What percentage of revenue should an HVAC company spend on marketing?

There's no single right percentage. A growing company entering new areas usually spends more than a mature one with strong repeat business. Work out your affordable cost per booked job from your margins instead, and let the budget follow from the number of jobs you need.

Should the budget be the same every month?

Usually not. Most HVAC companies spend more just before and during peak heating and cooling demand, and shift the shoulder months toward maintenance, replacement planning and SEO. Plan the seasonal curve in advance rather than reacting to a slow week.

How do I count marketing cost per booked job?

Add everything you spent on marketing for the period (agency fees, ad spend, software, review tools) and divide by the jobs booked from marketing-sourced calls and requests. Exclude repeat customers who called your number directly if you can separate them.

What if my close rate is low?

Then more leads won't fix it. Look at how fast calls are answered, how estimates are presented and how follow-up works. Improving close rate from 30% to 40% lowers your cost per sale by a quarter without spending more on marketing.

How to Set an HVAC Marketing Budget in Canada

An HVAC marketing budget should be built backwards from the jobs you need, not forwards from a percentage someone quoted at a conference. You start with what a job is worth to you, work out the most you can afford to pay to win one, and then decide how many you want. This guide walks through the calculation with numbers you can replace with your own, then shows how to split the money across channels and seasons in a Canadian market.

Step 1: Know what a job is worth to you

Short answer: use gross margin per job, not revenue, and separate job types.

A $9,000 heat-pump install and a $180 tune-up are different businesses. Break your work into at least three groups and estimate the gross margin of each (the price minus equipment, materials and direct labour):

Job type	Example average ticket	Example gross margin
Repair call	$450	$250
Maintenance visit	$180	$90
System replacement	$9,000	$3,000

These are illustrative figures. Your accountant or job-costing software will give you the real ones. If you don't know them, finding out is the most valuable marketing exercise you can do this year.

Also think about lifetime value. A maintenance customer who stays for years, refers neighbours and eventually replaces a system is worth far more than the first visit suggests. That's why it can be sensible to pay more to acquire a maintenance-plan customer than the first visit's margin would justify.

Step 2: Work out your affordable cost per booked job

Short answer: affordable cost per booked job = margin per job × close rate × the share of margin you're willing to spend on marketing.

Take the replacement example:

Gross margin per replacement: $3,000
Close rate on replacement estimates: 35%
Share of margin you're willing to invest in winning the job: 25%
Affordable cost per booked estimate: $3,000 × 0.35 × 0.25 = $262.50

So if marketing delivers booked replacement estimates for less than about $260 each, it's paying for itself on these assumptions. For repair calls with $250 margin, the affordable cost is much lower, which is why repair campaigns need tight targeting and fast answering to work.

Change any one input and the answer changes. Raise the close rate to 45% and the affordable cost per booked estimate rises to $337.50. That's the hidden lever: improving sales and call handling makes every marketing dollar go further.

Step 3: Decide how many jobs you want, and can handle

Short answer: budget = target booked jobs × target cost per booked job, capped by your capacity.

Say you want 20 more booked replacement estimates a month during the shoulder season, at a target of $250 each. That's a $5,000 monthly budget across fees and ad spend. Before committing, check:

Crew capacity. Can your installers handle seven more replacements a month (20 estimates × 35% close rate)?
Office capacity. Can someone answer and book 20 more estimate requests, plus all the calls that don't book?
Cash flow. Replacement revenue arrives after equipment is bought and the job is done. Can you carry it?

If the answer to any of these is no, start with a smaller target and grow into it.

Step 4: Split the budget across channels

Short answer: fund the foundations first, then paid search for immediate demand, then SEO for falling costs over time.

A sensible split for a company starting from a weak base might look like this:

Foundations (one-time or early months): website fixes or rebuild, Business Profile, tracking, review program. Our website packages start at $3,500.
Paid search: the largest variable line, flexed by season. See Google Ads for HVAC.
SEO and content: a steady monthly investment that lowers blended cost per lead over time. See HVAC SEO.
Reviews: cheap to run, and it raises the conversion rate of everything else. See reviews and Business Profile.

Our monthly plans bundle these. Starter is $2,998, Growth $4,498 and Elite $8,998 per month, in Canadian dollars plus GST/HST based on your province (GST and QST in Quebec). The pricing page lists what each includes. Confirm in writing how ad spend is billed.

Step 5: Shape the budget around Canadian seasons

Short answer: spend ahead of demand, and plan the curve for your province's climate and heating mix.

Seasonality is not the same across the country. A few patterns from our regional pages:

Prairies. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have long, very cold winters, and natural gas heats most homes in Alberta and Saskatchewan according to Statistics Canada. Heating demand dominates the year, so fall budgets matter most.
BC's south coast. Mild, wet winters make the heating peak shallower and longer, and cooling and heat-pump interest matter more in summer.
Quebec. With 70% of households heating mainly with electricity in 2023 (Statistics Canada), heat pumps and electric systems lead the conversation, and your marketing must work in French.
Atlantic Canada. Heat pumps were the primary heating system for about a quarter of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick households and over a third of PEI households in 2023, and oil remains significant in Nova Scotia and PEI.

A simple approach for a heating-led company:

Period	Share of annual budget (example)	Focus
Aug–Sep	15%	Tune-ups, pre-season maintenance, replacement planning
Oct–Jan	45%	No-heat repair, furnace and boiler replacement
Feb–Apr	15%	Replacement before next winter, heat-pump research
May–Jul	25%	Cooling, heat pumps, AC replacement

Shift the percentages to fit your own call history. Last year's monthly call volume is the most reliable guide you have.

Step 6: Be careful with rebate-driven budgets

Short answer: don't build a budget around a program that isn't open.

Rebates can create demand spikes, and programs change often. As of October 2026, the Canada Greener Homes Grant closed to new applicants in February 2024, the Canada Greener Homes Loan closed to applications on October 1, 2025, and the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program took its last applications on July 31, 2026 in Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Quebec and Saskatchewan, with co-delivery provinces setting their own dates. The National Heat Pump Rebate was announced on October 8, 2026, and federal pages say it launches in 2027; its administrator and launch date have not been published.

Plan a modest "program-ready" reserve rather than a budget that depends on a launch date nobody has confirmed. Always confirm program details with the administrator before you advertise them. For heat-pump-specific demand planning, Heatpump.Marketing covers rebate-driven lead generation in more depth.

Step 7: Review monthly, adjust quarterly

Short answer: watch cost per booked job monthly and move money toward what works every quarter.

Each month, record spend, calls, booked jobs and cost per booked job by channel. Each quarter, move budget from the channel with the highest cost per booked job to the one with the lowest, unless there's a strategic reason (such as SEO that hasn't matured yet). Our guide to reading HVAC marketing reports shows what a useful monthly report contains.

If you want a second pair of eyes on your numbers, the free 7-day trial includes a marketing audit and competitor benchmark, with no credit card required. Call, text or email to start.

How to set an HVAC marketing budget that pays for itself