The Takeaway
Aaron Services wanted homeowners in the towns it serves to know its name before they needed a plumber. It places boards in commuter towns such as Cumming, Alpharetta, and Roswell rather than on the interstate. It runs them from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and again during evening rush, and uses creative built on local awards and review counts. Marketing Director Sara Adams reports more branded searches and impressions in Google Analytics within four weeks of the boards going live.
Why Aaron Services Turned to Billboard Advertising
Aaron Services is a second-generation, family-owned plumbing and HVAC company headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia. An HVAC billboard was never going to work for it the way a highway board works for a national brand. It has more than 25 team members and a service area reaching up to 60 miles across North Georgia, and it services roughly 30 homes a day, or nearly 150 a week.
The business runs on trust and local presence, which changes what a billboard is for. “We’re not trying to market to people passing through Atlanta on the interstate,” says Marketing Director Sara Adams. “Our customers live in more rural, suburban areas. That’s where we want to be seen.”
The team had used billboards before and had not enjoyed the terms. “We’ve used billboards before, but we hated being locked into long-term contracts,” Sara says. They wanted something they could change without asking permission, and they wanted boards in places most billboard plans ignore. Those two constraints are what separate useful plumbing advertising ideas from the ones that only work for national brands.
How Aaron Services Built Its Billboard Campaigns
- Boards selected: Local shopping corridors and high-traffic intersections in commuter towns, including the boards in Alpharetta, rather than interstate boards.
- Schedule: Boards run from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and again during the evening rush, when homeowners are moving through their own towns.
- Creative approach: Clean, bold designs built on reputation, including “Alpharetta’s Most Awarded Plumber” and “Over 2,000 5-Star Reviews”, with the logo front and center.
- City-specific versions: Local awards are matched to the town the board sits in, so the boards in Cumming carry Cumming wording. “We’ll run a ‘Best of Cumming’ board in Cumming. People see that and know we’re local.”
- Coordination: When the team is running SEO or Google Ads in a city, it layers boards on top in the same city to reinforce the message.
The placement decision is the one worth studying. “The signs aren’t just in big cities,” Sara says. “Blip has inventory in the smaller, commuter-heavy areas where our customers actually live. That made a huge difference for us.” Boards like these target local audiences rather than passing traffic. A home services business is paid by homeowners inside a service radius, so a board seen by 40,000 drivers passing through is worth less than a board seen every morning by 4,000 people who live nearby.
The team also controls campaigns directly. “One of the first things that drew us in was the flexibility. I can log in, upload a design, pause it, change it, or even stop it for a few days,” Sara says. That control is what lets the schedule follow the commute rather than running around the clock.
The Creative
The boards carry one claim and the logo. Examples the team has run include “Alpharetta’s Most Awarded Plumber” and “Over 2,000 5-Star Reviews”, with city-specific versions such as “Best of Cumming” in Cumming.
This is the pattern behind most strong HVAC billboard ideas, and Blip has collected more billboard ideas for service calls. Pick one proof point, make the logo unmistakable, and let a driver take it in at a glance. Aaron Services is not trying to get a phone number remembered.
“People might not remember a phone number from a billboard, but they’ll remember the name,” Sara says. Use Blip’s billboard design guidelines to prepare clear, driver-readable artwork.
What Aaron Services’ Billboard Campaigns Delivered
Aaron Services does not judge its boards on inbound calls. It judges them on whether more people go looking for the company by name.
“We check Google Analytics and notice more branded searches and impressions while the boards are live in just 4-weeks time,” Sara says. That four-week window is the clearest result the company reports, and it holds for the more general branding boards as well as the ones carrying an offer. When a board does carry a promotion, the team hears about it on calls.
The speed depends on how well known the company already is in that town. In an established area like Suwanee the pickup is quick. In a new neighborhood it takes a few weeks before the effect shows, which is what you would expect from a channel that works through repeated exposure rather than a single view.
Sara also finds that branded search becomes easier work once the boards have been running. “It’s a lot easier to convert someone who’s searching our name than someone typing in ‘plumber near me’,” she says. “The billboards help us win that search before it even starts.” That is her read of what she sees in the data rather than a measured causal link, and it is a reasonable way to think about billboard advertising for HVAC and plumbing businesses competing on local search.
Aaron Services has been running Blip campaigns for two years, which is its own kind of result. “People Google everything,” Sara says. “If I can just get them to Google our name, then they can see the good reviews. That’s a much easier way to stand out from any competition.”
At this point, Blip has kind of ruined us for other billboard options. Once you’ve had the flexibility and control, it’s hard to go back.
Sara Adams, Marketing Director, Aaron Services
Why These Billboard Campaigns Worked
- Neighborhoods, not highways: The boards sit in the towns Aaron Services actually serves, so an HVAC billboard reaches people who can become customers.
- Scheduled around the commute: Running 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and again at evening rush puts the plays in front of homeowners on their own routes.
- Proof instead of a slogan: Award wording and a review count give a stranger a reason to trust the name straight away.
- The town is named on the board: A “Best of Cumming” board in Cumming reads as a neighbour rather than an advertiser.
- Boards and search work together: Layering boards over SEO and Google Ads in the same city means the two channels reinforce each other instead of competing.
- The right measure: Tracking branded search rather than call volume matches what billboards actually do, which is build recall.
What Plumbing and HVAC Owners Can Take From This Campaign
- Target the zip codes you already serve: Your customers are homeowners, not drivers passing through. An HVAC billboard starts with placement, not artwork.
- Layer boards over your local digital ads: Boards build familiarity. Run them in the same cities where your search campaigns are already active.
- Lead with local credibility: Awards, review counts, and community ties do more for plumbing advertising ideas and HVAC billboard ideas than a clever line ever will.
- Measure brand recall, not instant calls: Track branded keyword volume and web traffic before, during, and after a run. That is the honest way to judge billboard advertising for HVAC and plumbing work.
- Give new areas time: Where your name is already known the pickup is quicker. In a new town, expect a few weeks before the effect shows.
Run Neighborhood Billboards Like Aaron Services
Choose boards in the towns you already serve, schedule them around the commute, and put one clear proof point on the artwork. Submit your campaign for review and start displaying after approval.
Frequently Asked Questions About Aaron Services’s Billboard Campaign
Where does Aaron Services place its billboards?
In commuter towns across North Georgia such as Cumming, Alpharetta, and Roswell, on local shopping corridors and high-traffic intersections. The company deliberately avoids interstate boards aimed at drivers passing through Atlanta.
When do Aaron Services’ billboards run?
From 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and again during the evening rush. Scheduling around the commute puts the plays in front of homeowners traveling through their own towns.
What results has Aaron Services seen?
Marketing Director Sara Adams reports more branded searches and impressions in Google Analytics within four weeks of boards going live. Where a board carries a promotion, the team also hears about it on inbound calls.
What should an HVAC or plumbing billboard say?
One claim and your logo. The HVAC billboard ideas that work for Aaron Services are award wording and review counts, such as “Alpharetta’s Most Awarded Plumber” or “Over 2,000 5-Star Reviews”. Leave the phone number off and aim for name recall instead.
How do you measure billboard advertising for HVAC businesses?
Watch branded keyword volume and web traffic before, during, and after the run rather than counting calls. Billboard advertising for HVAC and plumbing companies works by making your name familiar, so the signal shows up in search behavior first.
What are good plumbing advertising ideas for a local company?
Put your proof where homeowners will see it repeatedly. Strong plumbing advertising ideas combine neighborhood placement, local awards, and consistency, so the same households see your name on the way to work and on the way home.
How long before a billboard campaign shows an effect?
In a town where your name is already known, Aaron Services sees the pickup quickly. In a new area it takes a few weeks. Billboards build recognition through repeated exposure, so plan for weeks of consistent visibility rather than a short burst.
Do I need a contract to run billboards for a home services business?
No. There are no contracts and no minimums. You choose the towns, the hours, and the spend, and you can pause or change a campaign as your schedule and service areas change.