Is Paying for Google Ads a Smart Move for HVAC Companies? [With Examples]

If you are asking. Is Paying for Google Ads a Smart Move for HVAC Companies?

In this article, I’ll explain to you what to expect, how much budget you need, and how many phone calls you can get realistically, so that you can decide for yourself whether it is the right fit for your business.

So let’s get started.

A Local Service Business Google Ads Account Example

So here we can see from this account—this company is not an HVAC company—but their goal is to receive phone calls, and I’m going to show you how you can calculate whether you can be profitable with Google Ads if you’re an HVAC company.

You can see the number of phone calls it generated the last 30 days with this local service business account.

So with Google Ads, you can see the number of phone calls you’re getting, the number of conversions you’re getting.

Conversions might mean phone calls directly from the ads, and that can also include phone call button clicks directly from the website or landing page.

And they can also include form submissions. So some visitors, if they visit your website after hours when you’re not working, they can just submit the form, and you can reply whenever you want.

And you can also calculate other metrics like cost per conversion and conversion rate. And these are the data from the last 30 days.

Let’s see that for HVAC businesses.

Why Google Ads Is Better Than Other Platforms for HVAC

Firstly, why should you choose Google Ads and not choose other platforms?

Because when people need HVAC services, for example, they may first use Google Search. They won’t use Facebook, Instagram, or any other platforms to solve their problem.

So with Google Search, you can find users who are actively looking for your services. And whenever they want this service, they just go to Google Search and not any other platform.

Because Google has many other networks as well, they can display your ads on Google Display, like on other websites or YouTube.

So you can advertise your products on YouTube as well. But I’m specifically talking about Google Search.

So whenever someone needs HVAC service, and they just go to Google Search, they’re going to search from there, and your ads can show up in front of the users who have the highest intent to use this service.

And they can contact your business, and you can generate high-quality customers from here.

Using the Call Button Feature to Drive Phone Leads to HVAC Businesses

So this is the biggest difference when it comes to businesses—to generate high-intent customers. And you can generate high-quality phone calls compared to other platforms.

And the other thing: you can get phone calls directly from the ads.

As you can see, there is a call button with these ads. So that means they can directly call your business directly from this ad.

So they don’t have to visit your website, and to save their time, they can just press this call button, and they can contact your business.

As you can see, the second ad also has a call button. And many other ads can also use a call button feature.

But some ads may not have a call button. Depending on their settings, they can have a call button, or they may not have a call button, because they may not be using extensions as well.

Sometimes you can also see ads at the bottom of the page.

So, with this Google search, I am seeing three ads here. Depending on your quality score, your ad performance, or your budgeting, you can see ads appearing at the top of the page or at the bottom of the page.

So you can get high-quality customers right from Google Search. And without wasting time, they can call your business directly from the ad.

Or if they want to get more information, they can visit your website, and they can read the content of your landing page.

And they can call your business from your landing page.

To know if Google Ads is right for your business, you need to find your goals. So how many phone calls do you want to receive from Google Ads?

Do you want to receive five phone calls, ten phone calls, or twenty phone calls?

Calculating Phone Call Costs for HVAC businesses with Google Ads

Let’s say you want to receive five phone calls per day, and here we’re going to see how much would they cost.

So if you want to receive five phone calls and your conversion rate is 10%, you need to get 50 clicks. What does it mean? One out of 10 clicks you’re getting is going to convert as a phone call.

So I’m using 10% conversion rate here, but the worst case should be 10%. If you’re receiving less than 10%, then there must be something wrong.

So we’re getting the worst-case scenario here. You should not be getting less than 10% conversion rate with Google Ads.

And let’s say you’re getting 10% conversion rate. That means one out of 10 clicks you’re getting is going to convert as a phone call.

So to get five phone calls per day, you need to get 50 clicks. Then 50 clicks are going to generate you five phone calls.

Let’s imagine your conversion rate is 20% rather than 10%.

You are converting your customers much better, so it is 20%.

That means it should take 25 clicks—two times fewer clicks to generate the same amount of phone calls. So that means if your conversion rate is higher, it’s going to cost you less to get five phone calls.

Finding Cost per Click Number For HVAC businesses

Now, to know the cost of the phone calls, we need to know the cost of each click, and we can calculate the total amount of those clicks, and we can calculate the cost of one phone call.

To know our cost-per-click metrics, we need to use Google’s Keyword Planner tool, which gives information about the cost of the clicks we’re getting.

But even if you don’t have a Google Ads account yet, there is another tool, and it’s called WordStream.com or you can use any tool online.

You just need to go to wordstream.com/keywords, and you’re going to go to this tool and just type in your keyword which your customers might search, or the keyword you want to show up for on Google.

So I’ve put the keyword “HVAC services near me” and clicked on “Find my keywords”.

As you can see, this is the keyword. You don’t have to choose industry. The downside of this tool: it’s going to choose a country rather than choosing a specific location. So you cannot go deeper; you cannot choose cities, for example.

Just click on Continue. As you can see, different results for different keywords. For example, for “AC repair near me,” it’s going to cost from $21 up to $81.

The results are almost the same, but for some keywords, they’re different.

Cost Per Click Numbers of HVAC industry with Keyword Planner

But if you want to know detailed information about each keyword for your specific location, we’re going to use Google Ads Keyword Planner, and we’re going to get data directly from Google Ads.

Let me show you that.

For that, we’re going to Google ads dashboard, and we’re going to go to Tools, and under Planning, we need to go to Keyword Planner and click on Discover New Keywords.

Once you’re here, you need to choose a specific location because we are using the country we are targeting, and we need to be choosing a specific location—because we cannot serve the full United States.

We need to choose a specific location.

So we’re going to go in there, and let’s imagine we’re going to choose New York and click on Include and remove the United States. We’re going to only target this location and click on Save.

After that, we’re going to use that keyword again and click on Get Results

As you can see, you can see different results here. The bid range starts from $8 or $9 up to $47.

If you’re going to scroll down, you can see different keyword ideas and their specific cost-per-click limits.

They can have two types of limits: they can have top-of-page bid high range and top-of-page bid low range.

Your keyword CPCs or cost per clicks should be within those ranges to be eligible to participate in Google ad auctions.

After going through those keywords, let’s say if we’re going to bid $11, we’re going to be higher than the top-of-page bid low range, and we’re going to be eligible to participate in the auctions.

You should see that if you start getting clicks and impressions with that $11 cost per click, that’s good. But if you are not seeing results—if you’re not getting impressions and clicks—you should slowly start to increase that bid limit so that you’re going to start getting impressions and clicks.

For this example, for this location, we’re going to assume that the $11 cost per click bid limit is going to bring us impressions and clicks. That should be enough to generate clicks to our website.

So we’re going to assume it’s going to cost us $11. So 50 clicks would cost us 50 × $11 = $550, and 25 clicks would cost us 25 × $11 = $275.

Again, these numbers are based on different conversion rates. If you’re going to get a 10% conversion rate, it’s going to cost you $550. If you’re going to get a 20% conversion rate, it’s going to cost you half as much, which is $275.

Let’s calculate the price of one phone call. One phone call is going to cost you $110 with this conversion rate, and one phone call is going to cost us $55 with the 20% conversion rate.

Once we’ve calculated those numbers, we need to set our expectations right. Every time you get a phone call, they’re not going to convert 100%.

Let’s say one out of two phone calls you’re getting is going to be a qualified lead. We’re going to assume that. And the numbers can go twice as high.

That means one real lead is going to cost us $220 with a 10% conversion rate, and one lead is going to cost us $110 with a 20% conversion rate.

Calculating Google Ads Profitability for HVAC Companies

So conversion rate makes a big difference, and the cost can be much different if you’re going to get a high conversion rate.

Let’s calculate how much profit you can make with these conversion rates outside of the Google Ads expenses.

Here I’m assuming that your service costs around $250, and each lead or real lead is going to cost you $220. Then you can make $30 profit outside of your Google Ads expenses.

This cost may be different—it can be much higher or slightly lower than that—but I’m assuming it’s going to be this much. You can calculate that for yourself as well, depending on your situation, your location, and your cost-per-click bid.

With 20% conversion rate, it’s going to bring us $140 profit from one lead. As you can see, the conversion rate makes a big difference.

If you’re going to get a 20% conversion rate, it’s going to be much easier for you to be profitable with Google Ads. But if you’re going to have a 10% conversion rate, it’s going to be harder to be profitable in Google Ads.

So the best way would be to create highly effective campaigns that can increase your conversion rate. The numbers given here can be different—for example, your cost per click might be different in your location, and your conversion rate might be different as well.

It can be much higher. I’m saying here 20% conversion rate, but your conversion rate can also be 25%, 30%. So depending on your situation in these two situations, you can have an idea of how much you can expect from Google Ads if you get these numbers.

Based on these numbers, we can assume that yes, you can be profitable running Google Ads, but you need to set up your campaigns correctly.

You need to be choosing the right bid strategies, and you need to set up your overall campaign structure correctly. With that way, you can get these numbers outside of the Google Ads expenses.

So, if you guys want some help and want me to manage your Google Ads account, you can also let me know. Otherwise, thank you guys for reading this article.