Almost nobody searches for air conditioning. They search for a split system or a ducted system, because they have already chosen the type before they go looking for anyone to install it.
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Australian search volumes, Semrush.
Three channels, three jobs. A business usually needs all three, staggered rather than launched at once. It is the same model our Brisbane digital marketing agency runs across every industry we work in, only the numbers underneath it change.
META ADS
The whole trade is seasonal and the buying decision is made before the searching starts. Meta reaches people in the shoulder months, when a quote is still a conversation rather than a race, and it sells replacements to people whose unit is old but limping along.
GOOGLE ADS
Catches them the moment they search, including the ones Meta warmed up. Fastest of the three to produce a booked job, and the only one that works on the first forty degree day when everyone rings at once.
SEO
Takes over the same system searches Google Ads is paying for, permanently and for free. Slowest to arrive, cheapest to keep, and on a seasonal trade the only thing still working for you in the quiet months.
Google Ads tells us within about six weeks which searches actually produce booked jobs, so SEO gets aimed at those rather than guessing for six months. Meta retargeting picks up everyone who read your ducted page and did not call, which on a five figure quote is nearly all of them. And as SEO ranks for a system type, we pull the paid spend off it and move it to the next one.
The work behind each one, so you can tell whether a proposal is describing effort or just naming a platform.
THE SLOW ASSET
A real page per system type rather than a Services list, each with running costs and what it actually suits. Google Business Profile built properly, categories right, and a review process that runs after every install. Suburb pages for the areas you actually service. This is what moves the map pack and the system terms.
THE FAST LEVER
Campaigns split by system type, not one campaign called Air Conditioning. Negative keywords so you stop paying for portable air conditioners, Bunnings, air conditioner prices, HVAC courses, and people trying to clean a filter themselves. Budget that flexes with the season rather than sitting flat, because January and July are not the same market.
THE ONE THAT FIXES THE SEASON
The channel that smooths out a seasonal trade. Reaching people in the shoulder months, before the rush, when they will actually read a quote rather than ringing five installers in an afternoon. Also the best place to sell a replacement to someone whose unit is fifteen years old and still running.
We start from which jobs you want more of, not from which service we would like to sell you. An installer wanting ducted work rather than single split systems needs a proper ducted page and Meta Ads in the shoulder months, not more summer traffic. A new business with no reviews needs Google Ads while the SEO catches up. We will tell you on the call if one of the three is not worth running for you.
Not a strategy document. These are the three pages we would put up first for a Brisbane HVAC business, why those three, and the numbers behind each one.
Built around “ducted air conditioning”
Slightly less volume than split systems and several times the job value. Zoning, ceiling space, running cost per zone, ducted against multi-head, and what it actually costs to run in a Queensland summer. This customer takes a month and three quotes, which means the page has time to do the selling. Almost every HVAC site gives ducted two sentences.
Built around “split system air conditioner”
The biggest number in the trade and the fastest decision. One room, one unit, sorted before the weekend. Sizing by room, what a back to back install actually costs against a difficult one, and whether you can do it this week. The competition here is a retailer selling a box, so the page has to make installation the point rather than the price of the unit.
Built around “air conditioning repair”
The smallest number and the most expensive clicks in the trade, because a dead air conditioner in February is an emergency and everyone bids for it. This one is decided in the map box on reviews and whether you pick up. Worth ranking for, worth being honest that it is a phone-answering business rather than a content one.
Tell us your suburbs and the jobs you want more of. We will come back with the real search numbers for your patch and the three pages we would start with. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep the research either way.
Your Google Business Profile, suburb pages, and local listings optimised so customers in your area find you first.
Technical fixes and service-focused SEO that make your site easy for Google to understand and trust.
Build your reputation through reviews, with monthly reports tracking rankings and leads from organic search.
Site speed, crawlability, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals sorted so Google can index and trust your site.
Service pages and suburb landing pages written to rank and convert, not just fill space.
Backlink building and on-page optimisation that compounds month over month.
Worth saying before you enquire, because it saves everyone three months.
Fast answers, clear decisions.
Spend, leads and trends at a glance.
Your data, your accounts.
Budget goes to what converts.
4+ years average client retention.
Specialists across each platform.
Because the customers are not the same. Someone searching split system wants one room sorted before the weekend and will spend under a thousand dollars. Someone searching ducted is spending five figures on a whole house and will take a month over three quotes. Split does 9,900 searches a month and ducted 8,100, and a shared Services page persuades neither.
Agency fees usually work one of three ways: a percentage of ad spend, a flat monthly retainer, or a base fee plus a percentage above a threshold. Percentage models get expensive as you scale and quietly reward the agency for spending more of your money. Ask which model an agency uses and why before you ask for a number.
Yes, and most accounts we audit do not. Spending the same in July as in January either wastes money in the quiet months or runs out halfway through the rush. Heavy on repairs and split systems through the heat, lighter and aimed at ducted in the shoulder months when people plan rather than panic.
Because a dead air conditioner in February is an emergency and every installer in the city bids for it. Close to ten dollars a click. It is worth having, but it is a phone-answering business rather than a content one, and it should not take the whole budget.
Stop selling the unit. The retailer sells a box; you sell it working, sized correctly, installed legally and running at a cost the customer can predict. Put sizing advice and running costs on the page and the conversation moves off the sticker price.
Portable air conditioners, Bunnings, air conditioner prices, HVAC courses, refrigeration apprenticeships, and people trying to clean a filter or regas a unit themselves. On broad match an account buys all of it.
More than most. Refrigerant work needs an ARC licence and the electrical side needs an electrical licence, and someone spending fifteen thousand dollars on ducted genuinely does check. Half the sites we audit show neither number anywhere.
Google Ads produces calls within days, faster during a heatwave. The system pages take three to six months to rank. Meta works best in the shoulder months, where it produces ducted enquiries that convert weeks later.
Yes. Search behaviour is the same across Australia, though the seasonal shape differs by climate and evaporative cooling matters far more in dry regions than in Brisbane. The volumes quoted on this page are national.
We look at whether your site has a real page for each system type, what those terms do in your suburbs, how your budget moves across the year, and whether your licence numbers are findable. You get it in writing and you keep it either way.
