Free, and staying free
What is one enquiry actually worth to you?
Anyone selling you advertising asks whether a cost per lead “sounds like a lot”. Nobody can answer that, because it depends entirely on the job at the other end. This works out the number you should be judging it against.
Three steps. Change any figure and everything below it moves with it.
- Free
- No account
- Saved on this device only
- 1 The job
- 2 Winning it
- 3 What you want
Per enquiry, for this work
—
- Profit on one job
- —
- Enquiries needed a month
- —
- Monthly budget it justifies
- —
- Left after the advertising
- —
Where an enquiry stops paying for itself
—
Past this, the job is being done for nothing. It is not a target — it is the wall.
This is what the work can afford out of profit. It is not a cash-flow answer: the advertising is paid this week and the job is invoiced next month, so a budget that is affordable on paper can still be more than you can float.
On its way.
Next Move nextmovelectrical.com Saved on this device
Fair questions
Why doesn’t the monthly budget move when I change my close rate?
Because it cancels out. Winning one enquiry in three instead of one in ten makes each enquiry worth more to you, but it also means you need far fewer of them, and those two moves cancel exactly. So closing better does not change what a month of advertising should cost. What it changes is the value of a single enquiry. Most people expect the opposite, which is why it is worth saying plainly.
Is this what I can afford to spend?
It is what the profit supports, and that is not the same thing. The advertising gets paid this week and the job gets invoiced next month. You can be perfectly profitable on these figures and still not have the money in the account on the day it goes out. Check the number against your bank as well as against this.
Does it know whether the enquiries exist at that price?
No, and it would be lying if it said otherwise. It tells you what one enquiry is worth to you. Whether anybody is actually selling them at that price is a separate question, and you find out by trying it small rather than by working it out on a page.
What if a job costs me more than it bills for?
Then it refuses to give you a budget at all, and tells you why: no amount of advertising rescues work that loses money, because winning more of it loses money faster. That is a pricing problem rather than an advertising one, and the true hourly rate calculator is the tool for it.
Why does it ask what share of the profit I’d give up?
Because there is no right answer to it and it is your call, not ours. A quarter is a common place to start. Put it at 100 and you will see the point where the work becomes free — every pound past that comes out of the job’s own profit, so the tool shows you that ceiling alongside the one it recommends.
Do you store my numbers?
No. Everything is worked out on your phone, in your browser, and saved on your phone so it is still there when you come back. Nothing is sent unless you ask for the write-up by email, there is no account, and there is no email box in front of the answer.
Knowing the number is the easy half
Working out what a lead is worth takes three minutes. Getting them at that price, every month, is the actual job. Fifteen minutes and you’ll know whether there’s anything here for you.