If you buy HVAC leads, you are renting demand another company generated, and the model decides who else gets that homeowner's number and when you get charged.
This is the buyer's side of HVAC lead generation: the models, the published prices, the contract terms that decide whether a lead program pays.
More Booked Installs does not sell leads; for the seller-by-seller field, see best HVAC lead generation companies.
Should you buy HVAC leads at all?
Buying makes sense when three numbers line up: price per lead, the share of leads that become booked estimates, and the ticket on a closed replacement.
The best price anchor our research found comes from search ads: LocaliQ's 2025 benchmark of its own clients (3,211 US home services search campaigns on Google and Microsoft Ads, April 2024 through March 2025) reports a median cost per lead of $127.74 for air conditioning installation and repair, $129.02 for heating and furnaces, and $90.92 across all home services.
LocaliQ sells ad management and counts a "lead" as a tracked call or form, not a booked job; treat its client data as an order of magnitude, not a market price.
Median cost per lead, search ads
Run break-even arithmetic on your close rate and average ticket before you look at any price card.
What your lead budget can afford
Paid leads fill the calendar now while local SEO compounds, but rented demand stops when the spend stops; the channel-by-channel numbers are in HVAC cost per lead.
Shared vs exclusive HVAC leads
The HVAC lead companies publishing their terms split on one question: how many companies get the same homeowner request.
Shared leads
- One request reaches several companies: Angi matches each homeowner request with no more than five pros.
- Volume is the pitch: Angi's sign-up page claims "Over 1.5M opportunities on Angi last month" (self-reported).
Exclusive leads
- One request, one company: 99 Calls advertises "every lead sent to just one company," and 33 Mile Radius says "All of our HVAC leads are sent exclusively to one contractor."
- Some sellers quote pricing by service area rather than publish a rate.
The shared model: Angi and Thumbtack
Angi's pro FAQ, carried over from HomeAdvisor and now branded "Angi Leads," says pros "pay a nominal fee for each lead you match to"; Angi's help center adds that the fee changes based on task, homeowner location and demand, and that leads are not guaranteed jobs (as of September 2026).
Thumbtack inverts the pricing: "You choose how competitive you want to be by setting your lead prices," there is no subscription cost, and on "Opportunities" (open requests) you pay only if the customer responds (Thumbtack help pages, as of September 2026).
For "preset jobs," Thumbtack instead keeps a percentage of the job price as the fee.
The two differ enough in fee mechanics to get a head-to-head in Angi vs Thumbtack for HVAC.
The exclusive model: 99 Calls, 33 Mile Radius and Modernize
99 Calls, selling to contractors since 2010 per its site, bundles exclusive HVAC leads with done-for-you Google Ads, Local Services Ads and SEO, publishing a $54.99 flat rate per organic lead plus what it calls nationwide averages of $164 to $414 per Google Ads lead and $39 to $111 per Local Services Ads lead, the 10th to 90th percentile of its own clients' costs over 12 months, one seller's client data rather than market prices (self-reported, as of September 2026).
Its packages run from Essentials at $99 a month plus $249 setup to Growth-Enterprise at $4,999 a month, all contract-free; the Growth tier adds a Google Ads service fee of 15% of spend.
More Booked Installs, by contrast, bills its managed Meta ads flat each month, never a percentage of spend.
33 Mile Radius sells exclusive live phone calls, bills weekly by card for valid leads, charges no setup or monthly fees, and quotes cost per lead by service area: "Contact us for the exact cost per lead in your area" (as of September 2026).
Modernize, whose pro-site footer names parent QuinStreet, lists HVAC and claims to qualify 40,000+ homeowners weekly, but published no pricing when read in September 2026.
Our research found no method-disclosed close-rate comparison between the models; the only figure in the pages we read is 33 Mile Radius's own "our top partners close 90% of the leads we send to them," a self-selected vendor claim.
Consent on shared lead forms
The FCC's 2023 "one-to-one consent" rule would have forced a lead vendor's form to name every buyer; the 11th Circuit vacated it (mandate April 30, 2025) and the FCC removed it from its rules on July 14, 2025 (Order DA 25-621).
The FCC also delayed its "revoke-all" rule, where revoking consent to one message type revokes it for all unrelated messages, to January 31, 2027 (Order DA 26-12).
That consent was collected by the lead vendor, not you, and it must be clear and cover your company as the one calling or texting; have your attorney review it before you dial or text bought leads.
Pay per call HVAC leads: what actually triggers the charge
The fine print decides whether a ring was a shot at a job or a wrong number.
Google's Local Services Ads charge per valid lead (calls, messages and bookings), not per click, at prices that vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode; Google publishes no HVAC-specific lead price (LSA help pages, September 2026).
The definition of "valid" is where budgets leak: charged leads include a message, a voicemail, a call you answer, and a missed call without a voicemail that you return and reach or leave a voicemail on, while leads arriving outside your business hours will not be credited.
33 Mile Radius says a call is typically billable if it "remains unanswered (4 rings or more)," is directed to voicemail "irrespective of whether a message is left," or an automated answering system or call center picks up.
Both can bill you for a lead nobody at your shop speaks to.
That makes answer speed the cheapest optimization in any bought-lead program, which HVAC speed to lead covers in full.
Google re-checks charged leads with automated models and may credit invalid ones, in most cases within 30 days, but no longer credits "job type not serviced" or "geo not serviced" claims, so your business-hours setting is part of the defense.
Contract terms to read before you buy
Four clauses decide lead-program economics; none appear in the ads.
What counts as billable. The triggers above are the whole game: billing at 4 rings is a different incentive than billing only answered calls.
Exclusivity scope. Check whether "exclusive" covers the lead or a territory, and get it in writing.
Credit rights. Angi allows credit requests for invalid leads in some cases and Google's credits are automated, so ask what happens to a bad lead before you sign.
Guarantees. Angi Leads' FAQ states "We make no guarantee," and a seller quoting close rates is quoting its own selected customers.
Platform rules shape the market too: Google's Local Services Ads policies ban bait estimates, require diagnostic charges and trip fees to be disclosed up front (the customer pays them "regardless of whether further services are provided"), and bar advertising for call centers that re-route requests to businesses not listed in your ads (as of September 2026).
Where a license is geographically restricted, Google says not to advertise servicing outside that area; ad-platform rules, not law, but they bound what a compliant lead program can promise.
Bought leads can fill a slow week while your own channels catch up, but the contract decides the economics: who shares the request, what triggers the charge, and what recourse exists on a bad lead.
Pull three seller agreements, compare billable triggers, and price the lead off your close rate before you sign.
Frequently asked questions
Are buying HVAC leads worth it?
They are worth what your arithmetic says: a lead pays off only if its price, your close rate and your average replacement ticket clear the cost. A lead is a rented contact, not a booked job, so run the break-even model on your own numbers before you commit a budget.
What is the difference between shared and exclusive HVAC leads?
A shared lead reaches several companies; Angi says it matches each homeowner request with no more than five pros. An exclusive lead is sent to one company only, which is what sellers such as 99 Calls and 33 Mile Radius advertise.
What do pay-per-call HVAC leads cost?
Sellers rarely publish one number: Google sets Local Services Ads prices by location and job type and publishes no HVAC figure, 33 Mile Radius quotes cost per lead by service area, and 99 Calls reports $39 to $111 per Local Services Ads lead for its own clients, self-reported as of September 2026.
Do lead companies guarantee results?
No: Angi Leads' FAQ says "We make no guarantee," and Thumbtack says it "does not guarantee any specific earnings outcome." Every lead is still a contact your team has to convert.
Is consent an issue when you buy shared HVAC leads?
The FCC's one-to-one consent rule was vacated in court and removed from its rules in July 2025, so a lead form does not have to name every buyer. The consent still has to be clear and cover your company as the one calling or texting, so have an attorney review the language before you call or text bought leads.