Which HVAC Marketing Agency Should You Shortlist in 2026?

**July 2026: ads arrived inside ChatGPT, and Scorpion signed on.** Scorpion's newsroom announced on July 23, 2026 that it is a technology partner supporting advertising in ChatGPT. AI answers are now a paid channel as well as an organic one, so ask any agency what it does there and what it charges.

**October 2025: "Google Guaranteed" is gone.** On August 20, 2025, Google announced that starting in October 2025 a single Google Verified badge would replace Google Guaranteed and the other Local Services Ads badges. Any HVAC proposal that still sells the old badge was not written recently.

**May 2025: AI Mode reached everyone in the U.S.** Google rolled AI Mode out to all U.S. users on May 20, 2025, so a homeowner asking who services heat pumps nearby can get a typed answer instead of ten links. Hook ($4,000 a month), CI Web Group (from $1,000 a month) and First Page Sage now sell AI-search work by name.

**January 1, 2025: the refrigerant rule for new residential systems.** EPA's HFC restrictions set a GWP limit of 700 for new residential and light commercial AC and heat pump systems from January 1, 2025. EPA's later reconsideration rule removed the installation deadline for systems built entirely from components made before 2025. Homeowners are asking about it, so the agency writing your replacement-system pages should get the current EPA rule right.

**October 2024: RYNO and Blue Corona merged.** The two home-services agencies now operate under the RYNO Strategic Solutions brand. AI answers still name both, which is why they share one row here.

On 2026-09-30 we asked ten questions an HVAC owner might type, including "Best marketing agency for HVAC companies?", "I run a HVAC company. Which agency should I hire?" and "Which marketing agencies publish their pricing for HVAC companies?", to Perplexity, ChatGPT with web search and Google's Gemini with Search grounding. Thirty answers, all returned. We counted each answer that named an agency and merged Blue Corona into RYNO because they merged in October 2024. BaaDigi: 1 of 30, a ChatGPT answer to the pricing question that cited this page. We publish that because the point of this page is the method, not a ranking.

**A contract that was not the term they thought.** In a BBB complaint against Scorpion, an HVAC owner says he was told an August 2025 engagement was month-to-month, then learned within four weeks that $2,000 of the $4,200 he paid was committed to a 12-month obligation. Scorpion's own FAQ says its marketing technology and SEO typically run 12 months. Get the term in writing before the first payment.

**Losing the Google Business Profile on exit.** A 2026 BBB complaint against Scorpion (the business is not identified as HVAC) describes the agency's account holding Primary Owner of the client's Business Profile after the relationship ended; Scorpion responded that it transferred ownership the same day it saw the complaint. Google's guidance is that the business owner should be the owner and the agency a manager.

**Leads that are shared or misleading.** The FTC's 2023 final order required HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million and stop misleading contractors about its leads. Any agency that resells marketplace leads inherits that problem.

**Fees that are hard to separate from ad spend.** Google's third-party policy requires partners to be transparent about the costs of their services. Ask for the management fee as its own line, apart from media.

The published terms in this set run from a yearly commitment to month-to-month. Scorpion typically requires 12 months for its technology and SEO with ads month-to-month; Hook's FAQ asks for a yearly commitment; CI Web Group publishes no term contracts with 30-day notice; First Page Sage says month to month; Thrive says it does not require long-term contracts; BaaDigi is month-to-month. A 12-month term is not a red flag on its own if it says you own everything. The red flags are a term with no exit clause, a website platform you cannot export, a management fee that is not itemized from media, and any ranking guarantee.

Home electricity use in the U.S. peaks in July and August with air conditioning, heating demand comes in winter, and maintenance work fills spring and fall. The plan follows that shape: heavy paid spend into the two peaks, and SEO, Google Business Profile and review work running all year so the site is ranking before the first heat wave. Google says its Ads seasonality adjustments are built for short events of 1–7 days, not a whole season, so the seasonal plan has to live in the budget, not in a bid setting. Ask any agency for its seasonal plan in writing before you sign.