Sheppard

For HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing operators.

Your agency is busy. Is your P&L growing?

Most home services operators hire one agency and trust it'll work. A year in, the reporting looks fine and EBITDA hasn't moved. Sheppard runs marketing as a function inside your business, not a vendor outside it. We diagnose what's actually working, install what's missing, and report the way your CFO reads.

Start with a Marketing Stack AuditOr get the diligence checklist
Chris Sheppard, founder of Sheppard

Chris Sheppard, June 2026

A note from Chris

If you landed here from a referral, here's what to expect from Sheppard in plain English.

We work with a handful of residential home services operators at a time. Independents doing real volume and multi-location operators building toward something bigger. The pattern we see most often is the same: there's an agency reporting impressions and a CFO who can't reconcile any of it back to the financials. The agency isn't lying. It just isn't built to answer the question that matters.

Sheppard is a small, principal-led team on purpose. You work with senior operators end to end, not handed off to a rotation of juniors. Every engagement starts with a Marketing Stack Audit so both sides know what we're working with before scoping anything bigger.

If that sounds like the practice you've been looking for, a working session is the fastest way to find out.

— Chris

Chris Sheppard, Founder

10

Residential trades served end to end

30

Long-form essays in the practice library

8

Engagements active at any one time

5–10×

Typical return on the Marketing Stack Audit in the first 18 months

How we help

One practice. Three modes. Under one roof.

Most operators have to assemble three vendors to get a working marketing function. We do all three under one roof, scoped to one engagement, reported as one number.

Run it

Senior operators executing your marketing.

Ten specialties run as one engine. Measured on ROAS and booked-call value, not impressions.

See the specialties

Build it

AI systems that turn paid clicks into booked jobs.

AI call answering, booking automation, CRM and dispatch integration, attribution warehouses, applied AI workflows.

See what we build

Advise on it

Operator-grade counsel at the leadership level.

Strategic counsel to CEOs, CFOs, and operating leadership. Marketing operating model, M&A integration, growth strategy.

See the advisory

Three steps to a marketing function that compounds.

Do nothing and the next year looks like the last one. Busy agency. Flat P&L. Compounding gap to the operators who got it right. Here's the alternative.

01

Audit.

3 to 4 weeks · $35K-$90K

We quantify what's working, what's broken, and the EBITDA upside. A working memo and an operating plan you can deploy with us or without us.

Start with the audit

02

Install.

60 to 120 days

We install the marketing operating system across all three modes. Dashboards live. AI call answering and booking infrastructure wired. CFO can reconcile sourced revenue to the financials.

Start with the audit

03

Run.

Ongoing

We operate the function, or manage the agencies you have against unified KPIs. CFO-grade reporting on the cadence of financial close. Transferable system if the business sells.

Start with the audit

By Day 100

Dashboards live, attribution reconciled to the financials, AI call layer capturing every paid click.

By month 12

150 to 400 bps of marketing-sourced EBITDA contribution showing up in the close cadence.

Year 2 and beyond

A marketing function that compounds, transferable in any future ownership transition. Not a vendor relationship the business can't separate from.

Who we work with.

Residential home services operators across the spectrum. Independent shops doing real volume and multi-location operators building toward something bigger. Same operating model, scaled to the business.

HVAC

Heating, cooling, and indoor air.

Plumbing

Drain, sewer, repipe, and water heater.

Electrical

Residential electrical, panel upgrades, EV charging, whole-home generators.

Roofing

Residential roofing, storm response, and retail re-roof.

Pest Control

Residential pest, mosquito, and termite.

Pool & Spa

Pool service, repair, and seasonal opening/closing.

Garage Door

Garage door install, repair, and opener service.

Flooring

In-home flooring sales, installation, and remodel-adjacent work.

Restoration

Water, fire, and mold remediation.

Landscaping & Lawn

Recurring lawn, mosquito, and seasonal, and the route-density game.

All ten tradesBacked by PE? See the brief

From the desk

Recent writing from the practice.

All insights →

Build it · Featured

AI call answering for home services: when to deploy it, how to wire it, what it actually costs

The largest hidden leak in residential home services marketing is the call that doesn't get answered or doesn't get booked. AI voice agents have moved from demo-quality to production-grade in the last 18 months. Here's the operator's frame for evaluating, deploying, and measuring them.

Read · 12 min

Build it

Marketing attribution that reconciles to booked revenue, not platform-reported conversions

Read · 11 min

Advise on it

Why most home services agencies fail their clients

Read · 9 min

Frequently Asked

Questions operators ask before they engage.

What exactly does Sheppard do?

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Three things under one roof. Run it: full-stack digital marketing execution across the ten specialties (local SEO, paid search and LSAs, paid social, lifecycle, CRO, content, brand, analytics, reputation, direct response). Build it: AI-forward customer journey systems including AI call answering and booking automation, CRM and dispatch integration (ServiceTitan, FieldEdge, Housecall Pro), attribution warehouses, and applied AI workflows. Advise on it: operator-grade consultancy to the CEO, CFO, and operating leadership on marketing operating model, M&A integration, and growth strategy. Three modes, one engagement, reported as one number to the financials.

My agency says they're crushing it. Why isn't it showing up in my P&L?

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The agency's report is usually honest. It measures what an agency can see (impressions, clicks, leads) instead of what the business cares about (booked-call value, sourced revenue, EBITDA). An agency operates on your marketing from the outside. They report on what's visible in their ad platforms. A marketing function runs it from the inside, with line of sight into the financial system, and reports on what shows up in the close cadence. The disconnect between agency reporting and P&L performance is the most common reason an operator engages Sheppard.

How is Sheppard different from a marketing agency?

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We're three things bundled (agency, systems builder, advisor), not just an agency. Our reporting reconciles to the financial system. Our scope is the full marketing operating model, not a single specialty. We're measured on ROAS, booked-call value, and EBITDA contribution, not retainer growth. We work with a handful of operators at a time, never hundreds. We specialize exclusively in residential home services. Everything we build, including the AI call-answering and booking infrastructure, is owned by the operation and transferable if the business sells.

What does an engagement look like?

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Three phases. Phase one is the Marketing Stack Audit, a 3 to 4 week diagnosis that quantifies what's actually working, what's broken, and where the EBITDA upside is. Phase two is Value Creation, 60 to 120 days installing the operating system across the ten marketing specialties. Phase three is Execution, ongoing operation of the marketing function, either run by us or managed across the agency relationships you already have. Almost every engagement starts with the audit because both sides need to know what they're working with before scoping anything bigger.

What does the Marketing Stack Audit actually tell me?

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A working memo with three things. First, a quantified opportunity map: where the EBITDA upside is, how much of it, and over what timeline. Second, a diagnosis across the seven workstreams that decide marketing performance (spend efficiency, attribution integrity, brand equity, lead quality, channel mix, operational maturity, vendor performance). Third, an operating plan you can deploy whether you continue with us or not. The audit is built to be useful on its own, not as a pitch deck for a bigger engagement.

What does it cost?

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A Marketing Stack Audit typically prices between $35,000 and $90,000 depending on the scale and complexity of the business. The Value Creation install and ongoing Execution are retainer-based, scoped to the business after the audit. We're not the cheapest option and we don't try to be. We're the operator-grade option for operators who treat marketing as a function, not as a line item to minimize.

What trades does Sheppard cover?

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Residential trades only. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, pool and spa, garage door, flooring, restoration, and landscaping and lawn. We do not work in commercial trades, consumer brands, or non-services categories. Each trade has its own playbook respecting unit economics, seasonality, ticket sizes, and competitive dynamics.

What size operations does Sheppard work with?

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Independent operators doing real volume and multi-location operators building toward something bigger. The shared trait is treating marketing as a function worth investing in, not a line item to minimize. We also work with PE-backed home services platforms when the engagement fits; that work is covered in the dedicated Private Equity brief, which has its own playbook around the deal lifecycle.

What KPIs does Sheppard report on?

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Six metrics that matter at the P&L level. Marketing-sourced EBITDA contribution, customer acquisition cost trend normalized for channel-mix shift, sourced-revenue contribution by channel, booked-call rate, average ticket trend by lead source, and brand investment as a percentage of revenue. Generic ad-platform metrics like impressions, clicks, and CTR are operational telemetry. They live in the working dashboards. They don't lead the report.

Marketing that holds up through the hold.

Get the marketing function under control.

Start with a Marketing Stack Audit