Marketing a new branch, or one you've just bought

Path 1: opening a new branch

A new branch should be marketed in a fixed order, because each step depends on the one before. Skipping ahead is how companies end up paying for ads that ring a number nobody answers.

1. The real location first. A lease, signage and staff during business hours. Google's guidelines require a real location for a profile.
2. Phone number and routing. A local tracked number, with routing rules and after-hours cover.
3. The location page. Written about this branch, its team and its area, following your branch standard.
4. The Google Business Profile. Created, verified and linked to the page.
5. Paid search. A tightly drawn area around the branch while organic visibility builds.
6. Reviews. Requests from the first jobs onward.
7. Local awareness. Trucks, sponsorships and print, once the basics work.

Choosing the territory

Before the lease is signed, look at drive times from the proposed site, the mix of heating fuels in the area and how many established competitors already dominate the local results. Provincial context matters too: our Prairie pages show how gas-heated markets differ from the heat-pump-heavy Atlantic provinces. HVAC.City covers the launch sequence for a new Canadian city in more depth.

Path 2: acquiring a heating company

When you buy a competitor, part of what you pay for is its marketing presence: the number people have on their fridges, its Google profile and reviews, and its website's search history. Each can be lost in a careless transition.

The marketing items to inventory before closing:

• Every phone number, who the carrier account is in the name of, and where each number is printed
• Every Google Business Profile, its owners and managers
• The domain name, its registrar account and renewal date
• Website hosting and who holds the logins
• Ad accounts, and whose payment method is on them
• Social accounts and the email addresses they are tied to
• Review platforms, directories and any listing services
• Customer lists, and how consent for marketing messages was collected

Canada's anti-spam law requires consent for commercial electronic messages. As ISED's consent guidance explains, implied consent from a past purchase or inquiry is time-limited, and senders should be able to prove consent. So the way the previous owner collected email and text consent shapes what you may send to its customer list. Your lawyer should review that as part of the deal.

The rebrand, in stages

1. Day 1: take ownership of all accounts; change nothing customers can see.
2. Months 1–3: add "now part of [Brand]" to the website and profile description.
3. Months 3–9: move the domain to a branch page on your site with redirects, if that is the plan. Keep the phone number.
4. When ready: change the profile name to match the new signage, only once the signs actually change.

Who this is for and how long it takes

This service suits owners with a signed lease, a letter of intent, or a firm plan for the next 12 months. A new branch launch takes 8–12 weeks from lease to steady calls. An acquisition handover takes three to nine months, mostly waiting for customers and Google to catch up. Our acquisition guide has the full checklist.

How results are measured

For a new branch: weeks to first booked job, monthly booked jobs against launch targets, and cost per booked job falling toward the mature branches. For an acquisition: calls and booked jobs on the acquired numbers before and after closing, and review count kept.

Mistakes to avoid

• Launching ads before the phone is answered.
• Taking the seller's word on account ownership instead of checking each login before closing.
• Letting the acquired domain expire.
• Merging profiles too early, losing the acquired branch's reviews or visibility.
• Judging a new branch by mature-branch numbers in its first year.

This is marketing consulting only. We give no legal, tax, securities or real-estate advice. See pricing for costs; acquisition work is quoted in writing.