- Most plumbing inquiries are service calls. Keep them out of project-lead math.
- Repipes, tankless, and sewer lines each deserve their own lead ceiling.
- Ads built on emergency language pull cheap leads for the work you already get.
- Judge project spend on cost per signed install, not inbox volume.
Most plumbing leads are service calls
Clogs, running toilets, a leak under the sink. These calls come in fast, pay fast, and fill the dispatch board. They’re also the easiest leads to generate, which makes plumbing ads look cheap on paper.
If your goal is more repipes and water heater upgrades, those service calls are noise in the report. They belong to dispatch, with their own economics. Pull them out before you look at what a project lead costs.
Planned projects follow different rules
A homeowner weighing a repipe is thinking about torn-up drywall, a few days without water, and a bill in the thousands. They want to understand the job before anyone comes out. That takes a page that explains it, a price range, and an in-person estimate.
These leads cost more to find and book fewer of them than a drain call does. But each signed repipe or sewer replacement carries far more margin than a service ticket. That’s what sets the ceiling.
Worked example (example numbers, not a benchmark)
Inputs match the example on our plumbing page. Run your own repipe numbers before trusting any of this.
A whole-house repipe averages $9,000 at a 45% gross margin: $4,050 in gross profit. If 10% of that is what you’ll pay to win a repipe, that’s $405 per signed job. You close 40% of the estimates you run, which allows $162 per booked estimate ($405 × 40%). Forty-five percent of repipe leads book an estimate, so the ceiling is $72.90 per repipe lead ($162 × 45%).
Tankless installs and sewer lines carry their own price and close rate. Run each through the same math before you set one target for all of them.
Where plumbing ads waste money
“24/7 emergency plumbing” ads mostly bring the calls you already get from search and word of mouth. The cost per lead looks great. The repipe estimates never show up.
Ads that show the corroded pipe coming out of a wall, or the old tank being hauled away, speak to the homeowner who has been putting the project off. Fewer people respond. More of them book an estimate for the job you want.
What to watch
Separate columns for service and projects, and for each project type.
- Cost per project lead, with service calls removed
- Cost per booked project estimate
- Close rate on repipes, tankless, and sewer jobs, each on its own
- Cost per signed install, by campaign
