Bid strategy

The default spends the budget and gets the most results it can at whatever they cost. The alternatives put a number on it: a cost cap sets an average you want to hold, a bid cap sets a ceiling per auction, and a return goal targets a ratio.

Why it matters for HVAC

Seasonality makes this consequential. During a heat wave every competitor in the metro raises spend at once, cost per thousand impressions climbs, and highest-volume bidding will chase the auction wherever it goes. A cap stops that and, in exchange, may stop delivery entirely if the market has moved past your number.

The trade is genuinely a trade. Uncapped means you are present in the expensive week when the work is available. Capped means you keep your economics and may sit out the best week of the year.

How it is measured

Watch delivery against cost together. A cap that holds cost per result and stops spending half the budget is not working, it is hiding. Under-delivery against a cap is the signal to revisit the number rather than the ads.

A worked example

A contractor sets a $45 cost cap in April and holds it comfortably. In July the auction moves, delivery falls to a third of budget, and the campaign misses the fortnight that pays for the quarter. Raising the cap to $68 for six weeks costs more per lead and considerably less per booked job, because the jobs available in July are replacements rather than tune-ups.

These figures are invented to show the arithmetic. They describe no real business.

Where this is demonstrated

The Advantage+ against manual pillar scores every listed agency on what they document here, and gives you the questions that tell you which one you are being sold.