What Is a Good ROAS for an HVAC Company?

ROAS is the one number that tells you whether your ads pay for themselves. Here is what it means, how to find your break-even, and why we aim for 6-10x.

What ROAS means

ROAS is simple math:

Example: you spend $3,000 on Google Ads in a month. Jobs that came from those ads bring in $18,000. Your ROAS is $18,000 ÷ $3,000 = 6x. Every $1 on ads brought back $6 in revenue.

That's it. No marketing jargon. If your agency can't tell you this number every month, ask why.

ROAS vs ROI: not the same thing

ROAS looks at revenue. ROI looks at profit. The difference matters.

• ROAS ignores what the job costs you to do. $6,000 in revenue from $1,000 in ads is 6x, whether the job was mostly labor or mostly expensive parts.
• ROI subtracts your costs: parts, labor, the ad spend itself, and any management fees.

Example: $1,000 in ads brings in $6,000 in jobs. Your gross margin is 50%, so those jobs leave $3,000 after parts and labor. Subtract the $1,000 ad spend and you keep $2,000. ROAS is 6x. ROI on the ad spend is 200%.

ROAS is the faster number to track week to week. ROI is the number your bank account feels. You need ROAS high enough that ROI is clearly positive.

Find your break-even ROAS

Your break-even ROAS is the point where ads pay for the job's direct costs and the ad spend, and nothing more. The formula:

Below break-even, ads lose money. At break-even, they keep your techs busy but add no profit. Anything above it is where the business grows.

Remember to count everything you pay for ads. If you pay someone to manage them, add that fee to ad spend before you do the math.

Why we target 6-10x

Our brand line is "6-10x ROAS" for a reason. With HVAC and duct cleaning tickets in the $300 to $1,500 range, the margin on each job is real but not huge. You need a big gap between break-even and actual results to cover:

• Overhead: trucks, office staff, insurance, software.
• Jobs that get booked and then cancel.
• Slow weeks between seasons.
• Profit you actually keep.

Example: at 50% gross margin, 6x means every $1 on ads brings $6 in revenue, $3 in gross profit, and $2 left after the ad spend. At 10x, that same $1 leaves $4. That's the kind of return that makes it worth turning ads up, not just keeping them on.

To be clear: 6-10x is our target, not a guarantee. Your market, your budget, your reviews and how fast your team answers the phone all move the number. What we promise is to work toward it and report the real figure every month.

Which revenue counts?

This is where ROAS numbers get fudged, so decide up front and stay consistent.

• Booked-job revenue. The invoices from jobs that came from ads. This is what we use.
• Future value. A first visit can turn into a maintenance plan, a bigger repair or a referral. That value is real, but track it separately. Mixing it into ROAS makes a weak month look strong.
• Estimates aren't revenue. Count a job when it's done and invoiced, not when it's quoted.

How to track ROAS properly

You can't manage what you can't see. Good ROAS tracking for HVAC needs four pieces:

1. Call tracking. Most HVAC leads come by phone. Ads and your website need tracked numbers so every call is tied to its source.
2. Form tracking. Online booking and contact forms should report as conversions in Google Ads.
3. Lead source in your software. Mark the source on every job in your field service or CRM tool, such as ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or Jobber. "Google Ads" must be a choice your office staff actually picks.
4. Revenue back to Google. Match invoices to ad-driven calls and, where possible, send that revenue back into Google Ads. Then the system learns which searches bring paying jobs, not just calls.

Without these, ROAS is a guess. With them, you can see which services, areas and keywords pay, and move money there.

What drags HVAC ROAS down

When ROAS is low, the ads are only sometimes the cause. Look at the whole path from search to invoice:

• Missed calls. A lead that hits voicemail often calls the next company.
• Slow follow-up. Form leads that wait hours go cold.
• Wrong searches. Paying for "HVAC jobs," "furnace parts" or DIY questions.
• A slow or confusing website. No click-to-call, no booking, no clear service area. See what a site built to book jobs looks like.
• Unanswered estimates. Quotes that never get a follow-up call.
• Missing tracking. Jobs that came from ads but weren't counted, which makes ROAS look worse than it is.

We go through the ad side in detail in 9 Google Ads mistakes that waste HVAC budgets.

When a low ROAS is OK

Early numbers can mislead. In the first weeks of a new campaign, Google is still learning and tracking is still being set up. A brand new service area may take time to build reviews and trust. Judge on a full month of clean data, not a slow week.

Low ROAS that stays low after tracking is fixed, calls are answered and searches are cleaned up is a real signal. Then it's time to rethink the targeting or the offer, or to set the budget from your actual cost per booked job.

The bottom line

A good ROAS for an HVAC company is one well above your break-even, measured on real booked-job revenue. Find your break-even from your gross margin, track every call and invoice, and fix the leaks between click and job. That's how ads go from a cost to a growth engine.

It's how we run Google Ads for HVAC companies at Prompted Leads. A past client grew past $1M in annual revenue with this playbook. Your first month with us is on us. You pay Google for the clicks, there's no contract, and we only make money if you do.