Electrical
Electrical Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator
Measure the cost of winning a new electrical customer and compare it with gross profit from the first completed job.
Result
Sales time is included because it is a real cost of winning work even though it never appears on an advertising invoice. Recovering under 100% on the first job is normal in the trades, provided customers come back.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Include attributable sales effort as well as the advertising invoice.
- Use new customers rather than repeat bookings in the acquisition count.
- First-job margin determines how much acquisition spending that visit can recover.
Where this one goes wrong
Campaign spend and resulting paid jobs may fall in different months. Matching this month's advertisements with unrelated jobs makes the channel look better or worse without showing its true acquisition performance.
Questions
About this calculator
Should duplicate enquiries count as extra leads?
Use a consistent definition and deduplicate where they represent one buying opportunity. Several phone calls from the same homeowner are not several acquired customers.
What if the first job does not recover acquisition cost?
Document whether later profitable work actually occurs. Expected repeat business is a hypothesis until cohort records support it.
Can I compare emergency and project campaigns together?
Separate them first. Their sales effort, ticket size and booking delay differ, so a blended figure can conceal a channel that never earns back its spend.
The formula
acquisition cost = (marketing + sales cost) / customers won
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Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Marketing spend per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $3,200.
- Sales time and tools ($). Quoting time, CRM, call answering.
- Leads per month. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 70.
- Share that become customers (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 32%.
- First job value ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $540.
- Gross margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 47%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to cost to win one customer, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Marketing spend per month | $3,200 |
| Sales time and tools | $900 |
| Leads per month | 70 |
| Share that become customers | 32% |
| First job value | $540 |
| Gross margin | 47% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost to win one customer main result | $183.04 |
| Cost per lead | $58.57 |
| Customers per month | 22 |
| Gross profit on the first job | $253.80 |
| Recovered on the first job | 139% |
Each customer costs $183.04 to win, and the first job returns $253.80 of gross profit, 139% of the acquisition cost. The rest has to come from repeat work.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only marketing spend per month, this is what happens to cost to win one customer. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Marketing spend per month ($) | Cost to win one customer |
|---|---|
| $1,600 | $111.61 |
| $2,400 | $147.32 |
| $3,200 example above | $183.04 |
| $4,800 | $254.46 |
| $6,400 | $325.89 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Marketing spend per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $3,200.
- Sales time and tools ($)
- Quoting time, CRM, call answering.
- Leads per month
- A number, between 0 and 20000, starting at 70.
- Share that become customers (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 100, starting at 32%.
- First job value ($)
- A money amount, starting at $540.
- Gross margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 95, starting at 47%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cost to win one customer | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Cost per lead | A money figure. |
| Customers per month | A number. |
| Gross profit on the first job | A money figure. |
| Recovered on the first job | A percentage. |
Before you rely on this number
Conductor sizing, voltage drop and load figures are governed by code, and the code takes precedence over any calculator. Ambient temperature, conduit fill, continuous load factors and the specific installation all change the answer. Treat this as a first pass, not a design.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.