Author
Henry “Hank Hugh” Hernandez, CEO
I run HVAC Digital Marketing and write most of what you will read on this site. In marketing since 2005, on HVAC since 2009, and a part owner in HVAC companies, so the numbers I write about are the same ones I read on my own board every Monday.
- Special Operations, 75th Ranger Regiment, out in 2005
- First HVAC account in 2009. HVAC only since the end of 2025
- Buys and helps run HVAC companies, not just markets them
- Every figure I publish carries its source or it does not ship
What I write about.
Four subjects, all of them ending at the same question: what did a booked job cost, and which step between the search and the board is leaking.
Cost per booked job
How to build the number from your own call and job records, why cost per lead lies to you, and what to do when the two disagree.
Search and AI answers
Where HVAC searches actually happen now, what Google and the AI engines reward, and which pages win the replacement call before the homeowner picks up the phone.
Paid channels, judged
Google Ads, LSA, and Meta measured on the same line, what each one is for, and when to stop paying for one of them.
Running the company
Phones, follow-up, the board, hiring, and buying or selling an HVAC business. The marketing only works if the rest of it does.
Background
Twenty years in. HVAC for most of them.
Out of the Regiment
I left the 75th Ranger Regiment and went straight into marketing. Plan the mission, execute, debrief on the numbers. The habit never left.
First HVAC account
A franchise contractor, at an agency I worked for. I have not worked a season without an HVAC client since.
Our own shop
Founded the agency. Home services first, then HVAC took over the roster because it was the trade we understood best.
HVAC only
Opened HVAC Digital Marketing at the end of the year. Same team, same standard, one trade. We also began buying and helping run HVAC companies ourselves.
The Regiment taught me to plan the mission, execute, and debrief on what actually happened. That is what the weekly number is.
How I check my own work.
Marketing writing is full of numbers nobody can trace. Mine follow three rules, and you can hold me to them.
- Every figure has a source
- If I quote a number, the source line sits under it. If I cannot find the source, the number does not run, however good it sounds.
- Client results stay in their lane
- One client, one market, one period. I say so every time, because a result from Ohio is not a projection for Texas.
- No guarantees, in writing or otherwise
- Nobody can promise you a ranking, a lead count, or a date. Anyone who does is guessing with your money. I would rather show you the number every week and let it argue for itself.
If you find something I got wrong, text me. I will fix it and thank you for it.
Read enough. Bring me the real problem.
Thirty minutes, your numbers, straight answers. If I can help, I will tell you. If I cannot, I will tell you that too.
Henry “Hank Hugh” Hernandez, CEO, HVAC Digital Marketing
Special Operations, 75th Ranger Regiment