Home Services Marketing Is Moving Beyond Search
Home services marketing has traditionally been built around capturing consumers when a local need turns into a search. Scorpion brought together OpenAI, TikTok, ServiceTitan and others to reflect on how that acquisition model is expanding as AI discovery, short-form video and operational data reshape the path from awareness to booked job.
For home services brands, search has long occupied a privileged position in the customer journey. A homeowner needs an HVAC repair, plumber or pest-control provider, searches for one nearby and creates an opportunity for marketers to capture high-intent demand.
That model isn’t disappearing, but it is getting more complicated. Consumers can now encounter a service brand through short-form video, ask an AI assistant which provider to hire and move between discovery channels before ever conducting a conventional Google search. That changing journey was the underlying theme of Scorpion’s Home Services Growth Summit, which brought together executives from OpenAI, TikTok, ServiceTitan, Thumbtack and others. The event itself isn’t particularly significant for multi-location marketers; the mix of companies participating is.
Discovery Is Spreading Across More Channels
Scorpion’s 2026 State of Home Services Marketing Report found that 83% of homeowners begin their search for a provider online, but 22% already use AI tools such as ChatGPT to research vendors or gather recommendations. At the same time, 80% of home-services business leaders surveyed said they were unsure how to appear in AI-driven search environments.
That creates a widening challenge for brands operating across multiple markets. Traditional search visibility remains important, but marketers increasingly need to consider whether their locations are represented accurately when an AI system synthesizes recommendations rather than displaying a familiar list of search results.
Advertising is following that behavior. Scorpion became a technology partner supporting advertising in ChatGPT earlier this year, and OpenAI participated in the summit with a session addressing what ChatGPT Ads could mean for home services businesses. For multi-location marketers, conversational advertising potentially adds another layer to an already fragmented media mix. Paid search captures explicit demand, while AI advertising could reach consumers inside the environment where they are researching options and narrowing their choices.
The Funnel Is Expanding in the Other Direction
AI isn’t the only force changing the acquisition model. TikTok’s presence at the event reflects increasing attention on reaching homeowners before they declare immediate purchase intent. That mirrors Scorpion’s recent expansion into Google Demand Gen, which Street Fight examined in August.
Google data cited by Scorpion showed that 68% of Demand Gen conversions came from consumers who hadn’t seen the advertiser’s Search ads during the previous 30 days. For distributed brands, the implication is that local customer acquisition increasingly begins before the “near me” search.
Video can establish familiarity, demonstrate expertise and address common homeowner problems before an HVAC system fails or a plumbing emergency occurs. Search can then capture demand when that need becomes explicit. The challenge is coordinating those stages across markets, with national or regional creative establishing the brand while local media and location-level information connect consumers with the appropriate provider when intent develops.
Marketing Data Meets Operating Data
The presence of ServiceTitan points to another piece of the changing equation: connecting marketing activity to what happens after a lead arrives. Scorpion’s research found that 67% of home-services businesses couldn’t directly connect marketing spend to revenue, a limitation that becomes increasingly problematic as customer acquisition spreads across more channels.
Scorpion and ServiceTitan have been integrating marketing and operational data since establishing their strategic partnership in 2024. That connection can extend measurement beyond clicks and leads into appointments, jobs and revenue while also providing visibility into operational factors such as capacity. We previously examined how Scorpion is connecting marketing with technician availability, booked jobs and revenue as local discovery becomes more fragmented.
For multi-location organizations, those signals can influence media allocation. Generating more demand in a market has limited value if technicians are already at capacity, while another location with available crews may be able to absorb additional marketing investment. Connecting marketing and operating data therefore creates the potential to allocate spending based not only on where demand exists, but where the organization can actually convert that demand into revenue.
The Local Acquisition Stack Gets More Connected
The emerging model doesn’t replace paid search with ChatGPT or TikTok. Instead, it adds more places where demand can be created, influenced and captured. AI assistants can increasingly participate in discovery and recommendation, short-form video can build awareness before immediate intent exists, and search can capture consumers actively looking for a provider.
Operational platforms complete another part of that picture by connecting resulting leads to booked jobs and revenue. That makes the central challenge for multi-location home services brands less about choosing a single winning channel and more about connecting the system. As discovery fragments across AI, search, social and other surfaces, brands need a clearer view from initial exposure through local conversion and revenue to understand where their marketing investment is actually working.
