NUMBERS — The 3-Number Scorecard
Someone asks "what's it actually cost you to book a job?" and you go: "hold up… I don't have it open. I don't know." You're not dumb — you can quote a driveway in 30 seconds off the top of your head. But if you can't say what a customer costs you, what one's worth, and your close rate, then every real decision — spend more? raise prices? hire? — is a guess. And guessing is the most expensive thing you do.
the 3 numbers
1 — cost per lead (CPL)
Ad spend ÷ leads in = $ per lead
What you pay for a hand to go up. Useful, but it's the number everyone obsesses over — and it's the wrong one to chase. Cheap leads are usually tire-kickers. You can have the cheapest leads in town and still lose money on every job.
2 — cost to BOOK a job (the one that matters)
Ad spend ÷ jobs booked = $ per booked job
What you pay to actually WIN one. This is the number that decides whether ads make you money — and almost no owner can say it. Everything we do to ads (comment ADS) is built to push this number down, even when it pushes cost-per-lead up.
3 — close rate
Jobs booked ÷ leads in = %
How many hands-up turn into money. This is also your leak detector: if close rate is low, the problem usually isn't the leads — it's speed and follow-up (the exact 5-text sequence lives in the Sales Engine breakdown).
the break-even line — where spending stops being scary
Two more of your own numbers and the fear dies:
- Average job value: $
- Your rough margin (what you keep after crew + materials): %
- Avg job × margin = what one booked job is worth to you: $
- That ÷ your cost-to-book = your return multiple: ____x
Read it out loud: "every dollar I put in, $ comes back." If the multiple is above 1, spending isn't a gamble — it's a formula. If it's below 1, you just saved yourself a season of burned budget — and the fix is the system behind the ads, not more spend. Forget industry benchmarks — your break-even line is the only "good" that matters.
the friction reframe (watch what it does to the scorecard)
Add one qualifying line to your ad — "looking to get this done asap, or just price-shopping?" Your cost per lead goes UP (fewer hands up). Your cost to book goes DOWN (only real buyers click). Number 1 gets worse, number 2 gets better — and number 2 is the one that pays your bills. That single trade is most of what separates owners who make money on ads from owners who quit them.
the 60-second monthly ritual
First coffee of the month: pull last month's spend, leads, and booked jobs. Fill in the 3 numbers. Compare to last month. Done. A scorecard you fill in monthly is a business instrument; one you filled in once is a screenshot that rots.
why I run these exact 3
I ran them building my own home-service company — $0 to $300K in a season. The thing that moved it wasn't cheaper leads. It was watching cost-to-book instead of cost-per-lead.
The honest catch: the scorecard only works if something is actually capturing every lead, every booking, every job — and a hand-filled sheet rots the first week you're slammed. The install gives the scorecard something to read from, and on the advisory calls we read your cost-to-book with you, live. Don't want to fill it in at all? Book the free audit and I'll pull these 3 numbers off your last 30 days FOR you and show you where the money's leaking: summitais.com/booking — Frost
This piece is one gear. The machine that actually stops leads dying while you're on the tools is the Sales Engine — instant contact (first text + call in 5 minutes) → 14-day follow-up → long-term nurture → cross-sell → upsell + referral push. Full breakdown, free, scripts included: SALES — The Sales Engine