A concrete company can run one campaign for a month and end up with 20 crack-repair calls worth $700 each. The same budget, pointed at a different buyer, can produce six stamped patio appointments at $14,000 a ticket. Same crew, same trucks, same ad spend, wildly different year.
Most concrete marketing never makes that choice on purpose. The contractor runs "concrete leads," takes whatever the form delivers, and then says the leads are cheap tire-kickers. The leads are doing exactly what the campaign told them to do.
Here is how the driveway buyer and the patio buyer actually differ, what each ticket is worth, and the math for deciding where the budget goes.
Why do driveway and patio concrete leads behave like two different businesses?
They are two different purchases with two different triggers.
The forced-replacement buyer
This homeowner has a driveway that is spalling, heaving, or cracked into pieces. A tire catches the lip every time they back out. The apron is sinking. A realtor told them it tanks the curb appeal. Something made the problem impossible to ignore, and now they want it gone.
They search. They call two or three companies. They book whoever can get out and measure quickly. The decision is about price, schedule, and whether the contractor looks like he will show up.
Ticket: $5,000 to $12,000 for a standard tear-out and replacement. Sales cycle: days to a few weeks. Close rate on a good exclusive lead: 28 to 35 percent, because the homeowner has already decided the slab is coming out.
This is a speed game. It works when your cost per lead is reasonable, your estimator is fast, and somebody answers the phone.
The design-driven buyer
This homeowner is not fixing anything. They are planning. They want a stamped patio off the back door, a seating wall, a fire pit area, a bigger space for the grill and the kids. They have been looking at photos for months. Nobody is forcing them to do anything, which means nobody is forcing them to do it this year either.
Ticket: $8,000 to $20,000 for a decorative patio, more when hardscape and steps get added. Sales cycle: weeks to months from first contact to signature. Close rate on a well-worked exclusive lead: 20 to 25 percent, but the revenue per closed job is roughly double the plain driveway.
This buyer is almost never typing "stamped concrete patio near me" when your campaign first reaches them. They are scrolling, saving photos, and arguing with their spouse about the size. That is why the channel that wins them looks nothing like the channel that wins a cracked driveway, and why our concrete and patio lead generation page builds them as separate campaigns with separate budgets.
What is each concrete job actually worth in 2026?
You cannot set a lead ceiling until you know your real ticket mix. Regional pricing, subgrade work, access, and removal costs move these, but the ranges are typical.
| Scope of work | Typical installed price | Buyer type |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of workCrack repair, joint and caulk work | Typical installed price$300-$1,200 | Buyer typeUrgent / maintenance |
| Scope of workMudjacking or slab leveling | Typical installed price$600-$2,500 | Buyer typeUrgent / maintenance |
| Scope of workResurfacing or overlay on a sound slab | Typical installed price$1,500-$4,000 | Buyer typePlanned, price-sensitive |
| Scope of workPlain concrete patio, 300-500 sq ft | Typical installed price$3,000-$6,000 | Buyer typePlanned |
| Scope of workDriveway tear-out and replacement, broom finish | Typical installed price$5,000-$12,000 | Buyer typeForced replacement |
| Scope of workStamped or decorative patio | Typical installed price$8,000-$20,000 | Buyer typeDesign-driven |
| Scope of workDriveway replacement with decorative border and apron | Typical installed price$10,000-$20,000 | Buyer typeDesign-driven |
| Scope of workFull backyard hardscape package | Typical installed price$20,000-$45,000 | Buyer typeDesign-driven |
The pattern matters more than any single line. Moving one homeowner from a plain patio to a stamped patio with a seating wall is worth more than winning three extra crack repairs, and it is one mobilization instead of three.
The formula that sets your cost-per-lead ceiling
Run this per campaign, not per company.
Max cost per lead = (average job value x gross margin x close rate) / 3
Driveway campaign: $8,500 x 0.30 margin x 0.30 close = $765, divided by 3 = a $255 maximum cost per lead.
Decorative patio campaign: $14,000 x 0.35 margin x 0.22 close = $1,078, divided by 3 = a $359 maximum cost per lead.
Repair campaign: $900 x 0.45 margin x 0.35 close = $142, divided by 3 = a $47 maximum cost per lead.
Those three numbers are not close. If you run one blended concrete campaign and hold it to the repair ceiling, you will never outbid anybody for the patio buyer. If you hold it to the patio ceiling, you will lose money on every crack repair that comes through the door. That single spread is the entire argument for splitting the campaigns.
Why is cost per lead the wrong number for concrete contractors?
Because the invoice price of a lead says nothing about how many other companies got handed the same homeowner. Cost per acquired job is what pays a crew.
| Channel | Cost per lead | Typical close rate | Cost per acquired job |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChannelReferrals and past customers | Cost per lead$0 | Typical close rate40-60% | Cost per acquired jobNear $0 |
| ChannelGoogle Business Profile / organic | Cost per lead$0-50 | Typical close rate20-40% | Cost per acquired job$100-250 |
| ChannelShared marketplace leads | Cost per lead$25-75 | Typical close rate5-10% | Cost per acquired job$350-1,400 |
| ChannelLocal Services Ads | Cost per lead$25-70 | Typical close rate15-30% | Cost per acquired job$150-450 |
| ChannelMeta advertising | Cost per lead$25-110 | Typical close rate10-20% | Cost per acquired job$250-1,100 |
| ChannelExclusive leads (performance partner) | Cost per lead$50-200 | Typical close rate20-35% | Cost per acquired job$200-900 |
| ChannelExclusive booked appointments | Cost per lead$200-400 | Typical close rate25-40% | Cost per acquired job$600-1,400 |
A $40 shared lead closing at 8 percent costs $500 per job. A $125 exclusive lead closing at 30 percent costs $417 per job, and the average ticket is usually larger because you are not one of four contractors racing to the bottom on the same 700 square feet. The full breakdown of that math is in our guide on exclusive vs. shared leads.
There is a second cost concrete contractors almost never track: measure time. A driveway measure with a slab condition assessment, photos, and a written scope is 45 to 90 minutes plus drive time. At an 8 percent close rate, that is twelve measures to sell one job. Price that at your estimator's loaded hourly cost and shared leads stop looking cheap.
How many leads does each campaign need to hit a revenue target?
Work backward from the revenue, not forward from the budget. Here is $400,000 in added revenue, run through both campaigns.
| Target: $400,000 added revenue | Driveway campaign | Decorative patio campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Target: $400,000 added revenueAverage job value | Driveway campaign$8,500 | Decorative patio campaign$14,000 |
| Target: $400,000 added revenueJobs needed | Driveway campaign47 | Decorative patio campaign29 |
| Target: $400,000 added revenueClose rate on exclusive leads | Driveway campaign30% | Decorative patio campaign22% |
| Target: $400,000 added revenueLeads needed per year | Driveway campaign157 | Decorative patio campaign132 |
| Target: $400,000 added revenueLeads needed per month | Driveway campaign13 | Decorative patio campaign11 |
The lead counts land close together. That surprises most contractors, and it is the point. The patio campaign does not need dramatically more volume to hit the same revenue, it needs better creative, a longer follow-up window, and a higher tolerance on cost per lead. The driveway campaign needs a faster phone and tighter scheduling.
If you want to run your own numbers against your real close rate and ticket, the ROI calculator will do the arithmetic in about two minutes.
When should each concrete campaign be running?
Concrete is weather-bound, which means timing errors cost more here than in most trades. The campaigns are not on the same calendar.
- Late winter, 6 to 10 weeks before pour season. Patio campaigns go live. Homeowners plan backyard projects in January and February for a May install. If you start advertising in May, you are bidding on homeowners who already signed with somebody else.
- Right after the spring freeze-thaw. Driveway and repair campaigns go hot. Spalling, heaving, and fresh cracks show up the week the ground settles, and that is when the forced-replacement buyer starts searching.
- Peak summer. Both run, but shift budget toward whatever has the shortest backlog. If the patio crew is booked out eight weeks, feed the driveway campaign instead of selling jobs you cannot pour.
- Early fall, before the first hard freeze. Driveway replacement surges again from homeowners who want it done before winter. This is the best window of the year for urgency messaging.
- Late fall into winter. Run retargeting and planning-phase patio content at a reduced budget. You are filling next spring's calendar, not this month's.
The broader seasonal framework for a contracting business is laid out in our guide to seasonal contractor marketing. Apply it per campaign, not per company.
What creative actually works for each buyer?
The creative is where most concrete campaigns quietly fail.
Driveway creative
Show the problem and the fix. A spalled, cracked, sinking slab next to a clean new pour with crisp control joints. Lead with the condition the homeowner recognizes from their own driveway. Put the scope in the copy: tear-out, haul-off, base prep, rebar or fiber, saw-cut joints, cure time, and when they can park on it again. That last one is the question every driveway buyer asks and most ads never answer.
Patio creative
Show the finished space, furnished and lived in. Pattern, color, border, steps, the way the edge meets the lawn. This buyer is shopping an outcome, not a service. Use your own completed jobs — your real photo library is the single biggest advantage you have over a marketplace that shows a stock slab to everybody.
Separate landing pages, separate forms, separate qualifying questions. A driveway form asks for approximate square footage and current condition. A patio form asks about the shape of the space and the finish they like. One generic "get a free concrete quote" form collects both buyers and tells you nothing about either.
What kills concrete leads after they come in?
Slow response, mostly. The forced-replacement buyer calls three companies in one sitting. If you answer in two hours, the measure is already scheduled with somebody else. Research on response time is brutally consistent, and we broke it down in our guide to speed to lead: the contractor who responds within five minutes qualifies dramatically more of the same leads.
The patio buyer fails differently. They do not ghost because somebody beat you, they ghost because nothing is forcing a decision. That lead needs a 30-day follow-up sequence, a design conversation, and a reason to sign now — a pour-schedule cutoff, a material cost increase, a seasonal booking window. If your follow-up stops after two calls, your patio campaign will look broken when the problem is downstream of the ad.
How should you split the budget between driveway and patio campaigns?
Start from crew capacity, not from which job you like better.
- One crew, mixed work: run 60 percent driveway and repair, 40 percent patio. Keep the schedule full and let the decorative work lift your average ticket.
- Two crews, one flatwork and one decorative: fund each campaign to fill its own crew. Do not let the flatwork campaign starve the decorative crew because it produces leads faster.
- Growing toward decorative: shift 10 percent of budget per quarter from flatwork to patio campaigns, and hold the patio campaign to its own $300-plus cost-per-lead ceiling instead of judging it against the driveway number.
Minyona installs and manages that split inside your own Meta ad account. You pay ad spend directly to Meta, you see every dollar, and you pay us only when the system delivers a qualified lead — from $50 per lead depending on trade and volume, or $200 to $400 for a booked appointment, with a one-time $2,000 setup. Every lead is exclusive to your company. Get started here and we will size the driveway and patio campaigns against your real ticket and crew capacity.
The short version
Driveway replacement and patio pours are not one market. The driveway buyer is forced, fast, and price-aware, and is won with speed and a visible before-and-after. The patio buyer is planning, slower, and worth roughly double, and is won months earlier with finished-project photography and real follow-up. Run them as separate campaigns, give each one its own cost-per-lead ceiling from the formula above, and judge both on cost per acquired job.
Do that, and the question stops being which concrete job to advertise. It becomes how much of each your crews can pour before the ground freezes.
Frequently asked questions
Should concrete contractors run separate campaigns for driveways and patios?
Yes. The two jobs have different tickets, different close rates, and different maximum costs per lead, so blending them forces you to judge a $14,000 stamped patio by the economics of a $6,000 driveway tear-out. Run them as separate campaigns with separate budgets and separate cost-per-lead ceilings.
What does a concrete driveway lead cost in 2026?
Shared marketplace concrete leads typically run $25 to $75 each but close at 5 to 10 percent because three to five contractors get the same homeowner. Exclusive concrete leads generally run $50 to $200 and close at 20 to 35 percent. Local Services Ads for repair and replacement work usually land between $25 and $70 per lead with high intent but limited volume.
Which is more profitable, a driveway replacement or a stamped patio?
Per job, decorative patios usually win because they carry a higher ticket and a higher margin on the finish work. Per crew day, a plain driveway replacement is often competitive because the pour is simpler and the schedule is more predictable. Most concrete companies need both, which is exactly why the campaigns should be separated and sized against crew capacity.
When should concrete campaigns start for spring pour season?
Decorative patio campaigns should start 6 to 10 weeks ahead of local pour season, usually in late winter, because homeowners plan backyard projects months before they call anyone. Driveway and repair campaigns should be live right after the spring freeze-thaw, when spalling, heaving, and new cracks show up, and again in early fall before the first hard freeze.
Is Meta or Google better for concrete driveway leads?
Use both for different jobs. Google and Local Services Ads capture the homeowner who already decided to replace a failing driveway and is searching today. Meta reaches homeowners during the planning phase for patios, decorative work, and full backyard packages at roughly $25 to $110 per lead, which is where the bigger tickets come from.
Frequently asked questions
Should concrete contractors run separate campaigns for driveways and patios?
Yes. The two jobs have different tickets, different close rates, and different maximum costs per lead, so blending them forces you to judge a $14,000 stamped patio by the economics of a $6,000 driveway tear-out. Run them as separate campaigns with separate budgets and separate cost-per-lead ceilings.
What does a concrete driveway lead cost in 2026?
Shared marketplace concrete leads typically run $25 to $75 each but close at 5 to 10 percent because three to five contractors get the same homeowner. Exclusive concrete leads generally run $50 to $200 and close at 20 to 35 percent. Local Services Ads for repair and replacement work usually land between $25 and $70 per lead with high intent but limited volume.
Which is more profitable, a driveway replacement or a stamped patio?
Per job, decorative patios usually win because they carry a higher ticket and a higher margin on the finish work. Per crew day, a plain driveway replacement is often competitive because the pour is simpler and the schedule is more predictable. Most concrete companies need both, which is exactly why the campaigns should be separated and sized against crew capacity.
When should concrete campaigns start for spring pour season?
Decorative patio campaigns should start 6 to 10 weeks ahead of local pour season, usually in late winter, because homeowners plan backyard projects months before they call anyone. Driveway and repair campaigns should be live right after the spring freeze-thaw, when spalling, heaving, and new cracks show up, and again in early fall before the first hard freeze.
Is Meta or Google better for concrete driveway leads?
Use both for different jobs. Google and Local Services Ads capture the homeowner who already decided to replace a failing driveway and is searching today. Meta reaches homeowners during the planning phase for patios, decorative work, and full backyard packages at roughly $25 to $110 per lead, which is where the bigger tickets come from.