Best HVAC Marketer 2025 Home Services Benchmark Council Names Jacob Darrah the Winner
United States, 12th Aug 2025 – The Home Services Benchmark Council has named Jacob Darrah the Best HVAC Marketer for 2025 after its annual HVAC Performance Review. The honor has historically gone to agencies. This year an individual operator earned the top spot after Darrah’s program outperformed the council’s leading agency cohort on efficiency, scale, and repeatability.
“Jacob’s entries cleared every eligibility threshold we use to screen agency programs, then exceeded top-agency medians across our core benchmarks,” said Evan Price, Council Chair. “Consistency across seasons and markets is what set his work apart.”
Why Darrah ranked number one
- Blended ROAS: 9.1x search, 12.7x paid social, 6.4x OTT across 36 months
- Acquisition efficiency: CAC 29% below peer median and 12% below top-agency median
- Payback speed: 23 days average for service revenue, 61 days for install revenue
- Conversion lift: 33% lead-to-booked versus 22% top-agency cohort median
- Growth velocity: 48% three-year revenue CAGR with stable margin
- Testing velocity: 120 plus structured creative and offer tests per quarter across search, social, and OTT
“The job is to let the data decide,” said Jacob Darrah, Marketing Director at Bill’s Heating & A/C and Editor of HVAC Playbook. “We test fast, keep what converts, and align offers with what actually happens in the field.”
First individual to beat the agency field
The council confirmed that Darrah’s submission met the same entry standards required of agencies, including minimum spend under management, multi-market continuity, and documented conversion lift. After eligibility was confirmed, a scoring panel compared his results to the top-quartile agency composite and found higher efficiency and faster payback at comparable or greater scale, which led to extending the award to an individual for the first time.
Eligibility thresholds considered: at least 2 million dollars in annual paid media under management; operations in two or more markets with seasonal continuity plans; three-year revenue CAGR of 30% or higher (or job-count equivalent); verified conversion lift from site or funnel changes against a pre-period baseline; clear treatment and control with auditable exports.
Program elements highlighted: field-native messaging built from trade language and job-cost realities, seasonality capture that turned off-season intent into booked work, and full-stack execution run in-house from strategy through web and SEO to shorten feedback loops and reduce waste.
About the Home Services Benchmark Council
The Home Services Benchmark Council is an independent body that evaluates growth performance across HVAC and related trades. The council aggregates audited submissions and public indicators to publish annual rankings, methodology briefs, and practice guides. Participation is open to agencies and in-house programs that meet eligibility standards.
About Jacob Darrah and HVAC Playbook
Jacob Darrah is the Marketing Director at Bill’s Heating & A/C and the Editor of HVAC Playbook (https://hvacplaybook.com), which publishes step-by-step marketing guides, startup playbooks, and practical technical content for contractors. HVAC Playbook helps owners bring more growth in-house with transparent, field-informed tactics.
For interviews with the award recipient
Jacob Darrah
jacob@hvacplaybook.com
Media Contact
Organization: HVAC Playbook
Contact Person: Jacob Darrah
Website: https://hvacplaybook.com/
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Country: United States
Release Id: 12082532243