An HVAC marketing plan should answer one question: how many of which jobs do we want each month, and what are we willing to pay to book them? HVAC.Management builds that plan from your own numbers and your region's seasons, then turns it into a monthly budget your vendors can work to. The plan fits on one page. The budget fits on one sheet. Both get reviewed every quarter.
We plan marketing only. We're not an HVAC contractor and don't advise on equipment, sizing or installation.
Who planning is for
Planning fits companies that spend on marketing but let each vendor decide its own calendar, and owners who suspect they overspend in peak season and go quiet when they should be filling the schedule.
It is also the right project before hiring a full-time marketer or switching agencies, because a written plan makes the brief clear. If you want ongoing help running the plan afterwards, that is the fractional manager role.
What's in the plan
Every plan has the same five parts, and each one comes from your data rather than a template.
- Job targets. How many installs, replacements, repairs and maintenance visits you want per month, set against how many your crews can actually take.
- Unit economics. Average ticket and gross margin by job type, so you know what a booked job is worth.
- Allowable cost per booked job. The most you can pay for each job type and still make the margin you need.
- Channel budget by month. How spend is split between search ads, local search, reviews, maintenance-agreement renewals and any other channel, month by month.
- Seasonal offers and messages. What to promote when, and which claims need checking, for example rebate programs that change during the year.
Worked example: setting the allowable cost
Suppose your average furnace replacement is $7,000 at a 40% gross margin, so each one earns about $2,800 in gross profit. If you're willing to spend up to 15% of that gross profit on getting the job, your allowable cost per booked replacement is $420.
Now suppose your quote close rate on replacement leads is 40%. To book one replacement you need about 2.5 qualified leads, so you can afford to pay up to $168 per qualified replacement lead. If a channel delivers those leads at $120, it gets more budget. If it costs $300, the channel needs fixing or less money. These are example numbers; your own come from your job history. For a deeper treatment of job-value maths, HVACProfit.ca covers profit-first budgeting in detail.
Seasons in a Canadian HVAC plan
Canada has two demand peaks and two quieter shoulder seasons, but their timing and size vary sharply by region.
- Fall into winter: heating repairs, no-heat calls and furnace or boiler replacements. On the Prairies and in the North this season is long and intense; on the BC coast it is milder.
- Spring: maintenance agreements, heat pump and air conditioning quotes, and pre-season tune-ups.
- Summer: cooling repairs during hot spells, plus planned installs; your own call history shows how large this peak is in your market.
- Shoulder months: the time to fill schedules with maintenance and planned replacements before the rush.
Our region pages explain how this plays out province by province, including the rebate programs that shape demand.
Timeline and what you get
Planning takes two to four weeks from the day we receive data.
| Step | Timing | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Data pull | Week 1 | Last 12–24 months of jobs, tickets and marketing spend |
| Economics | Week 2 | Allowable cost per booked job by job type |
| Draft plan | Week 3 | One-page plan and monthly budget sheet |
| Review | Week 4 | Final plan, vendor briefs and quarterly review date |
How we measure a plan
A plan is measured by whether the company followed it and whether booked jobs tracked it, which is why every plan connects to a monthly scorecard.
Mistakes that ruin HVAC marketing plans
- Planning leads, not booked jobs. Leads that never book cost you money and dispatch time.
- Ignoring capacity. Buying more calls than your crews can run in January hurts reviews.
- Flat monthly budgets. Spending the same every month ignores the seasons.
- Rebate claims left unchecked. Programs change during the year; wrong claims in ads create real problems.
Our guide to managing vendors explains how to brief vendors from the plan. Pricing is on the pricing page. Call, text or email to start.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a marketing plan take?
Usually two to four weeks, depending on how quickly we can get job and spend data out of your field-service software and accounting. Most of the time goes into cleaning up the numbers, not writing the plan.
Do I need a plan if I only run Google Ads?
A smaller one, yes. Even a single channel needs a monthly budget, a target cost per booked job and a decision about what to do in shoulder seasons. A one-channel plan can be a single page.
What if the plan says I'm spending too little?
Then it will show why, with the maths. Sometimes the right answer is to spend more in peak months; sometimes it is to fix call handling first so extra spend isn't wasted. You decide the amount.
How often should the plan change?
Review it every quarter and rebuild it once a year. Big changes in between, such as a new rebate program, a lost technician or a new service line, are reasons for a mid-quarter revision.