Paid search is the fastest way to get the phone ringing in a new city, and the easiest way to waste a launch budget. We run tightly targeted Google campaigns on the jobs that matter most to your business case, track each call through to a booked appointment, and step spend down as your local search presence matures. The goal is to buy the first months of calls at a known cost, not to depend on ads forever.
Why ads carry the early months
A new branch has no reviews, no map history and no organic rankings, so paid search is the only channel that works at full strength on day one. That makes it essential early and expensive later. The launch plan sets out in advance how long ads will be the main source of calls and what share of calls they should carry each quarter.
A rough pattern for a well-run launch:
| Period | Share of calls from paid search | What's happening |
|---|---|---|
| Months 1–3 | Most | Profile verified, reviews starting, site indexed |
| Months 4–6 | About half | Map listing showing for some searches |
| Months 7–12 | A minority | Organic pages and reviews carrying more of the load |
Those shares are a planning shape, not a promise. Crowded cities take longer, and smaller markets often move faster.
What's included
- Campaign structure by job type: separate campaigns for replacement, repair, maintenance and cooling, so each has its own budget and cost target
- Geography from your service area: targeting set by the districts and municipalities in your first service area, not the whole metro
- Search terms and negatives: an ongoing list of terms to exclude, such as DIY parts searches, job seekers and searches for other brands
- Landing pages: ads send people to the matching service page on your launch website, not the home page
- Call tracking: tracked numbers on ads and landing pages, with recorded calls (where you choose to record, with the proper notice) so you can see which calls became appointments
- Booked-job reporting: monthly cost per call, cost per booked job and revenue per campaign, using your job records
- Step-down plan: a written schedule for reducing spend as organic and map visibility take over
How results are measured
The number that matters is cost per booked job, not clicks or impressions. We set it up so every call from an ad can be matched to an outcome: booked, quoted, sold or not a fit.
Here is the check we run each month. Say a replacement campaign spent $4,200 and produced 60 tracked calls. If 30 were genuine replacement inquiries, 15 booked an in-home estimate and you sold 6, the campaign cost $700 per sold job. With an average replacement ticket of $9,500 and a 35% gross margin, each job brings about $3,325 in gross margin, so the campaign is comfortably paying for itself. If you'd sold only 2, the cost per sold job would be $2,100, and we would look first at call handling and estimate follow-up before touching the ads.
The results from our HVAC work include HVACDeal.ca, with 500+ leads and a 12:1 ROI, and CanroHeat.ca, with 250% lead growth. They show what disciplined lead generation can return, though your new city's numbers will depend on its competition and your own close rate.
Timeline
- Week 1: account access, conversion and call tracking set up and tested
- Week 2: campaigns built, ads written, landing pages checked
- Weeks 3–6: daily search-term review and early budget adjustments
- Month 2 onward: monthly reporting against the launch plan, with step-down decisions each quarter
Mistakes to avoid
- Launching ads before calls can be answered. Every missed call on a launch campaign is paid for and lost.
- One campaign for everything. Mixing emergency repair and planned replacement in one campaign hides which one is working.
- Sending ads to the home page. People searching for a heat pump want the heat pump page.
- Measuring by leads alone. A form-free, call-first launch should be judged on booked and sold jobs.
- No exit plan. Ads with no step-down schedule become a permanent tax on the branch.
Read the launch sequence guide for the full timeline, check pricing, or call, text or email to talk about your first campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
How much ad budget does a city launch need?
It depends on the city's competition and your margins, which is why the market sizing plan sets three scenarios. The useful way to think about it is cost per booked job: decide what you can afford to pay to win a replacement or a maintenance customer, then set the budget to buy the number of jobs your launch plan needs.
Is ad spend included in your monthly plans?
No. Our plans cover the management, setup and reporting. The ad spend itself is paid directly to Google from your own account, so you always see exactly what was spent.
Why not just run ads across the whole metro?
Because the calls from the far edges are often ones your techs can't reach quickly or profitably. A launch campaign targets the districts in your first service area, and expands as your capacity does.
When do we turn the ads down?
When the map listing and organic pages are producing a reliable share of calls for a given service, we reduce spend on the searches they now cover. Emergency and peak-season searches often stay on paid search for longer.