Be the answer when the furnace quits.

Inside the conversation, clearly marked as sponsored. They are shown only to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users remain ad-free, and OpenAI states the advertising does not influence the answers generated. So you are buying presence beside a recommendation, not the recommendation itself.

Home services are in scope — local services was one of the initial verticals. Some categories are not: OpenAI restricts advertising in areas including adult content, alcohol, tobacco, financial services and gambling. We check the current policy and your specific claims, particularly around guarantees and finance offers, before any campaign is written.

Through partners or the self-serve manager, on a per-click basis, with conversion-optimised bidding now in beta. The self-serve platform opened to everyone in May 2026, so this is managed like any other performance channel: daily limits, creative testing and a target to hit rather than a fixed package.

Enough to gather signal for a month or two without exposing the marketing plan. We size it against your current numbers — a blended $104 per lead and $472 per paying customer across 816 contractors — so there is a defined bar this surface has to clear before it takes budget from something that already works.

Not today, and we would not advise treating it that way. Search still carries the urgent volume, at an average HVAC price per click of $20.12 across 176 US cities. This is an additional surface where your future customers are already asking who to trust, and the sensible position is a funded test running beside a healthy HVAC PPC programme.

Deliberately, because they will not track themselves. AI-driven discovery is already producing zero-click calls where the homeowner names the assistant as the referrer. We set up dedicated numbers, add one question to the booking script, tag referral traffic and report it all together, so a pattern becomes visible instead of remaining an office anecdote.

Yes, and it is the cheapest work on the list. Assistants lean on verifiable signals: complete profile, correct categories, consistent details across directories, and recent reviews. Paid placement buys attention, but an unverifiable business does not get recommended between the paid slots, which is where most of the volume sits.

Short, factual and specific. The reader is mid-question, not browsing, so service, area covered, availability and honest pricing language outperform slogans. We keep two variants live so there is always a comparison, and we avoid claims that cannot be substantiated, since this is exactly the context in which a bad claim gets checked.

A meaningful minority already are. 83% of homeowners start their search online and 22% now use AI tools such as ChatGPT to research or find recommendations, and 56% want 24/7 scheduling or after-hours communication — the exact convenience an assistant offers at midnight when the heating fails.

Usually inside a month. Week one is the visibility audit, week two is account setup, category checks, creative and pages, and launch follows once the phone numbers and booking question are in place. We would rather spend a fortnight preparing than start spending into a setup that cannot be measured.

We tell you, with the numbers next to your other channels, and recommend moving the money. A test that produces a clear negative answer for a modest sum is a good outcome, and it is far cheaper than assuming either way. The visibility groundwork keeps paying regardless, because it is what earns the unpaid recommendation.

Increasingly. OpenAI began testing in the US in February, expanded to eight further markets, and announced a rollout to 31 European countries in August 2026. Availability and buying routes differ by market, so we confirm what is open where you operate before planning anything.

You do. The advertiser account, billing, phone numbers, creative and landing pages are set up in your name from the start, so the whole programme can move with you. We ask for a fair testing window because a new surface needs learning time, not because anything is locked.

Indirectly, and quite usefully. The groundwork that makes you quotable to an assistant — answer-shaped pages, a complete profile, consistent details and current reviews — is the same work that supports HVAC marketing performance generally. Paid placement is the only part that stops the day you stop paying.

A named senior strategist who also joins the monthly session, working with our AI search specialists. You will know who writes the creative and who controls the spend, and you can reach them directly rather than through an anonymous queue.