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Contractor Growth Benchmarks (2026)
Contractor Growth Benchmarks: HVAC, Roofing, Plumbing & Remodeling (2026)
Home service contractors don’t lose because there aren’t enough leads—they lose because the system is leaking. Use these up‑to‑date benchmarks for HVAC, roofing, plumbing, and remodeling to see how fast you need to respond, what “good” marketing performance looks like, and where your Predictable Work Engine should plug the biggest revenue leaks.
Speed‑to‑Lead: Why Minutes Matter
- A Harvard Business Review–cited study found that only about 37% of businesses respond to leads within 60 minutes, 24% take more than 24 hours, and 23% never respond at all.
- Research on lead response shows that reaching a prospect within one hour makes you around 7x more likely to qualify that lead compared to waiting longer.
- Field‑service research shows that responding within 5 minutes makes you 21x more likely to qualify a lead compared to waiting 30 minutes, and 100x more likely to make contact with a lead compared to waiting an hour.
- Other speed‑to‑lead studies report that responding in about 5 minutes can increase your ability to make contact with leads dramatically—up to 100x compared with a 30‑minute delay—yet many businesses still average response times in the tens of hours.
If your team is not consistently touching new HVAC, roofing, plumbing, or remodeling leads within 5 minutes, you are statistically leaving multiple‑X more booked jobs on the table than top performers.
HVAC Marketing & Profit Benchmarks
HVAC Marketing Benchmarks (2025–2026)
From:
- Average cost per lead (CPL) for HVAC marketing: about 153 dollars.
- Industry‑standard HVAC conversion rate from lead to customer: about 3.10%.
- Average customer lifetime value (CLV) in HVAC: around 15,340 dollars.
- Average HVAC net profit margin: about 8%.
With an average HVAC CPL around 153 dollars and a CLV over 15,000 dollars, the real problem usually isn’t “not enough leads”—it is failing to convert the leads already paid for.
A Predictable Work Engine that tightens response time, follow‑up, and tracking can add significant profit without increasing ad spend because every small lift on that 3.10% conversion benchmark compounds against high lifetime value.
Home Services Benchmarks Across Trades
Home Services Performance Benchmarks
- Home services marketing benchmark reports show that profitable contractors track metrics like cost per lead, conversion rate, and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue to stay ahead.
- Industry guidance often recommends reinvesting roughly 7% of revenue into marketing for healthy growth in home services, with higher investment for aggressive expansion.
Roofing, Plumbing & Remodeling – Communication and Follow‑Up
There are fewer unified “CPL and CLV” benchmarks by trade, so lean into communication and channel behavior
Roofing, Plumbing & Remodeling Communication Stats
- For roofing contractors, research shows that around 68% of customers do not answer calls from unknown numbers, while text messages can achieve open rates near 98%, highlighting how important SMS and modern communication are for closing jobs.
- Studies of contractor customer expectations show that about 31% of customers expect a response within an hour, and only about 20% of companies actually respond within 24 hours.
- Lead‑response studies across industries suggest that only about 27–31% of leads are ever contacted by phone at all, and average call‑back times can be more than 14 hours.Most roofing, plumbing, and remodeling companies are still calling from unknown numbers, answering slowly, and often never following up at all. Your 24/7 AI booking agent and automation story fits perfectly here as the “fix” for those numbers.
What These Benchmarks Mean for Your Shop
What These Numbers Mean for Contractors
- If your average response time is longer than 5–15 minutes, you are statistically losing a majority of potential jobs to the first contractor who responds.
- If your HVAC marketing CPL is close to or above 153 dollars but your close rate is below the roughly 3.10% industry benchmark, the fastest way to grow is fixing speed‑to‑lead, follow‑up sequences, and tracking—not necessarily buying more traffic.
- If your team only follows up once or twice and then stops, you are in the same bucket as the many companies that never meaningfully work their leads, which is exactly where a Predictable Work Engine—automation, AI answering, and process—creates an unfair advantage.
How the Predictable Work Engine™ Fixes the Leaks
Turning Benchmarks into a Predictable Work Engine™
- Conversion‑Ready Digital HQ: built to hit or exceed benchmark landing‑page conversion rates and track true cost per booked job.
- 24/7 AI Booking Agent: designed to hit that under‑5‑minute response window consistently, even when the owner is on a ladder.
- On‑Demand Traffic Valves & Local Domination: ensure that once the engine is fixed, increasing spend and rankings actually turns into profitable booked work instead of wasted clicks.
Key terms (simple glossary)
PPC (Pay‑Per‑Click)
- PPC is an online advertising model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, instead of paying just to show the ad.
- CPC is how much you actually pay, on average, for each click on your ads.
CPL (Cost Per Lead)
- CPL is your total marketing spend divided by the number of leads generated, showing what it costs you to get one new lead.
CPA / CAC (Cost Per Acquisition / Customer Acquisition Cost)
- CPA or CAC is the total cost to acquire a new customer, including ads and other marketing, divided by the number of new customers you win.
CLV / LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
- CLV (or LTV) is the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the entire time they stay with your business.
Conversion Rate (CR)
- Conversion rate is the percentage of leads or visitors who take the action you want (like booking a job or signing a contract).
CTR (Click‑Through Rate)
- CTR is the percentage of people who see your ad or link and then click it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Contractor growth benchmarks are reference numbers for metrics like cost per lead, close rate, and response time that show how your marketing and sales stack up against industry standards in home services.
Lead‑response studies show that contractors who respond within about 5 minutes can be many times more likely to convert a lead than those who wait longer, while many competitors still take hours or never reply at all.
Recent HVAC benchmark data pegs average cost per lead around 153 dollars, an industry‑standard conversion rate near 3.10%, and customer lifetime value over 15,000 dollars, with roughly 8% net profit margin as a typical target.
Contractors can compare their own CPL, close rate, and response times to these benchmarks to find leaks—then fix missed calls, slow follow‑up, and poor tracking before spending more on ads or SEO.
Benchmarks should be reviewed at least yearly because ad costs, competition, and consumer behavior change, and updating 2025–2026 data keeps your numbers accurate for both search engines and real‑world decisions.
Not necessarily; for many contractors, tightening response time and follow‑up and improving conversion rates can increase booked jobs from the same lead volume, often faster than trying to buy more traffic.
The Predictable Work Engine™ is built around these benchmarks, using systems, automation, and AI to reduce response times, boost close rates, and make every marketing dollar more accountable instead of just chasing “more leads.”