Marketing ROI calculator built for home service contractors
Plug in your channels. See ROAS and true profit ROI side by side. The only contractor ROI calculator that tracks lead-to-quote, quote-to-job, and gross margin per channel - because cost per lead alone tells you nothing.
Pre-loaded with the HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and electrical worked examples. No signup.
Real marketing ROI, per channel
Stop comparing channels on cost per lead. This calculates ROAS and true profit ROI for every channel side by side. Pre-loaded with the example numbers from the article.
| Channel | Spend | Leads | L→Q % | Q→J % | Avg Ticket | Margin % | CPL | Jobs | Revenue | ROAS | Profit ROI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $56 | 24.3 | $40,095 | 8.02x | 1.81x | ||||||||
| $70 | 16.1 | $11,610 | 3.87x | 0.55x | ||||||||
| $71 | 10.0 | $18,018 | 9.01x | 2.15x | ||||||||
| Total | $10,000 | 161 | — | — | $1,382 | — | $62 | 50.4 | $69,723 | 6.97x | 1.50x |
Annual run rate: $836,676
Healthy. 3x is the floor, 5x+ is healthy.
After gross margin, before overhead.
How the numbers are calculated
The six inputs you need before you can calculate
You cannot get a real ROI number without these six. If you are missing any, your ROI is a guess. Most online calculators only ask for two of them - which is why they spit out numbers that do not match your bank account.
What good ROI actually looks like for contractors
Benchmarks in order of how often contractors hit them. The median plumbing contractor produces 5.54x ROAS per SearchLight Digital's analysis of 500+ accounts and $14 million in spend.
Once you account for margin and overhead, the channel is underwater. Pause or rebuild.
Most underperforming campaigns sit here. Fix close rate, ticket size, or CPL before scaling.
The 3x floor is what most home service consultants treat as the minimum to keep a campaign running.
Median plumbing contractor hits 5.54x per SearchLight Digital's $14M-spend analysis.
High close rate, high ticket, strong reputation, disciplined targeting. Top quartile plumbing LSAs hit 6.5x.
On a net profit basis, healthy contractor marketing produces 3:1 LTV to CAC or better per WebFX's 2026 HVAC benchmarks. That ratio rolls in repeat work, referrals, and membership conversions.
ROAS vs ROI: stop using them interchangeably
ROAS = Revenue / Ad Spend. A 5x ROAS means $1 in ads produced $5 in tracked revenue. That is your channel-level decision metric.
ROI = (Revenue - Cost) / Cost. A 5x ROAS is roughly a 400% revenue ROI on that ad spend, before margin and overhead. That is your business-level profit metric.
A median plumbing contractor produces 5.54x ROAS per SearchLight Digital. That sounds great until you realize the same contractor's true profit ROI after labor, overhead, and trip costs might be closer to 1.5x. Both numbers are right. They measure different things. Service contractors need both - ROAS for "should I keep running this channel" and profit ROI for "is the business actually making money."
Four mistakes that make the calculation lie
Counting form fills as leads
A form fill is an intention signal, not a lead. Count booked appointments. LocaliQ's 2025 home services average form conversion rate was 7.33% - meaning a healthy chunk of "leads" are bots, wrong numbers, or homeowners who ghost.
Using lifetime ticket value instead of average ticket
A single $11,000 furnace replacement pulls your monthly average up if you mix it with $180 service calls. ROI per channel should use the average ticket that channel actually produces, not your blended company-wide LTV.
Ignoring overhead and labor cost
Gross margin is not net profit. A 35% gross margin on $40,000 is $14,000 - but if office, dispatch, fleet, and overhead eat $9,000, your real net is $5,000. Build the gross ROI first, then sanity check against net.
Last-touch attribution
Most home service jobs touch 3-7 sources before they book. Last-touch makes your direct mail look dead and your Google Ads look like a hero. Real attribution requires call tracking, source-tagged forms, and asking every booked customer where they heard about you.
Marketing ROI questions contractors actually ask
What is the marketing ROI formula for contractors?
Marketing ROI = (Revenue from marketing - Marketing cost) / Marketing cost. For contractors, "revenue from marketing" means gross closed job revenue traceable to a specific channel - not leads, not form fills, not gross profit. A 5x ROAS on Google Ads is roughly a 400% revenue ROI, but the profit ROI after margin and overhead is usually 1-2x of that.
What is a good marketing ROI for HVAC and plumbing contractors?
A 3x ROAS is the working floor for service contractors and 5x+ is healthy. Median plumbing contractor produces 5.54x ROAS per SearchLight Digital. Top plumbing LSA accounts hit 6.5x per March 2026 Data Driven Trades benchmarks. WebFX's 2026 HVAC benchmarks recommend a 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio as the profitability floor.
What is the difference between ROAS and ROI?
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is Revenue / Ad Spend - a 5x ROAS means $1 in ads produced $5 in tracked revenue. ROI factors in cost, so it is (Revenue - Cost) / Cost. ROAS is the channel-level decision metric; ROI is the business-level profit metric. You need both because a healthy ROAS can still produce a thin profit ROI once labor, materials, and overhead are accounted for.
What inputs do I need to calculate marketing ROI accurately?
Six inputs: monthly ad spend by channel, leads attributed to that channel (booked appointments, not form fills), lead-to-quote rate, quote-to-job close rate, average job value by channel, and gross margin percentage. Miss any and your ROI number is a guess. This calculator captures all six per channel.
Why do most marketing ROI calculators give the wrong number?
Three reasons: they treat leads as revenue, they use last-touch attribution, and they ignore overhead and labor cost. Most online calculators have one input for spend and one for revenue - which cannot capture lead-to-quote rates, quote-to-job close rates, or per-channel average ticket. This calculator handles all of it per channel.
How do I actually track marketing ROI per channel in real life?
Real attribution needs call tracking with per-channel phone numbers, source-tagged web forms, and a CRM that captures the source on every booked job. Pull spend from each ad platform, leads from your CRM by source, and closed revenue from your invoicing system. PipelineOn ties all three together automatically so you do not have to maintain a spreadsheet.
Want this calculated automatically from real spend and revenue?
PipelineOn ties ad spend to leads to booked jobs to invoiced revenue, per channel. No spreadsheet updates. No guessing which channel is profitable.
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