Average job revenue
Average your last 10 invoices for one service. Skip the outliers - the middle is what the math runs on.
Free tool for contractors
Google Ads Profit Calculator for Contractors
Answer the question that decides everything about advertising: can Google Ads actually make you money? See what a lead is worth, the most you could pay for one, and the budget it takes to hit your job goals - live, as you type.
Results update as you type
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See what your leads are really worth
The cards below use your first service. The comparison further down covers all of them.
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Profit per lead. On average, every lead that comes in is worth this to you, before ad costs.
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Break-even cost per lead. The most you could pay for a lead and still break even. Your target should be well under this.
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Net profit per lead. What is left from each lead after paying for it.
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Return per ad dollar. Gross profit back for every $1 of ad spend.
Can't fill in that cost per lead box?
That's the real problem. If you don't know your cost per lead, you can't know if your ads are working - or if they ever could. Proper tracking is the first thing we install.
Profit per lead, service by service
Services missing numbers show a dash until they are filled in.
See the difference?
In Google Ads, each service gets its own ad group with its own budget. You don't have to advertise everything - put the money behind the jobs that pay. Structuring an account around your most profitable services is most of the work, and it is exactly what we do.
These are estimates built from the averages you entered, not a forecast or a guarantee. Real results move with season, competition, and the page your ads land on.
What it takes to get there
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Leads needed per month. Rounded up - you can't buy half a lead.
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Estimated monthly ad budget. Leads needed times cost per lead.
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Projected monthly profit at those numbers, after the ad spend comes off.
How do you get your cost per lead DOWN?
A better landing page. When a click costs $20, sending it to a dated homepage burns money. The same budget buys more leads when the page converts more of the clicks it already gets. Run your page through our free auditor to see where it stands, or see how we build landing pages made for ad traffic.
These are estimates built from the numbers you entered, not a forecast or a guarantee. Real costs per lead move with season, competition, and page quality.
Service 1
What a typical job bills, not your biggest one.
About what you keep on a typical job, after materials, labour, and subs.
Out of 10 people who call or fill your form, how many become paying jobs? 2-3 out of 10 is typical.
Where to find these numbers
Rough is fine to start. The calculator gets sharper as your numbers do.
Profit per job
A gut number is fine: job price minus materials, labour, and subs. If you think in dollars ("I make about $2K on a bathroom"), use the dollar toggle. If you know your margin percent, use that instead.
Close rate
Count how many of your last 10 leads became paid work. Most contractors land at 2 or 3. Above 5 usually means strong word of mouth - expect paid leads to close lower.
Cost per lead is the number that runs the whole show
Ad platforms love to report clicks and impressions. None of that pays for the truck. Once you know two numbers - what a lead is worth to you, and what a lead costs you - advertising stops being a gamble and becomes arithmetic. Cost per lead under your break-even with room to spare: scale up. Over it: stop and fix the leak.
Why most contractors can't answer the cost-per-lead question
Not a knowledge problem - a plumbing problem.
- Calls are invisibleMost contractor leads phone in, and without call tracking those calls never connect back to the ad that produced them.
- Forms arrive blankA form fill without attribution fields tells you someone wants a quote - and nothing about which ad paid for them.
- Spend and jobs live in different worldsGoogle knows what you spent. Your invoicing knows what you earned. Nothing joins the two.
Tracking first, then opinions
Call tracking, form attribution, and conversion tags wired into your ad account mean every lead reports where it came from. That install is the first deliverable on every Google Ads engagement we take on - until it is in, everyone is guessing.
Calculator questions, answered
Straight answers about the numbers and what to do with them.
What close rate should I use if I have never measured it?
Count your last 10 leads - everyone who called or filled out your form - and count how many became paying jobs. If you honestly cannot say, start with 25 percent, which is 2 to 3 jobs out of 10 leads, and tighten the number as you track real leads.
Is cost per lead the same as cost per click?
No. A click is someone landing on your page. A lead is someone calling or filling out your form. If clicks cost $10 and 1 in 5 visitors becomes a lead, your cost per lead is $50. That gap is why the page your ads land on changes the math so much.
What is a good cost per lead for a contractor?
There is no universal number. Typical contractor cost per lead runs roughly $40-$250 depending on the trade, the city, and the competition. Good is relative to your own break-even: if a lead is worth $500 to you, a $150 lead is a bargain. If a lead is worth $80, that same $150 lead is a slow leak.
Where do I find my real cost per lead?
Divide one month of ad spend by the number of leads that month. The hard part is counting leads accurately, because that takes call tracking and form tracking tied back to your ads - and most contractor accounts do not have it. Installing that tracking is the first thing we do.
Does this calculator save or send my numbers?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is stored, sent, or shared, and reloading the page starts you fresh.
Want your real numbers, not estimates?
This calculator runs on your best guesses. We replace guesses with data: a tracking install plus an account audit that shows your true cost per lead, service by service.