Marketing systems for air conditioning installers: what actually works
Domestic air conditioning in the UK is a feast and famine trade. Three hot days in June and the phone does not stop; by November, installers are chasing commercial maintenance to keep engineers busy. We looked at five marketing providers through that lens, asking which ones capture the heatwave surge without wasting it, and which help an installer build a steadier pipeline for the other nine months.
Why the heatwave is a trap as well as an opportunity
When demand spikes, three things go wrong at once. Calls get missed because every engineer is on a job. Quotes go out late because nobody has time to write them. And the firm, now booked for six weeks, forgets to ask any of those customers for a review. By the time the weather breaks, the backlog has cleared and the inbound has dried up, with nothing banked.
So we assessed providers on their answer to that cycle. Does the system respond to a missed call automatically? Can a £2,500 split system quote go out the same day as the survey? Does a completed install trigger a review request without anyone remembering? And is there a route to winter work through service and location pages or targeted ads? The response-time numbers for trades enquiries apply with particular force here, because a hot homeowner rings five firms.
1. Riley Marketing
Best for: Small AC installers who want the surge handled and the quiet months planned for, on one fixed fee
Riley Marketing's foundational growth system is a fixed £149 a month at the time of writing and includes an SEO-focused website with service and location pages, Google Business Profile optimisation, Google review automation with reactivation of past customers, missed call text back, and a CRM with lead status tracking and branded quote pages on your own domain.
The heatwave problem is the use case this chain was built for, even if the trade is different. The text back answers the calls you cannot. The quote page lets you price a wall-mounted unit for a home office from the van and send a link the customer opens on their phone, which we argue elsewhere is a better mechanism than emailing a PDF. The review automation asks every install customer, and the reactivation sweep goes back to the ones from last summer you never asked.
For winter, service and location pages for AC servicing, heat pump style air-to-air heating and commercial maintenance across your towns give the site something to rank for when nobody is searching for cooling. Google Ads and Meta ads are add-ons if you want a burst in May before the first hot week.
The system is built before you pay, with no setup fee, unlimited revisions and no notice period. Founder Tom Riley has ten years in search and lead generation, previously led organic growth at an insurtech and has built his own lead generation websites. Clients deal with him directly, and the agency already works with heating engineers, electricians and other trades whose patterns are close to air conditioning.
2. Scale Through Us
Best for: AC and HVAC firms wanting a managed paid-ads department with territory limits
Scale Through Us, based on Great Portland Street in London and working UK-wide, names HVAC as one of its trades, alongside roofing, electrical, plumbing and solar. It sells a fully managed growth department: Facebook, Instagram and Google ads, web design, SMS marketing, reputation management, email, SEO, CRM integration and automation, and growth consultancy. It caps clients at three businesses per niche per location under a secure your territory message.
For an installer the paid-social element is relevant because air conditioning is a considered purchase that responds to video and imagery in a way that gutter repairs do not. Pricing is not published, and proof is three short testimonials from electrical, roofing and driveway clients rather than detailed case studies.
3. Trustmark Trades (marketing arm)
Best for: Sole trader installers in smaller towns who want a flat-fee website and local SEO package
Trustmark Trades' marketing arm, in Hove, builds custom websites with service and town pages on its own software, adds local SEO and directory profiles, call tracking through a local landline forwarded to your mobile, review request tools, completed-job posts to your site and Facebook, hosting and an optional jobs CRM. The fee is a flat £299 plus VAT a month with no setup fee, no contract and no per-lead charges.
It says it works with every UK trade and names drainage, plumbing and heating among its listed ones, which is the nearest neighbour to air conditioning. Its strategy of building many small-town pages and targeting less competitive areas outside big cities suits an installer covering a rural patch. It does not guarantee rankings or call volumes and cites more than 170 members, with published call-volume results for an electrician and a plumbing and heating firm among others.
4. Tea Powered Projects
Best for: Established AC companies wanting a premium bespoke site on a supported platform
Tea Powered Projects in Nottingham builds trade websites on its own CMS platform, with conversion optimisation, local and technical SEO, Google Business Profile work, hosting, IT support and AI consultancy. Its named trades are plumbers, builders, electricians, locksmiths, drain engineers and auto locksmiths, so air conditioning would be an adjacent rather than core vertical.
Published pricing is a £4,500 bespoke build plus a monthly platform plan between £95 and £1,000 on a 12-month minimum, with managed SEO from £500 a month. Case studies cover a locksmith, a drain engineer and an auto locksmith. For a multi-engineer commercial AC firm that needs a serious web asset, the quality case is there; for a one-van installer the entry cost is a barrier.
5. Get Work
Best for: Installers who want Google Ads enquiries fed into a booking platform during the summer peak
Get Work, in Lytham St Annes, is a Google Partner that builds a dedicated landing page and Google Ads funnel for each tradesperson, then delivers leads through a lead management and job booking platform with instant text notifications and a dashboard of spend against job value. Leads are exclusive and it works with trade associations.
Plumbing and heating and electrical are named trades; air conditioning is not, so you would be relying on the model transferring. In summer that model is attractive, because paid search is the fastest way to appear in front of a homeowner searching during a heatwave. One roofing case study publishes first-month revenue and return. Pricing is on a separate page.
Peak season versus off season
| Provider | Handles the heatwave surge | Builds winter demand | Review capture | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Marketing | Text back, quote pages, CRM | Service and location pages, ads add-on | Automated, incl. past customers | £149 |
| Scale Through Us | Paid ads, SMS | Ads and SEO | Reputation management | Not published |
| Trustmark Trades | Forwarded landline | Small-town pages | Dashboard request tool | £299 + VAT |
| Tea Powered Projects | Site conversion work | Managed SEO from £500 | Not described | £95 to £1,000 plus £4,500 build |
| Get Work | Google Ads funnel | Ads only | Not described | Separate pricing page |
Choosing based on how your summer went
If last summer you missed calls, quoted late and ended the season with the same number of reviews you started with, fix the system before buying more demand. Riley Marketing is the direct answer to those three failures, and because it is built before you pay you can have it in place before the first hot week rather than after. Our guide to the minimum CRM a one-van firm needs describes what good looks like once the leads are flowing.
If your system is already sound and you want more volume in the peak, Get Work and Scale Through Us both sell managed paid campaigns, and the choice turns on whether you want search-only or social as well. Trustmark Trades suits an installer in a smaller town who wants a solid website and does not expect much from automation.
Heating engineers moving into air-to-air heat pump work face a very similar pattern, and the same logic holds. Build the thing that catches and converts first, then rent the demand on top, which is the argument in campaigns are rented, systems are owned.
Frequently asked questions
When should an air conditioning installer start marketing for summer?
Service and location pages should be live by early spring so they have time to rank. Paid ads can start in May, a few weeks before the first warm spell.
How do I keep engineers busy in winter?
Pages and campaigns for servicing contracts, commercial maintenance and air-to-air heating give the site something to rank for when nobody is searching for cooling.
Is a quote page useful for a £2,500 install?
Yes. A link the customer opens on their phone the same day as the survey, with your branding and an accept button, is faster than a PDF and tells you whether it was read.
Which trades are closest to air conditioning for marketing purposes?
Heating engineers and electricians. The job values, survey-then-quote process and seasonal swings are similar, so providers with experience there transfer well.