What is a lead actually worth?

The simple formula

Most contractors overthink this. You only need two numbers. The first is your average job value, what a typical job is worth once it closes. The second is your close rate, the share of leads you turn into paying jobs. Multiply them and you have what one lead is worth to you.

Say a typical job brings in $600 and you close one in three of the leads you get. Each lead is worth $200 to you, on average. That is the most you could pay per lead and still break even. Pay less than that and every lead is making you money before you count the work itself.

The close rate is the part people forget. A lead is not a guaranteed job. The formula already bakes in the ones that do not land, so you do not need to feel burned when a single call goes nowhere. What matters is the average across all of them.

Worked examples by trade

The dollar value of a lead swings a lot by trade, and it comes down to job size. Here is how it plays out for a few of the markets we run.

Junk hauling. A pickup might be a couple hundred dollars. The ticket is small, but the calls are frequent and you close most of them because people who call to haul something off usually want it gone today. Lower value per lead, higher volume, high close rate. The math works on quantity.

Tree removal. A job here is worth more, often well into four figures for a big takedown. You may not close every estimate, since people shop a tree job more than a junk run. But the value per booked job is high enough that each lead is worth a good deal more than a junk lead.

Roofing or restoration. Now the job is worth thousands. Even if you only book a portion of the estimates you run, a single lead can be worth a lot. One booked roof can cover a whole season of lead spend. This is where paying a real price per lead makes obvious sense, because the upside on one job is so large.

Why we price at a fraction of lead value

Here is the thing we want you to see clearly. We never price a lead at what it is worth to you. We price it well under that, so there is real room left for you to make money.

If a tree removal lead is worth $200 to you on the math above, charging you $200 would leave you nothing. So we do not. The published prices start far lower, from about $25 for a junk lead and around $35 for tree work, because the point is for the lead to pay for itself many times over. If it did not, you would stop calling, and we want you calling for years.

Why exclusive leads are worth more

Two leads can look identical on paper and be worth wildly different amounts, and the difference is whether anyone else got the same call.

When a lead is exclusive, you are the only business ringing that customer back. No race, no four other crews, no one who already booked somebody by the time you dial. Your close rate on that lead is higher, which means the lead is worth more in the formula. A lead sold to five contractors is worth a fifth as much before you even answer, because four of you are about to lose it.

That is why our leads cost more per lead than the shared national sites and still come out cheaper per booked job. Cost per job is the number that decides whether you made money, and exclusivity is how you win on it.

Run your own number

You do not have to take our word for any of this. The calculator on the site does the math for your trade and town. Pick your work, and it shows what a lead is worth to you against what we would charge for it, side by side. If those two numbers do not leave you plenty of room, the market is not worth your time, and ours either.