The Best HVAC Marketing Agencies in 2026, Scored on Five Things You Can Verify

Every other list of the best HVAC marketing agencies asks you to trust a scoring rubric you cannot check. Weighted percentages, an editorial opinion, a number that appeared out of nowhere. This one works the other way around. Each agency below is scored on five things you can verify yourself in about two minutes, and the list is ordered by how many of the five it clears.

Nothing here is scored on how good the work is, because we cannot measure that from the outside and neither can you until you are six months in. What we can check is whether an agency is straight with you before you sign. That turns out to predict a lot.

The five things each agency is scored on

1. Is it founder owned? Not private equity backed, not a brand inside a public company, not founder led with an outside investor holding paper. This is not a moral question. A backed agency with 300 people can absolutely outperform a 20 person shop. But ownership decides what happens when your account underperforms and what happens to your pricing at renewal, and it is a fact you are entitled to know up front.
2. Do you keep your website, ad accounts, and data? This is the one that costs real money. If your site, Google Ads account, and call data live inside a system only the agency controls, leaving means starting from zero. Five agencies here will hand you the ad account. Two will not. Three publish nothing either way, which in our experience is its own answer.
3. Has ServiceTitan actually certified them? Plenty of agencies put a ServiceTitan logo in a footer. That is not the same as appearing in ServiceTitan’s own directory, and two different things get called partnership. A Certified Marketer has passed the marketing track of the ServiceTitan Certified Provider Program and is listed by name in ServiceTitan’s certified provider directory. A marketplace listing means the company built a technical integration or registered as a consultant, which is useful but is not a certification. Five agencies here are certified. Two have a marketplace listing only. Five have nothing we could find.
4. Does anyone review the actual calls? A lead count is not a lead. Three agencies here say a human listens to calls and rates them. Three run automated transcript scoring, which is faster and cheaper but catches different things. One hands you the recordings and lets you do it yourself. The rest do not address it.
5. Will they tell you a price without a sales call? Four publish real numbers. Two publish partial numbers. Seven publish nothing.

Most answers come from each agency’s own published pages, and where a company says nothing the row says “not stated,” because that is the honest answer and it is also useful information. The ad account column is the exception. Published policy only gets you so far there, so it also reflects what we have seen firsthand taking over accounts from these agencies over the years. Where our experience is the source, the cell says so.

Deliberately excluded: Google review counts and star ratings, because they change weekly and a page that quotes them is wrong within a month. Also excluded: any self reported result we could not trace to a named source, and any claim about a competitor’s contract that we could not find in that competitor’s own writing.

One thing the score cannot tell you. An agency on this list does not run paid media or search engine optimization at all. They are brand and creative shops, and they are very good at that. A high score means they are transparent and well certified, not that they will fill your schedule next week. The table flags them and so do their entries. Read that part before you shortlist anyone.

The scorecard

Yellow marks a cleared item. Score is out of five. Every cell reflects what each company published as of August 2026, except the ad account column noted above. Terms change, so get the ownership answer in writing before you sign, whatever a table says.

The agencies, ranked by score

1. Lokal Media House, 5 of 5

Addison, Texas. Founded 2014.

Lokal Media House runs custom websites, search engine optimization, paid ads, Google Local Services Ads, Yelp advertising, Meta advertising, over the top and traditional media, and text message marketing. They are a Google Partner, a top five Yelp Platinum Partner, and a ServiceTitan Certified Marketer, and they run call attribution through their SearchLight partnership.

On the five: founder owned with no private equity. Everything is owned by you and is in your name, including your website, your ad accounts, and your data. ServiceTitan Certified Marketer, listed by name in ServiceTitan’s certified provider directory rather than just claimed on our own site. A person on our team scores your calls rather than only counting them, which is the part most reporting skips. And they publish pricing, with website design from $1,500 per month, paid ad management from $2,000, and search engine optimization from $3,000 on our pricing page.

Best fit for: HVAC companies who are looking to scale and not just maintain. If you want paid media, search, and call attribution from one independent team, with lead quality scored rather than just counted, that is what they do.

2. Hook Agency, 4 of 5

Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded 2016.

Tim Brown started Hook as a solo freelance operation in 2016 and renamed it in 2017 when Bea Bonte joined as co owner. Still founder owned. Hook is unusually visible in the trades because of its content output.

It has the cleanest ownership language on this list alongside Relentless. It states you own your website, your ad accounts, your analytics, and every login, and it notes your credit card is connected to the ad spend directly. It also states that its team listens to calls and reviews form fills so conversations stay focused on real leads. That is a human process.

Pricing is published: local search engine optimization from $2,800 per month, pay per click from $2,000, Meta ads from $3,000, answer engine optimization at $4,000 or $2,000 added to a search package, and websites at $1,000 or $2,000 per month across a twelve month term. The only item it misses is ServiceTitan, where we found no listing under its name.

Best fit for: roofing and HVAC companies past $2 million that focus on Google only. Published pricing, clear asset ownership, and a content and search heavy approach.

3. Relentless Digital, 3 of 5

Queen Creek, Arizona. Founded 2020.

Josh Crouch spent nine years inside the HVAC industry before starting Relentless, and the growth is real as you can see they are on the Inc. 5000 for 2024, 2025, and 2026 lists. Co owned with Brittany McGovern, privately held.

Relentless has the most explicit asset ownership language of any agency here. Its own frequently asked questions answer names your domain, your website, your Google Business Profile, your ad accounts, your content, and your data as belonging to you, and it calls holding client assets hostage one of the most unethical practices in the industry, but in practice, we’ve experienced that they will not give you access until your contract is over.

The service mix leans local: Google Business Profile management, search engine optimization, website design, reputation management, Local Services Ads, and an all in one platform called Bullseye Pro based on Go High Level. It appears in ServiceTitan’s marketplace as an integration partner rather than a certified provider. It publishes nothing about call level review and nothing about pricing.

Best fit for: contractors whose primary gap is Google Business Profile and map pack visibility rather than large paid search budgets.

4. KickCharge Creative (including Levergy) 2 of 5

Washington, New Jersey. Founded 1995.

Dan Antonelli’s shop is the most decorated branding operation in the trades, with more than 250 awards by its own count and a long run of wins in the HVACR Business Tops in Trucks fleet design contest. The pitch is right on the homepage: put your brand on wheels. Logo design, branding strategy, website design, fleet wrap design, content, and programming.

The Levergy part matters, so here is what happened. Levergy was a separate trades focused digital shop, founded in Tulsa in 2017 as DP Marketing. Services by Ryan Redding and renamed Levergy in 2023. It ran the work KickCharge did not do: Google Ads, search engine optimization, listings, and reputation management. In February 2025, KickCharge acquired it and Redding became KickCharge’s Chief Marketing Officer, and Levergy’s own site footer now reads that Levergy is a brand name of KickCharge Creative. They are one company. We list them as one entry because that is what they are, and because you will still find them ranked separately on other lists, which makes it look like you have two options when you have one.

What that means practically: KickCharge can now sell you branding and digital media together, but the digital execution comes from an acquired team rather than one built in house over thirty years. Whether the two operate as one integrated group or as a brand shop with a digital vendor attached is the single most useful question you can ask them, and the answer should be specific.

It clears the ad account item and the ServiceTitan item. It states in writing that finished project files are yours, that you own full rights to the logo, and that your web design and content management system belong to you, and clients do keep their ad accounts as well. We have worked alongside them agency to agency and they are straightforward about it. ServiceTitan lists KickCharge Creative by name as a Certified Marketer in its certified provider directory. It misses on ownership, because KickCharge is founder led with an outside investment from TMV Investments, the firm led by Tommy Mello of A1 Garage Door Service, and it publishes nothing on call review or pricing.

Best fit for: contractors whose brand and fleet look dated and who know it is costing them at the curb, and who want the digital handled by the same organization.

5. Rival Digital, 2 of 5

Chesapeake, Virginia. Founded 2020.

Eric Thomas launched Rival in 2020 and grew it into a full digital performance shop: website design, AI search optimization, organic and local search engine optimization, Local Services Ads management, pay per click, digital public relations, social, and email. It is a Nexstar Network official agency partner, and Thomas made the ACHR News Top 40 Under 40 in 2023. Founder owned.

Its four stated principles are flat rate pricing, transparent reporting, constant communication, and “you own everything.” That last one is the right commitment and we are giving them credit for making it publicly, which most agencies here do not. It is stated as a headline rather than an itemized list, so get it written into the agreement with the Google Ads account named specifically. Their own agency shopping guide raises exactly that question for readers to ask, so they will not be surprised you asked.

Its ServiceTitan presence is an integration feature it builds into client websites rather than a certification or a marketplace listing of its own, it publishes nothing about call level review, and flat rate pricing is a stated principle without published figures, so the flat rate is still a quoted number.

Best fit for: contractors who want a broad service set from an independent, fast growing shop.

6. Lemon Seed Marketing, 2 of 5

Lufkin, Texas. Rebranded from Apex Marketing Firm to Lemon Seed in 2020. Brand and creative only.

Read this score carefully, because it is the clearest example of what the scorecard does and does not measure. Lemon Seed clears two items honestly: it is founder owned, and ServiceTitan lists it by name as a Certified Marketer in its certified provider directory. That is the same certification our own row claims, held by a company that does not run a single Google Ads campaign.

It also does not run your Google Ads or your search engine optimization, and it never claims to. Its own frequently asked questions page is admirably blunt, stating plainly that it is “not a digital agency, web developer, print shop” or a conventional marketing agency. No search engine optimization, no pay per click, no paid social. The ad account and call review columns say not applicable because neither applies to what it sells.

Crystal Williams grew up in a family HVAC business and entered the industry in 2011. The work is marketing strategy, branding, organic social media, and graphic design, plus full rebrands, vehicle wraps, mascots, radio jingles, and direct mail. It won three Silver American Advertising Awards at the East Texas chapter level in February 2026, and Williams was elected Secretary of the Women in HVACR board.

Best fit for: contractors who need a real brand identity and a consistent creative voice, and who already have digital media handled.

7. CI Web Group, 2 of 5

Houston, Texas. Founded 2006.

CI Web Group has repositioned around artificial intelligence more aggressively than anyone else here. Its platform is branded Hydra OS, with separate products for answer engine optimization, AI search visibility, and automated content generation. Founder Jennifer Bagley is a regular HARDI speaker, and the company lists manufacturer and distributor relationships including Daikin, Mitsubishi, Goodman, Ferguson, and Johnstone Supply.

Founder owned, and it publishes its numbers openly, which almost nobody does: one time website builds from $2,500 for a small site up to $235,000 for a multi location franchise build, with monthly care plans from $250 to $2,000, and no term contracts with thirty day notice.

On ownership it is specific and also honest about the limit, which is why it does not clear that item. Its HVAC page says you own your site, domain, and data. Its homepage adds that the one thing that stays theirs is the Hydra OS platform underneath, so the site itself is not portable. Lead review is automated through its Cortex AI product, and we found no ServiceTitan listing.

Best fit for: contractors who want to see the number before the sales call and are genuinely interested in AI driven content and search.

8. Plumbing and HVAC SEO, 2 of 5

Doral, Florida.

Co founded by Josh Nelson and Dean Iodice, with one of the sharpest specialization arguments in the category, in its own words: it will never claim to be a jack of all trades, and its work is one hundred percent focused on home service companies. It pairs that with a competitor exclusivity promise, stating it will not sign one of your competitors once you are a client.

On call review it makes the strongest claim on this list. Nelson states directly that they listened to every call and rated the outcomes, and that they absorbed the time cost of doing it rather than billing clients for it. That is a human process, and combined with founder ownership it is where both of its cleared items come from.

Services cover search engine optimization, paid search, pay per lead, website design, Local Services Ads, social, reputation management, retargeting, email, and call tracking. It holds Google Partner status and, by its own 2016 announcement, placed at number 1,166 on that year’s Inc. 5000. On asset ownership the site says nothing at all. It does not appear in ServiceTitan’s certified provider directory, and a marketplace URL that once resolved for it now returns a 404. No pricing is published.

Best fit for: contractors who value market exclusivity and want a partner working only in plumbing, HVAC, and electrical.

9. RYNO Strategic Solutions, 2 of 5

Phoenix, Arizona. Founded 2008. Sold in 2023

RYNO is the largest home services specialist on this list and is clearly private equity backed, which is where it loses the ownership item. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EverService Holdings, itself a portfolio company of the private equity firm Sunstone Partners. Audax Strategic Capital also put capital into EverService in 2023.

One correction, because several competing lists get this wrong: RYNO is not “formerly Blue Corona.” RYNO was founded in 2008 as Brickyard Marketing by Chris and Anna Yano. Blue Corona was a separate company that merged into RYNO in October 2024, with the combined business operating under the RYNO name. If you see a list describing RYNO as a renamed Blue Corona, that list did not check.

It clears the ad account item and the ServiceTitan item. It states in writing that if you cancel, you own your website and can take it as is, and while its published terms stop short of naming the ad account and defer to an unpublished master services agreement, in practice clients do keep their ad accounts. Get it in the agreement anyway. ServiceTitan lists RYNO by name as a Certified Marketer, and RYNO also holds a Service Provider listing in the marketplace, which is the fullest ServiceTitan footprint of any agency here. One caveat: RYNO’s own site advertises a ServiceTitan Gold Partner tier. Gold is a real ServiceTitan tier, but it applies to software integrations rather than marketing agencies, and ServiceTitan publishes no list of which partner holds which tier. Ask them where the Gold designation came from.

RYNO was also named a Google Premier Partner in 2016 and became a Nexstar strategic partner in 2024. Services run from paid media and search to connected television, video production, and customer service representative coaching, tracked through its RYNOtrax dashboard. Its call review is well built but automated, with AI call ratings on a one to five scale covering agent performance, service quality, and caller sentiment, plus human call reviews inside its separate CSR coaching service. No pricing is published.

Best fit for: larger contractors and multi location operators who need depth of staffing, connected television, and in house video production.

10. iMarket Solutions, 2 of 5

Burlington, Vermont. Founded 2010.

Co founded by Gary Elekes, who came out of the contracting side rather than the agency side, and the positioning leans on it: a marketing company built by contractors, for contractors. More than 300 contractors served since 2010, and five consecutive Inc. 5000 appearances from 2015 through 2019. It clears two items. It is founder owned, with no parent company or private equity sponsor appearing anywhere on its site or in any filing we could find. And ServiceTitan lists it by name as a Certified Marketer, which it does not advertise on its own site.

The service list is conventional and complete: website design, search engine optimization, reputation management, social, email, paid search, remarketing, Local Services Ads, and live chat.

The gaps are all disclosure gaps. It publishes nothing about who owns your website, ad accounts, or data. And while it gives you access to call recordings in its dashboard so you can evaluate leads yourself, it does not claim its own team or software reviews or rates those calls. Those are different offers, and the difference is whether the work is on your plate or theirs. No pricing is published.

Best fit for: established HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies that want a narrow trade focus and a long operating history.

11. LocaliQ, 1 of 5

The digital marketing brand of USA TODAY Co., the publicly traded company formerly known as Gannett.

LocaliQ is the rebrand of ReachLocal and now operates as the customer facing brand of its parent’s Digital Marketing Solutions segment. Gannett renamed itself USA TODAY Co. in November 2025 and its ticker moved from GCI to TDAY, so any page still calling LocaliQ “a Gannett company” is out of date. It is the only entry here inside a public company, which means its priorities answer to quarterly reporting, and it is why the ownership item does not clear.

Services span search, display, video and social ads, email, listings, websites, search engine optimization, live chat, and AI lead management, across eight industry verticals of which home services is one. It publishes list pricing for AI lead management at $119 and $199 per month, which is the lowest published entry point on this list, though nothing is published for search, search engine optimization, or websites, so that item scores as partial.

It says nothing publicly about whether you own your website, ad accounts, or data, and in our experience taking over LocaliQ accounts, ad account access has not come with them. ServiceTitan lists it as a marketplace integration partner, a technical connection rather than a marketing certification, and that is the one item it clears. On call review it describes AI generated transcripts and summaries plus automated lead qualification, so calls are being processed, just not by a person.

Best fit for: smaller operators who want the lowest published entry point and value access to national media inventory.

12. Scorpion, 1 of 5

Lehi, Utah. Founded 2001.

Scorpion is the enterprise option here, with close to a thousand employees as of its last published figure and a product stack built around its own platform: Scorpion Connect, Revenue Intelligence, Advertising AI, and an AI chat and scheduling layer. It received a $100 million investment from the private equity firm Bregal Sagemount announced in April 2021. Bregal Sagemount now lists that position as realized and no successor owner has been publicly announced, so who owns Scorpion today is not a matter of public record.

Credit where it is due on the one item it clears. ServiceTitan calls Scorpion its Preferred Digital Marketing Partner, in ServiceTitan’s own voice on its own site, and no other agency here has that. Be precise about what it is, though. It is a commercial designation with no published criteria behind it, not a certification, and Scorpion does not appear in ServiceTitan’s certified provider directory. Its listing page also carries a Titanium Partner line, but that tier belongs to the software integration program rather than the agency program.

The asset ownership answer is on the record from Scorpion itself, and it is the reason that column exists. Its own frequently asked questions state that you own your website after your contract is complete, that your domains, content, and imagery are yours, and that key accounts including Google Analytics, Local Services Ads, and social profiles transfer to you. Then it says plainly that you will not own the underlying system, comparing it to not owning WordPress, and that you will need to work with another vendor to rebuild your website on a content management system. You get static files, design assets, and content.

Read that carefully, because it is an unusually direct disclosure. It means your website is not portable. Note also that the transfer list names Analytics, Local Services Ads, and social accounts but does not name the Google Ads account. That omission matches what we have seen: when we have taken over from Scorpion, ad account access has not been part of the handoff. Scorpion publishes nothing about reviewing individual calls. Contract terms are published, typically twelve months for the platform and search engine optimization and month to month for advertising, but no prices are.

Best fit for: very large multi location and multi vertical businesses that want enterprise tooling and are comfortable with a rebuild if they ever leave.

13. Thrive Agency, 0 of 5

Arlington, Texas. Founded 2005.

A zero here means zero disclosures we could verify, not zero capability. Thrive, formally Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, is the broadest generalist on this list and it has been running for twenty years, which is longer than most. Founder Matt Bowman started it in 2005 and brought in a strategic investor in 2016; it remains privately held with no disclosed private equity control, though founder led with an outside investor is not the same as founder owned, so that item does not clear.

Services cover search engine optimization, pay per click, web design, social, reputation management, content, ecommerce and Amazon marketing, video, and AI search optimization. Its search engine optimization pricing page gives ranges of $500 to $10,000 or more per month, local search at $500 to $1,500, and consulting at $150 to $300 per hour, but those are framed as general market guidance rather than a firm Thrive rate, so pricing scores as partial rather than cleared. It states no long term contracts and month to month terms.

On the rest it is silent. Nothing published about whether you own your website, ad accounts, or data. No ServiceTitan listing we could find. It sells call tracking, but the described product counts and attributes calls rather than reviewing them for quality.

Best fit for: businesses that want one agency across several industries, or contractors who also run an unrelated business and want both under one roof.

How to use this score

A high score means an agency is transparent and well credentialed. It does not mean it is the right agency for your problem this quarter. Match the type to the gap you actually have.

• Your phone volume is short right now. You need a performance agency with real paid media depth. Skip the brand shops entirely, whatever they score.
• You are winning the jobs you quote but not getting enough at bats. Still performance, weighted toward local search and Google Business Profile.
• You show up in search, get plenty of calls, and still lose to the company with the nicer trucks. This is where a brand shop earns its fee. Your problem is preference, not visibility.
• You are past roughly $10 million and adding markets. Look at the larger organizations with connected television and enterprise tooling, and decide separately whether you want one agency or a performance shop plus a brand shop.
• You are under about $1 million. Be careful. Most of these are priced for companies larger than you, and a retainer that eats your whole marketing budget leaves nothing for media spend. The published entry points at the low end of this list exist for a reason.

The two items that cost the most money

If you only check two of the five, check these.

Ownership of your accounts and data. Your Google Ads account, Local Services Ads profile, website, and call tracking should be in your business name, and you should be able to log in today. Notice how many agencies name the website but never mention the ad account. That is not an accident, and it is the account with your entire bidding and conversion history in it. Ask about it by name. One agency here tells you outright that your website is not portable and you will need to rebuild it elsewhere, which is actually the most useful disclosure of the group, because at least the cost is knowable before you sign instead of after.

Who actually reviews the calls. A lead count is not a lead. There is a real difference between a human listening to calls and rating them, an AI summarizing transcripts, giving you recordings and letting you do it yourself, and nobody looking at all. All four appear on this list. Only one of them tells you whether the leads you are paying for were any good.

Both of these, plus five more, are covered in our guide to the questions to ask an HVAC PPC agency. If you are actively taking sales calls, read it before the next one.

What changing agencies actually looks like

Fiscor Plumbing and Air came to us with inconsistent lead flow and no reliable read on what a lead cost or which channel produced it. That is the normal starting condition, and it is why we do not quote a budget on a first call.

Attribution and lead source reporting went in before we touched spend, so decisions were made on real numbers instead of a guess. Over the following six months paid leads grew from 499 to 1,841, close to a fourfold increase, with 1,155 additional paid leads in the first four months of 2026. The number that matters most is quieter: the quotable lead rate held near 48 percent while volume nearly quadrupled. Scaling spend without lead quality collapsing is the actual test, and you only know it happened because someone was reviewing the calls. Organic traffic conversion improved 47 percent over the same period, and Google Business Profile calls rose fifteenfold. Full detail is in the Fiscor case study.

One last piece of advice

Whoever you shortlist, ask all of them the same five questions in the same order and write down the answers. Who owns your company. Do I own my website, my ad accounts, and my data, and will you put that in writing. What exactly is your ServiceTitan designation. Who listens to my calls. What does this cost. The agencies that answer plainly are telling you something about how the next two years will go, and the ones that get vague are telling you more.

If you want that conversation with a founder owned team that publishes its pricing and scores lead quality rather than just counting leads, our HVAC marketing services page lays out how we work, and you can talk to us whenever you are ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best HVAC marketing agency?

There is no single best one, because the right choice depends on whether you need lead generation or brand building. Score candidates on ownership, asset ownership, certification, call review, and published pricing, then match that to the problem you have this quarter.

How much does an HVAC marketing agency cost?

Among the agencies that publish pricing, monthly entry points run from about $119 for lead management tools up to $3,000 or more for full search engine optimization, and most agencies publish nothing at all. Expect the retainer to sit on top of your ad spend, not include it.

Do I own my website and Google Ads account if I hire a marketing agency?

Not always, and it is the most expensive thing contractors fail to check. Some agencies build on proprietary platforms you cannot take with you, so ask for written confirmation that your site, ad accounts, and call data are in your business name.

What is the difference between a ServiceTitan Certified Provider and a marketplace partner?

A Certified Provider has passed ServiceTitan’s certification program, while a marketplace integration partner has only built a technical connection to the software. The program has no tiers, so treat any advertised tier name as something to ask about.

Is it a problem if a marketing agency is owned by private equity?

Not automatically, since larger backed agencies often have deeper staffing and more capability. It does mean asking who manages your account day to day and how pricing changes at renewal.

Citations and References

• Google Partners Directory, Lokal Media House partner profile
• ServiceTitan Marketplace partner directory and ServiceTitan Certified Providers directory
• PR Newswire, “RYNO Strategic Solutions and Blue Corona Announce Merger,” October 1, 2024
• PR Newswire, “Scorpion Raises $100 Million from Bregal Sagemount,” April 2021, and Bregal Sagemount portfolio listing
• Business Wire, “EverService Acquires RYNO,” May 2023, and the September 2023 Audax Strategic Capital capital infusion
• Business Wire and USA TODAY Co., “Gannett Rebrands to USA TODAY Co.,” November 2025
• Gannett Co., Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024, US Securities and Exchange Commission
• Contracting Business, “KickCharge Creative Acquires Levergy,” February 2025
• Inc. 5000 company profiles for Relentless Digital, Hook Agency, and iMarket Solutions
• ACHR News, 2025 and 2023 Top 40 Under 40 announcements
• Agency service, about, pricing, terms, and frequently asked questions pages as published August 2026 for each company named above

Agency facts above are drawn from each company’s own published pages as of August 2026, except where a third party source is named. Ownership, certifications, pricing, and contract terms change. Verify before you sign anything.

About Lokal Media House

Lokal Media House is a founder owned home services marketing agency in Addison, Texas working with HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, garage door, and foundation repair companies. We are a Google Partner, a top five Yelp Platinum Partner, and a ServiceTitan Certified Marketer, and we are not backed by private equity. Learn more about our team.