HVAC Google Ads: Search campaigns built to book replacement estimates

Why use Google Ads for HVAC replacement jobs?

Google Search reaches homeowners after they have decided to do something. Someone typing "ac replacement" or "heat pump installation" has a system that is old, dead or costing too much to run, and they want estimates this week. HVAC Google Ads put your company in front of that search, in your service area, with a way to book.

That is different from Meta. On Facebook and Instagram you reach a homeowner who might be thinking about a new system. On Google, they have already raised their hand. The words they type tell you what they want, how urgent it is, and often where they live.

The catch is that Search also catches a lot of people you do not want: DIYers, job seekers, people hunting for a capacitor, renters with a window unit. A replacement-focused account is mostly about keeping those people out. Google Ads is step one of the HVAC Profit Machine, next to Facebook ads for HVAC.

How do we structure HVAC Google Ads campaigns?

We build separate ad groups for AC replacement, heat pump installation and full system (AC and furnace) replacement, plus a small campaign for your own business name. Each ad group has its own keywords, ad copy and landing page. Repair searches are not an ad group at all. They are negatives.

Here is the starting structure. The searches are examples of the kind of terms in each group, not a full list.

Searches like "new ac unit cost" are price research, so the landing page carries a price range and the qualifier asks for a budget. People who only wanted a number for a window unit drop off there, not on your calendar.

We do not advertise single repairs, window units or one-off ductless mini-split heads. If a repair or single mini-split lead gets through, the qualifier never routes it to Priority. The longer build guide is in Google Ads for HVAC contractors.

Which match types do we use?

We start with exact and phrase match on replacement terms and hold broad match back until the account has real conversion data. Google says exact match gives you the most steering over who sees your ad but reaches fewer searches, while broad match can show on searches that don't contain your keyword's direct meaning (Google Ads Help).

Broad match with automated bidding can work, but only when Google knows which clicks turned into booked estimates. In a new account it does not know that yet, so broad match mostly buys learning at your expense. Once booked estimates are flowing back as conversions (more on that below), we test broad match in a controlled ad group and keep it only if cost per booked estimate holds.

Which negative keywords does an HVAC account need?

Negative keywords let you exclude search terms from your campaigns (Google Ads Help). On day one we load lists for repair, parts, jobs, DIY and small equipment, because every one of those clicks costs the same as a homeowner ready for a changeout.

Then we read the search terms report every week and add new negatives as they show up. In a new account that list grows fast for the first month.

How should HVAC Google Ads target your service area?

Target the cities and ZIP codes your install crews actually drive to, and only people physically in them. Google's default location option can show your ads to people who have shown interest in a place as well as people in it (Google Ads Help). We switch that to presence, so you are not paying for clicks from out of state.

Three more rules:

• Drive time, not the whole metro. If your trucks don't go to the far side of Dallas-Fort Worth, neither do your ads. Territory is set with you before launch.
• One page per area cluster. A click from Frisco or Plano lands on a page that names that part of the metro. The detail is on our HVAC landing pages page.
• Call assets on. Call assets show your number with the ad, with a tap-to-call button on phones, and calls can be counted as conversions once call reporting is on (Google Ads Help). The number is a tracking line, so a missed call gets a text back within seconds.

Why do we count booked estimates instead of form fills?

A form fill tells Google someone typed a phone number. It does not say whether they owned the home, wanted a replacement or booked an estimate. If Google optimizes for form fills, it finds more people who fill in forms. We import booked estimates and sold jobs from the CRM, so bidding chases the leads that turn into work.

A booked estimate is a qualified homeowner booked for an in-home estimate on your calendar, at a set time. Google's offline conversion import is built for exactly this case: an ad starts a customer down a path that ends in a sale offline. Each click gets a Google Click ID (GCLID), which we store with the lead and send back to Google when the estimate is booked and again when the job is sold (Google Ads Help). Enhanced conversions for leads adds hashed lead details to improve that match (Google Ads Help).

In practice, you mark the estimate won or lost in the CRM and the rest happens automatically. After a few weeks, Google is bidding on "who books and buys" rather than "who clicks".

How does the Google Ads budget change with the season?

The minimum ad budget is $4,000 a month across Google and Meta combined, paid by you directly to each. By default Google Search gets $1,500. In peak cooling months, roughly May to September in Texas and the Sun Belt, we flip it to Google $2,500 and Meta $1,500, because dead systems send people straight to search.

Spend also follows your install calendar. If lead times run past three weeks in July, we pull spend back rather than book estimates your crews can't install.

These are planning assumptions, not results. We don't publish HVAC cost per click benchmarks because we have not measured them in US accounts ourselves.

What are Google Local Services Ads, and why don't we run them?

Local Services Ads are a separate Google product. You pay per lead rather than per click, homeowners call or message you through the ad, and businesses that pass Google's screening can show a Google Verified badge. They are available in the United States, and HVAC is an eligible category (Local Services Help).

We don't run them for clients. Our system is built on a landing page and a six-question qualifier that sorts every lead before your phone rings, and LSA leads come to you directly without that step. We would rather do one channel properly than manage a second one we can't qualify.

That does not make LSAs a bad idea. Plenty of contractors run them in-house, and you are free to keep yours running. We just track them separately, so the Friday report shows what Search and Meta produced on their own.

What do we report from Google Ads?

Every Friday you get one report covering both channels: ad spend by channel, qualified leads, booked estimates, cost per booked estimate and jobs sold. For Google we add calls from call assets and the negatives we added that week. Clicks and impressions are in the account if you want them, but they don't decide anything.

If Google books estimates cheaper than Meta in a given month, the report says so and we move money. If it doesn't, we move it the other way.

Google Search is included in the monthly fee, with no separate PPC add-on and no markup on your spend. We take one HVAC contractor per service line per metro, which matters most on Google: two clients in one metro would mean bidding against each other through us. See pricing for the full breakdown, or AC replacement leads for the whole system.