HVAC Full Blast

Welcome to HVAC Full Blast,

where industry insight
leads to real results.

Join Mary Carter
and Stephen Ross,

along with industry expert
Lauren Setteroff from

SearchKings as they share real
stories on navigating shifts in

search engine marketing and
making your business stand out.

Let's get started.

Welcome back to HVAC Full Blast.

I'm Mary Carter along
with Steven Ross.

And, Steven, you're making me kinda
jealous here because I feel like you've

brought on some friends
from the industry,

and we actually have
another guest today.

We do have another guest
today. It's okay, Mary.

It just means I'm old, so
I've been around longer.

It's like I feel like you
have you have more friends than me.

So I'm I'm I'm gonna try to
step it up and bring on some of

my friends, but, tell us
about how you know our guest.

Well, Lauren is somebody that
I pay to be friends with me.

So that's a little different.
But it but it's but it's good.

We've known each
other for a few years.

And, Lauren, we'll let you
introduce yourself too,

but I just wanted to
give a little background.

I, owned a heating air
company for several years.

And, you know, if you go back because
when I first got into heating and air,

it was you just had
to have a website,

and then you had to have
content on your website that

the search engine could find.

And so the first few years that
I was in heating and air is all

about SEO, SEO, SEO.

SEO.

And so the company I worked for wanted
me to write a blog on a regular basis.

And then I think the industry
kind of moved past where SEO

wasn't nearly as
important anymore.

And then it was kind of search
engine marketing became prevalent.

And then you started getting
into the Google local search.

And so along the way, somehow,

I got introduced to
Lorne and SearchKings

because I I couldn't keep
up with just the the yeah.

I could barely keep up with
the changes in heating and air,

much less the changes
in online advertising.

So that was how I first got
introduced to SearchKings.

And so I'm excited to
have you on today, Lauren,

because we're gonna kinda push
the edge a little bit and go

not just what's what's
happened in the last few years,

but I'm gonna ask you, like,

pull out your crystal ball and
try to look in the future a

year or two and go, well,

where are we gonna be
two years from now?

What's that gonna look like?

So, Lauren, why
don't you now that

I've kinda introduced you,
that's how I know you.

I will put in a little pitch in.

Sold my heating and air company
last year, and my partner,

Tim and I, that we owned the
heating and air company together,

we started a pest control
company because that that got

us out of our dog, compete.

We could still start a company.

And literally, the first thing we did
was sign up with SearchKings for all the

same stuff that we had done,

for our heating and air company.

So it it's it worked
that well for us that,

it was it was literally the
first thing we did with heating

with with pest control.

So there you go. There's
my intro of Lauren.

And, Lauren, why don't
you introduce yourself?

How did you get into this?

How did you how did you guys
kinda create this business?

Absolutely. Well, Mary,
thank you for having me.

And, Steven, absolutely
good to talk to you.

But, so here's, our background.

So SearchKings started,
fifteen years ago.

The focus has always been what
kind of marketing could we do

for our customers that we could actually
prove was working or not working.

And when we were initially
exploring what other companies

were doing and with SEO and
blog posts to to your point,

Steven, we quickly learned
that Google had no incentive to

rank your company, Steven,
because you had a fresh blog post.

And the idea that, you
know, back this is twenty fifteen,

twenty seventeen, the idea that,

you would be the expert in in
heating and air in your city

would then yield you
top of page placement

was really a misconception.

And when we started
to focus on, on,

HVAC and plumbing and pest
control and other home services,

what we started to educate our
customers about was those are

nice to haves that you're
an industry expert or that,

you know, you
sponsored the barbecue.

And those are great.

And they help build
trust in your community.

But follow the money.

And once Google became
a pub public company,

everything that Google was
doing was about monetization.

So either you as a digital

marketing company, hope to beat
Google by outsmarting their

machine, Or you play
by Google's rules,

but you find an advantage
within the rules.

That's kind of the
fork in the road.

We went down the road of we
have to play by Google's rules,

follow the money.

They're a public company.

They are incentivized by profit.

So if they're gonna make money,

how do we make sure that our
customer's making money as well?

And that's where search engine
marketing lies because you know

how much you spent on a
given day or a given month.

And then you're able to see
how many customers you added

because of that spend.

By using tracking
and attribution,

you can identify that
the customer saw your ad,

they clicked on your
ad, they called you,

the call gets recorded, we
understand if the call was booked.

Now we can take a look at
you at the end of the month,

what was your revenue
from that customer?

And then did, you know, Steven,

you're in the glorious field of,

recurring revenue of pest
control now or a maintenance

contract with HVAC,

you have a lifetime value of
that customer and you have the

initial invoice
from the customer.

And because we could
follow the money,

we were pretty confident that
we would then be able to create

a product that the customer
shouldn't just pay us every

month or pay Google every month and
not know if it's working or not.

That's not a business
model. Right?

But when they look
under the hood,

they realize forget
it and they cancel.

That's not a business model.

The business model is is we
earn the money that we're

paid so that by proving to the

customer that they're making
money off of their investment.

You can't do that with SEO
the same way you can with what

we're talking about
with this called SEM,

which is search
engine marketing,

which is a nice way of
saying paid advertising.

And so Yep.

We entered that, became
a Google premier partner.

Back in twenty eighteen,

Google introduced the
Google Guarantee program.

We were quick to move to
adopt that program and

introduce it to train an
American Standard customers

because it was a pay
per call program.

So the industry was
opening up an opportunity

that was better for
the customer, frankly,

better for the dealer.

And so we wanted to regardless
of of how much management we

were going to have to do,

which was less with Google
local service ads, frankly,

we wanted to make sure we
had became experts in that.

Right? So as the technology
changes, we needed to change.

And our company looks very
different now than it did in

twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen
because Google doesn't stop changing.

Microsoft doesn't stop changing.

ChatGBT now doesn't
stop changing. So Yeah.

Which companies are agile
enough becomes really,

really important in this age.

So let's talk let's jump right
into that because I think,

you know, I, I'm a novice cook.

So I'm trying to get
better at cooking.

I took I've taken
some cooking classes.

So if I get online and
I Google, like, hey.

I want a recipe for whatever it
is, you know, pork tenderloin.

You know, I'm gonna have
a whole bunch of ads.

Well, if I click
something on Google,

it's gonna be a a forty five
page article with lots of ads

in there that I
gotta scroll through.

And so I think a lot of people
have just said, oh my gosh.

That's a waste of time.

And now what we do is
we say, hey, chat g p t.

I've got friends coming
over in two hours.

I need to cook this pork
tenderloin. What do I do?

And it just gives you
step by step instructions.

No ads, no weird links,

no nothing to click
on to get a virus.

Right?

So it seems like all
of a sudden overnight,

all the the the Google dominance

over search and they
as a search engine,

maybe Google absolutely
still dominant.

But as a consumer or buyer,
like, if if I were to say, hey.

I need a new heating
and air system.

I might now go to chat
GPT instead of Google.

So where do we go?

What are you telling use
your crystal ball, but, like,

where do we go from here?

Or what's coming next?

Yeah. Great question.

So here's what we know.

We know that ChatTBT emerged
in November, twenty twenty two.

We know that over the
last couple of years,

there's an absolute arms
race between OpenAI,

Google, Microsoft primarily,

and every one of
them are sprinting

to be the best AI solution.

So here we are in the fall
of twenty twenty five.

Where are we at?

We're at a point
where the machine

is giving an answer that is
attempting to be assertive.

It doesn't question itself.

It provides it as
though it is certain.

So let's go to the pork
tenderloin for a minute and

then let's go to
heating and air.

The pork tenderloin recipe

will be produced for you as
though it is the number one

best recipe possible.

And you should follow it
because your prompt asked or

your question said give me
a pork tenderloin answer.

Behind this curtain, OpenAI,

Google, Microsoft are paying

for that data to be pulled.

Okay.

And so when you ask a
question, those machines,

which are for profit companies

are gonna produce the easiest
result they can without

working too hard and having
to scrape websites for ten

minutes to produce for you
the ten out of ten recipe,

the seven out of ten recipe.

They didn't even ask you what
what ingredients you have or

what experience you have or
what appliances you have.

So they're giving
you it's funny,

they give you what
appears to be certainty,

but really it's
fairly surface level.

So now users are getting
familiar with that,

and they're asking
the AI to dig deeper,

okay, or try harder.

What you're actually doing
is telling the platform,

go spend more money,
give me a better result,

a more authentic result,
a more unique result.

And most people aren't
going that extra step.

They're saying, okay, I need
to, cook pork tenderloin.

Know, what should I do?

And you just follow those,

those steps and you
have the basics.

You have the garlic
and you have the,

the paprika and you
have whatever, right?

You have the peppers.

But if you had extra
ingredients that might help,

you might tell it that,

tell the machine it might
give you a better response.

So the AI is actually
surface level unless you

push it and demand more from
it, which is where the paid,

AI comes in.

Okay.

When you use ChatGBT
teams, personally,

if you're using a com a paid,

you can get better results with
deeper results and, more sources.

So that's the port tenderloin.

Let's go over to heating and
air, and let's talk about it,

I guess, from the from
the homeowner's point of view.

If they go to Chatt
GBT, to your question,

and they say furnace
not working, okay,

the response is gonna
be surface level.

If they say Trane XR
fifteen not working,

the sound is this, the results
will be a little bit better.

What we are seeing though
is once you ask ChatGibt

for a service,

meaning you need a professional.

Chat GBT now has to go
find which HVAC companies

they should recommend.

Okay.

So the question becomes, what
is Chat GB2 pulling from?

What is their source to
give to the homeowner?

And I encourage anyone that's
listening to do those searches

in your market all the time.

But if you just did a
surface level search,

an AC repair company
near me on Chatt UBT,

Have you done that, Steven?

Have you seen what the results
might look like or Mary?

I'm doing it right now. I need
an AC repair company near me.

Alright. Let's see what happens.

And I just, I do
have full disclosure.

I've got the paid version
of chat g p t five.

So that's what I'm using.

And I've I've got friends
that are like, no.

I'm Gronk all the
way or whatever.

But that's so it's
pulling up a map,

and let's see.

So the first one is,

yeah.

Alright.

So it similar to maybe what
you would find from Google,

I've now got a map,

and I've got a list of five or six
heating and air contractors here locally.

So what we have there then
is surface level information.

You have your pork loin recipe.

You have the companies near you.

The question becomes how, how
relevant or accurate is that

information and what are
they ranking best on?

Because they're not
taking Google's best

unless it is asked specifically

and unless you ask
specific questions.

So if you said, what
are the highest rated

HVAC companies in Charlottetown?

Okay, then Chat GVT has to
go work harder and go look at

Google. It doesn't
wanna do that.

So it wants to use the
Microsoft search engine.

And if you look at
those companies, Steven,

that are on the map,

what I want you to take a look
for is what's the source of the

information because usually there's
a link where you can ask chat GBT

or where are they pulling
their reviews from?

Do they have seven
reviews from Yelp?

What are these old school
yellow pages or BBB reviews?

Like if we trust the AI to give us
what we in quotes call the best.

With Google, you have the
Google reviews of actual

hundreds of people who've
given the company a thumbs up.

And you know, Stephen,
for your business,

there doesn't a day doesn't go
by that if you're talking to

SearchKings that
we're not telling you,

you gotta make sure your
reviews are up and frequent

because that is a
huge ranking factor,

both with the machine and
with the decision maker.

Yeah. When I do it right
now, here's what it says.

Reviews come from
Yelp, Google reviews,

and then this surprised
me, local Reddit posts.

How about that?

So yeah.

So in that moment, the search

again, you're unpaid,

so you're going to get
a better search result.

But the search results
are changing constantly

on ChatGBT because they're
trying to figure out how to

monetize this and spend as little
money as possible on each query.

Whereas once there are ads,

because there aren't ads right
now and we know the ads will

come, but without ads they
have to keep their costs down.

Whereas Google can show ads for
the companies that are the most

qualified because there's
ads covering that search.

Right?

The ads are are helping create
a more genuine, search result.

So chat GBT and and believe me,

I have one of my three screens
open to chat GBT all day.

I use chat GBT.

We'll talk about how we use
it as well or how we see,

heating and air companies using it
besides marketing we could talk about.

But questioning the results and

asking the machine to vet
itself and qualify its

responses is really what we see
as as important and a lot of

people are just taking
it at face value.

I'll give you one
mini story of that.

We are packing up my
son for university

and in this age of overbearing

parents it's somehow
my job to drive him up,

no drive behind him in a
separate car up to his school

and pack, pack the vehicle as
high as possible with random

items that perhaps
he doesn't even need.

You don't need four lamps.

So my wife is saying to me
that we need to pack all these

different things into the car.

And so she wants to buy a bed
because you can't buy a used

bed up in the university town.

That would be
unacceptable. Okay. Fine.

So I say please go to chat
g b t and determine if our

car, the RDX, okay, the
Acura RDX can fit that box.

Period. You have the
dimensions of the box.

You have the serial number.

You know where you bought the
box because Amazon delivered it

to our house because we
couldn't risk that it was late

showing up at my son's dorm
or, or, home off campus.

So and what does Chat GVT say?

I watched her do it
in seventeen seconds.

Great idea. That box will
definitely fit in your RDX.

And what a nice idea it is for
your son to have a bed ready

for him when he gets there.

K? My wife feels
like a million bucks.

The next day I go to take
that box and put it in

the exact same RDX we talked about
and what do you think happens?

And this is a yet
yesterday's example of chat

GBT will hallucinate and
complement the question and

not necessarily dig deep enough
to determine, are you sure?

Did you look up the RDX
dimensions for the twenty

twenty two RDX and are
you sure the box is this?

So you have to be thorough.

And this the the myth of JAD
GBT is it's fast and accurate.

It's fast, not always accurate.

So alright.

Let's let's get let's come
up with a real life scenario.

And let's say,

Mary owns a heating
and air company.

Mary does six million
dollars in revenue.

Two and a half million
of that is residential,

light commercial, service
work, maintenance agreements.

Three and a half million
of that is, install,

add on replacement, very
little new construction.

I'm the territory manager.

And here's what happens a lot.

You know, a lot of
times, we just go, well,

what what what did
we do last year?

The how'd that work? Great.

We're gonna do the
same thing next year.

So let's say we're
having a conversation.

It's, you know, fall
of twenty twenty five.

What should we be talking about?

I mean, you know, how do we
what do we need to tweak,

or what do we need to change,

or what do we just need to
wholesale revamp to go, well, hey.

That worked for twenty
three, twenty twenty three,

and twenty twenty four.

Twenty twenty five,
it worked okay.

It's not gonna work
in twenty twenty six.

You need a new
marketing strategy.

So, Lauren, what's
that conversation?

How do Mary, what do you think
if if Mary and I are winging

it, what are we thinking?

We got no idea.

Do I like, what do you think?

Let me let me throw in one more
variable there because I get

made fun of all the time for
being the worst millennial.

Because truth be told in
the pork tenderloin example,

if I go to a Google page that
gives me a hundred ads and I

have to watch a video
and it's looking crazy,

my next move is to go
to a book that I own.

Like, it's not inherently
natural for me to solicit

chatty p t.

Now that's me
living in my bubble.

I have been on calls now with
dealers where they say they're

going to more homes and
homeowners, you know,

are kind of coming in as, like,

a small town expert on
what is going on with their

system based on a conversation
they have with chat chat g p t.

So I put on my skepticism hat just
to say that I think both exist.

Right? So so I'm talking with
Steve and my territory manager.

I'm not really bought into
the whole idea of this anyway.

What do we do?

Well, for starters,

we're talking just marketing for
this first section of the question.

So I think I think Steven
as the territory manager,

it'd be reasonable for
you to ask Mary to invite,

a look at twenty twenty four's
marketing expenses with line items.

So what did the money
go out to last year?

Why is there the barbecue
sponsorship in in September?

Was there a direct
mail campaign?

Was there paid
advertising on Google?

Did you try SEO?

Did you pay for
review generation?

Like, what are all the
different both subscriptions

and one time expenditures

that you invested in
for your marketing?

Let's put that on the
table, on the whiteboard,

and identify that over
the course of the year,

you spent a hundred and
twenty thousand dollars.

Okay?

And you spent a nice
for our nice math today,

you spent ten thousand
dollars a month

on marketing period.

Out of that, are
there any for sures

that you can prove
pulled in profit?

Follow the money.

So if you did the barbecue
and you landed a commercial,

a light commercial,
or you landed a,

let's say a general contractor
who's building homes and you

landed something, you may be
able to prove the ROI off of it

or you can directly put beside
it that Jesse James contracting

came from that
barbecue initiative.

Let's hang on to that one. Okay.

So fine.

The direct mail campaigns, what
you might wanna do is look at

what zip codes did you
target and did your zip code

density improve

in those markets year over year.

Okay.

And then identify, okay, those
ZIP codes that it worked,

that was five hundred
dollars in quarterly,

that's two thousand
dollars for the year,

and those ZIP codes we keep.

But let's go remove
those other ZIP codes.

So in that specific
one, direct mail stays,

but only a segment of direct
mail stays because you can

prove your your, attribution.

All of this gets you
to what can we cut,

what are we keeping, and
then what do we do next?

One of the things to really
take a look at is the SEO.

So this concept of monthly

optimization of your website

and that you will be found
because you're the local expert

or because you have a new
promotion on your website,

okay, or a blog or whatever.

In twenty twenty four,
that was limited.

In twenty twenty five
with AI and AI overviews,

that is way down the page.

So if you're spending two fifty
dollars a month or five hundred

dollars a month on optimizing for
SEO or even optimizing for AI.

Because what the marketing company
will now say is we got you.

That same five hundred dollars
that you're spending on SEO,

we've now moved it so you're
optimized for AI overviews.

K?

This is the this is the smoke
and mirrors that make marketing

companies have a bad reputation.

You take that SEO
money and you say,

what if I didn't
spend anything on SEO?

Your website is hosted, which is
a different line item, usually,

hundred dollars a month just to keep
it easy and your website's available.

So when someone searches
Stephen Ross a c,

they see your company website.

It's it's listed properly.

But ranking your
company website,

not very important.

I would remove that money.

What I would though, and
nothing to do with SearchKings,

is I would make sure
that your listings

are all organized properly so that
your BBB, your Nextdoor, your Facebook,

all of the different
directories that ChatGBT looks

at, HomeAdvisor, Angie,
if not paid but free,

you get your listings to all
line up with address, name,

and either phone number as long
as you have name and address.

Because when you go to chat GBT
and you say give me the best

HVAC companies and then you say
where did you pull the ranking from,

It's changing every month.

But what we do see consistently
is listings are relevant.

And SearchKings isn't a
listings management company.

You can you know there's
companies that can do it for you.

It's really a set it and
make sure it's correct.

It's a one time.

There's companies like EX where
you can change but you're not

moving so like you don't really
need to manage it so often.

But once you have
those listings,

each listings often
has a review link.

So different this
year than last year,

I would never have
said this last year.

This year I would say now
that you have your BBB listing

correct, try to get a
BBB review this month.

Try to get one Angie's review,
and you don't need a lot.

Eighty, ninety percent of your
review should still be on Google.

But this year different
than last year,

I would say make sure all your
listings are set up properly

and make sure that they each
have one recent review in the

last couple months.

Because,

AI overviews are
looking at listings

when they don't look at Google
as the single source of truth.

They start to look and if you have
two reviews on your Yellow Pages,

that's better than zero and it might
actually lead to you being ranked.

It doesn't cost you anything to
get reviews besides good work

and save money on the SEO.

That's one of the the easiest
low cost things to do.

Can I jump in
there for a second?

So, Lauren, you guys gave me
this advice a few years ago,

which is Google
reviews are king.

Now, I mean,
everybody knows that.

But here's the practical
application of that.

So every interaction
we had with a customer,

service technician, customer
service rep on the phone,

sales rep in the home, we
would ask for the review.

We didn't automate it because
we'd got we didn't get such

great responses from automation.

We felt like it really took the
employee making a personal ask

to get it done.

And so when we first started,

I think when I first
signed up with SearchKings,

we had maybe fifty or
sixty Google reviews,

and that was twenty
seventeen or so.

And our goal was
to get five a week.

So five a week, fifty
weeks out of the year.

And then the company grew,

and then we stretched our
goal to ten a week and so on.

And so by, you know, twenty,

gosh, twenty twenty four,

I would say we had almost
thirty five hundred reviews to

the point where other heating
air contractors would be like,

where are you buying
those reviews from?

And I'm like, we're not.

We have earned them
the old fashioned way,

and we've been doing it
for seven or eight years.

And what was interesting was
when I would do my monthly

review with my SearchKings rep,

we would look at the ROI on
the marketing dollars we would

spend, and we were
outperforming the industry.

You guys would say, hey. You're
spending x amount of dollars.

The industry is typically
spending a little bit more.

And I would say, why
are we outperforming?

And the rep would go because
your Google reviews are so good.

And so that, that
was amazing to me.

I mean, if you think about that
from a real dollars and cents

standpoint, I mean, if
you're going to spend,

I don't know what
we were spending,

eight thousand dollars
a month on SEMs.

We're spending a hundred
grand a year. Right?

I mean, the the difference
there is plus or minus about

twenty percent in the
effectiveness of your marketing

spend if you're getting
those regular Google reviews.

So, anyway, I appreciated
that tip from you years ago

because it really impacted
our ability to grow.

If you think if you could get
twenty percent further down the

road with your marketing money,

it's phenomenal.

It's a huge difference. Right?

Absolutely.

And we also know lots of
companies are are thinking

about an exit strategy
at some point.

The the the Patrick Lang,

mantra who's who's an HVAC
broker expert taught us,

said people look at your
Google reviews almost before they look

at your P and L.

And what they're looking for
in your Google reviews are the

names of technicians.

And the variety of technicians
means that the purchaser may be

buying a company with happy
staff, not buying a job.

And so, a robust

increase in Google
reviews is huge.

But this year, I would say instead of a
hundred percent of reviews going to Google,

go put fifteen percent of those
reviews across all the other platforms.

So they each have one a month.

That would be that
would in my book,

you'd you'd be in good shape.

Yep. Mary, are you
a, are you a Yelper?

I mean, you just said, like,
to cook a pork tenderloin,

you're gonna go find a book.

So I don't know
if you know this,

but there's apps on your phone
like Yelp where you can go

leave reviews and look stuff up.

Like, are you a Yelper, Mary?

Okay. Yes. I have apps.

I have a smartphone, and I
actually am a Yelp elite reviewer.

Thank you very much.

But,

yeah.

Yeah. I know.

I I'm familiar with Yelp,
and I'm and I think that's,

I think what's interesting
about the chat GPT or really

any GPT kind of
innovation is, like,

I'm conditioned to go to
Yelp because I trust Yelp,

and I have bought into
the Yelp platform.

Like, you know, all
the all the things.

And so,

I am not conditioned
to go to the broader

search necessarily, but
it's interesting, Lauren,

to hear you talk about making
sure all of your listings

across all of these areas are
consistent because I have done

that where I'm looking for
something near me, you know,

maybe something related
to home services.

And you do see all of those
listings pop up, and it does,

as a consumer, when I'm
sitting in that seat,

kind of make my red flag
raise when I see, like,

BBB doesn't match this or
they've got a location here,

but I live on this
side of the state.

So do they call on my area,

or is Google just
giving me a bad result?

Like so just to hear the
consistency across all of the

different listing
platforms, I mean,

that feels like a really kind
of like a bold pro take that

you could take right away
and implement tomorrow.

Yeah.

You think last year,
Google had, let's say,

nine out of every ten searches,

and Google would decide
what was ranking at the top.

Well, then you only needed your
Google listing really to be accurate.

Well, now if you go on to chat
GBT, they're looking, elsewhere.

So once your directory listings
are aligned and you're getting

a review here and there to them,

in the majority of
reviews to Google,

I would say you're probably
still haven't spent almost any

money that you had
spent before on SEO.

And the conversations
between the

TM and the dealer,
Mary, gets to, okay,

what else should we do

with AI?

Right? What is the
AI strategic move?

And so I'll give you the next thing
I think that's worth considering.

And streaming TV is a is a
really good example of this.

So historic streaming TV
has been around forever.

But now Now this as a
bad millennial, I do do.

We have

we have touched the
cable cord, and,

we do the YouTube
TV subscription.

It's amazing. I love the NFL
package that they tie in.

Like so I'm I'm on
board. You got me here.

Okay.

So now let's think about
streaming TV from the

contractor point of view.

The the heating
and air contractor,

they typically have
not been part of

streaming TV for a
couple of reasons

with the advent or the
introduction of AI.

What can now happen is
targeting by zip codes.

Okay.

And granular targeting of
customers is easier than ever.

So instead of showing
that commercial to all of

the city or, you know,

twenty zip codes and a
population of eight hundred

thousand, you can get far more granular
and get that down to a target area.

However, in the past,

you'd have to have a ten
thousand dollars professional

commercial film that
your site that would

essentially expire almost as soon
as you finished production of it,

Google reviews you have
and what makes you unique

runs out fairly quickly.

With AI and especially
with Google's AI,

the ability to make
professional level or

commercial ready, video

is now in existence.

So if you on that budget for
last twenty twenty four, Mary,

as the contractor had
production of videos or

commercials or
radios or billboards,

I would be thinking about
shifting those dollars to an AI

generated commercial that
changes every other month or

every quarter based on the
season and the unique value

prop that you wanna have and
produce those commercials

at a very, very low cost.

We're talking about a few
hundred dollars to produce a

professional commercial that
you could run-in a local three

ZIP codes.

And now instead
of saying we serve

Charlotte, North Carolina,

It's Locust, North Carolina.

Right?

This neighborhood, this town,

and you have a different
version of that commercial on

the other side of
town potentially.

That is,

an extremely efficient
use of AI that could

bring down your marketing costs,
but make you the local, provider.

Now we know people are looking
at the the connected TV. Sure.

They're also scrolling
through their phone.

So they may only hear the name
of your company as they're busy

being a multitasker, but
you're in their head.

And so now when they go to search
because they actually have a problem

and they see your
company come up,

you have a better chance
of earning that call.

So the the the connected TV
helped at the top of the funnel

with brand recognition.

And now when someone actually
Googles you, you show up.

This is significantly
less of an investment

than in years past where
the whole thing was tens of

thousands of dollars.

Because if you're gonna
do a commercial, well,

now you may as well
do a year contract

because what is the point
of the ten thousand dollar

commercial if you're not gonna
amortize it over the twelve months?

Now, you know,

a commercial can be done cheaply
and you pivot every couple months.

That's that's another example.

Here's the other thing.

Here's why I think that's
really important is, you know,

I managed sales for a heating and air
mechanical contractor a few years ago.

We were doing thirty five to forty
million dollars a year in revenue.

We had a big marketing
budget. I had a media buyer.

I had, you know, I mean,

account reps from the
TV stations and so on.

And so we would carve out,
a pretty substantial I mean,

we were spending about a
hundred and fifty thousand

dollars a year on
TV commercials,

and we would carve
out another twenty,

twenty five thousand dollars
to produce those commercials.

And so when I when I would
work with smaller contractors,

I would say to them,

ignore TV and almost ignore
radio until you get to be ten,

fifteen million in revenue because
you you're not gonna do it well.

And if you don't do it well,

you might as well just light
that money on fire and watch it

go because that'll be
way more entertaining.

And so I think the the
revolution there or the

evolution there is
that now I I mean,

back to the example
we had before.

Let's say Mary is a six
million dollar heating and air company.

He can now afford to do
commercials and and get him on

that streaming video, and
that is huge in my opinion.

And correct me if I'm
wrong with streaming,

but I'm not tied to, though,
necessarily, like, a time slot.

Correct.

So so what with
streaming, you're following the user.

So the user is age and
location primarily and

demographic, homeowners,
single family dwelling.

And so whether you're
watching news or sports

drama, it doesn't matter.

The commercial is following you,

not that we're buying a slot

at seven pm on the
weather network.

K?

So when so when Steven's
watching his Bravo

shows, he can still see my
heating and air company ad?

Cooking shows specifically.

I'm trying to learn how
to cook a pork tenderloin.

Come on. You're a Real
Housewives kinda guy.

I just know it. It. Yeah.

So That's fascinating.

Yeah.

It it puts the little guy now
think about a budget, you know,

if if you were you were doing
a hundred and twenty five

thousand dollars,

I'm thinking about fifteen
hundred dollars a month.

Yeah.

And being very targeted on
specific ZIP codes and watching

to see if the phone rings
more in those ZIP codes.

Right? Or are you
getting more traffic?

And with technology we
can now track. Okay.

They saw a commercial and
they visited your website.

We know these two
events both happened.

That's a success.

Right.

And

I can just say this,

the old way of buying this type
of media has been disrupted.

You don't need, you
don't need two, three,

four middlemen to
buy connected TV.

This this and that that was one of
the reasons we entered the space.

So, and learned a lot about it
and saw opportunity in it for our

customers is it's affordable.

Yeah.

And and Google is more expensive
than it was two years ago.

So

if you think about I mean,

the the two terms that I
learned in a marketing class

back in the nineties,
I mean, again, I'm old.

You know, it's it comes down
to frequency and reach. Right?

How many people are you gonna
reach with your ad and how

often they're gonna see your ad?

And the problem with TV is
that your your marketing

area that that you're
you're getting charged for,

at least where I am,

it could be several
hundred thousand people,

it can be millions of people.

So you're getting charged to
reach all of those people.

And then the read the problem
with that is you don't if you

don't have a massive budget,

you can't reach them frequently
enough that where they remember you.

And so the other magic here with
streaming is doing what you're saying,

which is let's shrink that
reach down to a few ZIP codes.

Now we're not paying
for people, you know,

an hour and a half
away to see our TV ads,

even though they watch
our local TV station.

You know, you shrink that down.

Now you can afford
the frequency.

We've shrunk our reach and now
they can see those ads seven to

ten times in a week.

And it starts to get their
brain and they it sticks.

And then they have a
problem and they call.

So that, you know,
it's it's, I mean,

it's it's the same old same old.

It's frequency and reach.

It's just a new way to
kind of slice that up,

which makes it a little bit
more affordable for a smaller

contractor to really nail it.

Yeah.

The other piece I'll add
there is when you're buying

traditionally, you're
buying one slot at six PM,

one slot at nine PM,

and seven slots in the
middle of the night.

Whereas now I don't care if
the homeowner is watching at

three AM or at seven PM.

If they're a qualified
audience for me,

I wanna show them the ad.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, old way, whether
anybody's watching it or not,

you're getting charged for
it being on the TV station.

New way is if somebody's up
at three AM and they're watching,

you might wanna advertise
to them for sure.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Hey. I got a, can I I know
we gotta wrap up soon?

I've got a horror story.
Can I share a horror story?

Intriguing.

Yeah.

So one of the coolest parts
about what I've done the last

few years is I get to
travel around the country,

talk to heating and
air contractors.

I hear some cool stories about
how they've grown their business.

And then every now and then I
hear horror stories about what

not to do and had
a heating and air

company that hired me to do some
consulting a a few years ago.

And one of my recommendations
to them was SearchKings,

and they turned me down on
everything marketing related.

They turned me like, no. No.
We just want sales training.

Don't don't look at
the marketing budget.

Just look at sales training.

I'm like, well, those
two things are kinda related.

Right?

I mean, it's like, we gotta
how many leads are we getting?

How many appointments are
the salespeople getting?

What's our closing ratio?
What's our average ticket?

Like, we wanna track that
by where the lead came from.

I mean, it's I mean, if
you're gonna grow sales, like,

I need the data to help
coach the salespeople. Right?

And and I was told keep my
nose out of their business.

Well, went back
about a year later.

They're continuing to struggle.

And one of the things that
happened was they said we've

got a local marketing agency,
and we're just gonna use them.

They know our local
market better.

Okay.

Well, they were sending
they were getting invoices

for dollar amounts.

And on the invoice, it would
say, Google. Right? Hey.

Here's what we spent
on Google this month.

And I said, well, from
SearchKings, I mean,

I get a I know, like, I
I get the Google receipt.

Like, you guys are
sending me I mean,

I'm paying you guys to
manage it, but, like,

you're sending me a
receipt from Google,

not just an invoice.

Right? Like, where are they
spending the money with Google?

And so they went back to
try to get the receipts.

The company wouldn't
give them the receipts.

The company was not actually
spending the money with Google.

They were just keeping it.

And there that ended
up in a lawsuit. Right?

So So think about it.

You had a heating and air
company doing roughly five,

six million dollars a year,

spending seven, eight thousand
dollars a month that went nowhere.

I mean, the the
opportunity cost,

the hit to the value
of the business, like,

where that business
could have gone.

Even if they recouped the money,

they will never get the
opportunity back that they

could've had had that money
go to the right place.

So I do pitch,

the relationship that you guys
have with Trane Technologies,

whether it's Trane or American
Standard branded equipment.

That relationship is is solid.

And so that's one of the things
that I think sometimes I mean,

there are great little
local agencies out there.

No doubt about it. But, like,
is there any accountability?

And and do you as the dealer
know the right questions to ask?

And are you gonna be able
to hold them accountable?

Or are you just writing the check
and going, well, hope it works.

And so,

tough, tough kind of
outcome for that contractor.

But, anyway, there's
your horror story.

Yeah.

I'll I'll I'll tell you
that what I would want every

contractor to at least ask.

And we're like
any other company.

We don't want to work with
someone who's already working

with someone that
they're happy with.

That's not a relationship
we want to take over.

We're only looking to work with
someone who needs to change

what's happening.

And so either way the
questions are about

advertising spend and management
fee as two separate line items.

No matter who you work with,

how much are you putting into
the platform and how much are

you charging me for that work has
to be distinguished, number one.

Number two, attribution.

Calls need to be recorded
that come from ad spend.

If you're putting a
thousand dollars in,

you should be able to listen
to the ten calls that came and

understand that ten calls came
from the thousand dollars.

That call you're listening
to is a hundred dollars.

Are those hundred dollar calls from
new customers or existing customers?

And so what's
changed at SearchKing

since AI is our call
intelligence analyzes every

single call coming
in for is it new?

Because it needs to be because
we're not bidding on the

company that's a free lead.

Did it represent a book job?
Was it outside the area?

Was it someone looking
for employment?

Was it a solicitor?

And when you take the ten
calls and you break them down,

you get to how many legitimate
revenue opportunities for the

thousand dollars every
marketing company needs

to be able to answer the
question of show me how you

vetted the ten leads to
show me revenue opportunity

leads compared to wasted leads.

And, and there's the
cost of doing business.

There are bad leads, but
if only one out of every

ten leads is good,

you're paying a thousand
dollars per good lead.

Yeah.

And that's not sustainable.

So, that would be my advice to every
territory manager and and dealers.

Make sure you know how
much you're spending on the

advertising compared to the
management and then how many of

the leads are legitimate
revenue opportunities.

Not even sold.

I wanna go deeper.

I wanna go to re re revenue
opportunities because then we

can help your call center learn that
you had four pricing objections.

Okay.

So maybe your dispatch fee
is out of black or you had

availability objections.

Maybe the CSR isn't managing the call
board based on revenue opportunity,

the phone call or it's out of area
we're targeting the wrong zip codes.

We had a customer who
shall remain nameless.

They wanted to add plumbing
to their advertising.

This happened yesterday.

And the CSR wasn't ready
for plumbing calls.

So we're spending one
hundred dollars a call.

Now a plumbing call comes in
instead of a heating call or an

AC call. And the
the agent said, no.

We don't offer that
service. I'm sorry.

Well, thankfully, our system
triggered a job not served alert.

Wait a minute.

We're advertising for something
that you just said you don't do.

Trigger alert.

Speak to the owner to say, okay.

Should we pause the plumbing
until your team is ready?

But the last thing we can
do is blindly spend money.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mary, if I'm a dealer
and I say, hey.

Today's episode sounded great.

I probably need some
search kings in my life.

What what do I do next?

I think the best thing we could
recommend would be to talk to

your account manager or your
territory manager to see how

you could get more plugged in
here with search kings and,

you know, just more
intentional marketing efforts.

And then we're always
happy to take your inform

nation and get you
to the right people.

If you just email at h v a
c underscore full underscore

blast at train
technologies dot com.

We, we're always curious to sort
of hear what's going on or or

maybe even get another
story out of it.

We would love to hear from you.

Yeah. Hey, Lauren.
Thanks for coming today.

No problem.

I think next time we'll chat,

we'll talk about how
AI is integrated into businesses

beyond marketing as we're
hearing and and working on a

lot of interesting projects
to make companies more efficient.

Next Oh, I like a stay tuned.

That sounds good. Yeah.

Okay. Sounds good.

Alright. Thanks,
everybody. Thank you.

And we will talk to you soon.

Thanks for listening
to HVAC full blast.