Plumber leads: a shared lead or your own ad call, worked out

Who this is for: Plumbing shop owners who buy shared leads today and wonder whether their own ads would cost less What you’ll get: A worksheet that compares both on cost per booked job, and a worked cost per call for five cities, built from Google’s click forecast

Do not compare plumber leads by the price of one lead. Compare them by what one booked job costs you. A shared lead has a clear price, but you only win some of them. A call from your own ad has no fixed price, but it rings only your phone. The worksheet below puts both on the same line.

What a call from your own ads costs

Here is a worked example for a month of ads on job-specific searches in five cities. Spend and clicks are Google’s forecast. We added a flat monthly fee and two example rates for how many clicks turn into calls.

City	Ad spend	Flat fee	Clicks	Calls at 5%	Calls at 10%	Cost per call at 5%	Cost per call at 10%
Dallas, TX	$999.90	$300.00	79.8	4.0	8.0	$325.79	$162.89
Phoenix, AZ	$999.90	$300.00	76.8	3.8	7.7	$338.52	$169.26
Columbus, OH	$999.90	$300.00	94.9	4.7	9.5	$273.95	$136.98
Knoxville, TN	$744.53	$300.00	60.3	3.0	6.0	$346.44	$173.22
Boise, ID	$640.40	$300.00	58.4	2.9	5.8	$322.05	$161.03

Source: Google Ads Keyword Planner forecast (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575) (forecast period 2026-10-19 to 2026-11-17; retrieved 2026-10-18). Compiled by Wrench & Ring. Calls and cost per call are our own math.

Here is how the table works. Spend and clicks come from Google’s forecast, using a middle bid cap. The fee column uses Wrench & Ring’s flat monthly fee. The two call rates are examples for the math, not measured results.

The math is the same in every row:

• Calls = clicks × call rate
• Cost per call = (ad spend + fee) ÷ calls

Columbus came out lowest, because the forecast gave it the most clicks. Knoxville came out highest. The flat fee stays the same when ad spend is lower, so it weighs more in a small city.

Forecasts are estimates based on your bid, budget and past searches (how forecasts work). Your own city and your own call rate will change every number here.

What a shared lead really costs you

A shared lead has a simple price. The real cost depends on how many of them you turn into jobs.

If you book 1 in 4 shared leads, each booked job costs you 4 times the lead price. If you book 1 in 2 calls from your own ads, each booked job costs 2 times the cost per call. That is the comparison that matters.

Fill in the worksheet with your own numbers

Use your last three months if you have them. If you do not, use a forecast for the ads and your best guess for the rest.

Line	What to fill in	Your number
A	Monthly ad spend (from your forecast or your budget)
B	Flat monthly fee, if someone runs the ads
C	Clicks a month (from the forecast)
D	Share of clicks that call you (your guess)
E	Calls a month = C × D
F	Cost per call = (A + B) ÷ E
G	Share of those calls that become booked jobs
H	Cost per booked job from your own ads = F ÷ G
I	Price you pay for one shared lead
J	Share of all shared leads you paid for that became booked jobs
K	Cost per booked job from shared leads = I ÷ J

Compare line H with line K. Then compare both with what a typical booked job brings in for you.

A few tips on the guesses:

• For line D, try two rates, like the 5% and 10% above, and see if the low one still works.
• For line G, count every call in line E, including the ones you missed.
• For line J, count every lead you paid for, and count booked jobs only, not quotes.

What the math does not show

Some differences do not fit in a worksheet. They still matter when you choose.

A call from your own ad rings only your phone. You are not racing other shops to call back first. The customer also found your name and your number. That can make it easier for them to call you again next time.

With your own ads, you also pick the jobs and the area. You can focus on water heater or sewer work, in the towns you drive to.

Shared leads can still make sense. If line K beats line H for you, that is a fair reason to keep them.

Get a forecast for your city

The five cities above are examples. Wrench & Ring builds a free page for your shop and emails a forecast for your own city, so you can fill in lines A and C with real numbers. See your free page.