What concrete jobs cost to win: cost per lead and cost per job benchmarks
For Canadian residential concrete, plan on roughly $110 per lead, $170 per booked estimate, and $480 per signed job as blended figures across paid channels. Those numbers move a long way by service: a repair lead is cheap and closes small, a foundation lead is expensive and closes large. The useful benchmark is cost per job against gross profit per job, never cost per lead.
Why cost per lead is the wrong benchmark
Cost per lead is the number every agency quotes because it is the most flattering one available. It is also the least useful, because it says nothing about whether the lead was real, whether it turned into an estimate, or whether the estimate turned into work.
Two contractors both paying $90 a lead can have completely different businesses. One converts 70% of leads into estimates and closes 40%, so a job costs him $320. The other converts 40% and closes 18%, so the same lead price produces a $1,250 job. One of those is a good business and the other is on its way out, and cost per lead cannot tell them apart.
So every table below carries the whole chain through to cost per signed job.
Benchmarks by service type
This is where most contractors find something they did not expect: the services they chase hardest are frequently not the ones that pay best per marketing dollar.
| Service | Cost / lead | Lead → estimate | Estimate → job | Cost / signed job | Typical job value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driveway replacement | $105 | 68% | 35% | $441 | $6,000–$14,000 |
| Stamped / decorative patio | $120 | 60% | 28% | $714 | $8,000–$20,000 |
| Garage or shop slab | $85 | 72% | 40% | $295 | $3,500–$9,000 |
| Foundations & footings | $195 | 55% | 30% | $1,182 | $15,000–$60,000 |
| Concrete repair | $45 | 75% | 45% | $133 | $800–$3,000 |
| Commercial flatwork | $240 | 45% | 25% | $2,133 | $25,000–$200,000 |
These are planning benchmarks assembled from typical Canadian residential concrete patterns, not audited results from a single account. Use them to spot whether your own numbers are wildly out of range, then replace them with yours. Any agency quoting these as measured results, including us, should be asked for the account they came from.
Two things worth noticing in that table.
Garage slabs are quietly the best cost per job on the residential list. Cheaper leads, higher close rate, because the buyer usually knows their dimensions and is comparing on price and availability rather than agonising over finish choices. Most contractors advertise driveways and patios and barely mention slabs.
Repair work is the cheapest acquisition on the board. It is also the work most contractors do not want. But a $133 cost per job on a $1,500 repair is a better return than a $714 cost per job on a $12,000 patio in gross-profit terms, and it fills a crew's dead afternoon.
Benchmarks by channel
| Channel | Cost / lead | Lead → estimate | Estimate → job | Cost / signed job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral | $0 | 85% | 60% | Time only |
| Map pack / organic | $0 direct | 70% | 40% | Time only |
| Local Services Ads | $70 | 60% | 35% | $333 |
| Google Search Ads | $110 | 65% | 35% | $483 |
| Meta / Facebook | $55 | 40% | 25% | $550 |
| Shared lead platform | $45 | 45% | 20% | $500 |
The shared-platform row is the one worth sitting with. The cheapest lead on the paid list produces one of the most expensive jobs, because a lead sold to four contractors converts at roughly half the rate at every step. That is covered in full here.
The three-step conversion math
Every number above is the same three multiplications. Learn the chain and you can evaluate any proposal put in front of you.
| Step | Calculation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Leads from spend | Spend ÷ cost per lead | $4,000 ÷ $110 = 36 leads |
| 2. Estimates booked | Leads × booking rate | 36 × 65% = 23 estimates |
| 3. Jobs signed | Estimates × close rate | 23 × 35% = 8 jobs |
| 4. Cost per job | Spend ÷ jobs | $4,000 ÷ 8 = $500 |
| 5. Is it worth it? | Cost per job vs gross profit per job | $500 vs $1,800 = yes |
Run any pitch through those five lines. If the person selling to you cannot supply the middle two rates, they are quoting you leads and hoping you will not ask what happens next.
Setting your own ceiling
The number you actually need is the most you can pay for a job before it stops being worth winning.
Take your average job value, multiply by your gross margin, and take 20% of that as a working ceiling.
| Average job | Gross profit | Ceiling at 20% | What that supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2,500 | $750 | $150 | Repair work and map pack only. Paid search is marginal. |
| $6,000 | $1,800 | $360 | LSA comfortably, Search Ads with discipline. |
| $12,000 | $3,600 | $720 | Every paid channel works. You can outbid most competitors. |
| $30,000 | $9,000 | $1,800 | Foundations and commercial. Bid aggressively, nobody can follow. |
This is also the honest answer to "why is my competitor outbidding me": frequently he is selling bigger jobs, so his ceiling is higher. The fix is not a bigger budget, it is either a higher average job value or a better close rate.
How the numbers move by season
Nothing above is constant across the year, and the swing is larger than most contractors budget for.
- March to May: demand peaks, competitors all bid, costs rise 20 to 40%. Close rates rise too, because buyers are decided.
- June to August: steady. Costs normalise. Booking rates dip slightly as everyone gets quoted three weeks out.
- September to October: the best value window of the year. Demand is still real, competitors start pulling budget, and you can buy the same lead cheaper.
- November to February: costs fall hard, volume falls harder. This is when you sell spring work with deposits rather than chase immediate pours. Covered properly here.
The minimum you should track
You do not need software. You need one row per lead with these columns:
- Date the lead arrived
- Channel it came from
- Service they asked about
- City
- Minutes until first contact
- Estimate booked, yes or no
- Quoted value
- Signed, yes or no
Eight columns, filled in as you go, and within one season you will know more about your own economics than any benchmark table can tell you. Column five is the one most contractors leave out, and it is usually the one that explains everything else.
Questions
What is a good cost per lead for concrete?
It depends entirely on the service. A trip-hazard repair lead at $40 and a foundation lead at $220 can both be excellent. What matters is cost per signed job measured against gross profit per job on that service.
How do I work out my own cost per job?
Total marketing spend for the period divided by jobs signed that came from marketing. Exclude referrals and repeat customers or you will flatter the number badly. Do it monthly, by channel, and it will tell you more than any benchmark here.
What should I be willing to pay for a job?
A common working rule is up to 20% of gross profit on the job. On a $6,000 driveway at 30% margin, that is $1,800 gross profit and roughly $360 you could spend acquiring it. Above that, the job stops being worth winning.
Why is my cost per lead higher than these numbers?
Usually one of four things: no negative keyword list, traffic landing on a homepage instead of a service page, bidding in a market more competitive than average, or counting every enquiry as a lead including spam. The first two are the fastest to fix.
Do these numbers apply to commercial concrete?
No. Commercial has far lower search volume, much higher job values, and a longer cycle. Cost per lead runs higher and it still works out, because one warehouse slab is worth twenty driveways.
