Testing and measuring HVAC marketing in Quebec

Electric heating changes what you test

Statistics Canada's household heating table reports that 70% of Quebec households used electricity for primary heat in 2023, with natural gas at 5% and wood at 4%. Gas furnace pages, the backbone of Prairie testing, have small audiences here. Heat pumps, electric heating upgrades and related comfort services carry the volume.

Montréal, Québec City, Laval, Gatineau, Longueuil and Sherbrooke together offer enough traffic for classic splits on the busiest pages. Smaller regions usually need the designs in testing with few calls.

Language rules are design constraints

As summarized from the OQLF's guidance for businesses, the Charter of the French Language, as amended by Bill 96, requires French to be clearly predominant in commercial advertising, and content for Quebec customers on websites and social media must be available in French. Other languages may also appear.

For testing, that means:

• every variant shown to Quebec customers must meet the rule, so "English vs French" is not a legitimate test
• test within the French version: offers, structure, proof, call prompts
• treat bilingual audiences (for example around Gatineau) as separate segments in GA4, using language and location
• confirm specific questions with the OQLF or a qualified lawyer; we do not give legal advice

Seasons outside and inside the St. Lawrence lowlands

Quebec's winters are cold and snowy with a long heating season, longer still outside the St. Lawrence lowlands. Deep winter is a steady window for heating pages; spring is a natural window for heat-pump cooling messages. Regional segments help, because demand in the Saguenay and in Montréal will not move on the same day. See seasonality controls.

Program dates to log, as of October 2026

• Rénoclimat: from 1 October 2026 the pre-retrofit evaluation is optional, with aid of up to $500, and new caps apply. Participants under the old rules must finish by 31 March 2027.
• LogisVert: open. Hydro-Québec notes the coming federal heat pump rebate and says LogisVert requests are being processed normally.
• Chauffez vert: closed; applications were not accepted after 31 March 2026.
• Federal Oil to Heat Pump Affordability: closed to new Quebec applicants on 31 July 2026.

That is four dated events in a single year. Any heat-pump or retrofit test should list the ones inside its window, and confirm current terms with the administrator before a variant mentions them.

A planning example for a Montréal company (illustrative)

Consider a Montréal company selling heat pumps and electric heating upgrades, with French and English versions of its site. The first test runs only on the French version, which carries most of its Quebec traffic: a concurrent split between the current heat-pump page and one that explains, in plain French, how the homeowner's next steps work after the 1 October 2026 Rénoclimat changes. The test is sized with four weeks of French-language baseline, runs for full weeks in late winter, and is read on qualified calls with booked visits as the guard rail. The English version is not pooled; if it gets its own test later, it is planned and reported separately. Program pages are checked at launch and at the end.

Regulators to know

For reference only:

• Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) for contractor licensing
• CNESST for workplace health and safety
• Office de la protection du consommateur for consumer protection

How we approach a Quebec testing program

1. Build the test inside the French experience, never across languages.
2. Focus volume on electric and heat-pump pages.
3. Keep a program calendar with every 2026 and 2027 date that touches your services.
4. Segment by region and language before reading results.

For measurement work, see measurement setup. For pricing, see pricing. To plan a Quebec test, call, text or email.