What is a booked quote? HVAC marketing terms explained

Marketing agencies love a three-letter word. Most installers we talk to have been sent a report full of CPMs, CTRs and ROAS, and nobody explained which of them paid for a van. This glossary starts with the one term we care about most, the booked quote, then gives the eight numbers worth tracking and 37 terms from A to Z.

Every definition is written for an air conditioning business owner, not a marketer. Where a term has a number attached, it uses our planning assumptions, clearly labelled, because we have no client data yet.

What is a booked quote?

A booked quote is a qualified homeowner booked in for an in-home quote, in your diary, with a time. The homeowner has answered questions about the property, the system, the job, urgency, budget and ownership, and agreed to a site visit. It is not a lead. It is the closest marketing can get to a job.

The difference matters because a lead is only a name and a number. Some leads never pick up. Some rent. Some want a $150 repair when you install ducted. A booked quote has been filtered and has a time in the diary, with the answers attached, so your tech walks in knowing what the job is.

That is why the whole HVAC Profit Machine is built to produce booked quotes, not leads, and why our weekly report counts booked quotes, cost per booked quote and jobs won. Our planning funnel at $4,000 of ad spend across Meta and Google runs about 35 enquiries, about 21 qualified and about 12 to 13 booked quotes.

Which HVAC marketing metrics matter most?

Eight numbers tell you whether marketing is paying: cost per lead, qualifier pass rate, booked quotes, cost per booked quote, close rate, jobs won, gross profit per job and return on marketing. The first two are inside the account. The last six are what matters to the business.

These numbers are assumptions until a client's first month replaces them. Our post on what HVAC leads cost in Australia compares them with other channels.

Which HVAC marketing terms should an installer know?

The terms below are the ones that turn up in agency proposals, ad accounts and CRM screens. Each has a one to three sentence definition, written for someone who runs vans, not campaigns. They are listed A to Z so you can find the one in your last report.

Attribution

Attribution is how you decide which ad, channel or page gets credit for a job. Without it, a job won from a Meta ad and a job from a referral look the same in your books. We attribute by tracking each enquiry from the ad it came from through to the won job.

Booked quote

A qualified homeowner booked in for an in-home quote, in your diary, with a time. It is the unit we report on, because it is the last step marketing controls before your tech takes over.

Close rate

The share of quotes you give that become jobs: jobs won divided by quotes given. Our planning range for exclusive, pre-qualified quotes is 30 to 40%. It depends on your pricing, your quoting and how fast you follow up, not only on the marketing.

Conversion rate

The share of people who take the next step: landing page visitors who enquire, enquiries that pass the qualifier, or quotes that become jobs. Always ask "conversion from what to what", because agencies use the term for whichever step looks best.

Conversions API

Meta's server-to-server connection that sends events, such as a submitted form or a booked quote, from your website or CRM straight to Meta. It works alongside the pixel and fills gaps when browsers block tracking. It lets Meta learn which ads produce booked quotes, not just clicks.

Cost per booked quote

Total monthly marketing cost, fee plus ad spend, divided by booked quotes. On our planning numbers it is about $550 all-in. It is the one number that tells you what it costs to get in front of a real buyer.

Cost per lead (CPL)

Ad spend divided by the number of enquiries. Our planning assumption is $100 to $130 per enquiry, blended across Meta and Google. On its own it is misleading: cheap leads that never book a visit cost more per job than dearer leads that do.

CPM

Cost per thousand impressions: what Meta charges for your ad to be shown 1,000 times. It tells you how expensive your audience is to reach, not whether the ad works.

CRM

Customer relationship management software: the system that holds every enquiry, conversation, booking and quote in one place. Ours is GoHighLevel, and the client gets their own login. Our HVAC CRM automation page shows the pipeline.

CTR

Click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions. A higher CTR usually means the ad is relevant to the people seeing it. It says nothing about whether those people own a house or want a quote.

Ducted

A ducted air conditioning system has one indoor unit, usually in the roof, pushing air through ducts to vents in each room. It is the highest-value residential install for most installers. A 3 to 4 bedroom ducted install in Sydney is $10,500 to $16,500 on our planning range.

Energy Savings Scheme (ESS)

The NSW Government scheme that gives eligible households an upfront discount on the quote for an efficient air conditioner. NSW Climate and Energy Action lists it as indicatively up to $550 for a new 6kW system and up to $560 when replacing an old unit with a 6kW split, with no closing date.

GoHighLevel

The CRM and automation platform we build on. It handles the pipeline, SMS, calls, calendars and follow-up, and can push booked jobs into ServiceM8 or simPRO.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps, with your reviews, hours and service area. For an installer it is often the first thing a homeowner checks after seeing an ad. We manage it for clients and send automated review requests after each install.

Google Search ads

Text ads that show above the results when someone searches on Google, such as "ducted air conditioning Castle Hill", paid per click. They catch homeowners who need a system now. We run them alongside Meta ads, weighted to Google in Sydney's December to February peak, when people search because a system broke.

Gross profit per job

The job price minus materials, labour and other direct costs. Our planning range for a Sydney ducted install is $2,300 to $4,800. It is the number marketing cost should be measured against, not revenue.

Heat-load assessment

An in-home check of the rooms, sizes, insulation, windows and orientation to work out how much heating and cooling capacity a home needs. A free in-home heat-load assessment is one of the offers we build ads around, because it gets a tech into the house to quote properly.

Instant form

A Meta lead form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram and pre-fills the person's name, email and phone. It makes enquiring almost effortless, which lifts volume and lowers quality. We default to a landing page instead; the trade-off is in Meta instant forms vs landing pages.

Landing page

A single web page built for one offer, one audience and one action, usually matched to the suburb in the ad. Ours carries the offer, a price anchor and the six-question qualifier.

Local Services Ads (LSA)

Google ads that show at the top of some local searches, charged per lead rather than per click. Google's help centre does not list an Australian version, so they are not available here. Our Google work is Search ads and your Google Business Profile.

Lookalike audience

A Meta audience built from people who resemble a list you give it, such as past customers or booked quotes. It helps Meta find more homeowners like the ones who already bought.

Missed call text back

An automation that sends an SMS to anyone whose call you did not answer, so the enquiry is not lost while you are on a roof. It is a basic part of speed to lead.

Multi-head

A multi-head system runs several indoor units, often wall splits, from one outdoor unit. It suits homes where roof space or ceilings rule out ducting, and it is a higher-value job than a single split.

Nurture

Follow-up messages that keep a homeowner warm between enquiry and decision. For installers the most valuable nurture is quote follow-up: our system sends SMS on days 1, 3 and 7 after the quote, in the client's name.

Off-Peak Fill

The module in our system for winter and the shoulder months. It switches ads to reverse cycle heating, gas heater replacement, service and maintenance offers, and pre-summer install slots, so the diary does not empty when cooling demand drops.

Payment 2 (third job rule)

The second $4,500 of our first 90 days. It is due once you have won 3 jobs from quotes we booked, or at day 60, whichever comes first. Only jobs quoted at $5,000 or more excluding GST count toward the 3. Smaller wins are still reported.

Pipeline

The stages every enquiry moves through, from new enquiry to qualified, booked, quoted, won or lost. Ours has 10 stages in GoHighLevel, so you can see where each homeowner is and where jobs are being lost.

Pixel

A small piece of Meta code on your website that records what visitors do, such as viewing a page or submitting the form. Meta uses it to report results and to show ads to people more likely to act.

Qualified lead

An enquiry that has passed your qualifying questions: right property, right job, right area, real timeframe and budget, and an owner, not a renter. On our planning numbers about 60% of enquiries from Meta and Google qualify.

Qualifier

The set of questions a homeowner answers before the enquiry reaches you. Ours has six: property type, current system, install or repair, urgency, budget and ownership. Our guide to qualifying air conditioning leads explains each one.

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who have already interacted with you, such as visiting the landing page without enquiring. It is cheap reach to people who have shown interest.

Reverse cycle

An air conditioner that can run in both directions: cooling in summer and heating in winter. It is the system the NSW and Victorian discounts are built around, and the product behind winter heating offers.

ROAS

Return on ad spend: revenue from ads divided by ad spend. For installers, revenue flatters the result because it ignores materials and labour. We would rather measure gross profit against total marketing cost.

Speed to lead

The time between an enquiry and your first contact. Our system sends an SMS and makes a call inside 60 seconds. Why that matters is in speed to lead for HVAC.

UTM

Tags added to the end of a link that tell your analytics and CRM where a visitor came from, such as the campaign and ad. They are how an enquiry in the CRM is traced back to the ad that produced it.

Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU)

The Victorian Government program that applies a discount upfront on efficient appliances. Energy Victoria says it can save up to $1,610 upfront on an efficient reverse cycle air conditioner, usually when replacing an older appliance.

Zoning

Splitting a ducted system into zones, such as living areas and bedrooms, that can be switched on and off separately. It lowers running costs and is a common upgrade when replacing an older ducted system.

Where do these terms show up in practice?

In the weekly report. Ours leads with booked quotes, cost per booked quote and jobs won, then shows cost per lead and qualifier pass rate underneath so you can see where a change came from. Everything else in this glossary is how those numbers get made.

We run the same system in every territory we cover. The Sydney version, with its regions and weather, is on our Sydney HVAC marketing page.

Alan

Co-founder. Onboarding and client operations

Alan runs onboarding and the day-to-day of every account: the CRM, the booking flow, the follow-up and the Friday report.

More about Alan