Attribution, cost and ROI
Average job value for home services: a lead value worksheet
Written by the Top SEO Experts Team
Reviewed by Siddharth GangalLast updated 18 min read
Quick answer
Average job value for home services is the gross profit a typical booked job earns, not the invoice total. A lead is worth that figure times the share of qualified leads you book, plus any repeat work you can prove. In our hypothetical HVAC example below, that makes one lead worth about $435.
Key takeaway Most owners know their average ticket and guess the rest. This worksheet makes the guess visible.
You’ll finish with three numbers to rerun whenever your mix, prices or close rate shift. They are lead value, the most a lead can cost, and cost per booked job.
How do you work out what a lead is worth?
Lead value is the average gross profit per booked job, times the share of qualified leads that become booked jobs. We call that share the booked-job rate. Owners usually say close rate, and most errors come from measuring one of the two inputs badly.
What is the formula?
The formula:
Lead value = gross profit per booked job x booked-job rate (+ repeat value, if proven)
Gross profit is revenue minus the direct cost of the work. It leaves out rent, office staff and marketing, which that profit has to pay for. That’s why a lead worth $435 can’t cost $435.
Definition Direct cost means technician labor, materials, subcontractors and permits.
A qualified lead is a call, form or booking request from someone in your service area who asked for work you do. Spam, vendors, wrong numbers and out-of-area requests don’t count. How to draw that line is covered in SEO cost per lead.
Why is average job value a weak number on its own?
Because one average blends jobs that have little in common. A $300 service call and a $12,000 replacement share a column. A few extra installs can lift the average by hundreds of dollars while nothing else improves.
Housecall Pro’s 2026 HVAC industry trends article (posted 24 March 2026, updated 1 April 2026) shows the effect. It reports average repair revenue per HVAC job rose from $818 in 2021 to $1,205 in 2025, a 47% nominal increase, or 24% after inflation.
Source: 2026 HVAC industry trends
View the data as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $818 |
| 2025 | $1,205 |
What does the article leave out?
The article also says its findings “should not be interpreted as representative of all HVAC activity on the platform or as benchmarks for individual businesses.”
It covers only jobs tagged as repair or install by Housecall Pro customers. That is about 11% of HVAC job volume on the platform, with maintenance counted as repair. So it shows which way pricing moved for those jobs, and says nothing about what your jobs are worth.
Our view Report job value by job type, then weight each type by how often it happens. A plumber who books mostly drain calls and one who books mostly repipes need different lead values, even if their blended averages match.
What do published benchmarks say about job value, close rate and lead cost?
Published figures are thin, come mostly from vendors and agencies, and are rarely comparable. Use them to sanity-check your own data, never as inputs. Each row carries its source, its date and a reason for caution.
| Figure | Value | Source and date | Why to be careful |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing: lead-to-job close rate, job value range | 30 to 45%; about $300 (service call) to about $8,000 (repipes, sewer) | Contractor Magazine, 4 Aug 2026 | Author calls them directional; based on his agency’s accounts plus unattributed widely reported ranges |
| HVAC: lead-to-job close rate, job value range | 25 to 40%; about $400 (tune-up) to about $12,000 (full install) | Same article | Same limits; no named study cited |
| Search ad cost per lead: plumbing, roofing and gutters | $48.91; $101.49 | LOCALiQ, data 1 May 2020 to 25 Jun 2021, page updated 23 Feb 2026 | Pandemic-era data from 4,595 accounts; labeled “averages” but are medians |
| Search ad cost per lead: Home & Home Improvement | $90.92 | LOCALiQ and WordStream, updated 1 Jun 2026 | Advertiser-tracked “leads”; sample not described |
| Conversion rate, home services overall | 7.8%; 3 to 7% for mid-tier services such as HVAC and roofing | WebFX, published 16 Sep 2025 | WebFX does not define its conversion rate; the surrounding text suggests leads to booked jobs. Database size is not stated |
Read the last column first, because it tells you how far to trust each row. Then compare the value column with your own records.
Sources: Contractor Magazine, LOCALiQ home services benchmarks, LOCALiQ 2026 search benchmarks, WebFX. All accessed 22 Oct 2026.
Look hard at the last row. WebFX does not say what its conversion rate counts. The word “conversion” gets used for visits and for booked jobs, and mixing them up is one of the commonest errors in lead math.
Watch out A website conversion rate counts visitors who contact you. A close rate counts leads who book.
Call handling moves close rate too. Invoca’s 2026 home services benchmarks (July 2026, averages across its customers) report that a person answers 52% of inbound calls. They also report that 45% of leads convert on the call.
The summary doesn’t define either term in detail.
How do you build the worksheet, step by step?
Pull 12 months of invoices and leads, split them by job type, and calculate each input on its own. With clean records the first pass takes an afternoon. After that it’s a quarterly check.
Quick check Do you know your booked-job rate on qualified leads, measured over at least 90 days? If not, measure that before you pick a budget.
- Export 12 months of completed jobs from your field-service or accounting software. A full year smooths out seasonality.
- Group jobs into three to five types that behave differently, such as repair, maintenance, small install and replacement.
- Calculate average revenue and average direct cost for each type. Subtract to get gross profit per job, and note the margin percentage.
- Count how often each type occurs. The share of booked jobs by type becomes its weight.
- Weight the gross profit. Multiply each type’s gross profit by its share and add the results. That’s gross profit per booked job.
- Count qualified leads over the same window (at least 90 days if records are short) and divide booked jobs by leads. That’s your booked-job rate.
- Estimate repeat value separately and conservatively (next section). Leave it out if you can’t document it.
- Multiply, then record the result with its date and data window, so next quarter’s number is comparable.
If leads aren’t tracked by outcome, start there. Calls that never reach a CRM record are the usual hole in the data. When an SEO agency should show you calls covers call tracking.
How should you count repeat customers and maintenance plans?
Count repeat value only when your records show it, cap it at 24 months, and keep it on its own line. Repeat work is real in some trades and absent in others, so a blanket uplift flatters the number.
How do you calculate repeat value?
The method we use is simple. Repeat gross profit per booked job equals (share of customers who book again within 24 months) times (gross profit of that second job). If your software can’t give you the share, set repeat to zero and write that down.
Maintenance plans get their own line.
Example Say 10% of booked HVAC customers sign a plan worth $150 a year in gross profit. Two years adds $300 per plan customer, or $30 across all booked customers. That’s small on purpose: repeat value rarely rescues a weak close rate.
Referrals are hard to attribute unless you ask every customer how they found you. Leave them out and count them as upside.
What does the worksheet look like for three trades?
Here are three made-up businesses with round-number inputs we picked. None is a client, a benchmark or a forecast. The point is the arithmetic, so you can swap in your own figures.
Inputs (hypothetical):
| Trade | Job types (share of booked jobs, average revenue, gross margin) | Booked-job rate | Repeat assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | Repair 75%, $450, 55%; larger job 25%, $2,400, 40% | 35% | 15% of customers book a second repair worth $225 gross profit |
| HVAC | Repair 75%, $900, 55%; replacement 25%, $10,500, 40% | 30% | 10% sign a plan worth $300 gross profit over two years |
| Roofing | Repair 50%, $650, 50%; replacement 50%, $14,000, 30% | 15% | None assumed |
Plumbing first. A repair earns $450 x 0.55 = $247.50 in gross profit and a larger job earns $2,400 x 0.40 = $960. Weighted, that’s 0.75 x $247.50 + 0.25 x $960 = $425.63.
HVAC: $495 per repair and $4,200 per replacement give $1,421.25. Roofing: $325 and $4,200 give $2,262.50.
Results (hypothetical):
| Trade | Gross profit per booked job | Repeat per booked job | Lead value | Cap at one third of lead value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | $425.63 | $33.75 | $160.78 | $53.59 |
| HVAC | $1,421.25 | $30.00 | $435.38 | $145.13 |
| Roofing | $2,262.50 | $0.00 | $339.38 | $113.13 |
Each lead value is (gross profit + repeat) x booked-job rate. Plumbing: ($425.63 + $33.75) x 0.35 = $160.78.
HVAC: ($1,421.25 + $30) x 0.30 = $435.38. Roofing: $2,262.50 x 0.15 = $339.38.
The last column of the results table is the most one lead can cost under our rule of thumb. For the hypothetical HVAC company, that is $145.13. A lead that costs more than the cap fails the test.
Example In the hypothetical plumbing case, a lead is worth $160.78, so one third is $53.59. A lead that costs more than $53.59 would fail the cap.
Two things stand out. The roofer earns the most per job yet has a lower lead value than the HVAC company, because only 15 in 100 leads book. And the plumber’s lead is worth under 40% of the HVAC lead despite the best close rate of the three.
The chart below shows the three hypothetical lead values side by side.
Why use gross profit instead of revenue?
Revenue overstates a lead’s value by the cost of doing the job. Budget lead costs against revenue and you’ll accept leads that lose money after labor and materials, a problem that only surfaces in the quarterly numbers.
Run the plumbing example on revenue. Weighted revenue per job is 0.75 x $450 + 0.25 x $2,400 = $937.50, and at the 35% booked-job rate that gives $328.13. The gross-profit version is $160.78, so a revenue-based budget would roughly double what you think you can pay.
Roofing is starker. Revenue-based lead value is $1,098.75, about 3.2 times its $339.38. If you can’t split direct costs by job type, use your overall gross margin as a stopgap and flag it as one.
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What happens when close rate or job mix changes?
Lead value moves in direct proportion to close rate, and almost as sharply with the replacement share. Run both before you set a budget, because owners can influence these two inputs and usually measure them least.
Take the HVAC company. Hold gross profit per booked job at $1,451.25 (with repeat) and vary the booked-job rate:
| Booked-job rate | Lead value |
|---|---|
| 20% | $290.25 |
| 30% | $435.38 |
| 40% | $580.50 |
The chart below shows the same three rows. Each step up in booked-job rate adds the same amount to lead value.
Source: Hypothetical example
View the data as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 20% rate | $290.25 |
| 30% rate | $435.38 |
| 40% rate | $580.5 |
Now hold the rate at 30% and vary the replacement share of booked jobs. The per-type gross profit stays the same: $495 repair, $4,200 replacement, $30 repeat.
| Replacement share | Gross profit per booked job | Lead value |
|---|---|---|
| 15% | $1,080.75 | $324.23 |
| 25% | $1,451.25 | $435.38 |
| 35% | $1,821.75 | $546.53 |
In the first table, lead value rises by the same amount for each step in booked-job rate. In the second, it rises with the replacement share, because a replacement carries far more gross profit than a repair. Both are inputs an owner can influence.
Ten points of close rate are worth about $145 a lead here. Ten points of replacement share are worth about $111.
Our view Faster call answering and estimate follow-up can lift lead value as much as a cheaper click does. The model only shows the arithmetic, so test that claim against your own call log.
How much can you pay for a lead?
Pay less than a lead is worth, then check cost per booked job. Our rule of thumb caps cost per lead near one third of lead value, which leaves room for overhead and profit. It’s a heuristic, not an industry standard.
What is cost per booked job?
Cost per booked job is cost per lead divided by the booked-job rate. It compares directly with gross profit per job and exposes cheap leads that don’t close. The same cap restated: keep cost per booked job under one third of gross profit per job (with repeat).
An illustration that mixes sources, so read it as arithmetic, not a finding. LOCALiQ’s 2020 to 2021 median plumbing cost per lead of $48.91, divided by our hypothetical 35% booked-job rate, is $139.74 per booked job. The cap is one third of $459.38, or $153.13, so it passes.
Roofing at $101.49 and 15% is $676.60 per booked job against a cap of $754.17.
| Trade | Cost per lead | Booked-job rate | Cost per booked job | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | $48.91 | 35% | $139.74 | $153.13 |
| Roofing | $101.49 | 15% | $676.60 | $754.17 |
Both pass, but the benchmarks are old and the close rates assumed. Replace both with your own data. If a quote or an ad account fails the cap, the fix is usually the booked-job rate before it is the price.
The SEO cost calculator lets you test an agency quote against it.
On the SEO side, lead value feeds our SEO ROI calculator. The five numbers behind SEO ROI explain how it interacts with the other inputs.
How does lead value change what you spend on marketing?
It sets the ceiling for every channel. Once a lead is worth $435, the price of a click stops being the question. What matters is whether the leads those clicks produce book at your rate and cost less than your cap.
What does Google say about paid lead prices?
Google’s help page on how Local Services Ads leads work says you’re charged for each valid lead. It also says “Lead prices may vary depending on your location, the job type, the type of lead, or your bidding mode.” Invalid leads aren’t charged, and some charged leads can be credited later.
That per-lead price compares directly with your cap. The same logic applied trade by trade is in our posts on HVAC, plumbing and roofing leads versus SEO.
Where can you read more?
Our post on home services marketing budgets covers the spend side. For breakeven timing, see SEO payback.
Weighing an agency quote against lead value? Our pricing page explains how we scope engagements. We publish no price list.
Which mistakes distort lead value?
These are the distortions we run into most when we review a business’s numbers.
- Using revenue instead of gross profit. In our examples it inflates lead value from about two times (plumbing) to over three times (roofing).
- Using one blended average ticket. It hides the repair and replacement split.
- Treating website conversion rate as close rate. One measures visitors, the other measures leads that book.
- Counting every inbound contact as a lead. Spam and vendors drag the booked-job rate down.
- Adding repeat value without records. An optimistic uplift makes weak channels look fine.
- Never rerunning it. Margins, mix and close rate drift, so rerun the worksheet quarterly.
What does this mean for your business?
Start with your own invoices, not a benchmark. Export 12 months of jobs, split them by type, and use gross profit. Published figures are for sanity checks only.
Next, measure your booked-job rate on qualified leads. Count the calls that never reached a CRM record, because that is the usual hole in the data.
- Export and splitPull 12 months of jobs and split them by type, using gross profit.
- Measure the booked-job rateCount qualified leads and divide booked jobs by leads.
- Set the capCheck cost per lead and cost per booked job against lead value.
- Rerun every quarterMargins, mix and close rate drift, so refresh the numbers.
Then set a cap. Our rule of thumb is one third of lead value for cost per lead, checked against cost per booked job. If a quote or an ad account fails the cap, look at the booked-job rate first.
Finally, rerun the worksheet every quarter. Margins, mix and close rate drift, so last year’s number may no longer fit.
What do these benchmarks not tell you?
They don’t tell you your lead value. Most benchmarks here come from vendor or agency datasets that publish no sample, no definition of “lead” or no date range. The one home-services cost-per-lead source covers 2020 to 2021.
We found no neutral source for gross profit per job by trade. The Housecall Pro figure covers one platform, and the Contractor Magazine ranges are the author’s directional numbers.
Nothing here is a Top SEO Experts client result. Our published case studies report Google Search Console clicks and impressions, not leads or revenue, and we have no home-services SEO case study yet. The three trades above are made up.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average job value for a home-service business?
No single figure fits, because repairs and installs differ by ten times or more. Housecall Pro reports $1,205 average HVAC repair revenue per job in 2025 on its platform and says that is not a benchmark. Pull your own invoices, split by job type, and use gross profit.
How do you calculate what a lead is worth?
Multiply average gross profit per booked job by the share of qualified leads that book. If a typical job earns $1,451 in gross profit and 30 percent of leads book, a lead is worth about $435. Add repeat work only when your records show it.
Should I use revenue or gross profit per job?
Use gross profit. Revenue includes labor, parts and subcontractor costs you pay out, so it overstates what a lead can cost.
In our hypothetical plumbing example, revenue-based lead value is $328 and the gross-profit value is $161, about half. Pull direct costs from your accounting software.
What close rate should I use for home-service leads?
Use your own booked jobs divided by qualified leads over at least 90 days. Contractor Magazine (August 2026) gives 30 to 45 percent for plumbing and 25 to 40 percent for HVAC, but calls them directional. Define a lead the same way every month.
How much can I pay per lead?
Less than the lead is worth, leaving room for overhead and profit. Our rule of thumb caps cost per lead near one third of lead value, then checks cost per booked job against gross profit per job. Treat it as a starting rule, not a standard.
Is lead value different for SEO leads and paid leads?
It can be, because channels close at different rates. Measure the booked-job rate by source, exclude branded searches and repeat customers from new organic leads, and apply the same formula everywhere. Then compare each channel’s cost per booked job, not its cost per lead alone.
Rerun this worksheet with your own numbers in our ROI calculator tool, then Get Your Organic Growth Plan.
Sources
- 2026 HVAC industry trends, Housecall Pro, posted 24 Mar 2026, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- Mastering Lead Cost Benchmarks for Plumbing & HVAC Success, Contractor Magazine, 4 Aug 2026, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- Home services advertising benchmarks, LOCALiQ, updated 23 Feb 2026, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- Search advertising benchmarks, LOCALiQ and WordStream, updated 1 Jun 2026, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- 2026 Home Services Marketing Benchmarks, WebFX, published 16 Sep 2025, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- 2026 Home Services Benchmarks, Invoca, July 2026, accessed 22 Oct 2026
- How leads work, Google Local Services Ads Help, accessed 22 Oct 2026
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