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Cost per lead is the least useful number here
Cost per lead is the figure agencies report because it is flattering and easy. Cost per booked job is the one that decides whether a channel survives, and it moves with your close rate rather than with anything an agency did.
A channel at $40 a lead and a 10% close rate costs $400 a booked job. A channel at $90 a lead and a 40% close rate costs $225. The second looks worse in a report and is twice as good.
Margin, almost always
The gross margin field is where the calculator quietly becomes accurate or useless. Most owners enter a number that counts materials and crew labour and skips their own time quoting, driving to estimates and chasing the ones that go quiet.
If you are the person doing the estimates, that time has a cost even when no invoice records it. Lower the margin until the figure describes what actually lands in the business.
Three limits worth naming
Lead quality varies inside a channel. A monthly average hides the difference between an emergency call and a price shopper.
Attribution is rarely clean. A customer who found you in an AI answer, checked your reviews and then clicked an ad is usually recorded as the ad.
Compounding channels look bad early. Organic and map visibility cost the same in month two and return far more in month twelve. A single-month snapshot penalises them.
Questions owners ask
What is a good cost per lead?
There is no universal figure. A good cost per lead is one that sits far enough below your gross profit per booked job that the channel still pays after your own time. That is why this calculator asks for job value and margin rather than quoting a benchmark.
Why does the calculator not show benchmarks for my trade?
Because published cost-per-lead figures move by market, season and competition, and a number printed here would be wrong by the time you read it. Your own account has the real one.
Should I count my own time?
Yes. Quoting, phone time and travel to an estimate are real costs. The margin field is where to account for them, and most owners set it too high.
Measure what the engines say before you spend more
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