HVAC marketing in Melbourne: heating-led aircon marketing for 2027 and beyond

We are a Sydney business, and we are building Sydney first. Melbourne is on the list because the market is big, the government discount is bigger than in NSW, and the rules change in 2027. But we will not take your money in Melbourne until we can show you Sydney results with dates on them. This page explains how we would run it, and why you would be waiting.

Why is HVAC marketing in Melbourne different from Sydney?

Because Melbourne buys for winter first. July afternoons average 14.5°C at Olympic Park, and suburban stations record 10 to 16 frosty nights a year, and Victoria's 2027 rules are written around moving heating and hot water off gas. So the Melbourne sale is usually "replace your heating and get cooling as a bonus", not "beat the heatwave".

Sources: BOM Melbourne (Olympic Park), BOM Scoresby Research Institute and BOM Laverton RAAF. The Olympic Park record starts in 2013.

The summer line matters too. Melbourne averages about 9 days a year at 35°C or more, compared with 3.2 at Sydney's Observatory Hill. Those hot days are short and sharp, and they are when the "we should have got cooling" thought lands. The heating sale sets up the cooling sale.

What housing do Melbourne installers work in?

Mostly freestanding houses. In the 2021 Census, 67.8% of dwellings in Greater Melbourne were separate houses, 16.2% semis and townhouses and 15.6% flats. About 30% of households rented. Houses with roof space are where ducted reverse cycle replaces gas ducted heating.

Source: ABS 2021 QuickStats for Greater Melbourne.

That rented share, about 538,000 households, is the part of the market the 2027 rules touch hardest.

What is the VEU discount and how would we use it in ads?

Victorian Energy Upgrades is a state program that takes a discount off the quote for efficient appliances. Energy Victoria says it can save up to $1,610 upfront on an efficient reverse cycle air conditioner. In most cases the household must replace an older appliance with an approved, more efficient model.

For ads, three things matter:

• It is upfront. Energy Victoria says the discount is applied to the quote, so the homeowner does not pay full price and claim later. That is an easy line to put in an ad.
• "Up to" means up to. The final amount depends on the product and the job. Ads and landing pages must say "up to $1,610" and let the installer confirm the real figure at the site visit.
• Replacement is the normal case. That fits the Melbourne sale: take out the old heater, put in reverse cycle.

The NSW discount is indicative up to $550 or $560 for a 6kW system. The Victorian figure is roughly three times that, which makes it a stronger hook in a Meta ad and in Google Search ad copy.

What do the 2027 electrification rules change for HVAC?

From early 2027, Victoria phases in new building electrification and rental efficiency standards. The big one for aircon: from 1 March 2027, a rental provider whose heating breaks and cannot be repaired must replace it with an efficient reverse cycle air conditioner in the main living area. Owner-occupiers are not forced off gas heating.

Here is what Energy Victoria's standards page lists:

So the honest message to owner-occupiers is choice, not compulsion: "your gas heater is getting old, here is a reverse cycle option with up to $1,610 off the quote." The compulsion story belongs to landlords. We cover this in detail in Victoria's 2027 electrification changes for HVAC.

How would we run Meta and Google ads in Melbourne?

Meta and Google Search together, with two campaigns, not one. A homeowner campaign that sells ducted reverse cycle as a heating replacement, run hardest from April to August. And a rental provider campaign aimed at landlords with older heaters, built around the March 2027 rule. The qualifier would change to match.

The HVAC Profit Machine stays the same: Meta and Google ads, suburb landing page, six questions, reply inside 60 seconds, booked into your diary, follow-up on days 1, 3 and 7. The Melbourne differences:

• Ownership answer flips meaning. In Sydney a renter is usually filtered out. In Melbourne a rental provider is a target buyer, so the ownership question separates tenants from landlords and routes each correctly.
• Current system question does more work. "Gas ducted, gas wall heater, old split, nothing" tells the installer what is coming out and whether a VEU replacement applies.
• Google Search by suburb. Bidding on ducted reverse cycle, gas ducted heating replacement and breakdown searches, when a gas heater dies in July or a system fails in a hot spell. No single-room split searches. The Search build is on Google Ads for HVAC.
• Seasonality runs the other way. Heating offers carry the year; the cooling push is a shorter run around the hot spells. In Sydney the $4,000 minimum starts at Meta $2,500 and Google $1,500 and flips to Google-heavy from December to February. We would set Melbourne's seasonal split from real data before we open, not guess it now.
• Territories by region. East (Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Doncaster, Ringwood), south-east (Berwick, Narre Warren, Frankston, Mornington), west and north (Werribee, Point Cook, Craigieburn, Essendon). Final boundaries are not set.

For the ducted side of the sale, see how to sell $10,000+ ducted jobs online.

Is the Melbourne territory available?

Not yet. Melbourne is on a waitlist. We are Sydney first because two founders can only do a few areas properly, and because we want to show Melbourne installers real, dated Sydney results before asking for a signature. We have no clients yet anywhere.

If you want first call when Melbourne opens, book a 15-minute audit and tell us you are in Victoria. We will add you to the waitlist and contact it first when Melbourne opens. Our published price is the starting point; Melbourne terms will be confirmed before we sign anyone there. See how we run it at home on the Sydney HVAC marketing page.