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This guide is for the owner of a heating and air company in Salt Lake County: three trucks out of Taylorsville, a family shop in Murray, a new outfit doing installs in Herriman. It covers where the calls come from, what Google charges, the 2026 utility rebates, a Salt Lake City rule that opens commercial work, and what a license and local ads cost.
A Salt Lake County HVAC company gets most new calls from the Google map results for searches like "furnace repair Sandy", from Google Local Services Ads, which charge per lead instead of per click, and from quotes that show the homeowner the rebate. In 2026 Rocky Mountain Power's wattsmart page lists up to $1,600 back for an air source heat pump and up to $1,700 for a ductless one, and Enbridge Gas pays $300 or $350 for a qualifying gas furnace. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks put a home improvement search click at $8.33 and a lead at $90.92.
It's the first cold night in November in West Jordan. The thermostat says 61, the furnace runs, and the vents blow cold air. The homeowner types "furnace repair West Jordan" and calls one of the three companies in the map box or the ad with the phone button above it. If nobody picks up, she calls the next one.
Those map results change from city to city. A shop in Murray can show up for a search in Murray and miss the same search typed in Herriman, so decide which cities you actually drive to and tell Google.
Most HVAC shops go to the customer, which makes you a service-area business under Google's Business Profile rules. Google says a service-area business should hide its address, and the service area shouldn't reach farther than about two hours of driving from where you're based. List the cities you really cover, such as Salt Lake City, Murray, Taylorsville, West Valley City, Sandy and South Jordan.
Use the name on your trucks. Google doesn't allow taglines, services or city names in the business name, and a rented mailbox in Draper doesn't get you a second profile: Google says a virtual office isn't eligible.
Local Services Ads are the listings with a call button at the top of searches like "AC repair Murray". Google lists "HVAC (heating or air conditioning)" as a category, and to start before the Google Verified badge you need a license or business registration.
You pay per lead, not per click: an answered call, a missed call during business hours where the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds, or a message. Lead prices vary by location and job type. You set an average weekly budget, the ad stops for the month at your monthly max, and Google credits leads it finds invalid or duplicate within 30 days.
Regular search ads charge per click. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, drawn from thousands of its customers' campaigns, don't break out HVAC, but they put home and home improvement search ads at $8.33 per click, an 8.05 percent conversion rate and $90.92 per lead. At those averages, $1,500 a month buys about 180 clicks and about 16 calls or forms. Check your own numbers after a month. Send each ad to a page about that job, so a heat pump ad lands on your heat pump page, not your home page.
A homeowner replacing a system gets two or three quotes, and the one that shows the rebate looks cheaper at the same price. Both utilities post their numbers and change them, so read the current page before you print anything.
Rocky Mountain Power's wattsmart Homes heating and cooling page for Utah lists up to $1,600 for an air source heat pump, up to $1,700 for a ductless heat pump, up to $1,450 for a dual fuel heat pump and up to $125 for a window heat pump. The homeowner applies online within 90 days of the job, and the page's first step tells them to find a program-participating contractor.
Enbridge Gas Utah runs its rebates as ThermWise. It pays $300 for a gas furnace rated 95 to 97.4 percent AFUE and $350 for one at 97.5 percent or higher with an ECM motor. A dual fuel system that switches to gas at 40 degrees or lower pays $700 to $1,200, depending on the efficiency tier and whether the gas backup is new.
If your techs also swap water heaters, Enbridge pays $100 for an ENERGY STAR gas storage water heater, $300 for a tankless one, $350 for a condensing or hybrid one, and $750 for a combined space and water heating system. Gas rebate requests have to be postmarked within six months of the install, so hand the customer the form on install day.
When a homeowner in Sandy reads that rebate page and clicks Find a Contractor, they get a search by city or ZIP code with a radius, and filters for HVAC and Pro Network HVAC. That's a list of approved contractors, and it's read by people who are already planning to buy a heat pump.
Contractors join through the trade ally application on the wattsmart Homes site. The trade ally page also has co-branded HVAC mailers and social posts to download, plus Utah heat pump sheets and a rebate chart your techs can use at the customer's kitchen table.
Utah's Department of Environmental Quality describes winter inversions as warm air sitting like a lid over the valleys and trapping pollution. On mandatory action days, restrictions on burning wood take effect, and DEQ runs a Wood Stove and Fireplace Conversion Assistance Program that helps pay to switch wood stoves and fireplaces to natural gas heat. That gives you a January message besides "we fix furnaces": a tune-up and filter offer, and for homes that still burn wood, a note to check with DEQ on whether the conversion program is open. Don't promise health results you can't back up.
Salt Lake City requires owners of covered buildings of 25,000 square feet or more to report their energy use every year, and its program page is collecting 2025 data now. The city says the ordinance does not require any upgrades. Owners who don't report get up to three written notices, then a fine of up to $500 per violation, capped at $1,000 a year.
So the manager of an office building downtown or an apartment complex in Sugar House has an energy score on file with the city. A commercial HVAC company can bring that score to the meeting and show which equipment changes would move it.
This is a summary of published rules, not legal advice. Utah Code 58-55-501(1) makes it unlawful to work in a licensed construction trade or represent yourself as a contractor without the right license or an exemption, and a Google profile or truck wrap offering HVAC work counts. Put your license number on your site, quotes and trucks so customers can check you on the state's licensee lookup.
City licenses depend on where your shop sits. Salt Lake City says that under state law it doesn't require a license for a business run from home unless it affects the neighborhood. A shop with a commercial address inside city limits pays, under the fee schedule that took effect in September 2026, a $198 base fee, a $34 construction business fee and $29 a year per employee once you have more than one. A shop with six employees pays $198 plus $34 plus $174, or $406 a year. Sandy, Murray, West Jordan and West Valley City license on their own, and Kearns and Magna go through the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District. Our Salt Lake City business license guide walks through which office covers your address.
Google reaches people who are searching right now. Mail, billboards and newsletters put your name in front of homeowners before the furnace dies, so they search for you by name later. These options have published prices or published estimates. For more channels, see where to advertise in Salt Lake City.
| Channel | Who it reaches | Published cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS Every Door Direct Mail | Every address on the carrier routes you pick, 200 to 5,000 pieces a day per ZIP code | $0.26 a piece postage, plus printing | USPS |
| Static billboard | Drivers on I-15, I-215 and Bangerter | $800 to $5,000 per board per month | BillboardsIn estimate |
| Blip digital billboard | Same roads, short plays you buy by the day | About 166 plays a day for $20 | Blip |
| Rocky Mountain Power trade ally mailers | Homeowners you mail or post to | Free to download | wattsmart Homes |
| The Salt Lake Valley newsletter (ours) | 2,470 Salt Lake County subscribers | $149 to $539 a month | Our price list |
A postcard works well for HVAC because you pick the neighborhoods. Mailing 3,000 homes on the routes around your shop costs $780 in postage before printing. Give the card its own phone number so you can count the calls it brings in.
We publish The Salt Lake Valley, a free newsletter for Salt Lake County, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this with that in mind. It had 2,470 subscribers on October 30, 2026 and goes out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with three ad spots per issue. The Closer plan is $149 a month for the closing spot in four issues, Neighbor is $179 a month for a short mention in two issues, and Local Favorite is $539 a month for the top image ad plus a mention and a closing spot. A Local Directory listing is $49 a month, and if you're short a tech before winter, a job post is $49 for 30 days. The plans are on our advertise page. It is a small list next to Google.
Do it in this order and ask every caller how they found you. If you'd rather hand it off, see our list of marketing agencies in Salt Lake City. Our free AI 101 class covers writing service pages and follow-up texts with AI tools.