An HVAC marketing plan is the written answer to five questions: what the year should produce, what you will spend, which channels you will run, when each one runs, and how you will know it worked.
This page is the planning layer of the HVAC marketing hub, written for owners and general managers of US residential HVAC companies.
What a marketing plan for an HVAC company decides
A marketing plan for an HVAC company comes down to five decisions, and skipping any one of them is where a plan comes apart.
- A production goal. Not "more leads": a number of booked install estimates per month, split by season; replacements are the revenue jobs this consultancy is built around.
- A budget. One annual figure, divided across the months the way demand actually falls, not twelve equal slices.
- Channels. Two or three you will actually run, not seven you will sort of run.
- A calendar. Which channel gets built when, which goes live when, and what comes down when.
- Measurement. One scorecard: booked calls, estimates set, estimates sold, and cost per booked job.
The budget line: the only numbers with a source
A guest post on the Small Business Administration's blog says there is no hard-and-fast marketing budget, and it suggests asking your industry trade association for benchmarks rather than quoting a percentage (SBA, "How to Get the Most From Your Marketing Budget").
No method-backed HVAC trade association benchmark turned up in our research either, so treat any percentage-of-revenue rule from an agency as an opinion until you see a survey behind it.
The government figure closest to a benchmark is an average: the plumbing and HVAC contractor industry (NAICS 238220) spent $1.85 billion on purchased advertising and promotional services in 2022, about 0.6% of the industry's $297.6 billion in revenue (2022 Economic Census).
That 0.62% share runs above the 0.46% for all specialty trade contractors and the 0.41% for construction overall, and it excludes in-house marketing wages and vehicle wraps made in-house; software sits in its own line.
Read it as an industry average, not a target: it is dominated by commercial and new-construction firms that barely advertise, and it does not describe a residential replacement shop.
The most concrete published numbers are contract requirements: One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning's 2026 franchise disclosure document requires franchisees to spend 6% of the year's gross revenue on local marketing starting in the third month after opening, on top of a 6% royalty (minimum $1,500 a month) and a 1.5% brand fund contribution on the first $5 million of yearly gross revenue.
Aire Serv's 2026 FDD sets required local marketing spend of $60,000 in the first 12 months and $75,000 in the second, plus a 2% marketing, advertising and promotion fee and a license fee of 5% to 7% of gross sales.
Those are two named franchisors' 2026 contract terms, not benchmarks; franchisees get handed a budget, and you have to set one.
What each channel costs is covered in what HVAC marketing costs.
Time the plan around the season, not the calendar year
An HVAC annual marketing plan that spends evenly across twelve months fights the weather, and the weather data is public.
US shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps peaked from March through July 2025, which together held about 53% of the year's total, while October through December ran about 5% of the year each month (AHRI monthly statistical releases, 2025).
Shipments count what manufacturers shipped to distributors, which leads homeowner installs, so read them for timing shape, not purchase data.
The weather behind it is measurable too: June through August held about 64% of US cooling degree days in 2025, and December through February held about 59% of US heating degree days (EIA, Monthly Energy Review).
Degree days measure weather-driven heating and cooling need, not service calls or sales, and 2025 is one year of data, so use the shape, not the decimals.
Region moves the whole calendar: 2025 heating degree days ranged from 1,780 in the West South Central division to 6,314 in New England, and cooling degree days ran the other way, from 549 in New England to 2,992 in the West South Central (EIA).
Equipment mix moves it again: in 2020, central AC was the main cooling for about 83% of Southern homes, 74% in the Midwest, 54% in the West, and 39% in the Northeast, while about 78% of homes heating mainly with a ducted heat pump were in the South (EIA, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey).
A Tulsa plan and a Boston plan should not be copies of each other, and neither should July and November.
The planning shape of the HVAC year
The month-by-month version, low months included, is in the HVAC marketing calendar.
An HVAC marketing plan template: seven steps
A template is useful as a checklist and useless as a strategy, so fill this one in with your own numbers instead of copying a sample.
Set the production goal
Booked install estimates per month, split by season, pulled from last year's own reports.
Set the budget
One annual figure, weighted toward the months before and during your peaks.
Pick two or three channels
Compounding work (local SEO, reviews, website conversion), something that pays fast (ads), and past-customer marketing.
Build before the peak
New pages, profile work, and landing pages finished in the shoulder season, not during it.
Put dates on the calendar
What goes live by month, what pauses, and what gets reviewed when.
Define the scorecard
Booked calls, estimates set, estimates sold, and cost per booked job, checked weekly.
Review monthly, re-plan quarterly
Keep what works, kill what does not, and move budget once a quarter, not once a week.
Every number in those boxes comes from your own reports, which is the point: a template filled with someone else's numbers is a fiction.
An illustrative year at a glance
Here is the shape of a full year for a hypothetical shop in a mixed market; it is illustrative, not a benchmark, and a Southern or Northeastern shop would tilt it.
| Quarter | Plan focus | Why (the sourced part) |
|---|---|---|
| Q1, Jan to Mar | Build pages and profile, prep landing pages, book maintenance agreements | Shipments start climbing in March (AHRI 2025) |
| Q2, Apr to Jun | Everything live for cooling; replacement offers in front of peak traffic | March to July held about 53% of 2025 shipments; June to August held about 64% of US cooling degree days |
| Q3, Jul to Sep | Keep cooling running, start heating prep, work the estimates that did not close | Shipments run high through July, then slide from August into the fall |
| Q4, Oct to Dec | Heating push in cold markets, past-customer reactivation, next year's plan | October to December ran about 5% of shipments each month; December to February held about 59% of US heating degree days |
Budget split by channel and expected lead counts deliberately do not appear there, because our research found no sourced HVAC benchmark for either.
Where each channel fits in the plan
Pick channels to cover both speeds: work that compounds and work that pays this month.
Illustrative: where the main channels sit
- Local SEO and profile
- Reviews
- Website CRO
- Meta ads
- Past-customer marketing
The exact spots matter less than the corners: in that picture, paid ads buy attention fastest and stop the day you stop paying, while the profile, reviews, and site keep compounding.
A plan that is all ads rents its growth month to month, and a plan that is all compounding work starves while it matures; plan on one of each plus past-customer marketing.
For the full idea list beyond these five, see HVAC marketing ideas.
The 2028 furnace rule: a checkpoint, not a promise
One dated item belongs in any annual plan that sells furnaces in a cold market.
The current DOE rule sets a 95% AFUE minimum for gas furnaces keyed to manufacture date, and that standard remains in the Code of Federal Regulations with its December 18, 2028 date as of October 2026.
On June 8, 2026, the Supreme Court vacated the D.C. Circuit's judgment and sent the case back to that court for further consideration, so the outcome is open.
Trade press has reported DOE may delay compliance to January 1, 2030, but that is an unconfirmed report rather than a decision, so do not build a plan on it.
The planning move is a quarterly checkpoint: watch the docket, keep selling what sells today, and never tell a homeowner their furnace is banned, because it is not; the rule is an efficiency minimum, and it could still change.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five components of a marketing plan?
Goals, budget, channels, calendar, and measurement. An HVAC version states each as a number: booked install estimates per month, dollars per month, the two or three channels you will run, the months each runs, and one weekly scorecard.
What is the 3-3-3 rule for marketing?
A marketing mnemonic with no single definition we could pin down while researching this page. Treat any formula like that as a reminder, not a plan: build yours on your own booked-call numbers instead.
How much should an HVAC company spend on marketing?
An SBA blog post says there is no hard-and-fast number and suggests asking your trade association for benchmarks. The government figure closest to a benchmark is an average, not a target: 2022 Economic Census data puts purchased advertising and promotional services for plumbing and HVAC contractors at about 0.6% of industry revenue.
When should I start marketing before cooling season?
Earlier than the weather suggests. AHRI data shows US central AC and heat pump shipments peaked from March through July 2025, and EIA degree-day data puts about 64% of 2025 US cooling degree days in June through August. Shipments lead installs, so the building happens in the months before spring.
Do I need a different plan for heating than cooling?
Usually yes. EIA data shows about 59% of 2025 US heating degree days fell in December through February, and the regional split is wide: heating degree days ranged from 1,780 in the West South Central division to 6,314 in New England that year.