Inspired by MassMonopoly. Original article: The Contractor Marketing Scorecard: 5 Numbers That Tell You If Your Ads Are Working. This is a new Tygart article for restoration contractors. We kept the mechanism, added first-party field knowledge, and did not reprint the piece.
Most shops do not have a “no marketing” problem. They have a no-clarity problem. Ads, LSAs, the pin, a website from 2019, referrals from plumbers — when the board goes quiet everyone guesses. The original scorecard says you can run the company on five numbers: leads by source, cost per lead, booking rate, close rate, revenue per new job.
How those five read on a water job
- Leads by source. Maps, LSAs, plumber referral, adjuster, storm vendor, website form. If you cannot name the source, you cannot feed it.
- CPL. Spend divided by leads. Cheap sewage-marketplace names are not cheap if three other trucks have the same address.
- Booking rate. Qualified conversations that become a crew on site. This is where two-ring failures hide. Visibility looks fine. The night board leaked.
- Close rate. On-site inspections that become authorized work. Weak close is a estimator and documentation problem, not an ads problem.
- Revenue per new job. A $400 extract and a $14k sewage rebuild cannot share one “average ticket” if you are deciding what to spend to win the next one.
Read the pattern, not one cell
Leads down, CPL up, booking and close steady: visibility. Leads fine, booking weak: intake. Volume up, ticket down: you bought the wrong work. Do not kill SEO because Tuesday was dry. Do not buy more ads because the CSR lets forms sit until morning.
Start with a sheet. Source, date, booked yes/no, closed yes/no, invoice. Split water, mold, and fire when you can. The five numbers are the implementation. The software can wait.
Leave a Reply