What a sold job costs you in ads, and the most it can cost before the profit is gone.

The arithmetic

Cost per lead is spend over leads; cost per sold job is spend over jobs sold. Gross on a job is value times margin. Break-even is the point where the ad cost of a job equals the gross on it. That is the most a job may cost, and it implies a return on spend (job value over gross). To reach a target cost per job at today's spend you need spend over target jobs. At today's leads that is a lead-to-sold rate. At today's rate it is a cost per lead. We print both, and the smaller move is the one to make.

There is no benchmark on this page

Nobody publishes cost per sold job for this trade. Pages that print one are estimating from lead prices and assumed close rates. This page prints your arithmetic. To see the whole chain, with the cost at every step and which lever moves it most, read the flow.

Worked examples, checked on the page

What it leaves out

• Repeat business and referrals from a sold job, which lower the true cost. Count them if you can measure them.
• Time: this month's jobs came from last month's leads if your cycle is long.
• Overheads. Gross margin is materials and labour.