Where HVAC Native Advertising Budgets Are Going This Year

No survey tracks where HVAC native advertising budgets are going in 2026, and no network reports HVAC native spend. The verifiable trail is indirect: native vendors' own 2025 results, LocaliQ search costs for heating and cooling, and the EIA equipment data that decides when HVAC messages are relevant.

Key Takeaways

• Taboola's 2025 ex-TAC gross profit was USD 713.5 million, up from USD 667.5 million.
• Teads' 2025 revenue was USD 1,300.5 million, up 46%, mostly from its acquisition.
• US digital ad revenue grew 13.9% in 2025 to nearly USD 300 billion (IAB/PwC).
• Home services search cost per lead rose for 69% of businesses, by 10.51% on average.
• Air conditioning search leads cost a median USD 127.74 in 2025.
• Heating and furnace search leads cost USD 129.02.
• 88% of US households use air conditioning (EIA RECS 2020).
• Furnaces are the main heating equipment in 60% of US homes.
• Heat pumps are the main heating equipment in 13% of homes.

HVAC native spend signals at a glance

Read the table as direction, not as an HVAC budget. Each figure is an aggregate a contractor can verify, and none is broken out for heating and cooling.

Follow the vendors, not a forecast

Taboola reported 2025 ex-TAC gross profit, its revenue after traffic acquisition costs paid to publishers, of USD 713.5 million against USD 667.5 million a year earlier, an increase of roughly 7%. Teads, the combined Outbrain and Teads business, reported 2025 revenue of USD 1,300.5 million against USD 889.9 million, and states the 46% increase was "primarily due to the Acquisition" that closed in February 2025. Strip out the merger and Teads' figure says little about organic demand.

So the honest direction is modest growth at the largest open-web network and consolidation at the second. Neither company reports how much of that came from home services, let alone HVAC.

Taboola also says Realize reaches over 600 million daily active users across publishers such as NBC News and Yahoo. That is a reach figure, and reach is the reason an HVAC brand looks at native at all: the audience is broad and not searching, which suits seasonal service reminders better than emergency repair.

The wider ad market HVAC budgets sit inside

The IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report for full year 2025, released April 16, 2026, put US digital advertising at nearly USD 300 billion, a 13.9% year-over-year increase and the highest level in the report's 30-year history. The public page highlights video, social, search, commerce media and creators; native is not reported as a line of its own there. Any claim that HVAC firms are shifting a specific percentage into native has no public source behind it.

The search costs pushing HVAC firms to look elsewhere

What HVAC owners can measure is what search charges. LocaliQ's 2025 home services study (vendor data, 3,211 US campaigns from April 1, 2024 to March 21, 2025, medians) lists air conditioning installation and repair at a 6.43% click-through rate, USD 9.68 cost per click, 6.56% conversion rate and USD 127.74 cost per lead. Heating and furnaces came in at 5.97%, USD 9.30, 7.48% and USD 129.02 per lead. LocaliQ also reports that cost per lead increased for 69% of home services businesses, by an average of 10.51%, faster than the 5.13% all-industry rise in WordStream's 2025 data.

WordStream adds that cost per lead rose in 13 of 23 industries in 2025, with an average increase of around 5%, far below the prior year's 25% jump. Home services, and HVAC with it, sat above that cross-industry pace.

Rising search prices are a reason to test other channels. They are not evidence that HVAC budgets are already moving into native.

The installed base that sets HVAC seasons

Native works best on broad, predictable demand, and HVAC has one of the broadest. EIA's 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey found that 88% of US households use air conditioning and that two-thirds use central AC or a central heat pump as their main AC equipment. EIA's state space-heating table counts 123.53 million homes: 74.42 million, or 60%, heat mainly with a furnace and 16.13 million, or 13%, with a heat pump; 42% also use secondary heating equipment.

Who HVAC ads compete with in native feeds

OpenAdLibrary, a native-ad spy-tool vendor, counted 725,882 live creatives across 49 networks in its own index in July 2026 and named health (24,472 classified creatives), finance (24,068), insurance (22,427) and ecommerce (19,368) as the largest verticals. Home services is not among the leaders it names, so HVAC buyers bid against offers with very different margins. The same note says there is no trustworthy universal native conversion rate and recommends computing breakeven: cost per click divided by allowable cost per acquisition.

Applied to HVAC, an allowable cost of USD 127.74 per lead and a USD 0.60 native click give a breakeven conversion rate of about 0.47%; at USD 1.00 per click it is about 0.78%. Those are calculations, not observed HVAC results, but they turn the budget question into one a contractor can check in a month.

Native next to Demand Gen in an HVAC plan

Many HVAC firms test Google's feed formats before the open web. Google's Demand Gen help page describes campaigns across YouTube including Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Display Network, reaching up to 3 billion monthly active users. That is Google's reach claim for a comparator format. Google does not publish HVAC Demand Gen budgets either, so the budget question stays open on both sides.

Disclosure for rebate and efficiency advertorials

HVAC native often takes the form of rebate explainers or efficiency guides, the format the FTC watches most closely. The FTC native advertising guide states that a native ad is deceptive if it is not readily identifiable as an ad, that advertisers must make ads identifiable before consumers arrive at the main advertising page, and that disclosures must be clear and prominent. A furnace-rebate article that reads like utility news needs an "Ad" or "Sponsored" label.

The rule is not new. The FTC's Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements was issued on December 22, 2015 after a 4-0 Commission vote, and it remains the operative guidance for native placements. Rebate content raises a second issue: if an article quotes a utility rebate or tax credit amount, that figure is an advertising claim the contractor has to be able to substantiate on the day the ad runs, and rebate programmes change often. Dating every rebate figure inside the creative, and pulling units when a programme closes, is cheaper than defending an outdated claim.

HVAC against neighbouring trades in search

LocaliQ's category split shows HVAC paying a premium over the trades it is usually bundled with. Electricians and electrical contractors had a USD 93.69 cost per lead and a 9.08% conversion rate despite a USD 12.18 click, and handyman services ran USD 54.05 per lead at 13.45%. Both heating and cooling lines sit above USD 127 per lead. That premium is the budget pressure; whether it is being redirected to native is the part no public dataset answers.

Regional climate splits the HVAC season

A single national native schedule misses how differently regions cool and heat. EIA's state-level RECS release reports that in Florida 96% of households used air conditioning, with 90% using a central unit, while in New York about 88% used air conditioning but 61% relied on individual window or wall units. Only 5% of homes nationwide used fuel oil for heating, yet it remains widely used in New England. Native creative for a Florida contractor and a New England one should not share a calendar or a headline.

Setting a direction for your own HVAC budget

1. Anchor to your own cost per lead, or the USD 127.74 to USD 129.02 search medians.
2. Time tests to the season: 60% furnace homes before winter, 88% AC homes before summer.
3. Cap native at a test share until a holdout shows incremental calls.
4. Read vendor growth as context: about 7% at Taboola, merger-led 46% at Teads.
5. Label every advertorial before the click.

For the full market view see our native advertising statistics. HVAC organic search data is in our HVAC enterprise SEO statistics, and HVAC app data in our HVAC app store optimization statistics. Our growth marketing team can run the holdout.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are HVAC companies moving budget into native advertising?

No published survey measures it. Neither Taboola nor Teads breaks out HVAC or home services revenue, and the IAB/PwC public summary does not report native as a separate line. What the data shows is that open-web native vendors kept growing in 2025 while HVAC search costs stayed high.

How fast did native ad vendors grow in 2025?

Taboola reported ex-TAC gross profit of USD 713.5 million, up about 7% from USD 667.5 million. Teads reported revenue of USD 1,300.5 million, up 46%, but the company says the rise was primarily due to the Outbrain-Teads acquisition, so it is not organic growth.

What does an HVAC search lead cost for comparison?

LocaliQ's 2025 home services study puts air conditioning installation and repair at a USD 127.74 median cost per lead and heating and furnaces at USD 129.02, against USD 90.92 across home services. Those are search figures, used here as the price native has to undercut.

When should an HVAC company run native ads?

When demand is seasonal and broad. EIA's 2020 survey found 88% of US households use air conditioning and 60% heat mainly with a furnace, so pre-season tune-up and replacement messages reach a large installed base. No dataset proves a best month for HVAC native specifically.

Sources

_{Taboola, Q4 and full year 2025 results
Teads, Q4 and full year 2025 results
IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, full year 2025
LocaliQ, Home Services Search Advertising Benchmarks 2025
WordStream, Google Ads Benchmarks 2025
EIA, Today in Energy: air conditioning in US homes (RECS 2020)
EIA, RECS 2020 space heating by state
OpenAdLibrary, Native Ads Conversion Rate Benchmarks (Aug 2026)
Google Ads Help, Demand Gen campaigns
FTC, Native Advertising: A Guide for Businesses}