How plumbing shops actually get booked jobs — and where yours is leaking.

Where do your leads come from?

If you can't answer this in five numbers, you can't allocate a dollar. Track each lead back to a source — and weight the actual money it returned, not how it felt that month.

• I can list every channel that produced a booked job in the last 90 days.
• I know the cost-per-lead and cost-per-booked-job for each channel.
• I have a single CRM or spreadsheet where every lead is logged with source.
• Google Business Profile is updated weekly (hours, photos, posts).
• I'm running Meta or TikTok ads with at least two creatives per month.
• I track where my paid leads came from and what the close rate was per source.

How fast does a lead hear from a human?

The plumbing industry benchmark is brutal: 78% of buyers go with the first business that responds. If it takes you an hour, you've already lost half your spend.

• After-hours leads ring a phone answered by a plumber or dispatcher — not voicemail.
• I respond to web form leads within 5 minutes during business hours.
• I have a written follow-up script for the first 60 seconds of a call.
• Missed calls trigger an automatic text back within 30 seconds.
• My CRM (or spreadsheet) timestamps every first-touch response.
• If I miss a call, I have a documented 3-touch re-engagement plan.

What's a plumber lead actually worth?

Your average ticket size drives everything upstream. Without this number, your CPL target is just a guess.

• I know my avg ticket to within ±10% — from invoice data, not feel.
• I know close rate by lead source (won't be the same for Google vs Meta).
• I know what % of closed jobs come back as repeat or referral.
• If I cut my CPL target in half, my close rate would still keep me profitable.

The four channels every plumbing shop should run.

There is no single best channel. There is a mix that compounds — and when one dips (Google does, every quarter), the others carry it.

• Google Business Profile — owned, free, compounds over months.
• Google Ads — best for emergencies & high-intent "near me" searches.
• Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram) — best for remodel, repipe, water heater.
• Referral + Past Customer Reactivation — usually the highest ROAS asset you have.

Plot your last 6 months of leads on a pie chart by source. If any one channel is over 70% of your pipeline, you have a single-point-of-failure problem.

The five numbers on your wall.

Print this and put it next to the routing board. Every Monday morning, write these down.

The weekly rhythm that compounds.

Leads are not a campaign. They are an operating system. Run these rituals and the math improves every month without spending more.

• Monday — write the five numbers on the wall.
• Wednesday — review last week's missed calls and how each was handled.
• Friday — refresh one Google Business post and one ad creative.
• Monthly — review ROI by channel, kill what's losing, double down on what's winning.
• Quarterly — re-bid on your service area, prune underperforming zip codes.
• Annually — redo this entire blueprint with your dispatcher.