The Lead Cost Audit
Ten lines. One spreadsheet column per lead source (each vendor, plus your own ads as their own column). Fill it from last month's real data — invoices, CRM, and an honest estimate of intake hours. Line 10 is the only number worth arguing about.
| Line | How to fill it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Leads purchased (month) | Count from invoices | Every lead you were billed for, including duds. |
| 2. Total lead spend ($) | Sum of invoices | Lead fees only — ad spend pass-throughs go here too if you pay them. |
| 3. Leads actually contacted | Count from CRM/dialer | A human conversation happened. Voicemail doesn't count. |
| 4. Contact rate (%) | Line 3 ÷ Line 1 | Under 50%? You're paying full price for phantom inventory. |
| 5. Qualified after contact | Count | Met your criteria once you actually spoke: right case type, right geo, right timeline. |
| 6. Signed / booked / issued | Count | The only unit that pays you. Cases signed, jobs booked, policies issued. |
| 7. Intake labor hours on this source | Estimate honestly | Dials, callbacks, voicemails, CRM notes — hours your team spent on this vendor's leads. |
| 8. Intake labor cost ($) | Line 7 × loaded hourly rate | Loaded rate = wage × ~1.3 for taxes/benefits. This is the cost every vendor hides. |
| 9. True total cost ($) | Line 2 + Line 8 | What this lead source actually consumed. |
| 10. TRUE COST PER ACQUISITION | Line 9 ÷ Line 6 | The number to manage. Compare every vendor — and your own ads — on this line only. |
How to read your result
Line 10 vs. your unit value.A signed MVA case worth a $12,000 fee can absorb a $4,500 acquisition cost comfortably. A $400 HVAC service call cannot absorb a $300 one. The audit doesn't tell you a source is "good" or "bad" — it tells you whether the math clears your margin, per source.
Line 4 is the leak.If contact rate is below ~50%, your problem usually isn't close rate or intake skill — it's that half your inventory was never reachable. Fixing verification (or buying only verified leads) moves Line 10 more than any sales training will.
Line 8 is where vendors hide.A "cheap" lead that takes six dials and four voicemails isn't cheap. Two vendors with identical invoices can differ 2x on Line 10 purely on labor. Never compare vendors on Line 2 alone.
Rerun it monthly. One month is a data point; three months is a trend. Cut or renegotiate any source whose Line 10 trends above your break-even for two consecutive months.
Want us to run this audit with you against your market? One partner per geography — check if yours is open.
Email hello@getfixr.ai