Margin-weighted campaigns: budget that follows gross profit

What it is

It is campaign planning that starts from your job-value ceilings instead of from a keyword list. Each job type gets a share of budget roughly in proportion to the gross profit it can return, adjusted for season and for how much capacity you have to do the work.

In practice that means:

• separate campaigns, ad groups and landing pages for replacements, repairs and maintenance, so each can be judged on its own cost per booked job
• bids and budgets that lean toward replacement and install searches when your crews have room
• repair campaigns built to surface replacement opportunities, with clear pages on when repair stops making sense for the homeowner
• seasonal shifts planned months ahead, not made in a panic when the first cold week arrives

Who it is for

Owners who already get enough calls but feel the wrong ones are winning. A useful test: look at last month's booked jobs and work out what share of your gross profit came from the top fifth of jobs. If a handful of replacements carried the month while dozens of small calls kept the board full, you are a good candidate.

It also suits companies adding heat pumps or other higher-ticket lines, where the old lead-volume habits underweight the new work.

What is included

• A budget split by job type, tied to your ceilings and capacity
• Search and Local Services Ads campaigns structured by job type
• SEO service pages for the high-margin work you want more of
• Google Business Profile services and categories aligned with the same priorities
• Landing pages built to book calls and texts for each job type
• Monthly review of cost per booked job by job type, with budget moved accordingly

A worked example

Consider a hypothetical month with $10,000 of ad spend. Under a lead-maximising setup, $7,000 goes to repair and "near me" searches that book at $70 per job and leave about $180 gross profit each: 100 jobs, $18,000 gross profit. The remaining $3,000 books 10 replacement quotes, 4 of which sell at $2,600 gross profit, for $10,400.

Shift $2,500 from repair to replacement. Repairs now book about 64 jobs ($11,600 gross profit), and replacement spend of $5,500 books about 18 quotes, 7 of which sell ($18,200). Total gross profit rises from $28,400 to about $29,800 on the same spend, and you have room on the board for the installs. The real numbers will differ; the method is what transfers.

Timeline

• Weeks 1–2: account audit, structure by job type, landing page plan
• Weeks 3–4: rebuilt campaigns launched alongside existing ones
• Months 2–3: budget moved as cost-per-booked-job data comes in
• Quarterly: seasonal plan refreshed for the next heating or cooling peak

How results are measured

We judge campaigns on gross profit booked per dollar spent, by job type, from cost-per-booked-job tracking. Lead count is reported but never treated as the goal. A campaign that books fewer jobs with more total gross profit is counted as an improvement.

Mistakes to avoid

• Cutting repair spend to zero. Repairs are often where replacement customers first meet you.
• Pushing replacements when crews are booked solid. Margin weighting must respect capacity, or you pay for jobs you cannot schedule.
• Sending every ad to the home page. Each job type needs its own page that answers that buyer's question.
• Discounting to win volume. A 10% price cut on a 35% margin job removes more than a quarter of its gross profit.

We plan and run campaigns as a marketing service. We are not an HVAC contractor, and budget weights follow the margins you supply, not an accounting review. Compare options on the services page or see pricing.