Most home-service owners have a gut feeling about whether their marketing is working. The problem is, gut feelings don’t scale — and they definitely don’t help you figure out whether you’re leaving money on the table.
We put together this benchmarks breakdown using anonymized performance data from active client campaigns across plumbing, HVAC, roofing, windows, and waterproofing markets in 2024. The goal isn’t to brag about our numbers. It’s to give you a frame of reference so you can look at your own KPIs and know — objectively — whether you’re ahead, behind, or stuck in the middle.
The Core KPIs That Actually Matter
Before we get into numbers, let’s be clear about what’s worth measuring. Too many contractors track vanity metrics — impressions, website visits, “leads generated” — without connecting any of it to revenue. The KPIs below are the ones that tell you whether your marketing is making you money or just making your agency look busy.
- Cost Per Lead (CPL): What you pay for each inbound call or form fill. But not all leads are equal — a $50 lead that never books is more expensive than a $150 lead that closes at 60%.
- Cost Per Booked Job: The real cost of acquiring a customer, not just a phone call. This is where most companies lose track.
- Close Rate: The percentage of leads that turn into paying jobs. This is as much a sales metric as a marketing metric — but your marketing channels directly influence it.
- Average Ticket: How much each job is worth. The right marketing mix doesn’t just bring in more leads — it brings in better leads who spend more.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. If you’re not tracking this number, you’re guessing.
National Averages vs. What’s Actually Achievable
Here’s where it gets interesting. National averages for home-service marketing paint a picture of what “normal” looks like. But normal isn’t good — normal means you’re competing on the same channels as everyone else, paying the same inflated CPCs, and fighting for the same pool of price-shopping leads.
The companies that break out of that cycle share a common trait: they diversify beyond digital-only marketing. Specifically, the operators we work with who added TV and streaming to their mix consistently outperform national benchmarks by significant margins.
| KPI | National Average | Top Performers (TV + Digital) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Per Lead | $125 – $225 | $45 – $85 |
| Cost Per Booked Job | $400 – $700 | $150 – $300 |
| Close Rate | 25% – 35% | 55% – 70% |
| Marketing Cost as % of Revenue | 10% – 14% | 5% – 8% |
| ROAS | 2.5x – 4x | 8x – 13x |
Source: Anonymized data from active Wanamaker Advertising client campaigns, Jan–Dec 2024. All U.S. markets.
Breaking It Down by Industry
Averages are useful, but home services isn’t one market — it’s several. A plumbing company and a roofing company have different ticket sizes, seasonality patterns, and competitive dynamics. Here’s how the numbers look when you zoom in.
Plumbing & HVAC
Plumbing and HVAC companies tend to have the highest close rates in home services because the work is often urgent — a broken furnace in January isn’t something homeowners shop around for. That urgency means your marketing’s job is less about convincing and more about being the first trusted name that comes to mind.
What we’ve seen: Average CPL of $95 with a 79% close rate. Average ticket lift of 18% once TV was added to the mix. ROAS consistently around 9.3x. The biggest driver? Branded search lift. When homeowners see your company on TV and then Google your name instead of “plumber near me,” you skip the bidding war entirely.
Roofing & Exteriors
Roofing is a high-ticket, high-consideration purchase. Homeowners research more, compare more, and take longer to decide. That makes brand trust the single most important factor in the sales process — and it’s exactly what TV builds.
What we’ve seen: Average CPL of $120 with a 39% close rate and 20% average ticket lift. One Pennsylvania roofing company was stuck at $5M in revenue for three years. After adding TV, they crossed $10M in under 24 months — lead volume up 21%, average ticket up 22%, close rate up 14.6%.
Windows & Doors
Window replacement is one of the most competitive home-service categories for digital advertising. Google Ads CPCs for window-related terms have climbed steadily for years, and lead aggregators dominate the space. Companies that rely exclusively on digital are watching their margins shrink.
What we’ve seen: Average CPL of $165, close rate of 42%, average ticket lift of 18%, and ROAS of 10.2x. A Tennessee-based windows company that was dealing with rising lead costs and slipping close rates saw both reverse within one quarter of adding TV — lead volume up 31%, CPL down 24%, average ticket up 27%.
Why These Numbers Are So Different
The gap between national averages and top performers isn’t about spending more. In fact, one of our HVAC clients added TV without increasing their total marketing budget — they reallocated from underperforming digital channels.
The difference comes down to three things:
1. Brand-driven demand creates better leads. When someone Googles your company name because they saw your TV spot, that lead converts at 2-3x the rate of a generic “contractor near me” click. Your cost per booked job drops because you’re not competing for the lead — the homeowner already chose you.
2. TV lifts everything else. When TV is running, your Google Ads CPL drops, your organic traffic increases, your close rates go up, and your average ticket rises. It’s not one channel replacing another — it’s one channel making every other channel more efficient.
3. Attribution connects the dots. Most companies can’t tell you which marketing dollar produced which job. Without that visibility, budget decisions are guesswork. The operators who outperform track from first impression to booked revenue — and make decisions based on actual ROAS, not impression reports.
If you want to understand how that attribution framework works in practice, we put together a free Attribution Playbook that walks through the exact system we use with clients.
How to Use These Benchmarks
Pull up your own numbers and compare. Specifically:
If your CPL is above the national average — you’re overpaying for leads, probably because you’re over-indexed on one or two digital channels. Diversification would help, but you also might have an offer or creative problem.
If your close rate is below 40% — your leads may be low-intent (price shoppers from aggregators or generic search terms), or your sales process needs work. Brand-driven leads close at dramatically higher rates because trust is pre-built.
If your ROAS is below 5x — you’re likely spending efficiently on the wrong mix. A 3x ROAS on Google Ads alone is respectable. But if you could be running at 9-11x with a TV + digital system, that gap is real revenue you’re leaving behind.
If you don’t know your real numbers — that’s the most common scenario, and it’s the most expensive one. You can’t optimize what you can’t measure. Start with your CRM data and work backward from booked jobs to marketing source. Our full KPI benchmarks breakdown can help you self-assess.
The Bottom Line
National marketing averages tell you what most companies settle for. They shouldn’t tell you what to aim for. The contractors who are scaling past $5M, $10M, and beyond aren’t doing it by spending more on Google — they’re doing it by building full-funnel systems that create demand, not just capture it.
If you want to see how your numbers compare to what’s achievable in your specific market, book a free Lead Audit. It’s a 30-minute conversation — no junior reps, no obligation. Just an honest look at where you stand and what’s possible.