Cost per booked job is your total marketing spend divided by the number of jobs that spend actually put on the schedule. Cost per lead tells you what you pay for a phone number; cost per booked job tells you what you pay for work.
- Formula: total marketing spend ÷ booked jobs - or cost per lead ÷ close rate.
- Shared roofing leads at $40-$110 each can cost $500-$1,250 per booked job once close rates are counted (Profit Acuity analysis, July 2026).
- Book rate beats lead price: a $60 lead at a 48% book rate costs $125 per booked job; a $40 lead at 30% costs $133.
- Average Google Local Service Ads CPL was $53 with a 43.9% book rate in February 2026.
- The three levers: close rate, lead quality, and average job value.
The formula, two ways
Way one: work backward from your books. Take everything you spent on marketing in the period - ads, lead platforms, referral fees, all of it - and divide by the jobs that spend actually booked. $3,000 that produced 15 booked jobs is $200 per booked job.
Way two: work forward from your lead cost. Cost per lead divided by close rate equals cost per booked job. A $75 lead closing at 6% is a $1,250 acquisition cost. A $100 referral at 50% is $200. Same industry, ten times apart.
The second form is the one worth memorizing, because it shows the two numbers interact. The cheap-looking lead can be the expensive one.
Why cost per lead lies
Consider two campaigns for the same roofing market:
| Scenario A: shared leads | Scenario B: exclusive requests | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | $30 | $150 |
| Close rate | 5% | 33% |
| Leads needed per booked job | 20 | 3 |
| Cost per booked job | $600 | $450 |
Scenario A looks five times cheaper at the invoice level and costs more per job. This is not a hypothetical edge case. A July 2026 analysis of shared marketplace roofing leads (Angi, HomeAdvisor) put contractors' true cost per booked job at $500 to over $1,250 depending on close rates - against per-lead prices advertised at $40-$110. Contractors with weak speed-to-lead and loose qualification close 5-15% of those leads; strong operations close 15-25%.
What good looks like in 2026
Benchmarks by channel:
- Google Local Service Ads: average CPL of $53 across home services in February 2026 (888 contractors, $6.72M observed spend), with a 43.9% average book rate. At those numbers, roughly $120 per booked appointment. The same analysis notes a $60 CPL with a 48% book rate ($125 per booked) beats a $40 CPL at a 30% book rate ($133 per booked).
- Google Ads, roofing: non-branded cost per lead averages $124, with top-quartile accounts under $80 and bottom-quartile above $256. Roofing leads close at lower rates than repair-heavy trades, so cost per booked job is the metric that equalizes the comparison.
- Sales cycle: the average home service lead takes about 60 days from first contact to booked job, though emergency jobs close same-day. Judge a channel on a full cycle, not a week.
There is no universal "good" cost per booked job - it depends on your average ticket. A $600 acquisition cost on a $15,000 roof replacement is fine. The same cost on a $150 service call is not. The working threshold: cost per booked job should sit well below your gross margin on the average job.
The three levers that move it
- Close rate. A fast callback and disciplined follow-up can double your close rate, which halves your cost per booked job without touching the ad budget. Most lost leads are lost to slow response, not to price.
- Lead quality. Exclusive, high-intent requests book at far higher rates than shared leads five companies are chasing. Exclusivity is not a luxury feature; it is the mechanism that turns a 5% close rate into a 30% close rate.
- Average job value. The bigger the ticket, the more marketing each booking can carry. Track cost per booked job against revenue, not in isolation.
How to calculate yours today
- Pull last quarter's total marketing spend from your accounts.
- Count the jobs that spend produced - from your CRM or schedule, not from the ad platform's "conversions" column.
- Divide. That is your cost per booked job.
- Do it per channel. Most businesses find one channel carries the business while two others burn budget at a worse cost per lead but a better story - the per-channel split is where the cuts live.
Where Handvetted sits in this math
Handvetted sends each homeowner request to one business - a single licensed, background-checked, 4.5-star-or-better professional, briefed before contact, with the homeowner's details never resold or shared. One match per request is the exclusivity that changes close rates in the table above, and the four-point verification standard is published, including license confirmation through official state registries and a human review of every application.
FAQ
What is cost per booked job?
Total marketing spend divided by the number of jobs that spend booked. Equivalently, cost per lead divided by close rate.
Why is cost per lead misleading?
It ignores close rates. A $30 shared lead closing at 5% costs $600 per booked job; a $150 exclusive lead closing at 33% costs about $450. The cheaper lead is the more expensive job.
What is a good cost per booked job in 2026?
There is no single number - judge it against your average ticket. Shared marketplace roofing leads work out to $500-$1,250 per booked job at typical close rates; strong Local Service Ads performance lands near $125.
How do I lower my cost per booked job?
Raise your close rate (fast response, disciplined follow-up), raise lead quality (exclusive, high-intent requests), or raise average job value. Any one of the three moves the number more than renegotiating lead prices.
What is the average book rate for home service leads?
Google Local Service Ads averaged a 43.9% book rate in February 2026. Shared marketplace leads close at 5-15% for weaker operations and 15-25% for strong ones.
How long until a lead becomes a booked job?
About 60 days on average for planned projects, with emergency jobs often booking same-day. Measure channels over a full cycle.
Related reading
Source note: Profit Acuity cost-per-booked-job analysis (July 2026); Searchlight Digital, Google Local Service Ads and Google Ads roofing benchmarks (2026); BuiltRight Digital CPL vs CPB comparison; Home Service Direct. Checked October 9, 2026.
For businesses
Handvetted reviews every business application by hand against its published four-point standard. If you run a home service business and want requests that go to you alone, see the vetting standard and apply through the For Businesses section of handvetted.com.