Google Ads for HVAC companies, ready before the weather turns
Two weeks of the year decide an HVAC season. The first hot week and the first hard freeze produce more searches than the two months around them, at prices everyone is bidding up at once. Winning them is a planning job, not a bidding job.
Demand arrives in spikes and the margin sits in replacement
HVAC advertising has two problems most accounts never solve. The first is timing: demand triples in a few days and the accounts that ramp up after noticing are always late. The second is value: a repair call and a system replacement come from the same trade but are worth wildly different amounts, so they cannot share a bid, a schedule or a landing page.
Add the third factor, maintenance plans, and you have three campaigns with three purposes: fill today, sell the big job, and build the recurring base that makes next winter predictable.
The searches worth paying for, and the ones that waste budget
We group by urgency and by ticket size, because the price you can afford to pay for a click differs by a factor of ten between them.
- Emergency repair: "AC repair near me", "furnace not working", "no heat" plus the town, "emergency HVAC"
- Replacement: "AC replacement cost", "new furnace installation", "heat pump installation", "HVAC system replacement"
- Specific systems: "ductless mini split installation", "heat pump vs furnace", "ductwork repair", "indoor air quality"
- Maintenance: "AC tune up", "furnace service", "HVAC maintenance plan"
Negative keywords we add on day one
HVAC attracts a large volume of parts, DIY and retail searches that will never become a service call.
filter · thermostat · portable · window unit · parts · DIY · how to · jobs · salary · apprentice · used · rental
| Search type | Example | What the searcher wants | Our response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency | “furnace not working” | Someone today | Call-first ad on dispatch hours |
| Replacement | “AC replacement cost” | A price and financing | Replacement page with an estimate form |
| Maintenance | “HVAC maintenance plan” | Prevention | Plan page, low always-on budget |
| Research | “heat pump vs furnace” | To learn | Content page, not an ad |
How we build a HVAC account
Three campaigns as a rule: Emergency repair on dispatch hours with call assets and a one-screen landing page, bid rules ready to raise on forecast days; Replacement running all day at higher bids, landing on a page with system options, financing and an estimate form; and Maintenance plans at a low always-on budget, because a signed plan is worth more than the click that produced it. Where you have a specialty such as heat pumps or ductless systems, that gets its own ad group so the ad names the system the searcher typed.
Bid rules written before the forecast, not after it
The single change that most improves an HVAC account is preparing the seasonal rules in advance. We set bid adjustments and extended hours to trigger on the first hot or cold stretch, so the ramp is a switch rather than a scramble. Geography follows dispatch reality: the radius your trucks reach inside the window you promise, with the far towns excluded rather than quietly disappointing people.
Ads run when the phone is answered. If after-hours calls go to an answering service, the ad copy says so and the page carries a short form with an automatic reply.
- Weather-triggered bid rules prepared ahead of each season
- Dispatch-hour schedule on repair; all-day on replacement research
- Radius matched to your genuine response window
- Call assets and call tracking on every campaign
- Weekly search-term review during peak weeks, monthly otherwise
What the page behind the ad has to do
Phone first
Number in the header, tap to call on mobile, and honest hours including whether anyone answers at night.
State the diagnostic fee
A named fee credited against the repair removes the biggest hesitation before someone calls.
Sell the replacement properly
System options, what drives the price, how long it takes and what happens to the old unit.
Show the financing
Named options and a monthly figure. Replacement is usually unplanned spending, and silence loses the job.
Explain the plan
What each maintenance visit covers, what it costs and what priority it buys in a heatwave.
Prove it
Licence, bonding, manufacturer certifications, install photos and live reviews.
We build or fix landing pages under web design and development; a campaign is only as good as the page it lands on.
From breakdown to booked job
Spend against the calendar, not evenly
An even monthly budget is wrong for HVAC. The seasons carry the year, so the plan should hold budget back for the weeks that matter and run lighter in the shoulder months, when replacement and maintenance searches still deserve coverage but emergency demand does not exist.
We judge the account on cost per booked job and, above all, on replacement quotes issued, because that is where the season is won or lost. Capacity matters too: buying more emergency calls than you can dispatch produces angry voicemails rather than revenue.
Illustrative budget weighting through the year
Illustrative, not client dataRelative emphasis only; a real plan uses your own call data.
A hypothetical first 90 days
Scenario: a four-truck HVAC company in Puyallup, strong on repair, weak on replacement, with 90 reviews and a five-page website.
install call tracking, launch the emergency campaign on dispatch hours with the negative list, add the diagnostic fee and click to call to every page, and write the seasonal bid rules.
publish replacement, heat pump and financing pages; launch the replacement campaign; add review requests after every completed job.
add the maintenance plan campaign, review which campaigns produced quotes rather than calls, and set budgets for the coming season.
Every number in a real plan comes from your own account data; we do not publish or promise results.
What we report every month
Google Ads questions from HVAC companies
When should we turn the budget up for summer?
Before the forecast. By the time the calls start, every competitor has noticed too and the auction is at its most expensive. We write the rules in the quiet weeks so the ramp is automatic.
Should we advertise maintenance plans?
At a low budget, yes, but most plans are sold at the end of a service visit. The advertising job is the page that explains the plan so a technician has something to point at.
We get repair calls but few replacements. Why?
Almost always because the site has no replacement page, no financing information and no system comparison, so the person pricing a new system never finds a reason to call you.
Do Local Services ads work for HVAC?
They are worth testing in most markets because the badge carries trust for in-home work. Treat them as an addition to search rather than a replacement.
What do you need from us to start?
Ad account access or a new one in your name, your dispatch hours and radius, the diagnostic fee, financing details and photos of recent installs.
Get a free Google Ads review for your HVAC company
Send us your company name and website. If you already run ads we will review the account for wasted spend and missed peak days; if not, we will tell you what a first repair and replacement setup would look like.