What should a booked job cost you?
Most owners know their ad budget and not what a booked job costs. Enter your job value, margin and close rates to see the most you can afford to pay per lead, per appointment and per job, and how many jobs your budget should buy.
Cost per booked job
Estimates only. Your real numbers depend on market, offer, tracking and how fast leads are called back.
How do you calculate cost per booked job?
Cost per booked job is total ad spend divided by the number of jobs it produced. The most you can afford to pay is your average job value, multiplied by gross margin, multiplied by the share of gross profit you are willing to spend to win the job.
For example, a $12,000 job at a 40% margin produces $4,800 of gross profit. If you are willing to spend 30% of that to win it, your maximum cost per booked job is $1,440. With 35% of appointments becoming jobs, you can pay up to $504 per booked appointment.
The math behind the calculator.
Max cost per job = job value × gross margin × share of gross profit you will spend.
Max cost per booked appointment = max cost per job × appointment-to-job rate.
Max cost per lead = max cost per appointment × lead-to-appointment rate.
Jobs from budget = monthly budget ÷ max cost per job. This is the volume your budget should buy if you buy jobs at exactly your ceiling.
How to use the result
- Compare your current cost per job with the maximum. The gap is your room to grow spend profitably.
- If cost per lead looks fine but cost per job is high, the problem is usually callback speed or qualification, not the ads.
- Use lifetime value instead of first-job value if customers buy again, like memberships or auto service.
- Recalculate each quarter with your real close rates.
Answered plainly.
What is a good cost per booked job?
A good cost per booked job is one comfortably below your maximum, which depends on your job value and margin. A remodeler can afford far more per job than a tint shop. Use the calculator with your own numbers.
Is cost per lead or cost per booked job more important?
Cost per booked job. Cheap leads that never book cost more in the end. Cost per lead only matters when you know how many leads become jobs.
What share of gross profit should I spend on advertising?
Many service businesses start between 20% and 35% of gross profit per new job. Spend more if customers come back or refer others, less if margins are thin.
Can Black X calculate this with my real data?
Yes. Our free projection uses your market, history and close rates to project booked jobs and cost per booked job before you spend.
Want the real number for your business?
Tell us your market and current spend. We will model your cost per booked job and send it to you in writing before you pay us anything.