An Indianapolis couple's air conditioner stopped working, so they called an HVAC company. The tech looked inside the furnace, ran a couple of tests and told them they needed a whole new furnace and outdoor AC unit: about $20,000. They asked for time to think and called a second company. That tech dug in, found a bad breaker, replaced it, and fixed the system in about two hours. With a cleaning and a fall check-up added, the bill came to $1,300.
They wrote a one-star review of the first company. It's one of many like it, and every homeowner who types "ac replacement" into Google has heard some version of that story, from a neighbor, a forum or their own last repair call.
That's the problem a new-system ad has to solve. The searcher may well need a new system. But they arrive suspicious, and an ad that leads with nothing but a discount on a new system walks straight into the suspicion. This last chapter covers what a replacement ad has to prove, what it costs to say "$98 a month," which claims went stale this year, and when you can use a manufacturer's name.
In 29 of 63 Replace-Pressure Complaints, a Second Company Fixed It for Less. Your Ad Starts From That Doubt.
When we read the 221 low-star Google reviews about heating and cooling jobs in our Indianapolis sample, 63 described a push to replace the unit or a sales pitch on a service call. In 29 of those 63, the reviewer says a second company fixed the problem for far less, or found nothing wrong at all. The $20,000 system and the $1,300 visit is one. A $5,000 furnace replacement that turned out to be a dirty furnace and a $200 cleaning is another. So is an $80,000 quote that a second company answered with a drain line repair and a float switch for $600.
The details repeat. A tech who looked for two minutes, or five, before saying "new unit." A system condemned because of its age while it was still working. Carbon monoxide raised as a reason to buy, and then ruled out by the next company. In the homeowner threads we read on Reddit, 9 of 53 were some form of "should I repair or replace," and most of those suspected an upsell.
The full sample of 844 reviews shows what wins instead. 122 four- and five-star reviews praise a tech for explaining, for being honest, for giving options or for applying no pressure. One homeowner wrote that their tech "was willing to talk himself out of the job," and they hired that company for the replacement months later.
Replacement Searches Ask What It Costs. One of 12 HVAC Sites We Checked Prints a Price Range.
The searches tell you where the shopper's head is. Keyword Planner's US counts put "ac replacement" near 14,800 a month, "furnace replacement" and "new furnace cost" near 9,900 apiece, and both "hvac replacement" and "hvac replacement cost" near 6,600. "Hvac second opinion" barely registers at about 70, which tells you something too: people get second opinions by calling a second company, not by searching for the phrase. On our Indianapolis searches, Google's People Also Ask boxes asked "What is the $5000 rule for HVAC?" on six of them.
Cost first. Now look at what the 12 HVAC sites behind this guide offer that shopper. One publishes installed price ranges by system type, marked as confirmed ranges and not a quote: an 80% furnace and AC at $9,600 to $13,500, a dual-fuel system at $13,000 to $17,000, a mini split at $6,000 to $7,500. The other 11 make the shopper call to find out. Three offer a free second opinion.
That's the opening. A replacement campaign built on what this guide has already covered looks like this:
- Its own ad groups. Replacement searches go into their own ad groups, separate from repair, as Chapter 4 set up, so a "furnace replacement" search never lands on a repair coupon.
- Bids set from the job. A new system is the biggest job value in the account (Chapter 3), so its clicks can cost more, and the bid starts there (Chapter 7).
- A page that answers cost. Price ranges by system type, what the quote includes (equipment, labor, permit, haul-away, thermostat, warranty), and how long the visit takes.
- Ads that answer the doubt. "Free second opinion on any replacement quote," "We'll tell you if it can be repaired," "Written quote, three options," if every one of those is true. A price asset, the same tool Chapter 15 used for plan tiers, can carry a starting price for each system type.
The second opinion is the strongest of these, because it's the thing the 29 reviewers wished they'd done first. Only make the offer if your techs will actually say "repair it" when repair is right.
"$98 a Month" Turns an HVAC Ad Into a Credit Ad. Federal Rules Then Require the APR and Terms.
Financing sells systems, and it's everywhere in this market: 10 of the 12 sites promote it, and 22 of the 301 contractor ads we read mention financing or a monthly payment, from zero-interest offers to "No Payments Until 2027." That's fine. But the moment a system ad names the monthly figure, the number of months or the money down, it stops being only an HVAC ad. The federal rule for credit ads, section 1026.24 of Regulation Z, treats those figures as triggers. Put "$98 a month" on a new heat pump and the ad now has to tell the homeowner the money due at signing, every payment through the last one, and the rate, named "annual percentage rate" in so many words.
We found the gap on the sites themselves. One company's coupon page offers a new air conditioner with "Payments As Low As $98 / Month" and prints no APR or term next to it. Another runs a landing page with "0% Interest Financing Options" and no disclosure on that page.
A 30-character headline can't carry a lender's terms, so the practical setup is:
- Let the ad say "financing available," which names no payment, number of months or rate.
- Put the numbers where the terms can live. If the landing page shows a monthly payment, the lender's disclosure sits right beside it, not three clicks away.
- Ask the lender for approved wording. If your financing partner has ad language it has already cleared, use it instead of writing your own.
None of this is legal advice. Have your attorney or lender review any ad that states a payment.
The Federal Tax Credit for New HVAC Systems Ended With 2025. Some Ads Still Promise Tax Credits.
For three years, the federal energy efficient home improvement credit was one of the easiest lines in a heat pump ad. It's gone. The IRS page for the credit says it can be claimed for qualifying improvements made through December 31, 2025. A system installed this fall doesn't qualify.
Ads haven't all caught up. In our pull of the Google Ads Transparency Center, dealer ads still running on two manufacturers' sites this fall pointed shoppers to tax credits, one with a sitelink labeled "Federal Tax Credit Info." The wording may point at other programs. A homeowner reading it in 2026 will assume the federal credit, and the installer gets the angry call in April.
The fix is the same for every money-back claim:
- Name the program. Say whose rebate it is, the manufacturer or the utility, and for which systems, not "rebates available."
- Date it. Every rebate has an end date. Put it on the page and take the ad down when it passes.
- Leave out what you can't confirm. If you aren't sure a credit applies to this customer's system, don't put it in the ad.
Refrigerant deserves the same care. The EPA's rules on which refrigerants new systems can use have moved more than once since 2023; a final rule signed in May 2026 removed the installation deadline for residential equipment built or imported before January 1, 2025. "Replace before the R-410A ban" isn't a safe headline when the rule underneath it keeps changing. And Google's Misrepresentation policy, the same one Chapter 15 cited for plan pricing, doesn't allow pricing practices that create a misleading impression of what something costs.
A Manufacturer's Name in Your Ad Is Its Trademark. Your Dealer Status Is What Lets You Use It.
"Carrier," "Trane," "Lennox" and "Daikin" are trademarks. Google's trademark policy lets advertisers use someone else's trademark in certain situations, such as identifying a product they sell, and it requires the ad and the landing page to make clear whether the advertiser is a reseller or an informational site. If a trademark owner complains, Google reviews the complaint and may restrict use of the name in ads.
For an HVAC company, the practical line is dealer status. Four of the 12 sites in our sample claim a manufacturer dealer designation, and the names are specific: a factory authorized dealer, a "Comfort Pro Elite," a "Customer Care Dealer." One site names two different brands as its dealer status on two different pages, which is exactly the kind of mismatch to fix before a brand name goes into an ad. Only 5 of the 301 contractor ads we read named an equipment brand at all.
If you sell a brand, say so precisely, in the ad and on the page, using the designation the manufacturer gave you. If a manufacturer helps pay for your advertising through a co-op program, its rules sit on top of Google's: approved wording, logo use and what counts as a reimbursable ad. We haven't reviewed any program's terms for this guide; read yours before the ad runs.
Automation Can't Book an HVAC Job Your Tracking Never Saw. That's Why This Guide Began With Conversion Tracking.
That's the whole rollout. Chapter 1 counted booked jobs instead of calls. Chapter 2 set the order to buy searches in, Chapter 3 put a value on each job, Chapter 4 built ad groups in homeowners' words, Chapter 5 sorted the keywords by job, Chapter 6 ran exact match before broad, Chapter 7 bid by hand, Chapter 8 wrote ads from reviews, Chapter 9 fixed the launch settings, Chapter 10 added Performance Max, Chapter 11 Demand Gen, Chapter 12 Local Services and Maps, Chapter 13 AI Max, Chapter 14 split the seasons, and Chapter 15 sold the plan on the visit. Every automated step after Chapter 6 learns from what Chapter 1 counts. Get that wrong and every later chapter optimizes toward the wrong thing.
The full rollout is on the guide's home page.
When we run HVAC accounts through our Google Ads management, replacement gets its own ad groups, its own landing page with ranges and a second-opinion offer, and no payment figure goes into an ad until the lender's terms sit beside it. Running your own? Search your own company name plus "replace" in Google reviews, read what comes up, and write the replacement ad that answers it.
