Max Cost Per Lead

What's the most you can spend per lead and still make money — worked backwards from your actual numbers.

Job Economics

Job Type

Average Ticket *

What a typical job from this channel brings in. Service calls are usually $300–$500. Installs are $6,000–$12,000. Use the Price Book Builder to see your actual prices.

Gross Margin *

Gross margin is what percentage of the job price is left after paying for labor and materials. A $400 job with 50% gross margin earns $200 in gross profit.

Lead Performance

Channel

Close Rate

Percentage of leads that become paying jobs. Selecting a channel above auto-fills the industry default. Override with your actual close rate if you track it.

Profitability Guard

Marketing Budget Share

Marketing budget share is what percentage of the gross profit from each lead you are willing to spend on acquiring that lead. 30% means you keep 70% for overhead and profit. Lower percentages are more conservative. Higher percentages grow faster but leave less room for overhead.

Your Current CPL (optional)

What you're paying now

$ /lead

Enter your actual CPL (Cost Per Lead) for this channel. Find it by dividing your monthly channel spend by the number of leads it generated. The calculator will tell you if you are under, in the caution zone, or over your ceiling.

Max CPL (Conservative) — recommended ceiling per lead

— Gross Profit / Job

— Profit / Lead

— Breakeven CPL

2026 CPL Benchmarks by Channel

Channel	Typical CPL	Close Rate
Google LSA	$39–$59	40%
Google Ads PPC	$80–$150	27%
Organic / SEO	$18–$45	50%
Referrals	$25–$75	60%
Database / Email	$5–$20	15%
Direct Mail	$50–$150	3%
Angi / HomeAdvisor	$30–$80	10%

What to do with this ceiling

Set per-channel budgets based on the ceiling. If your conservative ceiling for service leads is $21 and LSA leads cost $50, that channel is losing money at current performance. Either improve the close rate, raise the average ticket, or reallocate that budget to a cheaper channel.
Install leads justify higher CPL than service leads. An $8,000 install ticket at 40% margin produces $3,200 in gross profit per job. A $400 service ticket at 50% margin produces $200. The math supports spending 10–15 times more per install lead than per service lead.
The conservative ceiling is your real number. The breakeven CPL is the absolute maximum. The conservative ceiling leaves room for overhead and profit. If you spend at the breakeven level, every dollar of gross profit goes to acquisition and nothing is left for the business.
Revisit when your numbers change. A price increase, a close rate improvement, or a change in your job mix all shift the ceiling. Run this again after any significant change to pricing, lead handling, or service mix.

CPL benchmarks from SearchLight Digital (816 contractors), PipelineOn, and Web Tonic 2026 data. Max CPL methodology from JordanWorx. These are planning estimates. Actual performance varies by market, season, and campaign quality.

Sources (4)

JordanWorx — Max CPL methodology
SearchLight Digital — 2026 HVAC CPL benchmarks (816 contractors)
PipelineOn — CPL and CAC benchmarks by channel
Web Tonic — HVAC lead cost analysis