Every contractor eventually runs the same experiment. You take $1,000 that is not spoken for and you throw it at leads to see what comes back. Some months you sign two jobs and think you found a machine. Some months you sign nothing and swear off marketing until spring.
The problem is not the thousand dollars. It is that nobody ever compares what that thousand actually purchases across sources, using the only number that matters at the end of the month: cost per signed job.
Here is the honest breakdown, channel by channel, with the math written out.
What does $1,000 actually buy from each lead source?
Use an average job value of $10,000 to read this table. Adjust up if you sell full roof replacements, siding, or remodels; adjust down if you run service work.
| Lead source | What $1,000 buys | Typical close rate | Jobs signed | Cost per acquired job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead sourceShared marketplace leads | What $1,000 buys~20 leads at $50 | Typical close rate5-12% | Jobs signed1-2 | Cost per acquired job$500-$1,600+ |
| Lead sourceGoogle Ads (search intent) | What $1,000 buys4-8 leads at $125-250 | Typical close rate15-30% | Jobs signed1-2 | Cost per acquired job$500-$2,500 |
| Lead sourceMeta ads, self-run (spend only) | What $1,000 buys12-30 leads at $35-80 | Typical close rate10-20% | Jobs signed1-4 | Cost per acquired job$250-$1,100 |
| Lead sourceExclusive leads, performance partner | What $1,000 buys5-20 leads at $50-200 | Typical close rate20-35% | Jobs signed1-5 | Cost per acquired job$200-$1,000 |
| Lead sourceExclusive booked appointments | What $1,000 buys2-5 appointments at $200-400 | Typical close rate25-40% | Jobs signed1-2 | Cost per acquired job$500-$1,600 |
| Lead sourceSEO and content | What $1,000 buysOne month of work, 6-12 month lag | Typical close rate20-40% | Jobs signed0 now, compounding later | Cost per acquired job$100-$250 once ranking |
| Lead sourceReferral bonuses | What $1,000 buys4-8 payouts at $125-250 on closed jobs | Typical close rate40-60% | Jobs signedPaid only on wins | Cost per acquired jobNear $0 upfront |
Two things jump out. First, the cheapest lead almost never produces the cheapest job. Second, the spread inside a single row is enormous — the same $50 shared lead can cost you $500 or $1,600 per signed job depending entirely on how fast you call and how good your sales process is.
That is why the channel decision and the follow-up decision are the same decision. Our contractor lead generation page walks through how the delivery side gets built so leads do not die in a voicemail box.
Why is cost per lead the wrong number to compare on?
Cost per lead is the price of a phone number. Cost per acquired job is the price of revenue.
Run three scenarios on the same $1,000:
- 20 shared leads at $50, closing at 6%. 1.2 jobs. $833 per job.
- 8 exclusive leads at $125, closing at 25%. 2 jobs. $500 per job.
- 4 Google leads at $250, closing at 20%. 0.8 jobs. $1,250 per job.
The cheapest lead produced the second-worst job cost. The most expensive lead per unit produced the best. This is the single most common mistake in contractor marketing, and it is the reason companies keep renewing marketplace contracts that are quietly losing them money.
The ceiling formula is worth memorizing:
Max cost per lead = (average job value × gross margin × close rate) ÷ 3
A company at $10,000 average, 35% gross margin, 25% close rate: $10,000 × 0.35 × 0.25 = $875 ÷ 3 = a $291 ceiling per lead. Most contractors are nowhere near their ceiling and still believe leads are expensive. The deeper version of this math lives in our guide on how much you should pay per lead.
What does $1,000 get you from shared marketplace leads?
About twenty homeowners' contact details, three to five of which are already talking to your competitors before your phone rings — because the platform sold the same person to everyone in the category.
What the invoice does not show:
- Contact rate. Expect to reach 50-70% of them at best. The rest never answer, because four companies called in the same ten minutes.
- Price framing. The first contractor to actually speak with the homeowner sets the scope and the number. Every quote after that is measured against it. Being fourth is not a small disadvantage, it is a structural one.
- Brand. The homeowner remembers the platform, not you. You paid for a customer who will go back to the platform next time.
The time cost nobody invoices
Twenty leads at 25 minutes of dialing, texting, and driving to a quote that was never real is roughly eight hours. If your salesperson is loaded at $50 an hour, that is $400 of labor sitting on top of the $1,000. Your real cost per signed job on that batch is closer to $1,167 than $833.
The side-by-side, with the close-rate math fully worked, is in exclusive vs. shared leads.
What does $1,000 get you from Google Ads?
Four to eight leads, depending on trade and market. Clicks in competitive home improvement categories run $15-60, and it typically takes six to fifteen clicks to produce a form fill or call.
Google's advantage is intent. Somebody typing "roof replacement near me" has already decided to buy something. Close rates of 15-30% are normal, which is why the channel survives its price.
Google's problem is ceiling and competition. Search volume in your zip codes is fixed. You cannot decide to double the number of people searching for panel upgrades this month. And you are bidding against every competitor plus the national brands with deeper pockets. In storm season, cost per click can double in a week.
Use Google for the demand that already exists. Do not build a growth plan on it, because you do not control the size of the pool.
What does $1,000 get you from Meta advertising?
Twelve to thirty leads if you run it yourself and the ad spend is the only cost.
Meta works differently. Nobody on Facebook was searching for a bathroom remodel. You are reaching the homeowner in the planning phase — the one who has been staring at the same cracked driveway or dated kitchen for two years and has not typed anything into Google yet. That means lower intent per lead and lower cost per lead, and it means volume is a dial you control instead of a pool you fish from.
Close rates run 10-20% on self-run campaigns. The gap between 10% and 20% is almost entirely speed to lead and follow-up discipline, not creative.
Running it yourself versus a performance partner
Self-run: your $1,000 is 100% media. You keep every lead, and you eat every mistake — bad audiences, weak offers, creative fatigue after three weeks, forms that fill with tire-kickers.
Performance partner: the $1,000 buys delivered, qualified leads at a per-lead fee, and the ad spend is a separate line you pay directly to Meta out of your own ad account. That structure matters more than most contractors realize. The pixel, the audiences, the retargeting lists, and the brand recognition all stay in your name. When a homeowner sees the ad, they see your company, not a marketplace.
If you want to run your own numbers against your current source before you change anything, the ROI calculator does the cost-per-job math in about two minutes.
What does $1,000 get you from booked appointments?
Two to five confirmed appointments on your calendar at $200-400 each.
This is the most expensive unit and often the cheapest outcome, because you skip the entire chase. No dialing. No voicemails. No leads that go cold while your crew is on a roof. Close rates of 25-40% are typical because someone already qualified the project, confirmed the homeowner owns the home, and agreed to a time with both decision-makers present.
Two honest caveats. An on-site estimate is still a sales appointment — the homeowner knows they are getting pitched, and some will cancel. And appointments only make sense if you have the sales capacity to run them. Buying five appointments you cannot get to for eleven days is the fastest way to waste a thousand dollars.
What does $1,000 buy that is not a lead at all?
Sometimes the best use of the money is not more leads.
- A follow-up system. If you are contacting 50% of your leads, a texting cadence and a CRM pipeline can raise contact rate to 80% for a fraction of the cost of buying more leads.
- Review generation. Fifty reviews at a 4.7 average lifts close rate on every lead you already pay for.
- A website that converts. Moving from 1% to 3% conversion triples the value of the same traffic.
- Referral bonuses. Four to eight $150 payouts on jobs that actually closed. Highest close rate in the business and you only pay on the win.
If your close rate is under 15% on exclusive leads, buying more leads is pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it. Fix the bucket first.
How should you decide where the next $1,000 goes?
- Calculate your ceiling. Average job value × gross margin × close rate ÷ 3. That is your maximum cost per lead. Write it on the wall.
- Measure cost per acquired job by source for the last 90 days. Not leads. Signed contracts. Most contractors have never done this and are shocked by the result.
- Cut anything above 10% of average job value. On a $10,000 ticket, any source costing more than $1,000 per signed job is on notice.
- Check speed to lead before blaming the source. If the average first-call time is over an hour, the source is not the problem. Fix that and re-measure for 30 days.
- Put the next dollar where cost per job is lowest and volume is controllable. Volume you control is worth a premium, because it is the only kind you can scale on purpose in January.
Run that loop quarterly. Channels drift — a source that produced $400 jobs in March can produce $900 jobs in September when three competitors enter the auction.
What hidden costs never show up on the lead invoice?
| Hidden cost | Where it hits | Typical impact |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden costSalesperson chase time | Where it hitsLabor, not marketing | Typical impact$20-40 per unclosed lead |
| Hidden costWindshield time on dead estimates | Where it hitsFuel, payroll, opportunity cost | Typical impact1-3 hours per no-sale |
| Hidden costPrice compression on shared leads | Where it hitsGross margin | Typical impact3-8 points per job |
| Hidden costBrand equity going to the platform | Where it hitsRepeat and referral revenue | Typical impactCompounds every year |
| Hidden costSlow response decay | Where it hitsClose rate | Typical impactQualification rates drop sharply after five minutes |
The last row is the one contractors underrate. A lead that sat for four hours is not the same asset it was when it arrived. Most "bad leads" are stale leads who already spoke with somebody else.
What is the short version?
A thousand dollars is not a budget. It is a test. Spend it where you can measure cost per signed job, where you control the volume dial, and where the brand you are building says your company name on it.
If you want the campaigns running inside your own Meta ad account — your pixel, your audiences, your brand, ad spend paid directly to Meta where you can see every dollar — and you would rather pay when a qualified lead or a booked appointment actually lands, get started here. Setup is a one-time $2,000, from $50-200 per qualified exclusive lead and $200-400 per booked appointment depending on trade and volume. No monthly retainer. Track-record specifics available on request.
Frequently asked questions
How many leads does $1,000 buy a contractor?
Roughly 20 shared marketplace leads at $50 each, 4 to 8 Google Ads leads at $125-250, 12 to 30 self-run Meta leads at $35-80, 5 to 20 exclusive leads at $50-200, or 2 to 5 booked appointments at $200-400. Volume is the least useful part of the comparison because the close rates differ by a factor of five.
Is buying contractor leads worth it?
It is worth it when the cost per acquired job stays under about 10% of your average job value and your team actually calls every lead within five minutes. It stops being worth it when you are one of four companies handed the same homeowner, because the close rate collapses and the cost per signed job triples even though the invoice looks cheap.
What is a good cost per acquired job for a contractor?
Under 10% of average job value is the working benchmark. On a $10,000 average ticket that is $1,000 or less per signed job; on a $30,000 ticket you can absorb $2,500-3,000 and still be fine. Track it by source every month, because two channels with identical cost per lead can differ by 3x on cost per job.
Are exclusive leads worth three times the price of shared leads?
Usually yes, on the math. A $50 shared lead closing at 6% costs $833 per signed job. A $150 exclusive lead closing at 25% costs $600 per signed job, and it consumes a fraction of the phone time because you are not racing three other companies to the same homeowner.
Should I buy leads or run my own Facebook ads?
Run your own ads if you have someone who can build offers, write creative, and manage spend weekly. Use a performance partner if you would rather pay per delivered lead and keep the ad account, pixel data, and audiences in your own name. The strongest setup is a partner running campaigns inside your ad account, so you see every dollar you pay to Meta and the brand equity stays with you.
Frequently asked questions
How many leads does $1,000 buy a contractor?
Roughly 20 shared marketplace leads at $50 each, 4 to 8 Google Ads leads at $125-250, 12 to 30 self-run Meta leads at $35-80, 5 to 20 exclusive leads at $50-200, or 2 to 5 booked appointments at $200-400. Volume is the least useful part of the comparison because the close rates differ by a factor of five.
Is buying contractor leads worth it?
It is worth it when the cost per acquired job stays under about 10% of your average job value and your team actually calls every lead within five minutes. It stops being worth it when you are one of four companies handed the same homeowner, because the close rate collapses and the cost per signed job triples even though the invoice looks cheap.
What is a good cost per acquired job for a contractor?
Under 10% of average job value is the working benchmark. On a $10,000 average ticket that is $1,000 or less per signed job; on a $30,000 ticket you can absorb $2,500-3,000 and still be fine. Track it by source every month, because two channels with identical cost per lead can differ by 3x on cost per job.
Are exclusive leads worth three times the price of shared leads?
Usually yes, on the math. A $50 shared lead closing at 6% costs $833 per signed job. A $150 exclusive lead closing at 25% costs $600 per signed job, and it consumes a fraction of the phone time because you are not racing three other companies to the same homeowner.
Should I buy leads or run my own Facebook ads?
Run your own ads if you have someone who can build offers, write creative, and manage spend weekly. Use a performance partner if you would rather pay per delivered lead and keep the ad account, pixel data, and audiences in your own name. The strongest setup is a partner running campaigns inside your ad account, so you see every dollar you pay to Meta and the brand equity stays with you.