Lonta AI blog
Budget & season
A budget is a capacity decision before it is a marketing one. These pieces start from trucks, tickets and the months the crew is full, and from what happens when two trades share one number.
14 posts
Where should the next $1,000 of Google Ads go?
The campaign with the cheapest average job can be the wrong place to put more money. Compare the extra work you expect to buy and can actually deliver.
9 min readBefore expanding your ad radius, price the truck's return
Seven public destinations fit inside the same 20-mile circle. Their modeled outbound routes range from 16 to 125 minutes. The return changes the job economics again.
9 min readHVAC marketing plan template: build your next 90 days
Choose the work your shop wants, check what it can deliver, and put a name and review date beside the spending. The free workbook connects those decisions.
10 min readThe maintenance plan collected $240. How much will its first year cost?
An annual payment arrives before every included visit is delivered. Keep the remaining service obligation in the calculation when deciding what a new member is worth.
6 min readForty free estimates cost $6,420. Twelve became jobs.
Price the whole batch of estimate appointments, including the ones you lose, before deciding how many more your estimator and installation crew can handle.
6 min readForty open hours can hide a four-hour specialist shortage
A blank block on the dispatch board becomes usable capacity only when the right person can do the advertised work in that block.
6 min readThe discount filled the schedule. Did it leave enough money?
A 10% price cut can remove 25% of the money left from a job. Include the promotion bill and available crew hours before deciding what to offer.
5 min readThe jobs sold. The money arrives two weeks later.
A campaign can leave money after its specified costs and still require cash before customers pay. Put the receipts and bills on the same calendar.
5 min readThe new agency started in May. The heat arrived in June. Who gets the credit?
A busier June can make a May handover look brilliant. Use a weather and operations worksheet to test the claim before crediting the agency, or blaming the one you left.
8 min readA maintenance plan sold only at the kitchen table stops growing. Sell it to your own list first.
Your techs can offer the plan only in houses where something broke. The other signups can come from your customer list and from the tune-up and price searches people already make.
11 min readSEO, Google Ads or Local Services Ads? At $10–20k a month, the question is the order
Local Services Ads need a verified Business Profile, and the badge takes weeks of screening. Search ads need a finished landing page, and Smart Bidding needs conversion tracking. SEO runs on the same profile and pages, and Google's own SEO page no longer says how long it takes.
13 min readHow much should an HVAC company spend on marketing? Start from trucks and tickets, not a percent of revenue
A percent of last year's revenue spends the most in the month the board is already full. How to size the budget from open truck slots, check it against what a sold job is worth, and enter it in Google Ads without the weekday-schedule trap.
13 min readWhen the crew is full in July, move the work into October instead of buying more July
Turning off weekends doesn't lower the bill, and the seasonality setting is built for a three-day sale. The lever is which months you buy work in, measured against what your crew can run.
12 min readWhen HVAC and plumbing share one ad budget, the season decides which trade gets the money
Nobody decides to stop selling plumbing in July. One budget decides it for you, and two settings can join the trades again after you split them.
10 min read