Case study

What it means

A published account of work done for an identified client, with a result attached to a stated timeframe. All four parts are load-bearing. Remove the name and nobody can verify it. Remove the period and the number means nothing.

Everything else that gets called a case study is a testimonial, a portfolio entry or a statistic. Those have their uses. They are not evidence you can check.

Why it matters in HVAC

For a contractor the point of a case study is the phone call it enables. A named shop in a comparable market with a comparable service mix will usually take the call, because they agreed to be a reference.

Anonymised versions are common in this trade and they are the weakest form. "An East Coast HVAC company doubled organic traffic" cannot be checked by anybody, including the agency’s next prospect.

How to check it

Apply the four-part test and then run the check yourself: confirm the business trades, confirm the timing against when its site actually changed, and ring one. Twenty minutes settles more than a proposal does.

The strongest and weakest versions in this field

The strongest we found is Plumbing & HVAC SEO’s case studies page: ten recorded interviews where the owner or marketing manager states the numbers on camera. Jerry Brittingham A/C and Heat, 374 to 621 leads a month at flat spend. Paul The Plumber, cost per lead from $36.74 to $20.48. They also state a sourcing standard and leave in the qualifiers, including where a client says marketing was one part of the growth rather than all of it.

Valve+Meter publishes named HVAC clients with figures, including Advantage Heating and Air Conditioning. Hook Agency publishes named contractor case studies including Lorenz Plumbing and HVAC.

At the other end, several companies here publish results with the client described only as a region and a trade. HVAC Marketing Xperts and Effective Media Solutions publish no qualifying case study, which is why both score zero on that criterion.