Source: https://oguzerol.com/en/boiler-service/

Google Ads

# Boiler Service Google Ads: Seasons, Gas Safe and Brand Searches

[Oğuz Erol](https://oguzerol.com/en/about-me/)  |  12 min read

The Google ad a boiler service business should run is two search campaigns: one for annual servicing, which UK searchers look for most in September and October, and one for breakdowns, where general repair searches peak in October and emergency searches in December and January. Both use a responsive search ad with a call asset (the “Call” button Google adds to the ad), so someone with no heating can ring you with one tap. In Great Britain the trap is registration: anyone doing gas work must be on the Gas Safe Register, and regulation 3(7) of the Gas Safety Regulations prohibits pretending to be registered when you aren’t.

## When do boiler searches peak?

In the UK, boiler service searches peak in September and October, general repair searches in October, and emergency repair searches in December and January; all of them reach their lowest level between May and August. I pulled these figures from Google Ads Keyword Planner on 13 October 2026 (United Kingdom, English, September 2025 – August 2026). Google rounds the volumes, so read them as orders of magnitude. All figures on this page are UK; I didn’t research the US market.

| search | Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 | Dec 2025 | Jan 2026 | lowest month |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| boiler service | 27,100 | 27,100 | 14,800 | 22,200 | 8,100 (May) |
| boiler repair | 8,100 | 9,900 | 6,600 | 6,600 | 2,400 (Jun, Jul) |
| emergency boiler repair | 2,900 | 2,400 | 4,400 | 4,400 | 480 (Jul) |
| boiler pressure low | 3,600 | 3,600 | 4,400 | 5,400 | 1,000 (Jun–Aug) |

Emergency searches in December and January are about 9 times the July level. Three decisions follow:

1. **Launch the servicing campaign in the last week of August or the first week of September.** Servicing searches were already at their peak of 27,100 in September 2025; starting in October misses September, one of the two peak months.
2. **Fund “boiler repair” from October, and raise the budget on emergency and pressure terms in the first cold week.**
3. **Shrink the campaigns in summer instead of switching them off.** “Boiler service” was still searched 8,100 times in May 2026.

## What does the Gas Safe rule mean for your ad?

In Great Britain your ad and landing page may only claim Gas Safe registration if you hold it. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, [regulation 3](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2451/regulation/3), say no one may do gas work unless competent (3(1)); that an employer may not let staff do such work, and a self-employed person may not do it, unless the employer or the self-employed person belongs to the class approved by the Health and Safety Executive (3(3)); and that “No person shall falsely pretend to be a member” of that class (3(7)). The HSE names that class as the Gas Safe Register. It covers England, Wales and Scotland, not Northern Ireland.

In a [press release on 14 September 2026](https://press.hse.gov.uk/2026/09/14/it-looked-it-was-such-a-legitimate-company-but-it-clearly-wasnt-families-warned-of-risk-to-life-from-unregistered-gas-work-amid-surge-in-prosecutions-of-illegal-t/), the HSE reported 17 convictions for illegal gas work since the start of 2025; one man had faked the Gas Safe logo in his advertising. The HSE tells households to check engineers on the register, so put your registration number on the landing page where a customer can check it in seconds. Outside Great Britain, check your own country’s licensing before writing “licensed” or “certified”; I haven’t checked other countries.

## Are Local Services Ads an option for heating engineers?

Probably, in some countries. With Local Services Ads you pay, in Google’s words, “only when a customer gets in touch from your ad”, and Google’s [help page](https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/6224841) lists “HVAC (heating or air conditioning)” as a category. As of 13 October 2026 the page’s country selector shows 11 countries, the UK and the US among them, but gives no full availability list; check eligibility in your account. It lists UK business registration as a requirement for professional verticals without saying whether HVAC is one, and it doesn’t mention Gas Safe; check both during onboarding.

## What can an independent engineer say about boiler brands?

If you are not part of a manufacturer’s service network, use the brand name only to say which boilers you work on, never to imply a link (“Vaillant Authorised Engineer”, the manufacturer’s logo). Google doesn’t restrict trademarks as keywords, but a trademark owner can complain about their name in your ad text, and Google can then restrict the ad ([trademark policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118)). Google’s [misrepresentation policy](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955) separately bans making it seem that another brand supports you when it doesn’t.

In the UK, brand searches are a small part of the market: “vaillant boiler service” averaged 2,900 searches a month, “ideal boiler service” 1,300, “baxi boiler repair” 390 and “worcester bosch boiler repair” 260, against 14,800 for “boiler service”. Whether you may bid on a manufacturer’s name depends on your country’s trademark law; the ad text rule above (don’t imply a link) is the part Google itself enforces.

If you advertise in Turkey, brand searches outweigh generic ones there and false “authorised service” claims have drawn ministry fines; I cover those rules on the [Turkish version of this page](https://oguzerol.com/kombi-servisi-google-reklamlari/).

## Which searches belong in which ad group?

Breakdowns and servicing belong in different ad groups: different hours, different ads. UK monthly averages:

| search (monthly average) | who is searching | which group |
| --- | --- | --- |
| boiler repair (5,400) · boiler repair near me (6,600) · emergency boiler repair (1,900) | Broken boiler, about to call | Breakdown group, hours you answer the phone |
| boiler not working (1,000) · boiler pressure low (2,900) | Describing a symptom; many try to fix it first | Separate symptom group, low bids |
| boiler service (14,800) · boiler service near me (9,900) · boiler service cost (5,400) | Planned job | Servicing group, office hours |

The top-of-page bid estimate for “emergency boiler repair” is about 1.8 times that of “boiler repair”, so the urgent searches are the expensive ones.

## Which negative keywords go in on day one?

A [negative keyword](https://oguzerol.com/en/negative-keyword-management/) stops your ad from showing on searches you don’t want, and it is written in one of three match types ([Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972)):

- **Broad** (no punctuation): the ad won’t show if the search contains all the terms, in any order.
- **Phrase** (“in quotes”): the ad won’t show if the search contains the terms in the same order, with or without other words around them.
- **Exact** (\[in brackets\]): the ad won’t show only when the search is exactly that.

Negatives don’t cover close variants: Google’s own example is that excluding “flowers” blocks “red flowers” but not “red flower”. Add singular and plural forms yourself. A starting list I recommend for a boiler campaign:

```
job
jobs
apprenticeship
apprenticeships
course
courses
training
salary
diy
"how to"
manual
manuals
pdf
youtube
"free boiler"
grant
grants
"boiler parts"
```

Remove “grant” and “grants” if you do grant-funded installations, and “boiler parts” if you sell parts. Don’t block “cost” or “price”: someone typing “boiler service cost” is usually getting ready to call. Grow the list weekly from the search terms report, which shows the searches your ads actually appeared for.

## Example headlines and descriptions

A responsive search ad can have up to 15 headlines of 30 characters and 4 descriptions of 90 characters ([Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791)). Promise only what you deliver: an unkept “Same-Day” breaks Google’s [unreliable-claims rule](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955) and earns a bad review.

| group | headlines |
| --- | --- |
| Servicing | Boiler Service Before Winter · Annual Boiler Service in Leeds · Written Report After Service |
| Breakdown | Same-Day Boiler Repair, Leeds · No Heating? Call Us Today · Fixed Call-Out Price |
| Trust | Gas Safe Registered Engineers · Independent Boiler Engineers · We Service Vaillant Boilers (a trademark owner can still complain) |
| Don’t write unless true | Vaillant Authorised Engineer · Gas Safe Registered (if you aren’t) |

Two example descriptions:

- Servicing: “Servicing, flue check and a written report. Leeds and Headingley, weekday appointments.” (87 characters)
- Breakdown (only if true): “Gas Safe registered. Independent engineers for Vaillant and Ideal boilers. Call today.” (86 characters)

## When and where should the ads run?

The breakdown group should run only while someone answers the phone, the servicing group during office hours, and both only in the areas you can reach in reasonable time. The most common mistake I see in Google Ads accounts is running ads at hours when nobody answers: a family with no heating on a cold evening rings the first number that picks up, and the missed call is a paid click that went to a competitor. An [ad schedule](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372656) allows up to 6 time slots per day per campaign. Link your Google Business Profile as a location asset and your ad can also appear [on Google Maps](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404182).

New call-only ads can’t be created since February 2026 and stop serving in February 2027 ([Google’s timeline](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16619010)), so build responsive search ads with a call asset.

## How do you measure calls from the ads?

In the UK and the US you can count calls from your ads as conversions, with a minimum call length you set, because both countries have Google forwarding numbers. As of 13 October 2026, Google’s [forwarding number list](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2382961) covers 30 countries, the UK and the US among them. In countries without forwarding numbers (Turkey, for one) only taps on the call button and on the number on your mobile site can be counted.

Booked services can also be reported back to Google Ads through the GCLID, the ID Google gives every ad click. Google’s [setup steps](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7012522), in short:

1. Turn on auto-tagging, so every ad click URL carries a GCLID.
2. In Goals, create a conversion action of the offline type; a new action can take 4–6 hours before it reports.
3. Add a hidden GCLID field to your booking form and a script on every page that stores the GCLID from the ad click in a cookie or local storage (follow local cookie-consent rules).
4. Save each booking with its GCLID (case-sensitive; a spreadsheet is enough).
5. When the service is done, upload that row to Google Ads as a conversion; the click-to-conversion gap must be under 14 or 90 days, depending on the data source.

More on the setup in [call conversion tracking](https://oguzerol.com/en/call-conversion-tracking/).

## Which bid strategy should you start with?

Until measurement is reliable, use a bid you control: Manual CPC, or Maximise clicks with a maximum CPC limit taken from the calculation below. Smart bidding (Google adjusting bids from your conversion data) needs conversions to learn from, and a new account has few. Mark only real enquiries as primary conversions: qualified calls, or call taps where calls can’t be tracked, plus booking forms. A common mistake in Google Ads accounts is counting non-jobs, such as visits to a “boiler fault codes” page, as conversions. Switch to smart bidding once the jobs in your log and the conversions in Google Ads have tracked each other for a few weeks.

## How much can you pay for a job, and what does the first month cost?

The number that matters is cost per job: monthly ad spend divided by jobs from ads. Where you can’t upload GCLIDs, the minimum is a log: ask every caller how they found you, and note which ad callers became jobs. The highest average cost per click you can afford follows from the same numbers: profit per job (excluding parts) × share of clicks that call × share of calls that become jobs.

**With example numbers in your own currency, not real boiler data or a click-cost forecast:** if a repair earns you 150 after parts, 25% of people who click call you, and 40% of callers become jobs, then 150 × 0.25 × 0.40 = 15. Paying more than 15 per click on average means the ads lose money.

First-month budget: 10 jobs need 10 ÷ (0.25 × 0.40) = 100 clicks. At an average of 12 per click that is a budget of 1,200, or 120 per job, below the 150 profit per job, so in this example the ads make money. Take your area’s click price from Keyword Planner (top-of-page bid estimates aren’t what you pay) and replace 25% and 40% with your own figures after 30 days. I found no verified source for typical boiler click costs or conversion rates.

## The first 30 days, starting in late August

| when | what |
| --- | --- |
| Before launch | Confirm your Gas Safe (or local) registration and brand approvals, link Business Profile, set up call conversions and the GCLID field on the booking form, start the log |
| Week 1 | Two campaigns: servicing (office hours) and breakdown (hours you answer), negative list, maximum CPC limit, decision on brand keywords |
| Week 2 | Search terms report, new negatives including plural forms, missed-call check |
| Week 3 | Raise the emergency budget as the first cold week arrives; check the hour report before opening evening slots |
| Week 4 | Compare the log with Google Ads, work out cost per job, see whether servicing or breakdowns bring jobs more cheaply |

## What I need from you before building it

Tell me whether you’re Gas Safe registered (or your country’s equivalent), which manufacturers’ networks you belong to, the areas you cover and who answers the phone when; we decide on brand keywords with that. Reach me from the [contact page](https://oguzerol.com/en/contact/).

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Should I pause boiler ads in summer?

Lower it instead. “Boiler repair” was still searched 2,400 times a month in June and July 2026; cut the emergency group hardest (480 in July).

### Should a boiler business use Performance Max?

Not as a first campaign. It learns only from the conversions you give it, and you control which searches it appears on less tightly than in a search campaign, which matters if you want to stay off brand searches for manufacturers you aren’t approved by.

[Back to top ↑](https://oguzerol.com/en/boiler-service/#icerik)

## You may also find these useful

[Call Conversion Tracking | Measuring Phone EnquiriesIf customers convert by calling and that is not measured, campaigns look worse than they are. Call tracking setup and filtering low-quality calls.](https://oguzerol.com/en/call-conversion-tracking/)[Call-Focused Ads | Converting Straight to the PhoneIf customers call rather than fill in forms, the goal should be calls, not clicks. Call campaign setup, scheduling and filtering low-quality calls.](https://oguzerol.com/en/call-focused-ads/)[Geographic Targeting Optimisation | Location ControlThe wrong location setting spends money on cities you do not serve. The hidden default trap, region-level bidding and local campaign structure.](https://oguzerol.com/en/geographic-targeting-optimization/)

[Browse all articles →](https://oguzerol.com/en/articles/)

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