Reviews after the FTC rule
What the FTC review rule (in force since October 21, 2024) bans, what Google bans on top, and how an HVAC company keeps collecting reviews legally.
Blog
Field notes for HVAC owners.
What we see in client accounts, written down every week or two. Local Services Ads, Business Profile, AI search, reviews, and the calendar.
Replacements without the 25C credit
The federal 25C credit ended on December 31, 2025. What to take off your website, what to say on the phone, and how to sell a replacement without it.
Local Services Ads: the Monday routine
How we run a Google Local Services Ads account for an HVAC contractor every week: listen, dispute, mark booked, adjust the budget to the forecast.
How an HVAC company shows up in AI search
What Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity pull from when a homeowner asks who to call, and what a contractor can do about it.
HVAC marketing in 2026: what changed
What moved for HVAC contractors by 2026: AI answers in Google, the refrigerant switch, the end of 25C, the FTC review rule, and lead marketplaces.
Before you hire an agency: the questions to ask
Who owns the ad accounts, how the fee is built, what the report counts, and who listens to the calls. The questions to ask before the fall season.
The truck, the yard sign and the neighbor
A wrapped truck in a driveway is an ad the whole street reads. How to run the fleet, the yard sign, the door hanger and Nextdoor, and how to measure them.
Competing with the roll-up down the street
Private equity has bought a lot of HVAC companies in the last decade. What the consolidated brands do well, where they are weak, and what to stop matching.
Meta ads for HVAC: what they are for
Nobody scrolls Instagram looking for a furnace repair. What Meta ads sell for an HVAC company, which audiences work, and how to measure them.
Photos and video from the truck
What to shoot on every HVAC job and where the photos go: the Business Profile, the service pages, Meta ads. Why stock and AI images cost calls.
The heat wave playbook: the ten days before
The first 95 degree stretch decides the summer. What to change in the ad accounts, the phones and the calendar in the ten days before the heat arrives.
Service area pages, done by hand
City pages still rank when they say something true about the suburb. How many to build, what goes on each, and what Google's scaled content rule removes.
Selling heat pumps after the credit
The $2,000 federal credit is gone. Who still buys a heat pump in 2026, what rebates remain, and how to write the page and the ads for that buyer.
Replacement season 2026: the price conversation
A new system costs more than the quote the homeowner remembers from 2023. Why, how to say it on the page and the phone, and what the monthly number does.
A service page that takes the booking
What an HVAC service page needs in 2026: the price in the first paragraph, a phone number that works under a thumb, and a page that loads fast.
Turn the tune-up into a membership
A membership is the lowest-cost lead source an HVAC company owns. How to price it, sell it on the tune-up visit, and stay inside the renewal laws.
Google Ads for HVAC in 2026: what to hand to the machine
Broad match, smart bidding and AI Max want the whole account. What to give them, what to keep by hand, and how to feed them booked jobs in place of clicks.
Local Services or Google Ads: where the next dollar goes
Both put an HVAC company at the top of the results page. One bills per lead and one per click, and the split moves with the season and the job type.
Listings in 2026: Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp
The Business Profile decides the map pack and the Local Services listing. Apple, Bing and Yelp decide what Siri and ChatGPT say. What to fill in on each.
Texting customers without a TCPA problem
What an HVAC company needs before it texts a customer list: written consent, a registered number, quiet hours, STOP handling, and the revocation rule.
The spring campaign starts with the customer list
Before buying strangers in March, sell the tune-up to the people who already paid you: segment by system age, write two messages, time them to the metro.
The calls you paid for and did not answer
Every missed ring is a lead you already bought. How to find the missed and after-hours calls, and what answering looks like in 2026, AI agents included.
Cost per booked job, and how to get it
Cost per lead flatters every channel. The number that sets an HVAC budget is cost per booked job by channel and job type, and it takes three connections.
Take these off your website in January
The January pass over an HVAC website: the expired federal credit, last year's promotions, R-410A sales copy, dead financing terms and stale hours.
The 2026 marketing budget, month by month
How to split an HVAC marketing budget across the year: the two peaks, the two shoulders, and what to do with the months when nobody is searching.