What an appliance repair shop should ask a marketing agency

For a lot of appliance repair shops, the weeks between the holidays and the first warm spell are the calm ones. Technicians catch up on parts orders, the phone rings at a pace one person can handle, and the owner finally has an hour to take a call from an agency. That is exactly why so many agencies call in February.

Some of those pitches are worth a meeting. Plenty are a general home services package with the nouns swapped, and the owner who signs one finds out in June, when the calls arrive and the reports cannot say which of them became a repair. Here are the questions we would want a shop to put to any agency, including us.

Does the agency know which words your ads cannot use?

Appliance repair has a state regulation that reaches into the ad copy itself, and an agency that has not read it can write a persuasive ad that breaks the law where you work.

California’s advertising rule for service dealers, 16 CCR 2751, is the clearest example:

• “24 hour” and “Day and Night” may only appear if service is actually available around the clock. An answering service that takes messages for a later visit is expressly not enough.
• “Factory Trained,” “Factory Authorized,” “Authorized,” “Licensed” and “Certified” are allowed only when true and not misleading.
• “Guaranteed” and “no fix, no pay” need the terms and the guarantor spelled out.
• “Free” means free. A diagnosis that is only free if the customer goes ahead with the repair is not.
• Every ad carries the firm name and address as they appear on the state registration certificate, plus the business phone number.

California’s Right to Repair Act added a second layer from July 1, 2024: a shop that is not an authorized repair provider for a product has to tell the customer so in writing, and say when it uses used or non-manufacturer parts.

Elsewhere, those are still the words homeowners have learned to doubt. Ask the agency for an appliance repair ad it has written, then ask where “authorized” appears and how it checked that the shop was.

Will they set up Local Services Ads the way Google runs them?

Google has its own category for this trade, Appliance repair services, and since October 2025 the ads carry a single Google Verified badge in place of the older ones. Before an ad runs, Google asks for general and professional liability insurance, a verified Business Profile, a state license where the law requires one, and business and owner checks for some advertisers. Its own estimate for screening is three to four weeks once documents are in.

Two follow-up questions show whether an agency has done this before:

• Which job types will you switch on, and which off? Google no longer credits leads for a job type or an area you do not serve. If you never touch built-in refrigeration or commercial units, those boxes come off before the first lead arrives.
• What moves the ad up? Google names your rating, review count, response speed, photos and completed checks. A shop where the owner is under a dishwasher until noon needs a plan for response time before the budget.

How will they count calls, and tell warranty work from direct work?

Repair shops live on the phone, and the phone is where most marketing reports go quiet. CallRail’s January 2025 analysis of 1.1 million leads found 14% of calls to home services businesses were missed.

Insist on a report that follows the job, not the click:

• calls answered and missed, by hour of the day
• diagnosis visits booked, split by appliance
• repairs completed, including those that needed a second visit for parts
• direct jobs and warranty-company jobs kept apart, because only one of them builds your own customer list

What will they do about reviews?

BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey, published earlier this month, shows how a homeowner checks a repair shop. 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 47% will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months. The share who will only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher rose to 31%, from 17% a year earlier.

Replies count too: 89% expect owners to respond, and templated or generic responses make 50% unlikely to choose the business. Ask how a review request will go out after every completed repair, and who writes the replies. A reply that names the appliance and the fix reads like a person. “Thanks for the kind words!” forty times reads like nobody is there.

What should the first ninety days look like?

A shop that buys clicks before it can count calls spends the summer guessing. The plan we would sign off on:

• Weeks 1 to 2: measurement. Call tracking by source, every call tagged by appliance and by direct or warranty job, missed calls visible.
• Weeks 2 to 5: being found. Primary category set to appliance repair (Whitespark’s 2026 survey of local search experts ranks the primary category first among map-pack factors), a service area within the roughly two hours of driving Google allows, and the Local Services Ads application started.
• Weeks 4 to 9: being chosen. A page for each appliance and brand you service, real photos of your vans and technicians, and every claim checked against the rules above.
• Weeks 8 to 13: keeping customers. Review requests after each repair and maintenance reminders for past customers, timed for spring.

What should a lead cost?

Nobody publishes a cost per lead for appliance repair. The closest published category is Handyman Services in LocaliQ’s 2025 home services benchmarks, covering April 2024 to March 2025: a median of $54.05 per lead on Google search, against $90.92 for home services as a whole. Those are medians across many markets. An agency that promises a number before it has looked at your area and your phone handling is selling confidence, not a plan.

What to do this month

• Pull every ad, profile description and web page you run, highlight each “24 hour,” “authorized,” “certified,” “guaranteed” and “free,” and keep only the ones you can prove.
• If you work in California, check that your ads show the firm name and address exactly as they appear on your registration certificate.
• Write down the brands and appliances you service, and the ones you do not, before any agency builds pages or picks job types.
• Start the Local Services Ads application now if you want the badge before summer.
• Ask every agency you meet for a sample report that shows completed repairs, not only leads.
• Ask this winter’s customers for reviews while the repair is fresh, and reply to each one in your own words.

An agency that answers these plainly is worth a second meeting. Our page on marketing for appliance repair companies sets out how we would approach a shop like yours, and our Google Ads and Local Services Ads work shows how the paid side runs alongside your reviews.