CPL = ad spend ÷ leads
$2,100 ÷ 35 = $60
What should be counted as a lead before you divide?
Count people you can contact who asked about work you do. A form with a real phone number counts. A call longer than a minute counts. A form from a competitor checking your prices, a spam message, or a click on your phone number that never became a call should not, and ad accounts count all three unless you tell them otherwise.
The count you trust most is your own: the enquiry inbox and the call log. If the ad account says 35 leads and your inbox says 26, the true CPL is $81, not $60.
What does a Perth electrician pay per enquiry on three channels? (example figures)
An electrician in Perth's northern suburbs, working with one apprentice, spends $3,400 in a month across three channels. The owner keeps a tally in a notebook of where each enquiry came from and which ones became jobs.
| Google Ads search | Meta instant forms | Trade directory listing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spend | $2,100 | $900 | $400 |
| Leads | 35 | 45 | 8 |
| Cost per lead | $60 | $20 | $50 |
| Jobs won | 14 | 4 | 3 |
| Cost per job | $150 | $225 | $133 |
On CPL alone, the owner would move money into Meta. On cost per job, Meta is the dearest of the three. The Meta leads were cheap because they took two taps to send, and most of the people who sent one were only curious. Search leads cost three times as much and closed at 40 percent, because people typing "electrician Joondalup" had a fault and wanted it fixed this week.
Why are form leads from Meta often so cheap?
Meta's instant forms fill in the person's name, email and phone number from their profile, so sending one takes seconds. Meta lets you choose a form type built for more volume or one built for higher intent, which adds a review screen before the form is sent (Meta Business Help Centre, lead ads form types). The higher intent form produces fewer leads at a higher CPL. When every site visit costs an hour of your time, fewer and better leads usually cost less in the end.
CPL is still worth tracking. It is the fastest number to move and the first to warn you when a campaign has gone off. Read it beside the close rate for that same channel, and stop judging channels by it alone.
Where does cost per lead show up in CoraVision?
For a business that wins work through enquiries, the CoraVision dashboard tracks leads where a shop would see sales, so the cost per acquisition on its Google Ads and Meta cards, covering a rolling 7 days, is a cost per lead. The figures are refreshed from your connected accounts overnight. Which leads became jobs lives in your notebook or your job software, outside any account CoraVision reads, and a channel can only be judged on both halves.
Questions
What is a good cost per lead for a tradie?
Nobody can give you one number that holds for every trade and town. The useful ceiling is your own: what a lead is worth in margin, which is your average job times your close rate times your margin. A lead that costs less than that makes money, whatever anyone else pays.
Should phone calls count as leads?
Yes, and for many trades they are most of the leads. Google Ads can count calls from an ad as conversions and lets you set a minimum call length, so a ten-second wrong number is not counted. Leave calls out and your CPL looks worse than it is.
How does cost per click turn into cost per lead?
Divide the cost per click by the share of clicks that become enquiries. At $4 a click and 1 enquiry from every 15 clicks, each lead costs $60. Halve the clicks needed by fixing the page and the lead costs $30 at the same click price.