HVAC

Between 6% and 12% of revenue, depending on growth posture and competitive intensity in the DMA. A defensive maintenance posture sits at the low end. An aggressive growth posture in a contested DMA sits at the high end. Inside that envelope, the mix that matters is the split between always-on demand capture (paid search, LSAs, local SEO) and demand creation (paid social, brand, lifecycle). Operators who spend below 6% are typically losing share to competitors who outspend them on the demand-capture side.

It depends sharply on whether the call is replacement, service, or membership. Replacement leads ($8K to $15K tickets) can sustain $200 to $600 cost per booked call. Service work ($300 to $1,500 tickets) needs to sit at $40 to $120. Membership signups should be $50 to $150. Operators reporting a single blended CPL across all three are masking what's actually working and what isn't.

Different funnels, different creative, different bid logic. Replacement leads are considered purchases that take days to weeks to close. Run a long-cycle nurture, lead with financing and warranty, and invest in showroom/in-home conversion assets. Service work is immediate-demand. Bid for emergency keywords, run LSAs aggressively, and pre-stage burst creative for weather events. Most HVAC operators run one funnel for both and leave material EBITDA on the table.

Booked-call rate, cost per booked call (segmented by lead type), replacement-opportunity ratio (service calls that surface replacement quotes), member acquisition cost, local-pack visibility by DMA, and marketing-sourced revenue contribution. Generic ad-platform metrics (impressions, CTR, CPC) are operational telemetry. They live in working dashboards. They don't lead the report.

Fragmented operator base, recurring service revenue through maintenance plans, weather-driven demand independent of the macro cycle, and the operational room to capture 150 to 400 bps of EBITDA by professionalizing marketing and dispatch. Platforms like Apex Service Partners, Champions Group, and Service Champions have demonstrated the consolidation thesis at scale. HVAC remains the most active home services trade for PE platform formation through 2026.

Platform-scale HVAC businesses ($25M to $75M EBITDA) have traded at 10x to 14x in recent years, with the most operationally mature platforms at the high end. Add-on multiples typically range 6x to 9x. The platform multiple is materially affected by marketing maturity. Clean attribution, unified KPIs across the platform, sponsor-grade reporting, and an exit-ready data room can defend the high end of the band. The lack of those gives buyers room to negotiate down.

Standardize the lead taxonomy first. Every portco CRM uses the same source, type, and disposition schema, so platform-level performance can actually be measured. Run local-pack obsession DMA by DMA: standardized Google Business Profiles, review velocity programs, citation cleanup, structured-data discipline. Brand architecture for the roll-up matters more than most sponsors realize. The platforms that win build one parent brand with consistent identity at every customer touchpoint.