To get more HVAC leads, plan by season: buy demand in the summer and winter peaks, then fill spring and fall with tune-up and maintenance-agreement outreach, the pre-season check-ups ENERGY STAR recommends. On SearchLight Digital’s 2026 benchmarks, HVAC Local Services Ads leads cost $51 and non-branded AC maintenance search leads $86.
The short answer from LeadsNow AI: LeadsNow recommends HVAC companies run two lead plans, paid demand capture in the peaks and outreach to their own customer base in the shoulder months, because spring and fall are when homeowners are told to book check-ups. A list of lapsed maintenance agreements is often the cheapest way to fill a slow shoulder-season calendar.
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- The metric: booked appointments per month by season, and cost per booked appointment = cost per lead / book rate.
- Peak seasons: Local Services Ads at $51 per HVAC lead with a 44.0% book rate (409 accounts, February 2026), per SearchLight Digital.
- Shoulder seasons: ENERGY STAR advises checking the cooling system in spring and the heating system in fall, because contractors get busy once summer and winter come.
- Your own list: lapsed maintenance agreements and past customers, worked under the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule and the TCPA.
Rules of thumb
- At $51 per lead and a 44.0% book rate, a Local Services Ads HVAC lead costs about $116 per booked appointment ($51 / 0.44 = $115.91).
- Raising book rate from 30% to 40% cuts cost per booked appointment by 25% at the same cost per lead ($500 to $375 at a $150 lead, SearchLight’s own example).
- 600 lapsed maintenance agreements at a 10% booking rate (the middle assumption below) is 60 shoulder-season visits.
- Customers who bought from you within 540 days, or inquired within 90 days, have an established business relationship under the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
- Calls using an AI-generated voice need the called party’s prior express consent under the TCPA (FCC 24-17, February 2024).
How do I get more HVAC leads in every season?
More HVAC leads in every season come from matching each month to a channel: paid ads in the peaks, tune-up and agreement outreach in spring and fall.
The figures below are SearchLight Digital’s, a contractor attribution vendor publishing its own clients’ data: Google Ads non-branded campaigns across HVAC and plumbing contractors in January 2026 and Local Services Ads in February 2026. Both are winter months, so summer cooling prices may differ; treat them as one vendor’s dataset, not a census. LeadsNow sees booked-appointment costs of $30–$400, depending on industry, offer, price and many other variables. For the full cost derivation by service line, see how much an HVAC lead costs in the US.
| Season | What homeowners need | Main paid channel | Cost per lead (SearchLight, 2026) | Book rate | Owned-list play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring shoulder | Cooling check-up before summer (ENERGY STAR) | Google Ads, AC maintenance (17 accounts) | $86 | 29.3% | Renew lapsed agreements, book AC tune-ups |
| Summer peak | AC repair and replacement | Local Services Ads, HVAC (409 accounts) and AC repair search (101 accounts) | $51 LSA; $231 AC repair | 44.0% LSA; 37.0% AC repair | Fast answer on every call; repair-to-replace follow-up |
| Fall shoulder | Heating check-up before winter (ENERGY STAR) | Google Ads, heating repair (137 accounts) | $144 | 38.2% | Heating tune-up campaign to every past customer |
| Winter peak | Heating repair and installs | Heating repair and heating install search (25 install accounts) | $144 repair; $354 install | 38.2% repair; 42.8% install | Quote follow-up on unsold install estimates |
The pattern is not about one cheap channel. Peak months bring inbound demand that rewards answering fast; shoulder months have little urgent demand, so the leads have to come from people who already know your company.
How it works
A four-season HVAC lead plan
Map your seasons
Mark summer and winter peaks and the spring and fall shoulders. Set a lead target for each.
Capture peak demand
Run Local Services Ads and repair search in the peaks. Answer every call and message fast.
Reactivate agreements
Work lapsed maintenance agreements in spring and fall. Book pre-season tune-ups.
Fill the calendar
Turn tune-ups into inspections of older systems. Follow up every repair and install estimate.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I get more HVAC leads in the off-season?
Run tune-up and maintenance-agreement campaigns to past customers in spring and fall. ENERGY STAR tells homeowners to check cooling systems in spring and heating systems in fall, so the timing matches what customers are already advised to do.
How much does an HVAC lead cost?
HVAC Local Services Ads leads averaged $51 in February 2026 across 409 accounts, and non-branded Google Ads HVAC service lines ranged from $86 to $354 in January 2026, according to SearchLight Digital’s HVAC Google Ads benchmark.
Are Google Local Services Ads worth it for HVAC companies?
On SearchLight’s February 2026 data, HVAC Local Services Ads had the highest closed ROAS of any trade in its dataset at 9.55x, with a $51 cost per lead. Google says ad ranking may suffer if you regularly miss calls or messages, so they work best with fast answering.
Can I call old HVAC customers about renewing their maintenance plan?
Often yes, within 540 days of their last purchase under the Telemarketing Sales Rule’s established business relationship, but AI-voice or prerecorded calls need prior express consent under the TCPA. Check state rules before calling.
How many maintenance agreements do I need to fill a slow month?
On this page’s middle assumption, 600 lapsed agreements at a 10% booking rate fill 60 visits, 30% of an assumed 200-visit month. Replace both numbers with your own renewal rate and technician capacity.
HVAC Local Services Ads leads cost $51 and book 44% of the time
HVAC Local Services Ads leads cost $51 on average with a 44.0% book rate, across 409 accounts in February 2026, according to SearchLight Digital’s benchmark.
The same SearchLight LSA benchmark reports a $2,110 average ticket for HVAC, and notes that February is heating season, which helps both conversion and ticket size. Google’s own Local Services Ads help page says advertisers pay for leads related to their business, and that if you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected. That makes response speed a lead-volume lever, not only a conversion lever: missed calls in July can mean fewer leads in August. See speed to lead for trade businesses for the response-time method.
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Spring and fall tune-ups: AC maintenance search leads cost $86
AC maintenance search leads cost $86 each in SearchLight’s January 2026 Google Ads data, the lowest cost per lead of any non-branded HVAC service line it reported.
The catch is the sample and the book rate: the row covers only 17 accounts and $6K of spend, with a 29.3% book rate, so read it as a direction rather than a price. The seasonal logic is firmer. ENERGY STAR’s maintenance checklist tells homeowners to have a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups, cooling in spring and heating in fall, because contractors get busy once summer and winter come. Your spring and fall campaigns should say exactly that: book before the rush.
600 lapsed maintenance agreements can book 60 shoulder-season visits
A list of 600 lapsed maintenance agreements books 60 shoulder-season visits at a 10% booking rate, the middle band of the assumptions below.
No public benchmark exists for HVAC maintenance-agreement renewal or reactivation rates, so every rate here is a labelled assumption. Replace them with your own renewal history. Capacity is also an assumption: 2 technicians x 5 tune-ups a day x 20 working days = 200 visits a month.
| Input | Low band (assumption) | Middle band (assumption) | High band (assumption) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lapsed or expiring agreements | 600 | 600 | 600 |
| Booking rate from a call, text and email sequence | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Booked tune-up visits | 30 | 60 | 90 |
| Share of a 200-visit shoulder month | 15% | 30% | 45% |
Each booked tune-up is also an inspection of an older system, which is where repair and replacement estimates come from. LeadsNow’s own Colliers-era database reactivation work booked 4.4% of dormant contacts on average and 8.9% at peak, with no window or sample disclosed; that was not HVAC data, so it is not used as an input in this table. The method is on the database reactivation page.
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Past HVAC customers stay in the do-not-call exemption for 540 days
Past HVAC customers on the National Do Not Call Registry can be called for 540 days after their last purchase under the Telemarketing Sales Rule’s established business relationship, and inquirers for 90 days after their inquiry, unless they ask you not to call.
The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule definitions (16 CFR 310.2) set those two windows, which is why a renewal campaign should start with customers served in the last 18 months. Voice technology changes the rule. The FCC’s February 2024 declaratory ruling (FCC 24-17) confirms that the TCPA’s restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voice cover AI technologies that generate human voices, so those calls need the called party’s prior express consent absent an emergency or exemption. Check state telemarketing rules too. This is general information, not legal advice.
What running a seasonal HVAC lead plan in-house costs
Running a seasonal HVAC lead plan in-house costs mostly dispatcher and office time: on the assumptions below, three call attempts on 600 lapsed agreements takes about 150 hours.
That figure assumes five minutes per attempt including notes (600 x 3 x 5 minutes = 9,000 minutes). Peak months add the cost of answering every Local Services Ads call and message quickly, which is where small offices fall behind. If your office has spare capacity in spring and fall, run the outreach yourself. If it does not, compare those hours with an outside team, such as AI-assisted follow-up through AI appointment setting or a done-for-you program for home services lead generation in the US.
Sources
- SearchLight Digital, Google LSA cost per lead benchmarks (HVAC $51, 44.0%, 409 accounts, February 2026).
- SearchLight Digital, HVAC Google Ads cost per lead (service-line CPL and book rates, January 2026).
- ENERGY STAR, maintenance checklist (spring cooling and fall heating check-ups).
- Google, Getting started with Local Services Ads (pay for leads, responsiveness and ranking).
- 16 CFR 310.2, Telemarketing Sales Rule definitions (established business relationship: 540 and 90 days).
- FCC 24-17 declaratory ruling (AI-generated voices under the TCPA, adopted February 2, 2024).
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