Roofing Lead Cost Calculator: Cost per Collected Job

A $100 roofing lead can cost less per collected job than a $60 lead. The difference is the proportion of leads that survive contact, qualification, appointments, cancellation and collection. Use this calculator to connect the lead invoice to the cash-producing job, then check the company’s acquisition target.

Calculate from leads to collected jobs

Use all-in cost for one source and a consistent acquisition cohort. Each percentage is conditional on the stage immediately before it. Keep spend and stage definitions consistent when comparing sources. Zero jobs make acquisition cost per job N/A, not $0.

The cheaper lead loses this comparison

On a phone, swipe the table to read every column.

B buys leads at a higher price but produces collected jobs at a lower acquisition cost. B also consumes $4,000 more cash and may require different labor. Do not call it “better” without checking capacity and comparable job mix. The lesson is narrower: CPL alone cannot rank these two sources.

Reproduce the $100-to-$1,666.67 result

In this illustrative mature cohort, the invoice is $10,000, confirmed credits are $1,000 and attributable source-operating cost is $1,000. All-in spend is still $10,000. One hundred delivered leads become 80 contacts, 60 qualified opportunities, 40 sets, 32 held appointments, eight signed jobs and six collected jobs.

On a phone, swipe the table to read every column.

To reproduce it, enter spend 10000, leads 100, contact 80%, qualified 75%, set 66.6667%, show 80%, close 25% and collected 75%. The displayed percentages are conditional: 60 ÷ 80 is 75%, not 60%. Fractional output from rounded rates is planning math; the integer historical ledger remains the actual result.

Positive profit does not mean the source meets your target

Six collected jobs at $15,000 and 35% margin produce $31,500 gross profit. Subtract $10,000 acquisition cost: contribution is $21,500 and acquisition ROI is 215%. Those are positive economics under the assumptions.

Now set a company policy that acquisition should consume at most 25% of gross profit. Allowed acquisition cost per collected job is $15,000 × 35% × 25% = $1,312.50. At a 6% lead-to-collected rate, maximum all-in CPL is $78.75. Actual $100 CPL is above that target even though the cohort is profitable. The target is a management choice, not an industry benchmark.

Maximum CPL = average collected revenue × gross margin × allowed acquisition share of gross profit × lead-to-collected-job rate. You multiply by the survival rate because most delivered leads do not become collected jobs. Dividing by that rate would make a worse-converting source appear able to afford a higher price.

Which stage deserves the next operating dollar?

Keep the same $10,000 spend and all later rates unchanged. Raising contact from 80 to 90 people adds 0.75 expected collected jobs: 10 × 75% × 66.6667% × 80% × 25% × 75%. At $5,250 gross profit per job, that is about $3,937.50 before the cost of improved contact coverage.

Alternatively, collecting seven of the existing eight signed jobs instead of six adds one job’s $5,250 gross profit before any extra collection cost. That is not necessarily a sales-training issue: the missing job may be unfinished, canceled or disputed. Inspect the reason before assigning the fix. This comparison estimates the value of a stage change; it does not establish that either improvement can be achieved.

A credit changes cost, not history

Keep delivered leads, billed leads and qualified opportunities as separate counts. A credited inquiry still happened. Removing it from the delivered denominator while also subtracting its charge can make the source’s funnel look artificially better. Use net billed spend for billing CPL and all-in spend for operating CAC; label the two calculations.

Google’s LSA lead documentation distinguishes lead charging and credits. Lead price varies with the offer and market; it is not a universal roofing rate. The LSA ROI guide shows how a billing dashboard can look healthy while collected economics deteriorate.

Do not compare a finished cohort with jobs still in production

A source with six collected jobs today and four unfinished jobs is not directly comparable to an older source whose jobs are all resolved. Keep an acquisition-date cohort and show signed, completed and collected counts separately. If the cohort is immature, report current cash and unresolved jobs; do not silently treat the unresolved jobs as permanent losses or guaranteed future collections.

When one source struggles by rep, use the sales KPI scorecard. When the loss is between contact and held appointment, use the follow-up guide. For a broader budget decision, use marketing ROI. For a different acquisition method, compare paid field hours rather than calling canvassing “free leads.”

Method and source notes

The calculator uses displayed inputs, not a national conversion benchmark. Both source comparisons and stage sensitivities are illustrative. Confirm your margin definition and avoid counting the same labor cost in margin and acquisition spend. Pricing examples and contract-specific offers belong in current written quotes. Related: roofing acquisition channels and lead cost definitions. This is a planning tool, not an accounting statement; figures and wording were reviewed September 28, 2026.