THE SHORT ANSWER
Modelled heat pump job values in France run EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650 in 2026, midpoint EUR 13,250. That midpoint carries 20 to 30 percent gross margin, which is EUR 2,650 to EUR 3,950. Winning the customer takes 3 to 5 exclusive leads at EUR 100 to EUR 150 each, so acquisition costs EUR 250 to EUR 700 and absorbs 6.9 to 26.8 percent of the margin on a single project.
The average job value question looks like accounting trivia until you try to set a marketing budget without it. What follows is a modelled 2026 band for heat pump work in France, plus the two calculations that turn a band into a decision: gross margin on the midpoint, and the cost of putting a signed customer in front of it.
A narrower average would be more comforting and less true, because whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source all move the number materially. The market adds its own layer: in France, the Paris region behaves like a separate, more expensive market from the rest of the country, so a national average hides a factor of two.
The numbers, at a glance
Midpoint contract value: around EUR 13,250, inside a working band of EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650 for heat pump work in France
What is left after materials and labour: EUR 2,650 to EUR 3,950 of gross margin, being 20 to 30 percent of the midpoint contract
Lead spend per signed customer: EUR 250 to EUR 700, at 3 to 5 exclusive leads each costing EUR 100 to EUR 150
Margin consumed by acquisition: 6.9 to 26.8 percent of one job's gross margin, counting nothing from repeat or referral work
The heat pump band explained, from EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650
Read the band as a description of one thing only: a complete installed project for a private homeowner in France, excluding VAT. Commercial tenders, social housing frameworks and emergency call-outs all price differently and should never be averaged into it.
Three variables do most of the work, namely whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source. France is a market of roughly 68 million people spread over a large surface area, and the depth of that pool sets how much price pressure sits under every quote written into it.
EUR 8,800. Accessible property, standard specification, no surprises during the survey.
EUR 13,250. The typical quote, with a specification upgrade or two added after the first visit.
EUR 17,650. Wider scope, awkward access, or the premium option chosen in every category.
Decennale insurance is a cost per job, not an overhead footnote
Any business carrying out construction work in France must hold the assurance decennale, a ten-year structural liability cover, and must show the certificate on the quote. Premiums scale with turnover and trade risk, and for a small installer they are one of the larger fixed costs in the business. Two implications for job value: it keeps the informal end of the market smaller than in southern European neighbours, and it belongs explicitly in your cost base. Contractors who forget it are quoting a margin they do not actually have.
Use your median job, not your average job
The mean is the wrong statistic for a contractor. One heat pump project at the top of the band drags the average above anything you will quote next week, and a marketing budget built on it overspends quietly for months.
Take the median of your last twenty signed contracts instead. In a band of EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650 the mean typically sits 8 to 15 percent above the median, because the distribution has a long right tail and no left one: there is a floor below which the job is not worth doing, and no ceiling above it. Budget against the median and let the large jobs be upside rather than assumption.
Contract value against gross margin
Contract value is the figure contractors quote each other. Gross margin is the figure that pays wages. For heat pump work in France the gap between them is 70 to 80 percent of the contract, so the EUR 13,250 midpoint leaves EUR 2,650 to EUR 3,950 behind.
Overheads, vehicles, insurance and the owner's own salary all come out of that, which means the money genuinely available to win the next customer is a fraction of the margin rather than the whole of it. Decide what share you will spend on acquisition before you look at any supplier price list. Established heat pump installers tend to land between 10 and 20 percent of gross margin. Businesses in a deliberate growth phase run at 30 and accept that payback arrives on the second job.
Dividing job value by what a customer costs
The whole calculation in one line: EUR 100 to EUR 150 per exclusive lead, 3 to 5 leads per signed customer, EUR 250 to EUR 700 to win that customer, against EUR 2,650 to EUR 3,950 of gross margin on the midpoint job. Acquisition is therefore 6.9 to 26.8 percent of the margin from one project.
Compare that against the alternatives rather than against zero. A shared lead at half the price, reaching four heat pump installers at once, typically needs two to three times as many to produce a sale, which lands in the same place or worse and costs three times the sales effort. The cheapest sticker price is rarely the cheapest customer.
TVA at 5.5 percent, and the trap of quoting the wrong rate
France applies a reduced VAT rate of 5.5 percent to qualifying energy-improvement work in dwellings completed more than two years ago, 10 percent to other renovation work and 20 percent as standard. The customer sees a materially different total depending on which applies, and the contractor is responsible for the classification and for holding the client attestation. Mixed jobs are where this goes wrong: an insulation measure at 5.5 percent alongside decorative work at 10 percent has to be split on the invoice rather than averaged across it.
Why a proper heat loss calculation pays for itself
A room-by-room heat loss calculation takes two to three hours and is the difference between a quote you can defend and one you will lose money on. Undersizing produces a cold house and a warranty argument. Oversizing produces short cycling, poor seasonal efficiency and a customer who tells the neighbours the technology does not work. It also lifts contract value directly, because the calculation is what justifies the larger unit and the emitter upgrades to a homeowner who arrived expecting a straight swap. Contractors who charge a survey fee and credit it against the installation report both higher conversion and higher average job values.
Break-even on a block of 90 leads
A single lead price is hard to judge. A block is not. 90 exclusive leads cost EUR 5,400 and should convert into 18 to 30 signed heat pump jobs at a midpoint of EUR 13,250 each, which is EUR 238,150 to EUR 396,900 of work booked and EUR 47,650 to EUR 119,050 of gross margin.
Break-even therefore arrives inside the first job. The useful question is not whether EUR 60 per lead is expensive in the abstract, but what happens to that arithmetic if your conversion is half the modelled rate, because that is the scenario worth planning for.
Subsidy paperwork is a cost line, so price it as one
Almost every heat pump market in Europe now runs a grant scheme, and almost every homeowner expects the installer to handle it. That work is real: eligibility checks, product registration, photographs, performance data and a submission that can take an hour or two per job, plus the cash flow cost when the grant reaches the customer months after you have been paid. Build it into the price rather than treating it as goodwill. The healthiest margins in this trade belong to installers who quote the gross price, show the grant as a separate line the customer will receive, and never discount against money they do not control.
How to work out your own number instead of using this one
Pull your last twenty signed heat pump contracts and take the median value rather than the mean, so one outlier project does not distort the figure.
Subtract materials and installation labour from each to get real gross margin, then take the median of that too.
Count how many enquiries it took to sign those twenty jobs, including the ones that never answered, to get your true leads-per-customer ratio.
Multiply that ratio by the lead price you are being quoted to get your actual cost per signed customer.
Divide that by your median gross margin. Above 25 percent, fix conversion or scope before you buy more volume.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. Every figure derives from two inputs: a base band for heat pump work and a labour and materials index of 0.98 for France against a Benelux baseline of 1.00. The index is not the ad auction multiplier, and treating the two as one number is the most common error in cross-border benchmarking.
How Flock Leads prices this
For comparison against the acquisition figures above, this is what Flock Leads charges for exclusive volume in this market:
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.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
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Related answers
Frequently asked questions
What is the average heat pump job worth in France in 2026?
Modelled at EUR 8,800 to EUR 17,650 for a complete installed project for a private homeowner, excluding VAT, with a midpoint near EUR 13,250. The width is real: whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source all move the figure materially.
Is job value in France rising or falling in 2026?
Material prices have largely stabilised after the volatility of the early decade, while installation labour remains the tighter constraint across most of Western Europe. The practical effect is that job values drift upward slowly and the labour component grows as a share of each quote. Re-check your own median twice a year rather than trusting a published figure.
What gross margin should I expect on heat pump work?
20 to 30 percent of contract value is the working band, which is EUR 2,650 to EUR 3,950 on the EUR 13,250 midpoint job. Below 20 percent you are either buying materials badly or quoting labour at a rate that does not cover a wet week.
How much should I spend on winning one customer?
Set it as a share of gross margin rather than as an absolute. Ten to 20 percent of margin is normal for an established business, and 30 percent is a deliberate growth position that pays back on the second and third job. Here 20 percent of margin would be about EUR 550 per signed customer.
Why do you use a different index for job value and lead cost?
Because they measure different things. Lead prices track how many installers are bidding in a local advertising auction. Job values track labour rates and material logistics. Poland has cheap clicks and cheap labour, Ireland has mid-priced clicks and very expensive labour, and a single multiplier would misprice both.
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