What's a Fair Price Per Lead? Run These Three Numbers

Published September 19, 2026 · Curbside Websites

What's a fair cost per lead for home services?

There isn't one number. Anyone who tells you "$45 per lead is fair for plumbers" is guessing.

A fair price depends on three things you already know: what a job is worth to you, how much of that you keep, and how often you turn that type of lead into a booked job. Run those three numbers and you get your own answer in about five minutes.

Here's the short version of the math. Break-even cost per lead = gross profit per job × close rate. A fair price is a comfortable fraction of that number, not the number itself.

How do I calculate my maximum cost per lead?

Start with one job type, not your whole business. Averages across drain clears and repipes will lie to you.

1. Average revenue per job. Pull your last 20 invoices for that service.
2. Gross profit per job. Subtract labor, materials, and the truck cost to get there. What's left is what a lead can actually eat into.
3. Close rate from that source. Out of 10 leads from that channel, how many became paid work?

Two examples with round numbers.

Drain cleaning plumber. Average ticket $350. Gross profit around $175. You close 1 in 3 calls from your own website. Break-even cost per lead is about $58. Pay $50 a lead and you're working for free. A fair price here is more like $15 to $25.

HVAC system replacement. Average ticket $9,000. Gross profit around $2,700. You close 1 in 5 of those leads. Break-even is $540. A $150 lead looks expensive until you see that math. It isn't.

Same $60 lead. Great deal for one trade, business-ending for the other.

What percentage of a job should marketing cost?

My rule of thumb: keep your total marketing cost per booked job under about 10 percent of that job's revenue. Some owners run leaner, some push to 15 percent during a slow season to keep crews busy. Above that, you're running marketing's business, not your own.

That 10 percent is your real ceiling for cost per lead home services math. Take 10 percent of average job revenue, then divide by your close rate.

HVAC replacement at $9,000 revenue: $900 marketing budget per booked job, divided by 5 leads to book one, equals $180 per lead. Drain cleaning at $350: $35 per booked job, divided by 3, equals about $12 per lead.

That second number is why so many small-ticket trades get burned buying leads. The math almost never works on a single job. It only works if the customer comes back.

Should I count repeat work and referrals in the math?

Yes, but carefully, and only after you've measured it.

A cleaner who wins a recurring biweekly client doesn't earn $180. They earn $180 every other week for two years. An HVAC company that lands a maintenance plan owns that home's equipment replacement five years out. A plumber who does a $220 water heater flush might get the $3,800 replacement.

So the honest version of the math uses profit per customer, not profit per job. But don't inflate it with hope. Go look: of last year's new customers, how many came back? If it's 1 in 4, multiply carefully, not by your best-case story.

This is the single biggest reason two competitors can bid wildly different amounts for the same lead. The one who books recurring work can pay more and still win.

What actually counts as a lead?

Before you compare prices, make sure you're comparing the same thing. "Lead" means very different things depending on who's selling it.

• A shared lead goes to you and three or four competitors. You're paying for a footrace.
• A form fill is a name and an email. Somebody still has to chase it.
• An exclusive inbound call from someone who found your website and dialed you on purpose is worth several times a shared lead.
• A quote request from a directory often includes tire kickers, wrong service areas, and people who already picked someone.

A $25 shared lead you close 1 in 10 times costs you $250 per job. A $60 exclusive call you close half the time costs $120. The cheaper lead is the expensive one.

How do I track cost per lead without a CRM?

A spreadsheet and one habit will do it.

• Ask every single caller how they found you. Write it down. "Google," "saw your truck," "my neighbor."
• Use a separate tracking phone number for paid ads so you're not guessing.
• Each month, log spend by source and leads by source. Divide.
• Then log booked jobs by source. That's the column that matters.

After 60 to 90 days you'll know exactly what a lead costs from each channel, and you'll usually find one source quietly eating a third of your budget for almost nothing.

My cost per lead is too high. Now what?

Most owners react by shopping for a cheaper source. Usually that's the wrong lever. Fix these first:

• Answer rate. An unanswered call is a lead you paid full price for and threw away. Missed calls are the most expensive thing in home services.
• Speed to response. If a form comes in and you reply the next morning, you already lost. Same hour, every time.
• Your website. If people click and don't call, your cost per lead is a conversion problem, not a traffic problem. Phone number at the top, service area named, real photos, reviews visible.
• Job mix. Some services can never support paid leads. Advertise the ones that can, and let the small stuff ride in on reviews and word of mouth.

Owned channels change the math entirely. A Google Business Profile with steady reviews and a website that ranks for your town has no per-lead cost at all once it's working. The leads aren't free, but they get cheaper every month instead of more expensive.

Run your three numbers this week. If you can't say what a lead is worth in your trade, you can't tell whether anyone's price is fair, and that's exactly how lead sellers prefer it.

Common Questions

Is $50 per lead expensive for a contractor?

It depends entirely on your average job and close rate. For a $9,000 HVAC replacement, $50 is cheap. For a $200 service call you close a third of the time, $50 is more than your entire profit on the job.

Why are shared leads cheaper than exclusive leads?

Because the same lead is sold to several contractors at once, so your odds of winning the job drop sharply. Once you divide the price by your real close rate, shared leads often cost more per booked job than exclusive calls.

What close rate should I expect from paid leads?

Don't guess it, measure it. Close rates vary hugely by source, trade, and how fast you respond, so track booked jobs by source for 60 to 90 days and use your own number in the math.

How do I know if a lead source is profitable?

Divide total spend on that source by the number of jobs it actually booked, not the number of leads it sent. If that cost per booked job is more than about 10 percent of the revenue from those jobs, the source isn't paying for itself.

Are website and Google Business Profile leads really free?

Not free, but they have no per-lead price. You invest once in the site, the profile, and a review habit, then the cost per lead drops as volume grows instead of climbing like it does with paid sources.