Marketing and AI Automation for HVAC Contractors

For heating and air companies whose phones flood in the first heat wave and go quiet in spring, and who want the slow months to pay for the busy ones.

The first 100-degree week, you need four more techs. In April, you need a reason for the phone to ring.

That swing is not a sales problem. It is a scheduling and follow-up problem. Heating and cooling work arrives in bursts driven by the weather, and most HVAC shops run marketing as if demand were flat: the same ads, the same budget, the same site, all year.

What we would do first

We would split your Google Ads account into the two businesses you actually run: emergency repair when it is hot or cold, and planned replacement and maintenance the rest of the year. Then we would check whether your maintenance-plan customers are being asked to renew on time, because that is the cheapest revenue you have.

Your website: repair now, replace later

HVAC visitors come in two moods. The repair visitor wants a phone number and a same-day slot. The replacement visitor is comparing quotes over a week and wants proof, financing options and an honest answer about equipment.

• A repair page with click-to-call and service hours stated plainly.
• A replacement page that explains sizing, efficiency and what an installation day looks like.
• A maintenance-plan page with what is included and the price.
• Your license number, displayed where the rules require it.

In Texas, 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 75.71 requires advertising that solicits air conditioning or refrigeration business to include the affiliated licensee's license number, the licensee number on all proposals and invoices, and the number with the company name in letters at least two inches high on both sides of every vehicle used for the work. Your site and ads count as advertising.

The replacement page is also where the refrigerant change belongs. The EPA's HFC restrictions for residential air conditioning set a 700 GWP limit for new split systems from January 1, 2025, with no installation deadline for systems whose components were all made or imported before that date. Homeowners hear conflicting versions of this from contractors. Link the EPA's own page and explain what it means for their quote. We build these sites by hand for speed; see our web design work.

Google Ads: two seasons, two budgets

LocaliQ's 2025 Search Ad Benchmarks for Home Services track cooling and heating separately. Air conditioning installation and repair averaged $9.68 per click, a 6.56% conversion rate and $127.74 per lead. Heating and furnaces averaged $9.30 per click, 7.48% and $129.02 per lead.

An illustration, not a forecast, for a Sun Belt shop:

1. Peak months: $2,500 a month on AC repair and replacement. At $127.74 a lead, about 19 leads.
2. Shoulder months: $1,000 a month, weighted toward tune-ups and plan sign-ups. At similar lead costs, about 8 leads, but each plan customer is worth repeat visits.
3. Ad spend goes from your card straight to Google. Our fee stays a flat $300 a month either way.

HVAC is on Google's Local Services Ads list, and like plumbers and electricians it goes through service professional background checks. Local Services Ads suit emergency repair; Search campaigns suit replacement, where you want control of keywords and landing pages. The same seasonal logic, applied to a neighboring trade, is in our post on Google Ads for plumbers in Dallas–Fort Worth, where the February 2021 freeze shows what a weather spike does to an account. If you work in the desert, see Google Ads management in Phoenix; on the Gulf Coast, see Houston.

Automations that fit how HVAC works

1. Maintenance-plan renewals. Each agreement's renewal date drives a reminder sequence and a booking link, 30 days ahead, so plans do not lapse silently.
2. Seasonal tune-up campaign. Before cooling season, every past customer with an older system gets an invitation to book, filtered from your job history rather than sent to everyone.
3. Heat-wave overflow. When the job board passes a threshold, new requests get an honest wait time and a callback slot instead of an unanswered phone.
4. Equipment records from photos. The tech photographs the data plate; model, serial and refrigerant type are read into the customer record, which makes the replacement conversation easier years later.

An illustration of the renewal workflow, assumptions written out: 400 plan customers, 15% who lapse because nobody reminded them, and $180 a year per plan is $10,800 a year in renewals worth chasing. Use your own numbers.

Reminders by text need consent under the TCPA. If you ever use an AI voice for outbound calls, the FCC has ruled that AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the TCPA, so prior consent is required.

Honest limits

If you have fewer than 100 maintenance customers, a spreadsheet and a calendar reminder will do the renewal job. Automate dispatch overflow first. And if your crew is already at capacity every summer, more peak-season ads will only lengthen the wait. Spend on shoulder-season plans instead.

No lock-in

You own the Google Ads account, the site and the workflows. Management runs month to month with 30 days' notice, and a person on your team always decides which jobs to take.

For more detail, see our Google Ads management service, or book a free 30-minute call.