“How much should I spend on marketing?” is one of the first questions HVAC owners ask me, and they usually want a single number. I get it. But the honest answer is that the right number depends on how many jobs you need and what it costs you to win one. A percentage of revenue gets you in the ballpark. Your own numbers get you the rest of the way.

Here’s how I’d figure it out if it were my business.

Is there a standard percentage of revenue?

There’s a common rule of thumb. An older SBA guideline says small businesses under $5 million in revenue should put 7 to 8 percent of revenue toward marketing, assuming margins of 10 to 12 percent. Plenty of owners land somewhere between 5 and 10 percent.

That rule has limits:

  • It assumes you’re established. A company in its first couple of years, or one trying to grow fast, usually has to spend more for a while.
  • It ignores your capacity. If your trucks are already booked three weeks out in July, more ads in July just create callbacks you can’t take.
  • It doesn’t tell you where to spend. Five percent wasted is still wasted.

Use the percentage as a sanity check. Then build the real number from the bottom up.

How do I work backward from the jobs I need?

You need four numbers. Pull them from your own invoices and call log, not from an article.

  1. How many new jobs you want each month. Be realistic about how many your crew can handle.
  2. Your close rate. Out of 10 people who call or fill out a form, how many book?
  3. Your cost per lead. What a call or form costs from each source you use.
  4. Gross profit on a typical job. What’s left after parts and labor.

Here’s a made-up example to show the math. Say you want 20 more repair jobs a month, you book about half the people who call, and a lead from your ads costs around $60.

  • 20 jobs ÷ 50 percent close rate = 40 leads
  • 40 leads × $60 = $2,400 a month in ad spend
  • $2,400 ÷ 20 jobs = $120 to win each job

Now compare $120 with the profit on a job. If a typical repair leaves you a few hundred dollars, and some of those customers come back for maintenance or a system later, that’s a good trade. If it doesn’t, you either need a cheaper source of leads or a better close rate. Often the close rate is the easier fix.

Notice what moves the number most. If you answered more calls and booked 6 out of 10 instead of 5, the same $2,400 buys you more jobs. That’s why I check how calls are handled before I tell anyone to spend more.

What should the money go to first?

Spend in this order. Each step makes the next one work better.

  1. Your Google Business Profile. It’s free, and it’s where most local customers decide who to call. Correct hours, real photos, every service listed. My local SEO and reviews guide walks through the setup.
  2. Reviews. Also free. Ask every happy customer, every time.
  3. Answering the phone. Ads that ring a phone nobody answers are the most expensive marketing there is. Here’s how to measure what missed calls cost you.
  4. A website that gets calls. It doesn’t need to be fancy. It needs your number at the top, your services, and a fast load on a phone.
  5. Local Services Ads, if you qualify. You pay per lead instead of per click.
  6. Google Search Ads. More control over which searches you show up for and when.
  7. Facebook and Instagram ads. Better for maintenance plan offers and seasonal reminders than for emergency repairs.

If you skip straight to step 6 with steps 1 through 3 undone, you’ll pay for clicks that don’t turn into jobs, and you’ll decide “ads don’t work.” The ads were fine. The rest of the path wasn’t.

How should my budget change with the seasons?

HVAC is seasonal, so your budget should move with it. Some ways to think about it:

  • Peak season. Demand comes to you. Spend enough to stay at the top of searches, but watch your schedule. If you can’t take more work, more ads don’t help.
  • Shoulder seasons. This is where marketing earns its keep. Run tune-up offers, sell maintenance plans, and follow up with every customer from last summer.
  • Never go to zero. Turning ads and posting off completely means starting cold every time. Keep a smaller baseline running all year.

What’s the difference between ad spend and management fees?

If someone else runs your ads, you’re paying two things: the money that goes to Google or Facebook, and the fee for the person managing it. Keep them separate on paper.

Ask anyone you hire:

  • How much of my monthly payment goes to the ad platform?
  • Do I own the ad account, and can I log in to see it?
  • What do you report each month, and does it include booked jobs or just clicks?

You should always be able to see what you spent and what it brought in. That’s true whether you work with us or anyone else. (Our pricing lists ad spend separately from the plan fee for that reason.)

How do I know if I’m spending too much?

Watch cost per booked job, not cost per click. A cheap click that never calls is worth nothing, and an expensive one that books a system replacement is a bargain.

Warning signs:

  • You can’t say which source a job came from.
  • Your cost per booked job keeps going up while your close rate goes down.
  • You’re paying for leads in areas you don’t serve or for services you don’t offer.

Any one of those means fix the tracking or the targeting before you spend more.

Where to start

Write down your four numbers this week: jobs you want, close rate, cost per lead, and profit per job. Run the math. Then check that your Google profile is complete and your calls get answered. Once those are solid, you’ll know how much to spend, and you’ll be able to tell whether it’s working.