Performance-based or fixed-fee marketing: which suits your HVAC company?

The short answer

Choose a fixed fee when you want cost certainty and can carry the risk; consider performance terms when you can measure results cleanly and want a partner whose income depends on yours.

Neither model is automatically cheaper. A fixed fee can be a bargain in a strong year and a waste in a weak one. A performance arrangement can cost more than a fixed fee when results are excellent, and that's not a flaw. It's what aligned incentives look like.

The rest of this guide explains how each works, where each goes wrong, and how to model both before you sign anything.

How a fixed fee works

You pay the same amount each month for an agreed scope of work, whatever happens to your bookings.

The appeal is obvious: you know the cost to the dollar, you can budget for it, and you aren't sharing any upside. If marketing doubles your replacement work, the fee doesn't change.

The weaknesses are just as clear:

• The risk is yours. If a campaign underperforms for six months, you've still paid for six months.
• Incentives drift. A fixed-fee agency is paid for delivering the scope, and the scope is usually activity: pages written, ads managed, reports sent. Activity and booked jobs aren't the same thing.
• Reports can drift too. When pay doesn't depend on results, reports tend to lead with the metrics that look good, such as impressions, clicks and rankings, instead of the ones that matter.

None of that makes fixed fees bad. Plenty of HVAC companies do very well on them, especially owners who already track their numbers and hold their agency to cost per booked job. The published HVAC.Agency plans on our pricing page are fixed-fee for exactly that reason.

How a performance arrangement works

Your partner invests time first and is paid on measured results, against a baseline agreed in advance.

In the Growth Partner Program, Ali Sedighi invests time upfront and is paid on measurable results, under custom terms written for each partnership. There's no standard percentage: the baseline, the measure and the payment are set case by case.

The strengths:

• Shared risk. If nothing moves, the partner's pay reflects it.
• Aligned attention. A partner paid on booked jobs cares about phone answering, quote follow-up and review requests, because those move the measure.
• Honest reporting. When pay depends on the agreed record, there's little point dressing up the numbers.

The weaknesses:

• Measurement has to be good. Without clean tracking, every payment becomes a negotiation.
• Definitions matter enormously. What counts as a result, which system records it, and how weather is treated all have to be written down.
• It can cost more. If results are strong, you'll pay more than a fixed fee would have charged.
• Availability is limited. Because the partner's time is the investment, only a limited number can run at once.

The maths, worked through

Model both options against your own job values before you choose. Here's an example with round numbers. Replace them with yours.

Suppose your company averages these figures across a six-month heating season:

Now imagine three possible seasons after new marketing starts.

1. Flat season. Still 24 replacements. Under a fixed fee at the Growth plan's $4,498 a month, you've paid $26,988 before tax for no gain. Under a performance arrangement, the partner's pay would reflect the lack of measured improvement, according to the written terms.
2. Modest season. 30 replacements, six more than baseline, adding $19,950 in gross profit. The fixed fee costs the same $26,988, so on replacements alone you're behind, though other job types may have grown too. Under performance terms, payment would follow the measured gain.
3. Strong season. 40 replacements, sixteen more than baseline, adding $53,200 in gross profit. The fixed fee looks cheap. Under performance terms, you'd likely pay more than in the modest season, because the measure moved further.

The pattern is the point. A fixed fee is cheapest in a strong season and most expensive in a flat one. A performance arrangement does the opposite. Which you prefer depends on how confident you are, how much risk you want to carry, and how well you can measure. For more on cost per job by job type, see our paid search page.

Where performance deals go wrong

Nearly always on definitions, rarely on effort. These are the five failures to avoid, whoever you work with.

1. No baseline. "We'll grow your business" with no dated starting point is an argument waiting to happen.
2. Leads as the measure. Leads are easy to inflate. Booked jobs and invoiced revenue are much harder to fake.
3. Weather ignored. A long cold snap can double no-heat calls with no marketing at all. The terms must say how weather-driven work is treated.
4. Rebate changes ignored. When a heat pump program opens or closes, demand moves. The terms should record program dates; each region page lists the programs we found as of October 2026.
5. Ownership unclear. If the partner owns your website or ad accounts, you're stuck. Everything should be in your company's name.

Our guide to measuring results shows how to handle each of these in practice.

Questions to ask before choosing

Answer these honestly, and the choice usually becomes clear.

• Can I say, today, how many replacement estimates I ran last winter and how many closed?
• Do I have capacity for 20–30% more work next season without hurting service?
• Would I rather pay a known amount, or pay more only when the numbers move?
• Am I willing to review real numbers with a partner every month?
• Do I own my website, domain, ad accounts and Business Profile?

If you answered "no" to the first question, start with tracking either way; the baseline and tracking service is the place to begin. If you answered "no" to the second, more marketing isn't your bottleneck. If you're comfortable with the rest, read about the Growth Partner Program, or check your position with the partnership readiness guide.

A note on honesty

Be wary of anyone, on either model, who promises results. No marketer can promise leads, rankings or revenue with any honesty, and claims like that should end the conversation. What a good partner can offer is a clear method, clean measurement, written terms and the willingness to share risk. That's the standard we hold ourselves to. If you'd like to talk through your own numbers, get in touch.