THE SHORT ANSWER
Manage cost per acquisition. Cost per lead is a purchasing metric and it is easy to improve by buying worse leads. A EUR 45 shared lead at a one-in-twelve close rate produces a EUR 540 customer, while a EUR 120 exclusive lead at one in four produces a EUR 480 customer, so the cheaper lead is the more expensive decision.
Why cost per lead misleads so reliably
Cost per lead can always be reduced. Widen the geography, loosen the qualification, buy shared instead of exclusive, and the number falls. Every one of those moves raises the cost of a customer.
This is why cost per lead is a favourite metric in reporting decks and a poor one for decisions. It measures what you bought, not what you got.
The full chain worth tracking
Cost per lead - what you paid for the enquiry
Contact rate - what share you actually reached, which is mostly a speed metric
Quote rate - what share reached the quote stage, which is mostly a qualification metric
Close rate - what share signed
Cost per acquisition - cost per lead divided by close rate
Acquisition cost as a share of job value - the only figure that tells you whether the whole arrangement is viable
Four numbers and two ratios. Any team can hold that on one page.
The benchmark to hold yourself to
Across home-improvement trades, a healthy acquisition cost sits between 4 and 9 percent of job value. Under 4 percent usually means you are leaving volume on the table and could profitably bid higher. Above 12 percent, something is broken, and in the overwhelming majority of cases it is response speed rather than lead quality.
The diagnostic that saves the most money
Before changing supplier or price, split your last hundred leads by how fast you called. Compare close rates for under five minutes, under an hour, and later. If those three groups differ by a factor of two or more, your problem is operational and switching supplier will not fix it. Most companies that run this check stop shopping for cheaper leads.
How Flock Leads prices this
Fixed unit price makes the acquisition-cost maths straightforward:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
What if I do not know my close rate?
Then you cannot evaluate any lead price, and that is the first thing to fix. Counting signed jobs against leads received for one month is enough to start.
Should I include sales labour in acquisition cost?
For decisions between exclusive and shared, yes, because sales hours are the resource shared leads consume. For channel comparison, media cost alone is usually sufficient.
Is a rising cost per lead always bad?
No. If close rate rises faster, cost per acquisition falls and you should buy more, not less.
How does Flock report on this?
Volume and unit price are fixed per package, so the only variable left is your close rate, which makes the acquisition-cost calculation trivial to run.
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