Why it matters on an HVAC site
A lead is not a job and a job is not revenue. Two channels producing the same lead count can differ by a factor of three in booked revenue, and no amount of on-site measurement will show it.
The trades are unusually well set up for this and unusually slow to do it, because the field software already holds the outcome and the lead source field is already there, usually unfilled.
How to check it yourself
- Check whether the lead source reaches the CRM record at all, which is where it usually breaks.
- Reconcile counts: leads in analytics against leads in the CRM, for the same period, before trusting anything downstream.
- Confirm the match rate on import and report it, since an import matching 30% of records describes 30% of the business.
Worked through in numbers
A contractor reports cost per lead by channel and has never reported cost per booked job.
Importing completed jobs with revenue for one quarter and matching to source: organic produced 96 leads and 61 booked at an average of $2,180. A paid channel produced 141 leads and 44 booked at an average of $890.
On leads the paid channel looked 47% better. On booked revenue organic produced $133,000 against $39,000. The lead count had been the wrong denominator for two years.
Where this sits in the rankings
Scored under Tracking and attribution. Getting booked-job revenue out of the field CRM and back into the analytics.