Inside Buehler Air’s $20 million marketing machine

Jason Buehler (no relation to Ferris) has seen his FL-based company, Buehler Air & Plumbing, grow significantly over the past 14 years, with revenue up nearly tenfold in the past five years alone.

Why it matters: Buehler credits much of the recent growth to a shift in focus on creative marketing, which, in conversation with Homepros, he explained.

The big picture: The company is on track to bring in $22 million in revenue this year, with 5-6% allocated to marketing. 

• Breakdown: 60% of that marketing spend is invested in branding; the remaining 40% goes to digital marketing and direct mail. 

• “We use branding to stay top of mind with consumers, and then digital marketing as the net that sweeps them in,” Buehler tells Homepros.

Most branding dollars are spent on radio advertising, with the rest funneled into “some social media,” Buehler explains. 

• TV was saturated in its market, and the company saw an opportunity to “own” radio.

• Ads, which are run across several radio stations, are game show-style with trivia questions.

• “Every month, the ad changes,” he says. “And that’s where the magic happens because people hear that message 3-5x a week, and tune in to the next one.”

Digital marketing, spanning Local Services Ads (LSAs) and three pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, accounts for the majority of the remaining 40% of marketing spend.

• Its PPC campaigns focus on AC replacements, repairs, and branded keywords.

• “We’re spending all this money on radio and trucks to drive people to the [branded] campaign, but the idea is you get a relational customer, whereas the other two, you run the risk of getting a more transactional customer,” he says.

• “That campaign brings us the best ROI because those customers’ lifetime values are the highest,” he adds.

The remaining spend goes toward direct mail — including a few offers, each with a call-to-action. 

• The company targets non-customers similar to existing customers and sends out cards in batches throughout the year to avoid overwhelming its call center.

• “We believe that because the world’s become saturated and so many TVs have been turned off, the mailbox has gained a little bit of traction. Somebody’s uninterrupted from their driveway up to their house,” Buehler says.

Of note: Buehler’s customer referral program, a key piece of the strategy but not considered marketing spend, is vital for retention, he adds. 

• Customers who refer new service or maintenance customers, or replacement leads, receive rewards.  

• “Some contractors will say, ‘Oh, you don’t need to do that,’ but yes you do,” he says.

The bottom line: Buehler likens his company’s strategy to investing, noting that simply spending money on different channels doesn’t make the magic happen; instead, it’s about committing year-round.

• “The old school [advertising] thought is like saying you should buy stocks when the market’s low, and try to time the market… Nobody wins when you try to time the market, and you can’t do it with advertising either.”