Why your boiler installation enquiries dropped this winter, and how to fix it

If your boiler installation enquiries dropped this winter, the cause is usually one of four things: your Local Services Ads stopped showing for part of the week, something changed on your Google Business Profile, you are missing calls while the phone is busy with breakdowns, or the enquiries are still arriving but are repairs rather than installs. You can find out which in about an hour, using data Google already gives you for free. This guide takes you through the checks in the order I would run them, and the fix for each.

A quiet installation diary in winter rarely means your whole approach has failed. More often one setting has slipped while you were too busy to notice.

Is it a real drop, or a busy season in disguise?

Start by checking that installation enquiries really have fallen, rather than your sense of them. Cold weather fills the phone with breakdowns, and a firm can be flat out with repairs while installation enquiries quietly hold steady, or the other way round.

Pull three numbers for the last four weeks and for the same four weeks last year, if you have them:

• How many calls and messages came in.
• How many of those were about a new or replacement boiler.
• How many became booked installs.

If calls are steady but installation enquiries have fallen, the problem is what you are being found for. If calls themselves have fallen, the problem is visibility or answering. If installation enquiries are steady but booked installs have fallen, the problem is the quote, which I cover further down.

Google’s own advice for anyone investigating a fall in search traffic points the same way. It says changes in what people search for can come from seasonality throughout the year, and it suggests looking back over at least 16 months of data so you can tell whether a drop happens every year. For your website, Google Trends will show whether interest in searches like “new boiler” has fallen across the web or only for you.

Are your Local Services Ads still showing all week?

This is where I look first, because a Local Services Ads problem can switch off your best source of installation calls overnight and it is usually quick to fix.

Google’s help page on why Local Services Ads are not running gives three main causes, and each one is worth checking in your account:

1. Your ad is paused, inactive or not approved. Google says ads do not show if the campaign is under review, paused or inactive, and that disapproved ads are not displayed. Check your ad is switched on, then look at the change history in Google Ads to see whether anyone changed the status or the budget, and when.
2. Account or billing issues. Google says your ads will not run until these are resolved, and points you to the alerts under the bell icon in Google Ads. A payment card that has expired is an easy one to miss.
3. No budget left. Google works out a monthly maximum from your budget, and once you reach it your ad stops showing for the rest of the month unless you change the budget. The budget spent report shows whether that is happening. A budget that runs out in the third week leaves you invisible during the very days homeowners are ringing round.

Then check your schedule and hours. Google says your ad will not show with a badge if you are outside your opening hours or listed as not accepting customers, and your hours come from your Google Business Profile. If you shortened your hours for the dark evenings, or set special hours for a bank holiday and never changed them back, you may have cut your own week in half.

Finally, look at your job types. If installation and replacement have dropped off your list, or repair job types have crept on, the calls you pay for will change with them. My complete guide to Local Services Ads for UK heating firms covers job types, ranking and budgets in detail, including Google’s move of Local Services Ads into Google Ads, which it says reaches accounts outside the US during 2027.

Are you missing calls while you are on breakdowns?

Winter is when it is hardest to answer every call, because everyone is out on breakdowns. That matters twice over. The homeowner planning a new boiler rings down their shortlist until somebody answers, and Google measures it too: it says missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness in Local Services Ads, and that if you regularly fail to answer calls or reply to messages, your ranking may be affected.

So a busy fortnight of breakdowns may cost you ranking in the weeks that follow. The fix is a plan for answering when you are on the tools: someone in the office, a call answering service, or a firm rule that every missed call is returned within minutes. Messages through your Business Profile and your ads need the same treatment.

Has something changed on your Google Business Profile?

Your profile feeds both the map pack and your Local Services Ads, so a change here can hit both at once. Three things to check.

The Performance page. Google’s Business Profile performance page shows calls, which it counts when someone taps the call button on your profile, along with views, website clicks, directions and the searches people used to find you. Set the date range at the top and compare this winter with earlier months. Google says the searches figure updates at the start of each month and can take up to five days to appear, so do not panic over an empty current month.

Changes you did not make. Google says it may update your profile when sources report that information is incorrect or out of date, and that changes it has made are shown in blue text in the profile editor, with a notification at the top. Look for a changed phone number, category, opening hours or address. A wrong phone number on your profile will quietly send your calls somewhere else.

A suspension or restriction. If your profile has been suspended, it can disappear from the map pack, and because Google requires firms in the UK to link a Business Profile to their Local Services Ads, it may affect your ads as well. Google’s advice is to make sure the profile follows its guidelines before you appeal through its appeals tool, and not to create a new profile for the same business. My complete guide to Google Business Profile for boiler installers has a full section on why suspensions happen and how to recover.

While you are in there, look at your reviews. If the last one is months old, a competitor with recent reviews may simply have overtaken you. Ask every customer the same way at handover, with a direct link, and never ask for particular wording or offer anything in return, which Google’s policy forbids.

Are the calls arriving, but as repairs instead of installs?

Sometimes the phone is ringing as much as ever, but every call is a breakdown. That usually means your Google presence is speaking only to the emergency caller. Your categories, services, photos and posts all say repairs, so that is what Google sends you.

Winter breakdowns can also be one of your best sources of future installs, if you handle them with that in mind. An engineer standing in front of a fifteen year old boiler that has failed for the third time is in the perfect place to have an honest conversation about replacing it. I went through how to do that in my webinar on turning winter boiler breakdowns into installation enquiries.

For the wider problem of being set up for the wrong customer, the 5 reasons you are not getting boiler installation enquiries from Google goes through each fix.

Are enquiries fine, but booked installs down?

If the enquiry numbers hold up but fewer turn into installs, the drop is happening after the call. In winter the usual reasons are quotes that go out late because everyone is busy, and quotes that are never followed up. The homeowner comparing three firms takes the one who kept in touch.

Send a clear quote within a day, ring once a few days later, and keep a simple list of open quotes so none slip through over Christmas. I wrote more about what happens after the enquiry in found on Google, lost on the quote.

What about your website?

If most of your installation enquiries come from your website, open Google Search Console. Google’s guide to traffic drops names the usual causes: technical problems, spam actions, ranking updates, seasonality and site moves. Check the Performance report for which pages and searches fell, and when, before you change anything.

How do you stop it happening next winter?

Winter drops often come from the same habit: switching things off or forgetting about them when the diary is full, then finding the gap weeks later. Three habits help:

• A weekly ten minute check. Ads live, budget not exhausted, hours right, no Google changes on your profile, every missed call returned.
• A steady budget rather than a panic one. Keep your Local Services Ads running all year, so you are already near the top when the cold arrives.
• Count installs by source every month. It is the only way to spot a drop in weeks rather than months. The boiler enquiry calculator tells you how many enquiries you need to hit your install target, so you know what normal looks like.

My practical plan for boiler installation lead generation shows how the pieces fit together, and my complete guide to boiler installation enquiries from Google puts the whole picture in one place. If you would rather hand the checking over, this is the work I do as part of the Boiler Engine System, which you can read about on boiler installation leads.

Want me to find the cause for you?

If your installation enquiries have gone quiet and you would like a second pair of eyes, I will record you the free 5 minute video plan. I look at your Business Profile, your Google presence and the firms taking boiler work near you, then show you what I think has changed and what I would fix first, with no call and no meeting.