What electrical leads cost by job type, and the maximum you can profitably pay for each. Free CSV, CC BY 4.0.
Electrician cost per lead runs roughly $25 to $95 depending almost entirely on job type. But CPL alone says nothing about whether a lead was worth buying. What matters is break-even CPL, the most you can pay and still profit, which ranges from about $38 on a residential service call to about $473 on a panel upgrade and above $1,000 on commercial buildout. That roughly twelvefold spread is why a single blended CPL target across all electrical campaigns overpays for small jobs and underbids on large ones at the same time.
Most published contractor lead benchmarks stop at "electricians pay $X per lead," which is the least useful number in the account. It answers what something cost without answering whether it was worth it.
This dataset adds the column the others leave out. For every electrical job type it pairs the observed cost per lead with a break-even cost per lead derived from ticket size, gross margin, and booking rate, so the two can be read against each other. Every input is exposed so you can audit the arithmetic or substitute your own figures.
The headroom column divides break-even by the high end of observed CPL. A value of 5.9x means you could pay nearly six times the going rate for that lead and still break even.
United States, 2026. The basis used column shows the exact ticket figure behind each calculation so every row can be checked with a calculator.
| Job type | CPL range | Ticket range | Basis used | Margin | Booking | Break-even | Headroom | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential service call / troubleshooting | $30-$40 | $200-$300 | $250 | 40% | 38% | $38 | 0.95x | published |
| Outlet, switch and fixture repair | $25-$40 | $150-$350 | $250 | 40% | 38% | $38 | 0.95x | calculated |
| EV charger installation (Level 2) | $55-$90 | $1,200-$2,500 | $1,850 | 40% | 40% | $296 | 3.3x | calculated |
| Panel / service upgrade | $50-$80 | $2,500-$3,500 | $3,000 | 45% | 35% | $473 | 5.9x | published |
| Generator installation | $60-$95 | $4,000-$7,000 | $7,000 | 40% | 30% | $840 | 8.8x | published |
| Commercial lighting retrofit | $65-$95 | $3,000-$12,000 | $7,500 | 35% | 30% | $788 | 8.3x | calculated |
| Whole-home rewire | $60-$95 | $8,000-$15,000 | $11,500 | 35% | 25% | $1,006 | 10.6x | calculated |
| Commercial panel upgrade / tenant buildout | $70-$95 | $5,000-$25,000 | $10,000 | 35% | 30% | $1,050 | 11.1x | calculated |
How to read the headroom column. Under 1.0x means the job type is barely profitable on lead cost alone and has to earn its keep through follow-on work. Above 3x means you are almost certainly underbidding, because your competitors are not bidding to that ceiling either. The rows near 0.95x and the rows above 8x are the same business, funded from the same budget, which is the entire problem with a single blended CPL target.
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Market tier moves CPL far less than job type does, which is why job-type separation matters more than geography.
| Market tier | CPL range | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Major metro (competitive) | $30-$65 | More advertisers in the auction, higher lead volume, faster response expectations |
| Suburban / mid-market | $35-$55 | The typical range for most US electricians |
| Rural / small market | $18-$35 | Lower competition but materially lower lead volume, which caps how much you can scale |
This is the most common misreading of electrician lead data, and it causes contractors to fire agencies that were doing the right thing.
A blended CPL moving from $30 to $65 while the job mix shifts toward panel and commercial work is not a cost problem. It is the account buying better work. Judged against break-even, the $65 blended CPL is dramatically healthier than the $30 one. The only way to see that is to stop looking at blended CPL and start looking at cost per booked job against the break-even for each job type.
Formula. Break-even CPL = ticket basis × gross margin percentage × booking rate. Every input appears in the table and the CSV so the figure can be audited or recalculated.
Sources. CPL ranges, ticket sizes, margin and booking-rate assumptions are drawn from Blue Grid Media's published electrician benchmark guides, specifically our electrician cost per lead and electrician ROI benchmarks analyses, which aggregate managed-account observations with public home-services benchmark data.
Published vs calculated rows. Break-even figures for residential service calls ($38), panel upgrades ($473), and generator installation ($840) were previously published in our benchmark guides and are reproduced here. The remaining rows apply the identical formula to stated ticket, margin, and booking assumptions for job types where no break-even was previously published. Those are labelled calculated and should be treated as modelled rather than observed.
On the basis column. The ticket basis is usually the midpoint of the stated range. Two rows deliberately are not: generator installation uses $7,000 (top of range) to reconcile with the $840 break-even published in our earlier guide, and commercial panel upgrade uses a conservative $10,000 rather than the $15,000 midpoint, because tenant buildout tickets span an order of magnitude and the midpoint would flatter the result.
Limitations, stated plainly. These are ranges, not guarantees. Margin and booking rate vary enormously between operators, and booking rate in particular is more a function of how fast the phone is answered than of the lead itself. Commercial ticket ranges are wide because tenant buildouts span an order of magnitude. Regional labour rates, licensing requirements, and utility coordination costs all shift the ticket side of the equation. Anyone using this data should substitute their own margin and booking figures, which is exactly why every input is exposed rather than baked into a single number.
Update cadence. Reviewed and refreshed as underlying benchmarks change. The badge at the top of this page and the dateModified in the structured data reflect the last substantive revision, not a cosmetic date bump.
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It varies by job type more than by anything else. Residential service calls and outlet or fixture repairs run $25-$40. EV charger leads run $55-$90. Panel and service upgrades run $50-$80. Generator and commercial leads run $60-$95. By market: major metros $30-$65, suburban $35-$55, rural $18-$35.
Approximately $473, from a $3,000 average ticket at 45% gross margin and a 35% booking rate ($3,000 x 0.45 = $1,350 gross profit, x 0.35 = $472.50). Since panel leads typically cost $50-$80, the headroom is roughly six times the high-end observed CPL.
Because the ticket is small. A $250 service call at 40% margin and a 38% booking rate breaks even at $38. Market CPLs for small residential work run $25-$40, so service calls are barely profitable on lead cost alone and earn their keep through follow-on work. The roughly twelvefold gap between $38 and $473 is why one blended CPL target across all campaigns fails in both directions at once.
Ticket basis x gross margin x booking rate. Every input is shown in the table and CSV. Rows marked published reproduce break-even figures from our earlier benchmark guides; rows marked calculated apply the same formula to stated assumptions and should be treated as modelled rather than observed.
Usually not. A blended CPL rising from $30 to $65 typically means the service mix shifted toward higher-value work. The health metric is cost per booked job against the break-even for that job type, not CPL in isolation. Paying $80 per panel lead against a $473 break-even is far stronger than paying $30 per outlet lead against a $38 break-even.
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Book a 30-minute call. We will run your actual ticket, margin, and booking rate through this model, compare it to what you are currently paying per lead, and show you where the headroom is. Yours to keep whether we work together or not.
Outlet and switch job types only
Blended CPL $25-$35Low CPL, low ticket ceiling. Cheap leads, small jobs, thin margin. Looks efficient in a report and caps the business.
Adding panel, generator, commercial
Blended CPL $55-$75Higher CPL reflecting a higher-value lead mix. Usually a sign the account improved, not that costs ran away.