Google Ads suits HVAC better than almost any trade, because demand is explicit, urgent and weather-driven. It is also the easiest account type to lose money on, because the same keywords attract people shopping for units at retailers, looking up error codes, or researching an installation they will not commit to for two months. Structure and seasonality are what separate the two outcomes.
Split repair from installation
These are two different businesses sharing a vehicle. Repair searches — not cooling, leaking, error code, air conditioning repair near me — are urgent, decided on the phone, and worth a few hundred dollars. Installation searches — ducted air conditioning cost, split system installation, multi-head system — are researched over days and worth many times more.
Run them as separate campaigns with separate budgets, schedules, ad copy and landing pages. Otherwise repair budget is consumed by installation research during the exact hours a failed system is generating callable demand.
A seasonal campaign calendar
Flat twelve-month budgets do not suit this industry. A practical shape for most Australian markets:
- Pre-summer. Installation and pre-season service campaigns lifted well before the first hot week, because quotes approved in this window become installations later.
- Summer. Repair campaigns take priority, with budgets that will not exhaust by mid-morning during a heatwave, and installation kept live but secondary.
- Pre-winter. Heating service and repair campaigns activated ahead of the first cold snap, particularly in southern markets.
- Winter. Heating repair leads, with ducted and reverse-cycle installation offers continuing where demand supports it.
- Shoulder seasons. Reduced media, redirected towards maintenance plans, duct cleaning and installation planning rather than switched off entirely.
The HVAC seasonal marketing calendar sets the same shape out month by month.
Brand terms as keywords
Manufacturer names carry heavy HVAC search volume: brand plus repair, brand plus installer, brand plus error code, brand plus service agent. If you service or install those brands, they deserve their own ad groups with ad copy naming the brand and any authorised service agent status you hold.
Two cautions. Only bid on brands you genuinely work on, and do not imply an authorisation you do not hold. Also add negatives for the retail intent attached to the same brands — people looking to buy the unit itself rather than have one installed.
The negative keyword list
Build it before launch and extend it weekly from the search terms report. HVAC accounts need exclusions across:
- Retail and product shopping — buy, price of unit, sale, catalogue, retailer names, portable, window rattler
- DIY intent — how to clean, reset, fix myself, error code meaning, YouTube, manual, wiring diagram
- Parts and consumables — remote control, filter only, capacitor, gas top-up kits, spare parts
- Training and employment — apprenticeship, refrigerant licence, course, jobs, salary
- Adjacent trades you do not offer — electrical, plumbing, solar, appliance repair, unless you do them
- Suburbs and regions outside your service area
Schedules, location and budget control
Bid in the hours you answer, and be deliberate during peaks: it is better to spend the day's budget across trading hours than to exhaust it before 10am and disappear when the afternoon calls arrive. Use presence targeting so you pay for people in your service area, and set radii by job type, since installation justifies a longer drive than a call-out.
Review location reports monthly and exclude suburbs that generate clicks and never produce a booked job.
Landing pages that match the intent
A repair ad should land on a page with the phone number visible without scrolling, brands serviced, suburbs covered, call-out terms and current lead times. Nothing else needs to compete for attention.
An installation ad needs the opposite depth: ducted versus split explained, sizing guidance, running-cost information, brands installed, what happens on installation day, warranty terms and finance if you offer it. Sending both to the same page underperforms for both.
Speed matters. The traffic is mobile, often in an uncomfortable house, and slow pages lose the call to the next result.
Conversion tracking before anything else
Import calls from ads, calls from the website and form submissions as conversions before the first campaign goes live. An account without them is guesswork, and every optimisation decision made in the first month will be based on clicks rather than jobs.
What to review each week
A short weekly routine beats occasional deep work. Add negatives from the search terms report, check which job-type campaigns produced calls rather than clicks, scan the location report for suburbs spending without booking, and listen to a handful of tracked calls to confirm the traffic is the intent you intended to buy. Everything else can wait for the monthly review, where budgets are reset against the season ahead.
Ad copy and assets
Repair ads should carry the things that decide a phone call: suburbs covered, brands serviced, whether you attend today, and any call-out terms. Use call assets during hours you answer, and location assets so the ad reflects proximity. Installation ads have room to work differently — brands installed, warranty terms, free quotes or site assessments, and finance if you offer it.
Sitelinks should lead to the specific job-type pages rather than the homepage, and callouts are the place for licensing, insurance and authorised service agent status where you hold it. Avoid superlatives in copy; specifics outperform them and they are safer under Australian Consumer Law.
Match types, budgets and bidding
Start with exact and phrase match on the terms you know convert, and introduce broad match only once negatives are mature and there is conversion data to guide it. Keep budgets separate by job type so a busy installation month cannot starve the repair campaign during a hot week.
Manual bidding or maximise clicks with a firm cap is usually right while conversion volume is low. Move to conversion-based bidding once calls are tracked properly and there is enough weekly volume for the system to learn from — automating before call tracking exists simply teaches the account to optimise towards the wrong outcome.
Call tracking and the number that matters
Most HVAC enquiries are phone calls, so an account measured on form submissions is reading a fraction of the picture. Use dynamic number insertion to attribute calls to campaign, keyword and suburb, set a sensible minimum call duration so wrong numbers are not counted, and record which calls became booked work.
Then judge the account on cost per booked job, split between repair and installation. Averaging them hides whether you are buying cheap repair calls while losing the installations that pay for the year. For how paid fits the wider plan, see our HVAC marketing page and the trades marketing hub, and keep the profile aligned using Google Business Profile for HVAC companies.
