Truck Wraps Are Billboards: Great for awareness over years, but they don’t generate calls like search presence does
Website Doesn’t Need to Be Fancy: One page with services, phone number, and reviews beats a $5K site nobody finds
Budget Reality: A $500 GBP optimization delivers faster ROI than a $3,000 wrap in year one
Google Business Profile Comes First: Free to claim, high-ROI to optimize, and where 93% of customers search before calling¹
Every new contractor asks this question. Most get the answer backwards.
You’ve got a van, some tools, and limited cash to make this work. Someone says you need a wrapped truck to “look professional.” Your brother-in-law says website. Your old boss says both. Unfortunately, spending $4,000 on the wrong thing could mean running out of runway before you land your first 20 customers.
What Actually Gets You Found
When a homeowner’s AC dies at 2 AM in July, they don’t think, “Remember that truck I saw last Tuesday?” They grab their phone and search “AC repair near me.”
Seventy-eight percent of local service calls happen this way: mobile search followed by purchase within 24 hours.² The customer journey is brutally simple:
Problem.
Google.
Call.
Google Business Profile (GBP) is where this battle is won or lost. When someone searches for HVAC services, Google displays a “Local Pack,” which is three businesses on a map at the top of results. Ninety-three percent of local searches show this pack.¹ If you’re not in those three spots, you might as well not exist. Claiming your GBP is free. Optimizing it costs maybe $300-500 in photos, review software, and citation cleanup. For that modest investment, you’re competing for high-intent customers actively looking to spend money, not hoping someone remembers your logo from traffic.
📺 Watch: When Should A Technician Start Their Own HVAC/R Company. Gary discusses the key factors to consider before making the leap to business ownership.
The Truck Wrap Reality Check
Truck wraps are billboards. They generate impressions, potentially tens of thousands per day. The marketing math sounds impressive until you look at conversion rates: 0.005% to 0.02%.³ For every 10,000 people who see your truck, maybe one or two call.
The real value comes from the “neighbor effect.” Your truck parked in a customer’s driveway signals trust to the whole street. But here’s the catch: you need jobs to park in driveways. If you have no customers, your wrapped truck sits in your own driveway where nobody sees it.
That said, a well-wrapped vehicle does deliver real brand awareness over time. As Gary noted when launching his own business: “When I worked for my former company, I used to get flagged down from time to time by potential clients who needed work done. Back then, I would tell them to call the office. Now if that happens, I’m able to sell myself as their go-to.” A good wrap costs money and needs to be budgeted for—but the question for new contractors isn’t whether wraps work, it’s whether they’re the best use of limited startup capital when you need customers now.
Your appearance matters, but maybe not in the way you think. As we covered in First Impressions: The Hot and Cold of It, customers form judgments within seven seconds based on sight, sound, and smell. A clean uniform and organized truck matter more than expensive graphics. If budget is tight, start with professional vinyl lettering. The full wrap can come once you’ve built cash flow.
🎙️ Listen: Evolution Of An HVAC Business Ep.1: The Decision. Gary shares the challenges and considerations of becoming an independent business owner.
Minimum Viable Website
Your website doesn’t need to cost $5,000. In fact, complex sites often hurt conversion because they’re slow and confusing. What the distressed homeowner actually wants: a clickable phone number, services you offer, area you serve, and proof you’re legitimate (reviews). That’s it.
A one-page site on Squarespace or Wix costs $0-500 and can be live this weekend. The average HVAC website converts around 2.8-3.1% of visitors. A focused landing page with a sticky “Call Now” button can hit 6-10%.⁴ Less is more.
Your website’s main job in year one isn’t to impress. It’s to validate. Customers find you on Google, then click your website to make sure you’re real. A simple, professional page seals the deal. This ties directly into reputation marketing, which is using your reviews and testimonials as promotional assets. Having at least ten customer reviews increases search traffic by 15-20%, and users are 74% more likely to contact a company that displays reviews on their website.
📺 Watch: When Should A Technician Start Their Own HVAC/R Company. Gary discusses marketing considerations alongside technical readiness, family factors, and business fundamentals every aspiring owner needs to evaluate.
Your First-Year Marketing Stack
If you’ve got $5,000 for marketing in year one, here’s the priority order:
Priority 1: Google Business Profile ($300-500). Claim it, verify it, add photos, set up review automation. This is your foundation. Optimized profiles receive 70% more visits than those without.⁵
Priority 3: Vinyl Lettering ($500-800). License number, company name, phone. Professional, not flashy.
Priority 4: Review Generation ($0-50/month). Every job ends with a review request. Stack those five-star ratings fast.
Priority 5: Local Services Ads (remaining budget). Google’s pay-per-lead program. At an average cost per lead of $40-50, your remaining $2,000-3,000 buys 40-75 qualified leads.⁴
Priority 6: Updated Vehicle Branding ($3,000-5,000). A full wrap builds brand awareness over time and can generate direct leads when you’re out on the road.
Gary tested truck wraps as part of his marketing strategy and found value in the “flagged down” effect: potential customers seeing your vehicle and reaching out directly. The key is balancing this investment against immediate lead-generation needs.
The contractor who spends everything on a wrap and nothing on digital has a pretty truck and no ad budget. The one who balances both gets the best of both worlds.
🎙️ Listen: Marketing In 2024 w/Ryan Hache. Digital marketing strategies focusing on Google and reviews for HVAC businesses.
The contractor who spends $4,000 on a wrap has a pretty truck and no ad budget. The one who spends $1,000 on digital presence and $3,000 on Local Services Ads buys 60-80 qualified leads. At 40% close rate, that’s 25-30 jobs generating $15,000-$30,000 in revenue. Those profits fund the wrap in month six.
If you’re still weighing whether to start your own HVACR business, understanding this marketing math is essential. You’ll need more than technical skills. You’ll need business sense, including knowing where your first dollars should go.
🎙️ Listen: Avoiding Mistakes As A Business Owner. Personal experiences and lessons learned from HVAC business ownership.
The Bottom Line
When startup capital is limited, prioritize where customers actively search: Google Business Profile and online reviews. These generate immediate leads from high-intent buyers. Vehicle branding builds awareness over time and absolutely has value. Gary attributes direct leads to being “flagged down” by potential customers, but it works best once you’re already out in the field serving customers.
The real question isn’t wrap versus website. It’s sequencing. Get found first with GBP. Build credibility with reviews. Present professionally with at minimum clean vinyl lettering. Then invest in the full wrap when your cash flow can support it without sacrificing lead generation.
Building trust goes beyond branding. It’s about standing out from the competition through authentic customer relationships and visual content that puts a face to your name. It’s about completing repairs on the first visit, something that can make or break your residential service business. When you do show up to that first job, tools like Property.com’s “Know Before You Go” help you pre-qualify customers and show up with context on permit history and previous work. That professionalism builds the reputation that earns referrals, which matters more than any logo on your van.
Additional Sources
The Ultimate Google Business Profile Guide for HVAC Companies. HVAC Webmasters (2025).
40+ Statistics Home Services Marketers Need to Know in 2025. Invoca (2025).
ROI of Vehicle Wraps: A Complete Analysis. SpeedPro Canada (2025).
2025 HVAC Marketing Benchmarks. WebFX (2025).
State of Google Business Profiles Report. Birdeye (2025).
HVAC Truck Wrap Cost Guide. FieldEdge (2025).
Whether you require installation, repair, or maintenance, our technicians will assist you with top-quality service at any time of the day or night. Take comfort in knowing your indoor air quality is the best it can be with MOE heating & cooling services Ontario's solution for heating, air conditioning, and ventilation that’s cooler than the rest.
Contact us to schedule a visit. Our qualified team of technicians, are always ready to help you and guide you for heating and cooling issues. Weather you want to replace an old furnace or install a brand new air conditioner, we are here to help you. Our main office is at Kitchener but we can service most of Ontario's cities
