- Budget for system installs, not service tickets.
- Spend ahead of the peaks. Peak weeks bring emergency calls on their own.
- Shoulder months are where planned replacements and idle install crews meet.
- Keep ad spend and agency fees as separate lines.
Budget for installs, not the dispatch board
A heat wave will fill the dispatch board with no-cool calls whether you spend a dollar or not. Those calls matter, but they don’t need a growth budget. The budget is for replacement and new-system work, sized to what your install crews can take on.
Worked example (example numbers, not a benchmark)
Illustrative inputs only. Your own go in the calculator below.
The goal is 7 more system installs a month, averaging $14,000 each. At a 35% close rate on in-home visits, that takes 20 visits (7 ÷ 35%). At a 40% booking rate, it takes 50 replacement leads (20 ÷ 40%). At about $70 per replacement lead, that’s $3,500 a month in ad spend (50 × $70).
Those 7 installs bring in $98,000. The ad spend works out to about 3.6% of that revenue. Agency fees are a separate line.
Time spend around the peaks
The homeowner who replaces a system in April chose to. The one who replaces it on the hottest day in July had no choice and booked whoever answered first. Your budget does more work reaching the first homeowner.
- Spring and fall: the heaviest replacement spend, aimed at older systems before the peak
- Peak summer and winter: hold steady and protect the install calendar from service overflow
- Quiet weeks after a peak: follow up on quotes that didn’t sign during the rush
Keep install crews from sitting
Mild weather is when install crews go quiet and the phone slows down. A budget planned a few weeks ahead fills those weeks with replacements booked in advance. A budget that only switches on when it’s already hot ends up chasing calls you would have gotten anyway.
When to raise or cut
Add budget when booked in-home visits come in under your ceiling and install crews have open days. Hold when installs are booked out. If visits are booking but not closing, look at the proposal, the options presented, and follow-up after the visit before buying more leads.
