THE SHORT ANSWER
Modelled windows and doors job values in Germany run EUR 5,300 to EUR 12,700 in 2026, midpoint EUR 9,000. That midpoint carries 22 to 32 percent gross margin, which is EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,900. Winning the customer takes 4 to 6 exclusive leads at EUR 50 to EUR 100 each, so acquisition costs EUR 300 to EUR 700 and absorbs 10.0 to 34.5 percent of the margin on a single project.
Ask five window and door companies in Germany what an average job is worth and you will get five sincere, different answers. Below is a 2026 band for windows and doors projects in Germany and, more usefully, what happens when you divide it: margin on the midpoint job, and what winning that job costs before a single tool comes off the van.
The band is wide on purpose. What moves a project from one end to the other is frame count, material choice between PVC, aluminium and timber, and glazing specification. Local context matters too: in Germany, installer competition is the deepest in Europe, and that competition is what pushes cost per lead 10 to 30 percent above the Benelux baseline.
The numbers, at a glance
Midpoint contract value: around EUR 9,000, inside a working band of EUR 5,300 to EUR 12,700 for windows and doors work in Germany
What is left after materials and labour: EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,900 of gross margin, being 22 to 32 percent of the midpoint contract
Lead spend per signed customer: EUR 300 to EUR 700, at 4 to 6 exclusive leads each costing EUR 50 to EUR 100
Margin consumed by acquisition: 10.0 to 34.5 percent of one job's gross margin, counting nothing from repeat or referral work
The windows and doors band explained, from EUR 5,300 to EUR 12,700
Read the band as a description of one thing only: a complete installed project for a private homeowner in Germany, 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 frame count, material choice between PVC, aluminium and timber, and glazing specification. Germany is a market of roughly 84 million people and the deepest installer base in Europe, and the depth of that pool sets how much price pressure sits under every quote written into it.
EUR 5,300. Accessible property, standard specification, no surprises during the survey.
EUR 9,000. The typical quote, with a specification upgrade or two added after the first visit.
EUR 12,700. Wider scope, awkward access, or the premium option chosen in every category.
PVC, aluminium and timber are three different margin profiles
Material choice is the largest single determinant of contract value in this trade. PVC is the volume product with the thinnest margins and the deepest competition. Aluminium prices roughly 40 to 70 percent higher for the same aperture, sells on sightlines and large glazed openings, and holds better margin because fewer companies quote it credibly. Timber is a restoration product with long lead times, high material cost and buyers who are not collecting three quotes. Most window companies are unintentionally PVC businesses because that is what their website shows, and one credible aluminium reference project changes the mix of enquiries that arrive.
Glazing specification is the upsell most people accept
Triple glazing, acoustic laminate, solar control coatings and warm edge spacers are cheap to add at manufacture and expensive to retrofit, which makes them the ideal option to present at quote stage. Acoustic glass sells itself on any road with traffic and typically adds 10 to 18 percent to the glass line for a marginal increase in fitting time. The mistake is offering it as a technical footnote. Offer it as a choice the customer can picture: this specification for the two bedrooms facing the road, standard units everywhere else, with both prices on the same page.
Why the average windows and doors job misleads
Averages in this trade are pulled upward by a small number of large projects. If three jobs in twenty come in near EUR 12,700, the mean stops describing the work you actually do and starts describing the work you occasionally win.
That matters commercially because acquisition budgets are set as a share of margin. Set them against an inflated mean and you overspend on every ordinary job to break even on the rare large one. The median of twenty signed contracts is the number to use, and in a band of EUR 5,300 to EUR 12,700 it usually sits below the midpoint of EUR 9,000 rather than above it.
Working capital at this contract value
Job value determines how much cash the business needs, not just how much it earns. On a EUR 9,000 project, materials and subcontract labour typically leave the account two to five weeks before the final invoice is paid, which is EUR 4,050 of exposure per job before anything goes wrong.
The remedy is structural rather than clever: a deposit near EUR 2,700 at order, a stage payment against delivery, and a final invoice on handover rather than thirty days after it. It also functions as a qualification tool. A household that cannot pay a deposit on a EUR 9,000 project is not a household that will pay the balance.
Bavaria is not the same country as Saxony-Anhalt
A single national German average conceals a spread of 25 to 35 percent in both labour rates and typical contract value. The southern industrial states carry the highest household incomes, the busiest tradespeople and the longest waiting lists, while parts of the east price materially below the national figure with a very different competitive structure. Any contractor running one price list across Germany is mispricing in at least one direction. Set rates by region, and if you buy enquiries, buy them by Bundesland so the difference shows up in your own reporting instead of hiding inside an average.
Meisterpflicht raises the cost base and protects the price
Most relevant building trades in Germany remain subject to the Handwerksordnung, meaning the business needs a qualified Meister to trade in that craft at all. It is a genuine cost: training, examination and a wage expectation that follows the qualification. It is also a genuine moat. Compared with markets where anyone can register as a contractor, German job values hold up better at the top of the band because the informal end is much thinner. Benchmarking German prices against Spanish or Polish ones is misleading twice over: the labour line is not comparable and neither is the quality floor.
What is actually left after materials and labour
Strip materials and installation labour out of a windows and doors contract in Germany and 22 to 32 percent remains. On the EUR 9,000 midpoint that is EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,900, and it is the only figure on this page with any bearing on whether a marketing budget is affordable.
Two businesses with identical turnover can therefore have completely different capacity to buy work. Before comparing your acquisition spend with anyone else's, convert it into a percentage of gross margin. Ten percent is conservative, 20 percent is normal, and above 30 percent you are financing growth out of next year's profit, which is a legitimate decision but should be a decision rather than an accident.
Raising job value beats cutting lead price
Lead prices move by a few percent when you negotiate. Job value moves by tens of percent when you sell the right scope. For windows and doors work the reliable lever is front and back doors alongside the frames, which adds 12 to 20 percent with no extra mobilisation. On the EUR 9,000 midpoint, a 20 percent increase in scope is worth about EUR 1,800 of extra contract value, which is more than the entire acquisition cost of that customer.
Quote the full scope, not the requested scope. Present the minimum job and the complete job as two priced options on the same document.
Bundle work the mobilisation already pays for. Scaffolding, access and travel are sunk the moment you are on site.
Anchor high, then subtract. A customer removing items from a complete quote finishes above a customer adding items to a minimal one.
Sell the monthly figure. Finance changes which end of the windows and doors band a household considers realistic.
Five numbers to pull from your own accounts this week
Median contract value across the last twenty signed windows and doors jobs in Germany, taken from invoices rather than from quotes.
Median gross margin on those same twenty, after materials and installation labour but before overheads.
Total enquiries received in the same period, counting the ones that never answered the phone, so the ratio is honest.
Median time from enquiry to first call attempt, which is the variable that moves cost per customer furthest.
Acquisition cost as a percentage of median gross margin. That single percentage is what you compare across suppliers, markets and years.
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 windows and doors work and a labour and materials index of 1.06 for Germany 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
Set against the margin numbers on this page, here is the actual price of buying exclusive enquiries rather than generating them:
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
How much does a windows and doors project cost in Germany?
Between EUR 5,300 to EUR 12,700 for a private household in 2026, midpoint around EUR 9,000, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Where a specific job lands depends on frame count, material choice between PVC, aluminium and timber, and glazing specification.
Is job value in Germany 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.
How does this compare with what a lead costs?
A modelled exclusive windows and doors lead in Germany runs EUR 50 to EUR 100, and it takes 4 to 6 of them to sign a customer. Against gross margin of EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,900 on the midpoint job, that is 10.0 to 34.5 percent of the margin from one project.
What gross margin should I expect on windows and doors work?
22 to 32 percent of contract value is the working band, which is EUR 2,000 to EUR 2,900 on the EUR 9,000 midpoint job. Below 22 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 400 per signed customer.
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