Which Marketing Agencies Show Up When HVAC Contractors Search for Help in Metro Vancouver?

Q: What does the Map Pack return for these searches right now?

Four of the 15 searches returned no Map Pack at all. Queries like "Google Business Profile management Vancouver" and "marketing for home service contractors BC" returned only organic results — no three-pack. Those searches are decided entirely by organic content, and most agencies are not targeting them. The Map Pack is dominated by a small group. Across the 11 searches that did return a Map Pack, two agencies each appeared in 4 of the 11 results. Most others appeared once. Google is consistently resolving to the same short list — which typically reflects underinvestment from everyone else, not a ceiling. Review volume is the only visible differentiator. Across all Map Pack appearances, review counts ran from 9 to 347, with a median of 48. More than half of appearances came from businesses with 50 or more reviews. Three appeared with fewer than 20. Ratings were uniformly 4.9–5.0 — a high rating keeps an agency in contention; it does not move them up. The HVAC-specific searches are notably less consolidated. "HVAC marketing agency Vancouver" and "HVAC lead generation Vancouver" each returned fewer Map Pack positions, and the generalist agencies dominating "marketing agency Vancouver" do not hold the same lock there. The searches a contractor runs when they want HVAC-specific help are a different, softer competition. Most Map Pack results came from outside Vancouver proper. The majority of appearances listed Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, or Surrey addresses. A Metro Vancouver address — not specifically a Vancouver city address — is sufficient to rank for Vancouver-intent searches.

Q: What does this mean for an HVAC contractor evaluating marketing options?

Review volume is the visible floor. An agency with fewer than 20 reviews is already behind before any other factor is considered. Getting to 40–60 is a baseline, not a goal. HVAC-specific searches are less consolidated than broad ones. The generic "marketing agency Vancouver" Map Pack is effectively locked. "HVAC marketing agency Vancouver" and "HVAC lead generation Vancouver" are not. A contractor searching for a trade-specific partner will find fewer options — but that's also where specialists compete. Appearing once is not the same as being visible. The agencies showing up consistently appeared across 3–4 keyword searches. That breadth comes from ongoing GBP activity and citation signals, not a one-time setup. City location matters less than profile quality. The data shows businesses in Richmond, Burnaby, and Surrey ranking consistently for Metro Vancouver searches. A maintained profile outside the city core outperformed unmaintained profiles inside it.

Rankwise Lab — Market Study · May 2026

Rankwise tracked 15 searches an HVAC contractor might run when looking for a marketing partner in Metro Vancouver. The short read: a handful of generalist agencies hold most of the visible Map Pack positions, review volume is the only meaningful differentiator, and the searches most specific to HVAC — not generic "marketing agency Vancouver" — are significantly less contested.

What searches were tracked, and how?

Rankwise pulled public Google search results for 15 keywords from a Vancouver, BC search location on May 1–2, 2026, using SerpAPI against public Google data. These are searches a contractor might run while researching marketing help — not homeowner searches for HVAC services.

The keyword set included:

"HVAC marketing agency Vancouver"
"HVAC lead generation Vancouver"
"local SEO HVAC contractors BC"
"marketing agency Vancouver"
"Google Business Profile management Vancouver" (no Map Pack returned)
"marketing for home service contractors BC" (no Map Pack returned)
"Google ranking help HVAC" (no Map Pack returned)
"local SEO agency Richmond BC" (no Map Pack returned)
and 7 similar queries covering trades marketing, HVAC advertising, and GBP management variants

For each search, Rankwise recorded which businesses appeared in the Map Pack, their review count, rating, and city. This study shows what was visible — it does not capture click, call, or conversion data.

What does the Map Pack return for these searches right now?

Four of the 15 searches returned no Map Pack at all. Queries like "Google Business Profile management Vancouver" and "marketing for home service contractors BC" returned only organic results — no three-pack. Those searches are decided entirely by organic content, and most agencies are not targeting them.

The Map Pack is dominated by a small group. Across the 11 searches that did return a Map Pack, two agencies each appeared in 4 of the 11 results. Most others appeared once. Google is consistently resolving to the same short list — which typically reflects underinvestment from everyone else, not a ceiling.

Review volume is the only visible differentiator. Across all Map Pack appearances, review counts ran from 9 to 347, with a median of 48. More than half of appearances came from businesses with 50 or more reviews. Three appeared with fewer than 20. Ratings were uniformly 4.9–5.0 — a high rating keeps an agency in contention; it does not move them up.

The HVAC-specific searches are notably less consolidated. "HVAC marketing agency Vancouver" and "HVAC lead generation Vancouver" each returned fewer Map Pack positions, and the generalist agencies dominating "marketing agency Vancouver" do not hold the same lock there. The searches a contractor runs when they want HVAC-specific help are a different, softer competition.

Most Map Pack results came from outside Vancouver proper. The majority of appearances listed Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, or Surrey addresses. A Metro Vancouver address — not specifically a Vancouver city address — is sufficient to rank for Vancouver-intent searches.

What does this mean for an HVAC contractor evaluating marketing options?

Review volume is the visible floor. An agency with fewer than 20 reviews is already behind before any other factor is considered. Getting to 40–60 is a baseline, not a goal.

HVAC-specific searches are less consolidated than broad ones. The generic "marketing agency Vancouver" Map Pack is effectively locked. "HVAC marketing agency Vancouver" and "HVAC lead generation Vancouver" are not. A contractor searching for a trade-specific partner will find fewer options — but that's also where specialists compete.

Appearing once is not the same as being visible. The agencies showing up consistently appeared across 3–4 keyword searches. That breadth comes from ongoing GBP activity and citation signals, not a one-time setup.

City location matters less than profile quality. The data shows businesses in Richmond, Burnaby, and Surrey ranking consistently for Metro Vancouver searches. A maintained profile outside the city core outperformed unmaintained profiles inside it.

What this study does not show

This is a point-in-time snapshot from a single Vancouver search location. Map Pack results shift by searcher location and change over time. There is no click, call, or conversion data here — only an observation of who is visible and what they have in common. This study does not establish what got any business into the Map Pack.

What Rankwise tracks from here

Rankwise will re-pull these same 15 searches quarterly to track whether the same agencies hold position, where new entrants break in, and how review benchmarks shift. The HVAC-specific queries are on closer watch — they are the ones most likely to move as the market develops.

If you want to see where your own HVAC business shows up in your city — and which calls may currently be going to competitors — book a 15-minute call at rankwise.ca/audit. We will walk through how you show up on Google today and whether we are the right team to help from there. We only work with one HVAC contractor per city, so we look closely before taking anyone on. If we are not the right team, we will say so.