Use the calculator: Enter monthly lead spend, leads received, close rate, and average job value. It returns cost per lead, estimated sold jobs, cost per sold job, revenue, and a simple revenue return.
Use your data: The defaults are a worked example, not roofing-industry averages. Replace them with reconciled invoices and mature CRM outcomes from one lead source and one fixed cohort.
Use the right page: This page owns user-input math. For cross-channel price context, use the roofing lead cost benchmarks. For one vendor, use the HomeAdvisor contractor cost model. For platform selection, compare Angi vs HomeAdvisor.
Important: “Revenue return” above is revenue minus lead spend, divided by lead spend. It is not profit ROI. It does not subtract labor, materials, commission, overhead, cancellations, financing cost, or warranty exposure. Use the roofing ROI calculator when you have gross-profit and operating-cost inputs.
Next Step
Pair lead-cost math with the next decision pages
Lead cost only matters if the reader can compare sources, booked-job economics, and where conversion breaks down next.
Roofing Lead Cost Formulas
| Metric | Formula | Use it to answer |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | Net source spend ÷ leads received | What did each delivered lead cost? |
| Cost per valid contact | Total source cost ÷ valid contacts | How much spend survives bad numbers, duplicates, and unreachable leads? |
| Cost per held appointment | Total source cost ÷ held appointments | What does it cost to create a real sales opportunity? |
| Cost per sold job | Total source cost ÷ sold jobs | How much acquisition cost sits in each signed job? |
| Cost per collected job | Total source cost ÷ completed, collected jobs | What did the source cost after cancellations and production fallout? |
| Gross-profit contribution | Collected gross profit − total source cost | Did the cohort add contribution after acquisition cost? |
Use net source spend after approved credits. Use total source cost when you can also allocate required response labor, rep time, travel, platform fees, and source-specific tools consistently. Do not switch definitions between channels.
Worked Roofing Lead Cost Example
A roofing company spends $5,000 on one lead source and receives 50 leads. At a 25% planning close rate, the expected value is 12.5 sold jobs across repeated cohorts.
- Cost per lead: $5,000 ÷ 50 = $100.
- Cost per sold job: $5,000 ÷ 12.5 = $400.
- Modeled revenue: 12.5 × $12,000 = $150,000.
That is not enough to approve the channel. The owner still needs collected revenue, direct job cost, gross profit, cancellation status, rep hours, credits, and cohort maturity. A source can produce signed jobs and still fail after margin or collection.
Build a Clean Lead Cohort Before Comparing Sources
- Freeze the source and date range. Do not mix leads from different products, markets, or storms.
- Reconcile every charge and credit. The platform invoice and CRM lead count should agree.
- Define funnel states. Separate received, valid contact, company fit, appointment set, appointment held, sold, completed, and collected.
- Let the cohort mature. A signed roof that later cancels or never collects should not remain a success.
- Segment the work. Repairs, retail replacements, insurance-related inquiries, and commercial work can have different economics.
- Compare the same denominator. Do not compare one source at cost per lead and another at cost per collected job.
Use the roofing lead qualification checklist to standardize fit decisions and the sales KPI scorecard to separate lead-quality problems from rep-execution problems.
Next Step
Use the field tool that helps convert expensive leads
If a lead already costs this much, the rep needs better follow-up and cleaner homeowner messaging before you buy more volume.
Calculator vs Roofing Lead Cost Benchmark
The roofing lead cost benchmark compares the economics and measurement risks of referrals, SEO, Local Services Ads, PPC, canvassing, Angi, and HomeAdvisor. This calculator does not supply market prices. It converts the inputs you already have into a consistent cost per lead and cost per sold job.
Keep that ownership split when sharing the pages internally:
- Use the benchmark page to choose which channels deserve investigation.
- Use this calculator to run one channel's actual or quoted inputs.
- Use the Angi vs HomeAdvisor comparison to evaluate two marketplace offers.
- Use the HomeAdvisor cost model for that platform's contractor terms and cohort economics.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate roofing cost per lead?
Divide net lead-source spend by the number of leads received under a fixed definition. Reconcile credits and fees first so the numerator matches the invoice.
How do I calculate cost per sold roofing job?
Divide total source cost by sold jobs from the same cohort. For the stronger financial view, wait until jobs complete and collect, then calculate cost per collected job.
What is a good roofing lead cost?
There is no universal number. A lead cost is acceptable only when the cohort produces enough collected gross-profit contribution after required labor, travel, fees, cancellations, and production fallout. Compare sources with the same accounting rule.
Should I use close rate or contact rate?
Use both. Contact rate reveals unreachable, duplicate, or low-response inventory. Close rate shows what happens after a valid opportunity reaches the sales process. Record the denominator whenever you state a rate.
Does this calculator show profit ROI?
No. The interactive card shows a simple revenue return before job costs and overhead. Use collected gross profit and full acquisition cost for a profit-based decision.
Next Step
Compare the lead source before adding more spend
Use the related pages that show whether the problem is the channel, the close rate, or what happens after the rep gets the lead.
Related Reading
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See Job Intel →About the Author
Tim Nussbeck
Founder & CEO of GhostRep
Two decades in roofing—knocking doors, running teams, training 1,000+ reps. Built GhostRep to give every rep access to the coaching top teams get.
Lead-gen next step
Turn traffic into pipeline math before you buy more leads
Start with the ROI calculator or lead-generation tools if you are still diagnosing the economics. Book a walkthrough if you want GhostRep tied to lead handling, follow-up, and close-rate lift.
- ✓Best fit if traffic is arriving but too little of it turns into revenue.
- ✓Useful for modeling conversion lift before you increase spend.
- ✓Demo shows how field execution and coaching change lead economics after the click.
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