What Is a Good Cost Per Lead for HVAC, Plumbing, and Roofing in 2026?
9 min read · August 4, 2026
Quick answer
A good cost per lead in 2026 is about 65 to 120 dollars for HVAC, 55 to 110 dollars for plumbing, 120 to 260 dollars for roofing, and 60 to 115 dollars for electrical when blended across channels. Local Service Ads and mature SEO sit at the low end, Google Ads in the middle, and Meta lead forms are cheapest per lead but lowest in quality.
Cost per lead only means something next to trade, channel, and lead quality. Here are the ranges we see across home service accounts, plus how to read them.
What is a good cost per lead for home service companies?
As a rule of thumb, a healthy blended cost per lead is under 10 percent of your average ticket for service work and under 4 percent for replacement or install work. Above that, either close rate or channel mix needs work.
What is the average cost per lead by trade?
Blended across channels, in typical US metros:
- HVAC service: 65 to 120 dollars. HVAC replacement: 180 to 400 dollars.
- Plumbing: 55 to 110 dollars. Repipe and sewer: 150 to 350 dollars.
- Roofing: 120 to 260 dollars. Storm and insurance work: 200 to 450 dollars.
- Electrical: 60 to 115 dollars. Panel upgrades: 140 to 300 dollars.
How does cost per lead differ by channel?
Channel matters more than trade for CPL, and lead quality moves in the opposite direction of cost.
- Mature local SEO: 20 to 45 dollars per lead, high intent.
- Local Service Ads: 45 to 120 dollars per lead, high intent, pay per lead.
- Google Ads search: 70 to 220 dollars per lead, high intent.
- Meta lead forms: 18 to 55 dollars per lead, low to medium intent.
- Purchased shared leads: 35 to 90 dollars per lead, low quality, sold to several contractors.
What is the difference between cost per lead and cost per booked job?
Cost per booked job is cost per lead divided by your booking rate. At 80 dollars per lead and a 40 percent booking rate, a booked job costs 200 dollars. Improving booking rate from 40 to 55 percent cuts that to 145 dollars without spending a dollar more.
How do you lower your cost per lead without cutting spend?
Answer faster, shift budget toward channels with higher intent, add negative keywords, send ads to service specific pages, and grow reviews so both LSA and organic placement improve. These typically move blended CPL down 20 to 35 percent within a quarter.
What cost per lead should you expect in your first 90 days?
Expect 30 to 60 percent above your steady state number while campaigns learn and content indexes. Judge performance on the trailing 30 days of month three, not on week two.
Key takeaways
- Blended CPL should stay under 10 percent of average service ticket.
- Roofing carries the highest CPL, plumbing the lowest.
- Mature SEO and LSA produce the cheapest high-intent leads.
- Booking rate moves cost per booked job faster than spend does.
- Expect elevated CPL for the first 90 days of any new program.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead for roofing?
Between 120 and 260 dollars for standard replacement leads, and 200 to 450 dollars for storm and insurance work in competitive metros.
What is a good cost per lead for HVAC?
About 65 to 120 dollars for service leads and 180 to 400 dollars for replacement leads, blended across channels.
Which channel has the lowest cost per lead?
Meta lead forms are cheapest per lead but lowest in intent. For qualified leads, mature local SEO at 20 to 45 dollars is the lowest cost channel.
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