Lead value calculator for contractors
What a lead is worth to your company, the most you should pay for one, and the Local Services Ads budget that gets you the jobs you want this month. Your numbers, not an agency's slideshow.
Built by Luis Gomez · the same math I run on every audit call
Short answer: a lead is worth your average ticket times your close rate. Pay at most about a third of that per lead and the job still carries its marketing. Leads you need per month is the jobs you want divided by your close rate; multiply by Google's estimated cost per lead for your trade and ZIP and you have the monthly budget. The calculator below does the arithmetic and converts it into the weekly, daily and monthly-cap figures Google now uses.
What the math says
- A lead is worth
- $175
- ticket × close rate
- Most you should pay per lead
- $58
- about a third of the lead's value
- Verdict at your estimated cost per lead
- Clears the bar. Run it.
- Leads needed per month
- 40
- jobs wanted ÷ close rate
- Monthly lead budget
- $1,600
- leads needed × cost per lead
- Weekly budget
- $369
- monthly ÷ 4.33 (old LSA dashboard)
- Daily budget · monthly cap
- $53 · $1,603
- weekly ÷ 7 · daily × 30.4 (inside Google Ads)
- Cost per booked job
- $80
- cost per lead ÷ close rate
- Marketing as a share of revenue
- budget ÷ (jobs × ticket)
Three traps the numbers hide: a budget that runs out mid-week buys half a week of exposure at full price; a missed call during business hours can be charged as a lead since October 1, 2026; and a close rate below about 40% on LSA calls usually means the phone, not the ads. The budget math guide covers all three.
Send me these numbers and I'll tell you if they hold in your metro →
How to read the result
The calculator is the first ten minutes of every audit call I run, written down. It does three things.
- Prices a lead. Average ticket times close rate. If you do not know your close rate, count last month's inbound calls and the jobs that came from them; most owners guess high.
- Sets the ceiling. A third of the lead's value is the most a channel should cost you per lead. The one account whose numbers I publish, a Kansas City drywall company, paid $36.77 to $46.66 per charged lead from April to July 2026 against leads worth about $175, which is why those ads stayed on. The full billing is in what a drywall lead costs.
- Turns jobs into a budget. Jobs wanted divided by close rate is leads needed; times cost per lead is the monthly budget. Google now wants that as a daily figure with a monthly cap, so the calculator shows both. Set it so the ads stay on all week; a budget that goes dark on Thursday competes in bursts and pays more per lead.
Every trade page on this site has its own worked example, and the per-trade guides rank the channels by what a lead costs: pick your trade. For the real cost per lead in your ZIP use the five-minute method in Local Services Ads cost per lead by trade.
Questions owners ask
How do I calculate what a lead is worth?
Multiply your average ticket (what a booked job leaves you) by your close rate on inbound calls. A $350 job closed half the time makes each lead worth about $175. That is the number every channel has to beat.
How much should a contractor pay per lead?
A working rule of thumb is no more than a third of what a lead is worth to you. If a lead is worth $175, pay up to about $58 for it and the job still carries its marketing cost comfortably. Below that, scale the channel; above it, fix the close rate or the phone before you spend more.
Where do I get my real cost per lead instead of an estimate?
Start the Local Services Ads sign-up for your trade and ZIP; on the budget step Google shows its own estimated cost per lead and a leads-per-week range. That takes five minutes and you do not have to finish the sign-up. The only published numbers on this site are from one drywall account in Kansas City: $36.77 to $46.66 per charged lead, April to July 2026.
Why does the calculator show a daily budget and a monthly cap?
Local Services Ads is moving into Google Ads as a pay-per-lead Performance Max campaign type. Weekly budgets become daily budgets (the weekly figure divided by 7) and Google can spend up to the daily budget times 30.4 in a month. The calculator shows all three so the number you set matches the number you meant.
Want the numbers checked?
Send your trade and your number. I'll run this math with your real close rate and Google's estimate for your ZIP, and tell you the three things I'd fix first, free, whether or not you hire me.