The cause
The same ad has run for months. People in your area stopped noticing it, so each lead costs more to buy.
The fix
New video filmed on your jobs on a steady schedule, so campaigns aren’t paying more to show a worn-out ad.
Video AdsPROBLEM · HIGH COST PER LEAD
High cost per lead: every lead costs more, and you can’t say why.
Ad costs keep creeping up, and you’re not sure whether to cut the budget, change the ads, or fire whoever’s running them.
Show me where I’m losing jobsFree 2-minute assessment · No pitch, no obligation
By the BlueSmith team · Updated
At a glance
- Who it’s for
- Contractor owners seeing these signs in their pipeline
- Where it comes from
- Attention: The same ad has run for months. People in your area stopped noticing it, so each lead costs more to buy.
- Offer: Clicks get paid for, then lost on a slow page, a long form, or a homepage with no next step.
- Sales: Leads that don’t book get written off, so the cost of every lead you paid for lands on the few that did.
- System: The ad platform sees form fills but not which ones booked, so it can’t tell your best leads from your worst.
- Fix first
- Find your break-even before cutting anything
SOUND FAMILIAR?
The signs you’re losing jobs here.
- We pay more per lead than last year for the same ads.
- The report shows cheap clicks, but the leads are expensive.
- Most of the people who click never fill anything out.
- We’re still running the video we made months ago.
- I don’t know what we can afford to pay per lead.
THE DIAGNOSIS
Four places it breaks. Four fixes.
Attention × Offer × Sales × System. The problem usually lives in one part and shows up in another.
The cause
Clicks get paid for, then lost on a slow page, a long form, or a homepage with no next step.
The fix
A fast project page that matches the ad, with a calculator and booking, so more of the clicks you buy become inquiries.
Contractor FunnelsThe cause
Leads that don’t book get written off, so the cost of every lead you paid for lands on the few that did.
The fix
Follow-up and past-estimate outreach that keep working leads you already paid for, which lowers the cost of each booked estimate.
Lead ReactivationThe cause
The ad platform sees form fills but not which ones booked, so it can’t tell your best leads from your worst.
The fix
Booked estimates and signed jobs tracked back to each campaign, so budget moves to what produces jobs, not just leads.
Conversion TrackingWHAT WE’D FIX FIRST
Find your break-even before cutting anything
A number is only “too high” compared to something. We work out the most you can pay for a lead from your own job value, margin, and close rate. Then we check cost per booked estimate by campaign. Sometimes the expensive lead is the cheap way to fill the calendar, and the fix is somewhere else.
PUT A NUMBER ON IT
Break-even cost per lead: what can you afford to pay for a lead?
Put in your project value, margin, and close rate. See the most you can pay per lead, per booked estimate, and per signed job before the work stops paying for itself.
Break-even cost per lead: $138
Break-even cost per lead$138
- Max cost per booked estimate
- $394
- Max cost to win one signed job
- $1,313
$25,000 project, 35% margin, 15% of gross profit for acquisition, 35% of leads booked, 30% closed.
See what we’d build for these numbersStarts with example numbers. Change them to yours. Arithmetic only, not a promise of results.
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Questions we hear.
What’s a normal cost per lead for my trade?
There isn’t a universal one. Trade, market, project size, and season all move it. The number that matters is the one your own jobs can carry, which is what the break-even calculator works out.
Should I switch from Facebook to Google?
Not because of cost per lead alone. Search leads often cost more and are further along. Compare cost per booked estimate and cost per signed job across both before moving budget.
Are lead marketplaces cheaper?
Sometimes per lead. But shared leads mean you’re competing with other contractors for every one. Compare what each source costs per signed job, not per name.
Will raising the budget lower my cost per lead?
Rarely by itself. More spend on the same ad and page usually reaches people less likely to respond. Fix the creative and the page first, then scale what books.
Find out where yours breaks.
Seven questions. Two minutes. See the one part of your engine holding your projects back.
Show me where I’m losing jobsFree 2-minute assessment · No pitch, no obligationAvg response time 2.5 minutes