid-size US metro usually runs $3,000 to $12,000 per month in media. Multi-location or major-metro companies (Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta) commonly run $10,000 to $40,000+ per month, especially in cooling season. Below $2,000 per month in a competitive market you rarely gather enough conversion data for the algorithm to leave the learning phase.

What do HVAC CPCs typically look like?

Industry-typical ranges: 'AC repair near me' commonly runs $10 to $30 per click. 'Emergency HVAC' and 'furnace repair' can push $15 to $45 in cold snaps or heat waves. 'AC installation' and 'HVAC replacement' land $12 to $35. Major metros run 1.5x to 2x these figures during peak season. These are typical auction ranges reported across home services, not results attributable to any one contractor.

Should HVAC companies run Local Services Ads or Google Ads first?

Run both. Local Services Ads (LSAs) sit above regular Google Ads, are pay-per-lead, and require Google Guaranteed screening. They usually produce the cheapest emergency-repair leads but volume is capped by category demand and by how many competitors show for the same query. Google Search Ads give control over keywords, landing pages, negatives, and geo. Most efficient HVAC accounts run LSAs for repair intent and Search Ads for installation, replacement, and maintenance plans.

How do I handle seasonality in HVAC Google Ads?

Budget by month, not by quarter. Cooling season (May through August in most of the country) and cold snaps drive 60 to 70 percent of the year's search volume. Push aggressive bids and higher daily budgets during peak, pull back on non-emergency campaigns in shoulder seasons, and use shoulder months to grow maintenance-plan enrollment and duct-cleaning revenue that keeps the crew busy year round.

Do HVAC companies need call tracking?

Yes. The majority of HVAC leads come in by phone, not by form. Without call tracking (CallRail, WhatConverts, or similar) you cannot tie a booked service call back to the keyword or ad that produced it, and Google's algorithm cannot optimize toward real jobs. Track every landing page number, import qualified calls back into Google Ads as offline conversions, and record calls to coach the intake team.

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