A benchmark is a dated written report on your HVAC market. It answers three questions: how many companies are competing for your homeowners, what those companies are doing well or badly online, and where you can gain the most ground for the least money. Every number in it has a source, and every recommendation is marked as our analysis.
What it is
The answer first: public data about your market, plus a manual audit of the competitors homeowners actually see.
The public part draws on sources such as Statistics Canada's June 2026 business counts, which list 16,754 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractor locations with employees in Canada, and the heating-fuel shares for your province. The manual part is a search-by-search audit, from a phone in your service area, of the companies that appear in the map pack and on page one for your main services.
Who it is for
Benchmarking suits an HVAC owner who is about to spend money and wants to know where it will matter.
- Companies entering a new town or region and wanting to know who is already there.
- Owners who were told by a previous agency that they "need more SEO" without any evidence.
- Firms whose leads have dropped and who want to know whether competitors, Google or their own site changed.
- Businesses preparing to add a service line, such as heat pumps or cooling, and wanting to see who already owns those searches.
What is included
A typical benchmark covers six areas.
| Area | What we check |
|---|---|
| Market size | Contractor counts for your province, and the share of small firms |
| Demand context | Primary heating fuel, cooling ownership and current programs homeowners ask about |
| Map pack | Which competitors appear for each service in each town |
| Profiles | Category, services, hours, photos, review count and reply habits |
| Websites | Speed on a phone, service pages, location pages, clear phone number |
| Ads | Whether competitors appear in paid results, and for which services |
The report ends with a ranked list of fixes, each tagged with the evidence behind it.
Timeline
The first benchmark is part of the 7-day free trial, which includes a digital marketing audit, website performance check, SEO analysis and competitor benchmarking, with no credit card required.
On an ongoing plan we refresh the competitor audit at least every six months, because new entrants, review growth and ad activity change the picture. Statistics Canada updates its business counts twice a year, and we update the market section when it does.
How results are measured
Benchmarking itself is measured by whether its recommendations pay off. For each fix we set a metric before work starts: calls from the profile, map-pack appearances in a target town, cost per lead from a campaign. Our reporting service then tracks those metrics so the benchmark can be checked against what actually happened.
A sample finding
A typical line in a benchmark reads like this: "Of 14 companies in the map pack for your three main services, 9 have not replied to a review in 90 days." That is a fact you can act on this week.
Mistakes to avoid
The answer first: the usual mistake is benchmarking against the wrong competitors.
- Copying the biggest name. The largest firm in your city may not be in the searches you care about. Audit who actually appears.
- Using borrowed averages. A cost per lead from a US blog or a different trade tells you little about your town.
- Reading business counts as growth. Statistics Canada advises against using business counts as a time series, so do not treat release-to-release changes as market trends.
- Benchmarking once. A snapshot from two years ago is history, not intelligence.
Our contractor counts report shows the national and provincial data we start from, and our areas hub gives the regional context. HVAC.Report is a marketing service for HVAC companies, not a contractor. Call, text or email to start with a free trial benchmark.
Frequently asked questions
What public data goes into a benchmark?
Typically Statistics Canada's business counts for plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, heating-fuel shares for your province, and cooling ownership where it is published. We only use sources we can link and date.
Do you compare us with an industry average?
No. We have not found a public source that supports a reliable HVAC cost-per-lead or conversion average in Canada. We compare you with the named competitors in your own search results instead.
How long does a benchmark take?
The first version is part of the 7-day free trial, which includes a marketing audit, website check, SEO analysis and competitor benchmarking. A fuller version is refreshed as part of ongoing plans.
Will you share the competitor names?
Yes. A benchmark that hides the competitors is not much use. Every company in the audit is named, with the date we checked it.