TradeOps Consulting vs. Scorpion: An Honest Comparison for HVAC & Plumbing Companies

July 20, 2026 · Updated October 13, 2026 · Yash Singh

Honest Comparison · Updated 2026

Scorpion employs roughly 1,400 people and serves 20,000+ businesses across legal, healthcare, franchises, and home services marketing. TradeOps Consulting serves HVAC and plumbing companies exclusively and competes directly with Scorpion for the same contracts. This page compares the two providers for HVAC and plumbing companies choosing a marketing agency.

This page compares Scorpion and TradeOps Consulting on the two questions that matter most before you sign a contract: who owns the assets when the engagement ends, and how long you’re committed. Scorpion operates as a multi-vertical platform you plug into. TradeOps Consulting is a marketing agency that works only with HVAC and plumbing companies and sets your marketing up on accounts you own. Scorpion’s scale is real, and this page gives that credit while laying out the trade-offs.

The 30-Second Verdict

Choose Scorpion if…

You run a multi-location or franchise operation generating $3M or more a year. You want one enterprise platform for websites, PPC, and Local Service Ads across every market you operate. You accept a longer-term contract on a proprietary system in exchange for that scale.

Choose TradeOps if…

You run an HVAC or plumbing company and want a partner that works in your industry only. TradeOps Consulting sets up your website, ad accounts, call tracking and CRM on accounts you own, tracks every call to the job it booked, and publishes its prices. You can cancel any time with 30 days’ notice.

Side-by-Side Comparison

This table compares TradeOps Consulting and Scorpion side by side across industry focus, ownership, contracts, and pricing.

	TradeOps Consulting	Scorpion
Industry focus	HVAC & plumbing exclusively	Multi-vertical: legal (arguably the flagship), healthcare, franchises, and home services
What they are	A marketing agency that works only with HVAC and plumbing companies	A large marketing technology platform (RevenueMAX) with managed websites, PPC, and LSA services layered on top
Marketing services	Local SEO and Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Facebook/Instagram ads, AI search optimization (measured by mention and citation rates), websites, lead generation, and call tracking tied to booked jobs	Websites on the Scorpion platform, SEO, strong PPC/LSA automation, AI-driven reporting, franchise/multi-location programs
Who owns your website?	You own it. TradeOps Consulting builds it on your domain and your accounts, so you keep everything if we ever part ways	Sites are built on Scorpion’s proprietary CMS; former clients on Reddit and BBB commonly report losing the website when they leave
Who owns your ad accounts & data?	You. Ad accounts, call tracking and CRM are set up on your accounts from day one	Campaigns run inside Scorpion’s platform; portability on exit is a question to ask before signing
Contracts	TradeOps Consulting bills month-to-month. You cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice before your next billing date	12–24 month terms are commonly reported by reviewers, with early-termination pain described in public threads
Ad management fees	Flat published rates: Google Ads $1,500/mo, Meta Ads $1,500/mo, LSA $500/mo. TradeOps Consulting charges flat fees, not a percentage of spend	Reviewers report a 20% ad-management fee appearing in contracts (verify your own agreement)
Branding	Brand identity and social media setup are included in the one-time Full System Build ($25,000 + $497/mo)	Scorpion does not offer branding. Scorpion provides digital marketing and platform software, not brand identity
Pricing transparency	Published plans: retainers from $2,000/mo, custom websites from $3,000, à la carte SEO $2,000/mo, Google Ads or Meta Ads $1,500/mo, LSA $500/mo. See all plans	Scorpion publishes no pricing. Scorpion offers custom quotes only
Guarantee	“Leave in the Green”: work with us 6+ months and, if you’re unsatisfied, we continue at no cost until you reach break-even, provided you meet its conditions (terms)	No published performance guarantee
Team & scale	A specialist agency for HVAC and plumbing companies, from owner-led shops to multi-location groups	Scorpion employs roughly 1,400 people, serves 20,000+ businesses, and has operated since 2001 with BBB A+ accreditation. Reviewers describe account managers stretched thin across its 20,000+ clients
Best fit	HVAC and plumbing companies that want marketing tied to booked jobs, published pricing, and cancel-anytime terms	$3M+ multi-location or franchise operations comfortable with platform lock-in in exchange for scale

Claims about Scorpion above come from public sources: Scorpion’s own site, BBB and Trustpilot reviews, Reddit threads, and third-party roundups, as of July 2026. Contract terms, fees, and asset-ownership points are commonly reported by reviewers and former clients, not verified facts about every engagement. Read your own agreement carefully and re-verify current terms before relying on them.

What Scorpion Does Well

Scorpion does 4 things well after 25 years in business and 20,000+ signed clients since its 2001 founding.

Enterprise scale. Scorpion employs roughly 1,400 people on a mature platform. Scorpion runs marketing consistently across dozens of franchise locations at a size few competitors match.
PPC and LSA automation. Scorpion’s RevenueMAX platform runs AI-driven ad-buying and optimization technology that smaller shops cannot match on tooling alone.
Franchise and multi-location muscle. Scorpion runs standardized rollouts, centralized reporting, and brand controls across markets for franchise and multi-location clients.
Accreditation and operating history. Scorpion holds BBB A+ accreditation and has operated since 2001, making it a stable, established company.

Scorpion is a rational choice for large franchise systems that want one enterprise vendor and accept the platform trade-offs.

Where the Scorpion Model Has Limits

The Scorpion model has 7 limits that affect ownership, flexibility, and focus, not execution quality. Public reviews and threads document each point below, hedged accordingly.

Website ownership risk. Scorpion builds sites on a proprietary CMS, and former clients on Reddit and in BBB reviews commonly report losing their website when they leave. Years of SEO equity can walk out the door with the vendor. Ask, in writing, what you keep on exit.
Contract length. Reviewers describe 12 to 24 month terms and painful early-termination experiences. Compare that to a month-to-month arrangement before you sign.
Percentage-of-spend fees. Reviewers report a 20% ad-management fee appearing in contracts. On serious ad budgets, that fee adds up quickly compared to a flat monthly rate.
Account coverage. With 20,000+ businesses on the platform, reviewers describe account managers stretched thin. A $2M plumbing shop competes for attention with national franchise accounts.
Trades as one vertical of four. Legal is arguably Scorpion’s flagship vertical. Home services operates as a division among legal, healthcare, and franchises, not the center of the company’s focus. Seasonality, maintenance agreements, and install-versus-service economics do not drive Scorpion’s product roadmap.
Customer review scores. Scorpion holds BBB A+ accreditation, yet its BBB and Trustpilot customer review scores sit in the low 3s. That gap is worth reading the reviews to understand.
No branding. Scorpion does not build brand identity. The engagement covers marketing software and managed ads.

What TradeOps Does Differently

TradeOps Consulting is a marketing agency for HVAC and plumbing companies that want booked jobs, not just leads. It works only with HVAC and plumbing companies, so the campaigns, pages and reports are built around repair, replacement, install and emergency work in those two trades.

The Marketing Services

Local SEO and Google Business Profile. Business Profile work, service and city pages, reviews, citations and links, so you show up in the map pack and organic results for the jobs you want.
Google Ads. Search campaigns on high-intent repair, replacement and install keywords, with landing pages and call tracking.
Local Services Ads. Verification, job types, service area, budget, lead credits and reviews for Google’s pay-per-lead ads.
Facebook and Instagram ads. Replacement and install offers shown to homeowners in your service area.
AI search optimization. Clear, consistent information about your company across your site and listings, measured every month by mention rate and citation rate against a fixed set of prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
Websites. Custom, mobile-first sites built for calls and form fills, with call tracking and CRM forms connected.
Lead generation. Your own lead flow from SEO, ads, LSA and direct mail, so leads come to you alone instead of being shared with other contractors.

Plans can also include a referral system, EDDM direct mail and social media management. The full list by plan is on our plans page.

Every Call Tracked to a Booked Job

Call tracking and a CRM are set up on your account before any ad spend starts, so every lead is counted from day one. Every monthly plan includes CRM setup and automations to make sure new leads get answered: missed calls get a text back and new form fills get an instant reply.

The monthly report goes past clicks and impressions. It shows calls and form fills by source, booked jobs and revenue by channel from the closed sales in your CRM, and cost per lead and cost per booked job for each paid channel.

Your marketing stays yours. Your Google Business Profile, website, ad accounts and lead flow are set up on your accounts, so they stay with you if you stop working with us.

The Results Our Clients See

These numbers are read from clients’ own Google Business Profile and Search Console dashboards. Screenshots are in the results section of our homepage.

A/C Man Heating and Air: 94 calls from its Google Business Profile in August 2026, up 40.3% on August 2025.
One HVAC client’s Business Profile: 521 calls from May to September 2026, up 20.0% on the same months of 2025.
One client site: Search Console clicks rose from 45 to 1.47K over three months against the same three months a year earlier, and average position moved from 59.8 to 10.8.

Results depend on your market, where you start and how quickly your team answers new leads.

The “Leave in the Green” guarantee. You can cancel any time with 30 days’ notice before your next billing date, and every month you get a report of the work done and the results it produced. If you work with us for at least six months and are unsatisfied with the results, we continue our service at no cost until you reach a break-even result. That applies when you complete our onboarding course, follow the advice and warnings we give about our services, and keep your CRM updated with lead value and closed sales data, verified by third-party software and accounting data. Read the full guarantee terms.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Scorpion if

You run a $3M+ multi-location or franchise operation and want one enterprise platform for websites, PPC, and Local Service Ads across every market you operate. You’ve read the Scorpion contract, understand what you keep on exit, and accept the trade-off.

Choose TradeOps if

You run an HVAC or plumbing company, from a single shop to a multi-location group, and want a marketing agency that works only with HVAC and plumbing. You want calls tracked to booked jobs, your accounts in your name, published pricing, cancel-anytime terms, and the conditional “Leave in the Green” guarantee.

FAQ

Is Scorpion good?

Scorpion is good for the right buyer. Scorpion holds BBB A+ accreditation and brings 25 years of history, serious PPC/LSA technology, and real franchise-scale capability. The honest caveats are the ones reviewers raise most: proprietary websites that former clients commonly report losing on exit, 12 to 24 month contracts, a reported 20% ad-management fee, and account teams stretched across 20,000+ clients. Scorpion works for large franchises that have priced in those trade-offs. Scorpion fits owner-operators who want to own their assets and stay flexible less well.

Will I keep my website if I leave Scorpion?

Website ownership after leaving Scorpion depends on your contract, and former clients on Reddit and BBB commonly report losing it or rebuilding from scratch. Ask Scorpion in writing what you keep on exit before you sign. With TradeOps Consulting, the website is built on your domain and your accounts, so it belongs to you from day one, along with your ad accounts, CRM, and data.

What’s the actual difference between Scorpion and TradeOps?

TradeOps Consulting and Scorpion differ on 3 things: ownership, focus, and scope. Scorpion runs your marketing on its own platform; TradeOps Consulting builds your marketing on assets you own. Scorpion serves legal, healthcare, franchises, and home services; TradeOps Consulting serves HVAC and plumbing exclusively. Scorpion provides marketing software plus managed ads; TradeOps Consulting runs local SEO, Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Facebook ads, AI search optimization and websites, and reports booked jobs and revenue by channel from call tracking and your CRM.

Does TradeOps lock me into a contract?

TradeOps Consulting does not lock you into a contract. You cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice before your next billing date and receive a monthly report of the work done and the results generated. The “Leave in the Green” guarantee means TradeOps Consulting continues working at no cost until you reach break-even, if you’ve worked with us 6+ months and remain unsatisfied (conditions apply).

What does TradeOps cost?

TradeOps Consulting publishes its pricing, unlike most of this market. Retainer plans start at $2,000/month (Minimum), $4,000/month (Growth), and $6,500/month (Hyper Scaling). Custom websites start at $3,000 one-time, and a complete Full System Build costs $25,000 plus $497/month. À la carte pricing includes SEO at $2,000/mo, Google Ads at $1,500/mo, Meta Ads at $1,500/mo, and LSA at $500/mo, all flat rates instead of a percentage of ad spend. See our plans.

Can TradeOps handle multi-location companies like Scorpion can?

Yes. TradeOps Consulting works with groups that own several HVAC or plumbing locations and want the same marketing and reporting at each one. Google Business Profile SEO and website SEO are priced at $500/month per additional location. Each location’s website, Business Profile, ad accounts and call tracking are set up on your accounts.

Get Your Free Call Audit

TradeOps Consulting offers a free 15-minute Call Audit. We look at your website, Google Business Profile, call tracking and follow-up, and you leave with a written roadmap of where calls are leaking, whether you hire us or not.

Get My Free Call Audit

Takes 15 minutes. No pressure.

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