Search Engines and Directories

Over 1.9 Million Google Searches for “HVAC” 

In a recent month there were over 1.9 Million Google searches in the United States for the term “HVAC”  Over 87% of those searching were on Google.  Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search accounted for most of the rest.  Viewers were presented with Ads, local and organic listings. We offer several programs to optimize your chances of qualified lead generation:

Google search is one of the easiest, fastest and best ways to increase lead flow to your HVAC business.  We help you:

  • Understand the competitors in your market 
  • Determine key search terms such as “HVAC”, “Air conditioning”, “AC” and “Heating” 
  • Develop bid strategies 
  • Develop and test ads that drive traffic 
  • Landing and capture strategies the create engagement 
  • Appointment and conversion to sale tactics

Google My Business Optimization

Google offers free local listings to nearly all small businesses and can be seen as the modern yellow pages. When your potential customer searches a term such as “air conditioning” or “heating repair” it presents a map of your neighborhood and a list of local companies. 

The problem is that there could be hundreds of local companies with similar listings.  Google tries to mix it up but there are a number of things we can do to optimize your ranking and listing effectiveness.  We help you get on the map…literally!  Then we help you build an ad or listing that encourages potential customers to reach out to you. 

Local listings are below the top paid Ad listings.  A porting of the map is revealed that can be made larger by clicking on it. 

Clicking on the prior map reveals a complete listing of local HVAC companies that are represented by red markers. 

You can click on either the red marker or side listing to see more about a specific contractor.  In this case you might notice his reviews as well. 

Google Ads Management 

In a recent year (2020) most of Google’s 147 Billion revenue came from Pay-per-click”  advertising.  Advertisers essentially bid for placement.  Generally, the higher the bid.. the higher the Ad placement. 

But getting eyeballs is only a part of the problem.  Having a compelling Ad results in higher CTR (Click throughs). Having the right landing page or strategy results in more contacts and conversions to sales. 

Google allows us to select specific geographies to target. 

By bidding high, a CPC of $50,  we see all of the possible leads that can be bought in the USA for the term “air conditioning” 

The scope of the advertising can be narrowed to a specific geographical area.

Managing Google Ads is as much art as it is science and results can vary dramatically by geographic area and advertising copy.  A recent keyword analysis for a township with 494k population yielded the following results: 

Max CPC 

Impressions 

Clicks 

Ave Rank 

CPC 

Cost

$3

 24

0

2

$2.27

$0.49

$10 

220

3

2.2

$7.99

$25.65

$50

810

8

1.7

$23

$180

 

According to Google, setting a max bid at $3 CPC yields 24 page views and no predicted clicks. 

Raising the bid max amount to $10 yields a predicted 220 impressions and 3 clicks. 

Raising the Max CPC to $50 predicts 810 page impressions and 8 clicks at a cost of $180.

Many business owners have heard the term “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO”. Meta tags, key words and back links all play a role in helping a website to have a higher “organic” listing. 

In today’s world it takes thousands of back links to influence site rank. Over the years, sites such as Wikipedia and Yelp have built tremendous authority with Google. AirVersant has an opportunity to build solid authority with certain key words. 

Google is incented to move advertisers away from “free” organic advertising to paid advertising ( Google Ads)  and that is exactly what they have been doing. 

 

 

In 2020, Microsoft Bing and its partner Yahoo Search account for over 9% of searches. This would translate to over 162K searches per month in the US for the term ‘HVAC”.  Rather than avoiding these search engines, we see them as an opportunity to be a “big fish in a small pond”  

Yelp has about 62 million unique visitors each month searching for local businesses and over $1 billion in sales.  It competes against Google’s MyBusiness.  Again it’s an opportunity to be a “big fish in a small pond” and capture an occasional sale,

Angie’s list is a directory of over 6000 active contractors representing over 700 services. The company seeks to qualify leads for its contractors by asking a number of questions of prospective customers.  Again,  advertising on Angie’s List is a “big fish in a small pond” strategy.