Your marketing agency is charging you $3,000 a month and you still don’t know your cost per lead.
That’s not a working relationship. That’s a subscription to a PDF.
I’ve watched HVAC owners sign check after check for “full-service marketing” that delivers impressions, clicks, and beautifully formatted reports with no column labeled “did the phone ring.” The agency gets paid. You get a spreadsheet. And somewhere in the middle of a 100-degree July, when your techs are running calls back to back, you realize you have no idea whether that $3,000 actually bought you anything.
Here are the 10 questions that separate agencies that move the needle from agencies that move money from your account to theirs.
1. What’s my actual cost per lead, and how does it compare to $153?
Most agencies don’t want to answer this question because the answer is usually bad.
Industry research indicates HVAC cost per lead across all channels is roughly $153. Non-branded Google Ads come in around $149. Depending on your city and channel, your target range should be competitive with local benchmarks.
If your agency can’t tell you your CPL within 30 seconds, they’re not tracking it. And if they’re not tracking it, they’re optimizing for the wrong thing, likely the impressions that look good in a monthly report but don’t put a truck in front of a house.
The number one mistake HVAC contractors make is tracking vanity metrics instead of unit economics. Your agency should be able to tell you CPL by channel, by season, and by campaign. If they hand you a report with “reach” and “engagement” instead, you’re paying for theater.
2. How fast do you respond to leads, within 5 minutes or 14 hours?
The typical contractor callback time is far too slow to capture hot leads. That’s not a response. That’s a missed opportunity that already booked with someone else.
Leads are significantly more likely to qualify when responded to quickly. Only a minority of businesses respond within the first hour. That means many of your competitors are effectively handing you their leads if you respond faster.
Your agency should have automated lead response set up, text, email, or a call-back system that triggers within minutes, not hours. If they tell you “we focus on generating leads, not responding to them,” fire them. A lead you don’t catch is a lead you paid for that someone else profits from.
3. What’s my close rate on those leads, and is it above 12%?
HVAC conversion rates typically vary depending on landing page quality and lead intent. If your agency can’t tell you your close rate, they’re not optimizing for the part that actually makes you money.
Google LSA close rates tend to be higher, because those leads are actively searching for a solution right now. If your LSA close rate is below typical benchmarks, something is wrong with your reviews or your response time.
A good agency doesn’t just generate leads. They track what happens after the lead arrives. They know which landing pages convert, which keywords bring buyers vs. browsers, and which hours of the day produce the highest close rates. If they’re not looking at the back end of the funnel, you’re paying for traffic that leaks out.
4. Are you tracking customer acquisition cost (CAC) or just ad spend?
Ad spend is what you pay Google. CAC is what it actually costs to book a job, ad spend plus agency fees plus your time plus the cost of missed calls and slow responses.
HVAC CAC typically runs within a range that varies by market and service type. If yours is above that, you’re bleeding. The HVAC industry runs on a net profit margin around 8%. That doesn’t leave much room for an inefficient lead machine.
Your agency should be able to walk you through the math: “We spent $X, generated Y leads, you closed Z of them, and here’s your true cost per booked appointment.” If they hand you a report that stops at “leads generated” without following through to “jobs booked,” they’re hiding the real number.
5. What’s my customer lifetime value (CLV), and are you targeting repeat buyers?
HVAC CLV can be substantial when including maintenance agreements, follow-up repairs, and eventual replacements.
Most agencies treat every lead like a one-time transaction. They optimize for the first call, not the tenth. That’s lazy. A homeowner who signs up for a maintenance plan is worth more over three years than five one-time repair customers combined.
If your agency isn’t building campaigns that target existing customers, maintenance reminders, seasonal tune-up offers, referral programs, they’re leaving money on the table. The winning marketers obsess over unit economics, not vanity metrics. CLV is the number that actually tells you whether your marketing is sustainable.
6. What’s your lead-to-appointment ratio, and where are leads dropping off?
Tracking leads is useless if you don’t know how many become appointments. Many contractors lose leads between the form submission and the phone call.
Your agency should monitor the full funnel: impression to click, click to lead, lead to appointment, appointment to job. If leads are disappearing at any stage, that’s a leak your agency should be plugging.
A simple call tracking setup can tell you which ads actually ring your phone. If your agency resists installing call tracking, they’re afraid of what the data will show. Real marketers welcome transparency because it proves their value.
7. Are you optimizing for mobile, since 70% of HVAC searches happen on phones?
Most homeowners search for HVAC help from their phone while standing in a hot house. If your landing pages load slowly or require pinching and zooming, you’re losing those leads.
Your agency should test every landing page on a mobile device before launch. They should know your page load speed and your mobile conversion rate. If they can’t answer those questions, they’re building ads for desktop screens that don’t match how people actually search.
Mobile optimization isn’t a feature. It’s table stakes. If your agency treats it as optional, they’re not serious about performance.
8. What’s your return on ad spend (ROAS), and is it above 4x?
ROAS is the simplest measure of whether your ads are working. If you spend $1,000 and book $4,000 in jobs, that’s 4x. Below 2x, you’re losing money after overhead.
A good agency will show you ROAS by campaign, by keyword, and by season. They’ll tell you which campaigns are profitable and which need to be paused. If they only show you blended ROAS across everything, they’re hiding underperformers.
The best agencies set ROAS targets and adjust bids daily to hit them. If your agency sends a monthly report with last month’s data, they’re managing your account in the rearview mirror.
9. How do you handle negative keywords and wasted spend?
Most HVAC ad accounts waste 20-30% of budget on irrelevant clicks. People searching for “HVAC training” or “HVAC salary” or “DIY AC repair” should never see your ad.
Your agency should maintain a negative keyword list that grows every week. They should be adding terms like “free estimate” if you don’t offer free estimates, or “cheap” if you’re a premium provider. Every irrelevant click is money you paid for a lead that was never going to call.
Ask your agency for their negative keyword list. If they don’t have one, or if it hasn’t been updated in months, they’re burning budget on tire-kickers.
10. What happens if we pause all ads for 30 days?
This is the question that separates real marketers from order-takers. A good agency will tell you exactly what will happen: your phone will ring less, your lead volume will drop, and you’ll see a direct correlation between ad spend and revenue.
A bad agency will dodge the question or claim your organic rankings will collapse. Organic traffic doesn’t disappear in 30 days. If your agency threatens that, they’re admitting they haven’t built any lasting value.
The truth is, if your marketing is working, pausing ads should hurt. If it doesn’t hurt, your ads weren’t working. A confident agency will let you test this because they know the data will bring you back.
The bottom line
Your marketing agency works for you. Not the other way around. If they can’t answer these 10 questions with specific numbers and clear actions, they’re not managing your marketing. They’re managing your expectations.
The HVAC industry is too competitive and your margins are too thin to pay for theater. Demand answers. Demand data. Demand a cost per lead that makes sense for your business.
And if your agency can’t deliver, there are plenty who can. The phone is ringing. Make sure it’s ringing for the right reasons.