The number on the invoice is not the cost of the lead. The cost of the lead is what you paid for every job you actually won, and those are different numbers by a factor of five or more.
The arithmetic nobody does
Say a shared lead costs $65 and you close one in six. Six leads is $390 spent to win one job. That $390 is your real cost per booked job, and it left your account whether or not the customer ever paid you.
Now add the hours. Six leads is six calls, some of them twice, plus a couple of quotes written in the evening for people who were price-shopping four plumbers. If you value your own time at even $60 an hour and it took three hours across those six, that is another $180. The job that felt like it cost $65 cost $570.
Work out your own number
You need three figures, and you already have all of them:
- What you pay per lead, on average, across the last three months.
- How many leads you took in that period.
- How many of those became a job you invoiced.
Divide total spend by jobs won. That is your cost per booked job. Not per lead — per job. Most plumbers who do this for the first time are surprised, and not pleasantly.
Why the close rate is lower than you think
A shared lead is sold to three, four, sometimes five contractors. The homeowner submitted one form and their phone rings all afternoon. You are not being judged on your work — you are being judged on whether you called first, and whether your number was lowest. Neither of those has anything to do with being a good plumber.
This is why the same lead source can produce a 30% close rate for one shop and 12% for another. The shop closing 30% has someone whose entire job is answering the phone within ninety seconds. If that is not you, do not use their number to plan your month.
What changes the maths
There are only three levers. Pay less per lead, close more of them, or stop paying up front and pay out of the job instead.
The first is mostly out of your control. The second is real but expensive — it means answering faster, which usually means paying someone to sit by a phone. The third changes the shape of the risk entirely: if nothing leaves your account until a customer has paid you, a bad month costs you time but not money.
That is the model Pipe Well runs on. We book the appointment, send it to one plumber, and take 50% of the job after your documented material costs — only once the customer has paid. A quote that goes nowhere costs you nothing, because there was no quote; the time was already agreed before you were called.
The honest counter-argument
On a large job, half of the net is a large number. If you are already booked solid, or your work is mostly high-ticket repipes, buying leads at $65 and closing them yourself will keep you more money. That is simply true and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
The model is worth it when you have capacity you are not filling — a new van, a quiet winter, a second technician you are trying to keep busy. Empty hours cost you more than any commission does.
Booked appointments, not leads
Free to join. No monthly fee, no charge per lead. Pipe Well is paid 50% of the job after your documented materials — and only once the customer has paid you.
See how it works →Or call (562) 800-5506 — one line, answered nationwide.