Free calculator
What a contractor lead
actually costs you.
Sticker price isn't the cost. Your real cost-per-booked-job is sticker price ÷ (answer rate × close rate). Plug in your numbers below — see what shared leads vs exclusive pay-per-call actually cost you per won customer.
Your numbers
What you charge for a typical job in this trade.
What's left after the cost of doing the job — typical home-service trades run 35-60%.
Out of 10 qualified inbound calls, how many turn into paying jobs? Most home-service contractors land between 25-45%.
When the same lead goes to 5 contractors, your close rate drops sharply. Industry estimates: 8-15%.
Pay-per-call (exclusive inbound)
Shared leads (Angi / HomeAdvisor)
Verdict
Plug in your numbers above to see your real cost per booked job in each model.
If you bought 30 leads/calls a month for a year:
Pay-per-call
Spend: $28,800
Booked jobs: 126
Annual gross margin: $31,500
Net: +$2,700
Shared leads
Spend:
Booked jobs:
Annual gross margin:
Break-even
The most you can pay per qualified call and break even at your numbers: $87
Formula: Avg job × Margin × Close rate. Anything below this number is profit on every call.
How this is calculated
Cost per booked job = (Lead/call cost) ÷ (Answer rate × Close rate). Sticker price is meaningless on its own — what matters is the cost of getting one paying customer.
Pay-per-call answer rate is 100% because the customer initiated the call. They're already on the phone.
Shared-lead answer rate uses a flat 40% as an industry estimate — when 5 contractors get the same lead, the homeowner answers the first 1-2 callbacks then stops picking up. The 40% is generous; some markets are worse.
Margin per job = Avg job × Gross margin %.
Profit per call/lead = Margin per job × Close rate − Lead/call price. Negative numbers mean you're losing money per booked customer.
Numbers update live as you change the inputs. Refresh the page to reset to defaults.
Why this calculator exists
Most contractors compare lead-gen options by sticker price: "$50 Angi lead" vs "$100 pay-per-call call" — Angi is cheaper, right? That math is wrong. The actual math is what every business class calls cost-of-customer-acquisition: sticker price divided by what fraction of leads turn into paying jobs. When you run that math honestly, sticker prices flip — the cheap-looking Angi lead often costs you 4-10× more per booked job than the expensive-looking pay-per-call call. We built this calculator so contractors can see the real math at their own numbers, not someone else's.
Read more: the full math comparison · exclusive vs shared leads · what is pay-per-call?
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