HVAC leads in Canada are sold four different ways — per shared lead, per exclusive lead, per click, and per connected call — and the prices are not comparable because the products are not. PatchLead charges $60 to $150 per connected call in Canadian dollars, billed only once the conversation passes 60–90 seconds. Across the wider market a shared HVAC lead is the cheapest per unit and the most expensive per booked job, which is the only figure worth comparing.
Ask five HVAC contractors what a lead costs and you will get five numbers that cannot be compared, because each one is buying something different. One is paying for a form. One is paying for a click. One is paying for a phone call with a homeowner already on the line. Quoting all three in dollars-per-lead is how the question stays unanswerable.
This post sets out the four models, states what we charge, and then does the arithmetic that actually decides between them. It deliberately does not quote what any named competitor charges — see the note at the end for why, and why you should distrust pages that do.
The four ways HVAC leads are priced
Almost every HVAC lead product in Canada is one of these four. The differences are not shades of the same thing — they change who does the work of reaching the homeowner, and who carries the cost when that fails.
| Model | What you buy | Who reaches the homeowner | Cost when it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared lead | Contact details, sent to several contractors | You, by calling back | You paid; someone else booked it |
| Exclusive lead | Contact details, sent only to you | You, by calling back | You paid; you never reached them |
| Pay per click | A visit to your website | They contact you, or do not | You paid per visit regardless |
| Pay per connected call | A live call, transferred to your phone | Already done before you answer | Below the minimum length, nothing |
Describes how each model charges, not what any named company charges today. Checked 2026-09-07.
What PatchLead charges
$60 to $150 per connected call, in Canadian dollars, set by trade and job type. An HVAC call becomes billable only once you and the homeowner have been talking for 60–90 seconds — below that it is free, automatically, with nothing to claim.
A replacement enquiry sits higher in that band than a repair, because the job behind it is worth more to you. There is no setup fee, no monthly subscription, no minimum spend and no contract term; you fund a prepaid balance and billable calls come off it.
The call is exclusive — it rings one contractor at a time and the same conversation is never sold to two companies at once. If you do not answer it moves on to another contractor, because the homeowner is waiting, but it is never split between you and three other shops.
What moves the price of an HVAC lead
Within any model, four things drive the number up or down. Understanding them is how you tell a fair quote from a bad one.
- Job type. A furnace or heat-pump replacement enquiry is worth several thousand dollars of work; a thermostat question is worth a call-out fee. Prices follow.
- Exclusivity. A lead sold once costs more than the same lead sold four times, and should.
- How much qualification happened first. A name and a number is cheaper than a confirmed job, urgency and postal code — and converts accordingly.
- Season and market. No-heat demand spikes when the weather turns, and advertising costs rise with it. A quote taken in July describes July.
The only comparison that means anything: cost per booked job
Divide the price by the share you convert. That single sum reorders the market, and it is why sticker price is close to useless as a comparison.
Say a shared lead costs $30 and you close one in twelve, because you are the fourth contractor to call and two of the others quoted first. That is $360 per booked job. Say a connected call costs $90 and you close one in four, because you were talking to the homeowner while the furnace was still off. That is also $360. Identical — at those rates.
Which means the whole question is how far your own close rates actually diverge between the two, and that is a number you already have and no vendor does. Pull your last hundred leads from each source and divide. Count the ones you never reached, because you paid for those too, and count your own time chasing, because it is not free.
- Cost per booked job = price ÷ share of leads you convert.
- A 3× price difference is neutral if the close rate differs by 3×.
- Leads you never reached still cost what you paid for them.
- Time spent chasing is a real cost and differs sharply between models.
What is different about the Canadian market
Two things worth knowing if you are comparing Canadian numbers against advice written for the United States, which most of it is.
First, volume. Emergency HVAC search volume in a single Canadian metro is far smaller than the equivalent US market — a keyword that looks like a category nationally can be tens of searches a month in one city. A vendor promising national volume in Canada is describing a smaller pool than the phrasing implies.
Second, seasonality is sharper. No-heat demand is concentrated into a few months and disappears in between, so a price quoted as an annual average will not match what you experience in either direction.
The kinds of HVAC lead you can buy
Before price, temperature. The same word covers three very different things, and a quote that does not say which one you are getting is not a quote.
- Cold leads have shown no prior interest in HVAC work at all — a purchased list, or a broad audience. Cheapest per unit, and the closest thing to buying nothing.
- Warm leads have done something: visited a site, downloaded something, filled a form. There is intent, but it may be weeks old and it is rarely exclusive.
- Hot leads need the work now and are ready to pay. A homeowner with no heat in February is a hot lead by definition, and this is what a transferred call is.
Price follows the job, not the lead
Within HVAC, what the enquiry is about matters more to the price than almost anything else, because the jobs behind them are worth wildly different amounts to you.
- Furnace installation and replacement — the highest-value enquiry in the trade, and priced accordingly by every vendor.
- AC repair and AC installation — seasonal mirror of the above, with the spike in summer instead of winter.
- Heat pump enquiries — rising, and often carrying rebate questions that lengthen the sale.
- Duct cleaning — high volume, low ticket. Worth buying only if it feeds your other divisions.
- Tune-ups and maintenance — cheap leads whose value is the service agreement behind them, not the visit.
Where these prices sit against the wider market
Published estimates for HVAC lead costs in North America cluster around the $50 to $150 range per lead, with an often-cited average near $104. Live transfer specifically is quoted far more widely — anywhere from about $25 to over $500 per connected transfer — because the label covers everything from a barely-screened call to one where the job, the budget and the address were confirmed first.
Treat all of those as orientation rather than fact. They are aggregated from vendor marketing and industry write-ups, not audited, and the spread is the real finding: a $25 transfer and a $500 transfer are not the same product, and the difference is how much qualification happened before your phone rang.
Ours sits in the middle of that at $60 to $150, with the qualification done — trade, job type, urgency and postal code confirmed on the call — and the 90-second threshold meaning you do not pay for the ones that go nowhere.
Why response time decides more than price does
This is the part most cost comparisons miss entirely. In home services the contractor who answers first books a disproportionate share of the work, and the industry is famously bad at it — a widely-cited figure is that only around one HVAC business in ten responds to a new enquiry within the hour.
That has a direct financial consequence for how you should read a price. A cheap lead you answer tomorrow competes against three contractors who answered today, so its effective cost is not the sticker price — it is the sticker price divided by a much smaller close rate.
A transferred call removes the variable rather than improving it. There is no response time to measure, because the conversation is already happening when your phone rings. That is most of what you are paying the premium for, and it is why the per-unit comparison flatters shared leads so badly.
One honest caveat in the other direction: a meaningful share of home-service enquiries arrive outside business hours, and we place calls Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm, and not on Sundays. A vendor that genuinely covers nights will reach homeowners we do not.
The channels, and what each one really charges for
Most HVAC lead spend in Canada goes through a handful of channels. They are priced on different events, which is the thing to hold on to when comparing.
| Channel | Billed on | What you still have to do |
|---|---|---|
| Google Local Services Ads | A qualified lead — a call or message | Answer, qualify and close |
| Google Ads / search ads | A click | Convert the visit, then answer and qualify |
| Google Business Profile | Nothing directly | Earn the ranking; maintain reviews |
| Meta ads | Impressions or clicks | Everything after the click |
| Shared lead marketplaces | Delivery of contact details | Call back, and beat the others there |
| Pay per connected call | A conversation of minimum length | Answer the phone |
Describes what each channel bills on, not what any named company charges today. Checked 2026-09-07.
What to ask any HVAC lead vendor before you buy
Vague answers to these are themselves the answer.
- How many contractors receive the same enquiry?
- What exactly triggers the charge — delivery, contact, or a conversation of some length?
- Am I charged for a lead I never manage to reach?
- What is the dispute window, and does money come back as cash or as account credit?
- Which specific postal areas do you operate in today, not plan to?
- What hours do you actually call, and in whose timezone?
Why this post does not quote competitors' prices
The obvious thing to put here would be a table of what each named competitor charges. We have not, for a reason worth stating: we could not verify those numbers to a standard we would want to be held to. Lead prices in this market are frequently set per contractor and per market, change without notice, and are often behind a signup.
A stale figure attributed to a named company is worse than no figure. If you find a page confidently listing four competitors' prices, check when it was written and whether it says where the numbers came from — and apply the same test to ours.
Common questions
How much does an HVAC lead cost in Canada in 2026?
With PatchLead, $60 to $150 per connected call in Canadian dollars, by job type, billable only after 60–90 seconds of conversation. Across the wider market prices vary enormously by model — a shared form lead is the cheapest per unit and usually the most expensive per booked job, because several contractors receive it and you may never reach the homeowner at all.
Are exclusive HVAC leads worth the extra cost?
Usually, if your close rate on them is meaningfully better — and it normally is, because you are not the fourth caller. Run the sum rather than trusting the principle: price divided by close rate, on your own last hundred leads from each source. If exclusive costs 3× and converts 3× better, they are identical and you should choose on workload instead.
What is the cost of a live-transfer HVAC lead?
PatchLead charges $60 to $150 per connected call in Canada, billed only once the conversation reaches 60–90 seconds. Live transfers cost more per unit than shared form leads because the homeowner is already on the phone asking for HVAC help and only one contractor is charged. Compare cost per booked job, not the sticker price.
Do I pay for HVAC leads I cannot reach?
It depends entirely on the model, and it is the question most worth asking. With pay-per-connected-call there is nothing to reach — the charge attaches to a conversation that is already happening, so a call you never take is free. With lead delivery models the charge generally lands when the details arrive, whether you ever speak to that homeowner or not.
Why are HVAC lead prices higher in winter?
Because no-heat demand spikes and advertising costs rise with it. Every model passes some of that through, whether as a higher lead price or as a higher cost per click for the same search. A price quoted to you as an annual average will not match what you see in January, in either direction — ask what it looks like in the months you actually need volume.
What hours do HVAC lead calls come through?
With PatchLead, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm, and not on Sundays, evaluated in the homeowner's local time, so nothing is dialled overnight. Other vendors differ, and it is worth asking directly rather than assuming — a service advertising around-the-clock leads and one that calls business hours are different products at the same nominal price.