What a lead really costs: your true cost per booked job
Work out what a booked job costs from every source you pay for, and close the leak that inflates it — a worksheet-led guide for home service contractors.
What this guide is about
A lead costs what you paid for it, divided by how often you win one. At typical marketplace rates, a $50 lead becomes a $300 booked job.
Most contractors know two numbers: what they spend each month, and roughly how many leads came in. Almost nobody works out the third. So two contractors can buy the same leads at the same price, and one still pays twice as much per job.
The good news is you can bring that number down without spending a dollar less. Every lead you paid for and never won is already a cost. A call nobody answered. A reply sent a day late. An estimate nobody chased. Each one raises the price of every job you do win.
This guide shows you how to work out your own number from last month's invoices. Then you compare it across every source you pay for, and find the leak costing you most.
What you'll learn
Work out your cost per booked job from four figures on last month's invoices
Compare six lead sources side by side, every published figure named and dated
Find which of three leaks is raising your cost without raising your spend
Run a five-question audit at the end of every month, on one page
Leave with five worksheets and a ranking that decides next quarter's spend