An air conditioning repair click costs eighteen dollars for a job worth a few hundred. A ducted click costs half that for a job worth five figures.
What your clicks actually cost, which searches are wasting money, and what your cost per booked job looks like. Fifteen minutes, and you keep it either way.
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Under half the price, for a whole house rather than a call-out.
Repair clicks are the most expensive in the trade and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Air conditioning repair is $18.04 and servicing $18.72 on Google’s own figures, and in a heatwave the bidding gets worse. What we will say is that the install terms cost less and are worth far more. Ducted is $9.17 on 8,100 searches a month and split systems $2.99 on 27,100, and both end in an installation rather than a service call.
Average cost per click across Australia, from Google Keyword Planner. What your account pays will differ with location, competition and quality score. The gap between these rows is the argument, not the exact figures.
The expensive end is expensive because it is urgent and seasonal. A dead air conditioner in February is an emergency, every installer in the city bids for it at once, and the job is often a few hundred dollars. That is the worst combination in the trade.
The cheaper end is not lower quality, it is lower urgency. Someone pricing a ducted system is spending five figures over a month and three quotes. Fewer installers bid because it does not feel urgent, which is exactly why it is the better buy.
Three numbers, and only the last one decides anything. It is the same chain our Brisbane digital marketing agency works through in every industry, only the dollar figures change.
We work it right to left. What a job is worth sets what a lead can cost, which sets what a click is worth bidding.
Cost per click is the easiest number to improve and the least useful one. Bid on cheaper searches and it drops immediately, whether or not those searches ever turn into work. That is why we will sometimes tell you to pay more per click rather than less.
Google Ads is the fastest of the three and the only one you pay for by the click. Here is what the other two do, and where the expensive clicks eventually stop.
THE SLOW ASSET
A real page per system type instead of a Services list, a Google Business Profile built properly, and reviews after every install. Slow to arrive, and the only thing that eventually takes the expensive repair clicks off your bill.
THE FAST LEVER
Campaigns split by system type so ducted never competes with repairs for the same budget, and a budget that lifts through the hot months rather than sitting flat all year. Negative keywords so you stop paying for portable units, Bunnings and DIY filter cleaning.
THE ONE THAT FIXES THE SEASON
The cheapest reach available on this trade, and the one that smooths out a seasonal year. Best used in the shoulder months to sell ducted to people who can still wait, and for replacements to households whose unit is old but limping.
We start from what a job is worth, not what a click costs. An installer chasing single split systems and one chasing whole house ducted cannot afford the same cost per click. Google Ads does the fast work, SEO eventually takes the expensive clicks off your bill, and Meta Ads covers the planned jobs cheaply. We will tell you if one is not worth running.
Not a strategy document. These are the three campaigns we would build first for a Brisbane HVAC business, and what each one is actually for.
Built around “ducted air conditioning”
Half the click price of a repair and many times the job value. This customer takes a month and three quotes, which means the page has time to do the selling: zoning, ceiling space, and what it actually costs to run per zone in a Queensland summer.
Built around “air conditioning repair”
The most expensive clicks in the trade, and worth running only if you can actually get there. A missed call in a heatwave is money already spent. We run it tight: your real hours, your real service area, and a landing page with the number enormous.
Built around the searches we exclude
Portable air conditioners, Bunnings, unit prices, refrigeration courses, and everyone trying to clean a filter themselves. On broad match you pay full price for all of it. Fixing the negative keyword list is usually the fastest win in the account.
Send us access to your Google Ads account and we will come back with what it is wasting, which searches are costing you the most for the least, and what we would change first. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep it either way.
Two clicks can cost the same and be worth completely different amounts. That gap, not the click price, is what decides whether an account works.
Eighteen dollars for the click and a whole house at the end of it. Even at a modest conversion rate the cost per job lands somewhere sensible, and the customer comes back for servicing every year after.
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.
Same eighteen dollars, a job worth a couple of hundred, and an hour of driving in traffic. Run enough of those through a summer and the account looks like it is failing when the real problem is which jobs it is buying.
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.
Three things come up in nearly every Google Ads account we audit for an HVAC business.
Repairs are the obvious buy so they take the whole budget, at the highest price in the trade and the lowest job value. It is also the work that vanishes the week the weather breaks.
Ducted costs $9.17 a click against $18.04 for repairs, and split systems $2.99 on 27,100 searches a month, nearly twice the repair term. Bigger jobs, calmer customers, and a cost per booked job the repair campaign cannot come near.
Most accounts we audit spend the same in July as in January. On a trade this seasonal that either wastes money in the quiet months or runs out halfway through the rush, and nobody notices because the reporting is monthly.
Heavy through the hot months on repairs and split systems, lighter and aimed at ducted in the shoulder season when people plan rather than panic. Same annual spend, a much flatter year, and a better cost per booked job.
Air conditioning is booked by phone, and a large share of the accounts we audit have no call tracking. Without it you cannot tell which campaign produced the work, so the budget gets moved on guesswork and the repair campaign usually survives because it feels busy.
A ducted install and a filter clean are not the same job and cannot carry the same cost per click. We work out your average job value by type first, because that is what decides which searches are affordable. Most accounts have never had this conversation.
Ducted, split systems, repairs and commercial each get their own campaign, budget and landing page, so the install work never competes with repairs for the same dollar. A $9 click deserves better than a Services page.
Search terms reviewed weekly and negatives added, and the budget moved between repairs and installs as the weather turns. Then monthly reporting on cost per booked job by system type, not clicks and impressions.
Worth saying before you enquire, because it saves everyone three months.
If you are already six weeks out in January, do not spend more in January. Ads buy you a longer queue and a lot of people who ring somebody else. Spend it in the shoulder months on ducted instead, where the customer can wait. And if nobody answers the phone during a heatwave, every dollar making it ring is wasted.
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 it costs half as much per click and is worth many times more. Ducted is $9.17 a click against $18.04 for repairs. Repairs are urgent, seasonal, heavily bid and often worth a few hundred dollars. Ducted is a five figure job where the customer takes a month and three quotes.
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 season.
Yes, if you can actually get there. At $18.04 a click a missed call in a heatwave is the most expensive thing in the account. Run it on your real hours and your real service area rather than city-wide at 2am, and it works.
Stop selling the unit. The retailer sells a box; you sell it 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, refrigeration courses, 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 five figures on ducted does check. Half the sites we audit show neither number anywhere.
For anything at these click prices, yes. The repair page needs your number and your response time above everything. The ducted page needs zoning, running costs and what it suits. They are completely different readers.
Days on repairs, faster during a heatwave. Ducted enquiries arrive quickly too but convert over weeks, because it is a considered five figure decision.
We look at what it is wasting, how your budget moves across the year, whether calls are tracked at all, and what your cost per booked job looks like by system type. You get it in writing and you keep it whether or not you hire us.
