I do SEO for HVAC contractors, so I care about these numbers because they tell me whether my work pays. You should care because they tell you where to put the next dollar.
| # | Number | How to calculate | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cost per call (by channel) | Channel spend ÷ real calls from that channel | Call tracking, ad dashboards |
| 2 | Booking rate | Appointments booked ÷ real calls answered | Call recordings, CSR log |
| 3 | Close rate | Jobs sold ÷ appointments run | Field software |
| 4 | Cost per booked job | Channel spend ÷ jobs sold from that channel | Numbers 1 to 3 combined |
| 5 | Average ticket (repair vs replacement) | Revenue ÷ jobs, split by type | Field software |
| 6 | Membership plan count and renewals | Active plans; renewed ÷ due for renewal | Field software |
| 7 | Calls by month | Real calls per month vs the same month last year | Call tracking |
Take what you spent on a channel in a month and divide by the real calls it produced. "Real" means a person with a job, not spam, wrong numbers or existing customers asking about an invoice. Without a separate tracking number per channel you are guessing, and most owners guess in favor of whatever they spent the most on.
Channels price very differently. Paid search and lead platforms charge for every click or lead, all year. Organic rankings cost a monthly fee whether you get 20 calls or 200. For the paid side, see HVAC advertising costs broken down per call.
Of the real calls you answered, how many became an appointment? This is the cheapest number to improve, because those calls are already paid for. Listen to ten recorded calls a week. The usual leaks: nobody answers at lunch, the CSR quotes a price before asking questions, nobody offers the next open slot.
Of the appointments you ran, how many bought? Split it by repair and replacement, since they behave differently. A low replacement close rate often means the tech is not presenting options, or the price arrives with no financing attached.
This is the one to run your marketing on. Here is example math with round, made-up numbers so you can plug in your own:
| Step | Channel A (paid leads) | Channel B (organic) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly spend | $3,000 | $1,500 |
| Real calls | 60 | 40 |
| Cost per call | $50 | $37.50 |
| Booking rate | 50%, so 30 appointments | 60%, so 24 appointments |
| Close rate | 50%, so 15 jobs | 60%, so about 14 jobs |
| Cost per booked job | $200 | about $107 |
These figures are an illustration, not benchmarks. The point is the method: two channels with similar call volume can differ by almost 2x on what a paying job costs, and you will not see it unless you track all three steps. Organic callers often book and close better because they picked you rather than being sold to several companies at once, but measure it in your own shop before you believe it.
Track repair tickets and replacement tickets separately. A channel that brings cheap repair calls can look great on cost per job and still lose to a channel that brings fewer calls with more replacements. Divide cost per booked job by average ticket to get marketing cost as a share of revenue for each channel.
A maintenance plan customer pays you twice a year on a schedule you choose, which fills the slow months, and they tend to call you first when the system fails. Track three things:
A growing member base lowers your cost per booked job over time, because repeat work does not need new marketing. If you want ways to sell more plans in the quiet months, my list of slow-season HVAC marketing ideas starts there.
HVAC demand follows the weather. Compare each month to the same month last year, never to the month before. July will always beat April. What you want to see is this April beating last April.
Seasonality should shape spending too. Paid clicks tend to get pricier when every competitor bids during a heat wave. Organic rankings cost the same in July as in March, which is why the time to build them is before the season. You can see how searches for "AC repair" and "furnace repair" swing in your state in Google Trends.
Once it is set up, it takes about an hour a month. Then the budget decision is easy: move money toward the channel with the lowest cost per booked job, as long as that channel can take more.
If you are just starting an HVAC business, licensing, insurance and EPA refrigerant certification come first; the rules vary by state, so check with your state licensing board. On the marketing side, here is the order I would follow:
SEO does not fix a low booking rate or a weak close rate. It lowers cost per call over time and gives you calls you do not rent. That is why I ask for these numbers on the first call: if the booking rate is the leak, I will tell you to fix that before you spend a dollar with me. More on how heating and cooling companies rank.
Track cost per booked job by channel, fix booking and close rate leaks first, offer membership plans on every call, and move marketing spend to the channel with the lowest cost per paying job.
It depends on the job type and lead source, so track repair and replacement separately and compare against your own history. Steady improvement month over month matters more than hitting an industry figure.
It varies widely by market, season and channel. Divide your channel spend by real calls, excluding spam and existing customers, to get your own number.
For most shops, yes. They create scheduled work in slow months and bring repeat repairs and replacements without new marketing spend.
Handle licensing, insurance and EPA certification for your state, then set up a Google Business Profile, a simple website with one page per service, review requests and call tracking from the first month.
Bring whatever you track, even if it is rough, and I will show you where your cheapest next job is likely to come from. Book a free 30-minute call, or start with the free 24-hour audit.
I specialize in home services SEO: taking websites that sit invisible on page three and turning them into the business Google and ChatGPT recommend first. I started on the developer side, writing software and doing SEO on the side, until I saw how much home-service owners were overpaying for work that quietly hurt them. So I built a method that fixes the broken technical work and the outdated thinking behind it.
From garage door companies to plumbers, roofers, locksmiths and cleaning services, the playbook is the same: rank where your customers actually search, earn real reviews, and back it with a fast site that books the job. No PBNs, no bought reviews, no directory spam. Only work that survives Google’s next five updates. See exactly how it’s priced on the pricing page.
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Send me your site and I’ll send back a free audit: what’s broken, what it’s costing you in calls, and the first three fixes.
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