HVAC Industry Case Study: Strategy, Partnership, and ROI
Case Study · HVAC & Home Services
How Fly Pages Rebuilt a Broken Marketing Engine Into a 72:1 ROI Growth Machine
A regional HVAC company came to us with no ownership of their digital assets, a website copied from a competitor, and ads producing leads at more than $800 per acquisition. Eighteen months later, their cost per acquisition is $53, their AI visibility holds at 80 percent, and their projected FY26 return on marketing investment exceeds 70:1.
(down from $800+)
The Story in 60 Seconds
The Problem
In July 2024, our client had no visibility into whether marketing was doing anything for the business. Their agency provided no reporting, owned every digital asset, and was running ads at more than $800 per acquisition while building the website on a competitor's blueprint.
The Pivot
After a full audit, a new strategy, an agency transition, and a complete website rebuild, the data revealed something the previous agency had missed: the discount-shopper audience the company had been chasing was not the actual customer. The real customer was affluent, educated, and looking for white-glove service backed by hundreds of five-star reviews. In September 2025, every campaign pivoted to lead with value instead of discounts. That is when the growth showed up.
The Proof
Cost per Google Search conversion dropped 81 percent. Conversions grew 259 percent on 32 percent less spend. AI Visibility climbed from 15 percent at launch to a sustained 80 percent across the platforms that matter. Reviews grew 1,825 percent year over year. Projected FY26 return on marketing investment sits at 72:1.
The single most important number in this story — and the one our client tracks every month.
Section 1
What the Audit Revealed
The client came to us through a recommendation from a sister company we had been working with since 2022. Their question was simple: what is marketing doing for our business?
The Fly Pages Investigate audit gave them an answer they were not expecting.
- Ad spend and performance had not been communicated to the client. Cost per acquisition averaged more than $800 in some months.
- Content quality was compromised. Social posts, newsletters, and website copy were templated or repurposed, sometimes containing competitor brand names and unreplaced template placeholders.
- SEO practices put the domain at risk. The agency was using black-hat tactics, purchasing website traffic and backlinks at scale.
- The website was not original. Built by the agency only a year earlier at significant cost, the site was a copy of a competitor the same agency was actively managing. Some competitor metadata and unedited pages were still live.
- The client owned nothing. Ad accounts, social profiles, email platform, website hosting, and the proprietary build platform were all controlled by the agency.
The recovery would take three months of agency-transition coordination, a full website rebuild on a developer platform the client owned, and a complete redeployment of ads, SEO, social media, and reporting infrastructure.
The Fly Pages Proven Process, applied to a full marketing rebuild.
Section 2
The Strategic Insight That Unlocked Growth
Three months into the post-launch optimization period, a pattern in the data became impossible to ignore. The discount-first messaging that had been a company staple — and a directive handed to Fly Pages and the internal marketing team at the start — was not converting the customers the company actually wanted.
The ideal customer was not bargain-shopping. This audience was affluent, educated, and homeowner-focused. They cared about white-glove service, preventive maintenance, peace of mind, and the kind of reputation that shows up across hundreds of named-technician five-star reviews.
"The previous strategy was selling to the wrong customer. The data was clear. We changed the message, and the growth followed."
In September 2025, every campaign was rebuilt around the client's value proposition: certified technicians, six service locations, thousands of five-star reviews, and the reliability an affluent homeowner is willing to pay for. Discount offers came out. The brand story went in.
That is when meaningful growth began to appear in the data. The lesson was not that discount marketing is bad. The lesson was that strategy without target audience clarity is expensive — and the best agency partners push back when the data tells a different story than the client's assumptions.
Section 3
The Results
Paid Media Efficiency
Despite a 32.5% year-over-year reduction in Google Search spend, consistent monitoring and optimizations generated 312.57 tracked conversions — a 259.3% year-over-year increase. Meta and Local Services Ads added significant top-of-funnel and conversion volume.
FY25 paid media performance across Google Search, Meta, and Local Services Ads.
AI Visibility and Search Authority
The client moved from a 15 percent AI Visibility Score at program launch to a 100 percent score in January 2026, the first full month of complete platform tracking. Through a period of significant market-wide disruption — including Google's Gemini 3 rollout, which replaced approximately 42 percent of previously-cited domains across AI Overview — the score held at 80 percent across eight of ten tracked platforms.
AI Visibility Score growth from program launch through February 2026, sustained 80% hold through the Gemini 3 disruption.
Google Business Profile Performance
Across all seven Google Business Profiles, FY25 generated 21.5 percent more total interactions, 83.7 percent more map views, 24.5 percent more phone calls, and 52.3 percent more website visits than the prior year. Q1 2026 added 77 new five-star reviews across locations, a 1,825 percent year-over-year increase.
Google Business Profile year-over-year performance across all seven locations, FY24 vs. FY25, with Q1 2026 review growth.
Return on Marketing Investment
ROI is tracked monthly. FY26 projections estimated an annualized 48:1 return on combined implementation and ad spend. Actual performance through the first half of FY26 has exceeded projections, averaging 6:1 monthly and tracking to 72:1 on an annualized basis.
FY26 return on marketing investment: projected vs. monthly actual vs. annualized tracking.
Section 4
Why This Engagement Worked
Results like these are not delivered by an agency working in isolation. They are built by an integrated team of internal and external experts who share data, share decisions, and share accountability for the outcome.
The client owns everything.
Every ad account, social profile, email platform, CRM, and website platform belongs to the client. Fly Pages strategists and subject-matter experts work with the minimal access the work requires — protecting the client's long-term asset security and ensuring they are never trapped in a vendor relationship.
Sales joins marketing meetings.
In January 2026, sales leadership joined the monthly consulting calls. That single change improved communication between sales and marketing, opened the door to better attribution tracking, better lead quality scoring, and a more accurate picture of what marketing is contributing to revenue.
Reporting is transparent and ongoing.
The client receives monthly reports in advance of each consulting call. The call is for discussion, strategic adjustment, and direct answers to the question leadership cares about most, and no longer has to ask: what is marketing doing for the business?
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This page covers the strategic story. The full case study covers everything else: the audit methodology, the agency-transition coordination, the project architecture, the CRM integration, and the monthly optimization cycle that took the client from $800 cost per acquisition to $53.
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