Where Home Service Leads Come From: 1,227 Tracked Leads

Short answer: In a study that tracked 1,227 organic search leads for five HVAC contractors, 82% came from the companies' Google Business Profiles, 95% arrived as phone calls, and about one in four became a paying job at an average ticket of $3,820. For home service companies, that makes the Google Business Profile and answering the phone the two biggest levers in local search.

Key takeaways

82% of organic search leads came from the Google Business Profile, not the website.
95% of leads called. A missed call is a missed job.
About 1 in 4 leads (25.5%) became a sold or closed job.
Each paying customer cost about $127 in SEO management, with an average ticket of $3,820.
New customers were half the jobs but almost 70% of the revenue.

What did the study measure?

In 2022, Jon Torrey of The Data-Driven Trades worked with an SEO agency to follow organic search leads all the way through to revenue. Instead of stopping at clicks or calls, the study matched each lead to the contractor’s CRM to see which ones became booked jobs and how much those jobs were worth.

The sample: five HVAC contractors, 1,227 organic search leads, tracked over 90 days from June through August 2022. It’s a small sample from one trade, and the author is clear that results will vary. But it’s one of the few public looks at what search actually produces in booked work for home service companies, not just traffic.

Where did the leads come from?

The split was lopsided:

Google Business Profile: 82% (1,005 leads)
Google organic website results: 16% (196 leads)
Bing organic: 2% (26 leads)

More than four out of five organic leads came from the companies’ Google Business Profiles, the listings that show up in Google Maps and the map pack at the top of local searches, rather than from their websites.

That matches how homeowners behave. Someone with a broken AC or a clogged gutter searches on their phone, sees three companies on the map with star ratings and a call button, and taps one. Many never visit a website at all.

What it means for you: if your Google Business Profile is incomplete, rarely updated or light on reviews, you’re weak exactly where most organic leads start. See our Google Business Profile checklist for what a strong one includes.

How did those leads reach the contractor?

By phone. 95% of the leads converted through a phone call.

So the moment that decides whether a lead becomes a job is usually a ringing phone. If it rings while your techs are on a roof or under a house, or at 8 p.m. on a Saturday, and nobody answers, that homeowner very likely calls the next company on the map.

What it means for you: answering speed is part of your marketing. Missed-call text back, a call answering service or an AI receptionist protects the leads your profile works so hard to earn.

How many leads turned into paying jobs?

Of the 1,227 leads, 313 became sold or closed jobs, a 25.5% booked job rate. Roughly one in four.

Not every lead is a job. Some are existing customers with a quick question, some are shopping around, some aren’t in your service area. That’s why the study argued for measuring cost per booked job instead of cost per lead.

What was search worth in revenue?

The numbers here are what make the case for local search:

Cost per booked job: about $127 in SEO management fees for each paying customer
Average ticket: $3,820 across all booked jobs from search
Google Business Profile jobs averaged $4,171, above the overall average
About 30x return on SEO management spend, based on sold and closed jobs
$1.69 million in revenue potential across the five contractors in 90 days

One caveat: these companies paid for SEO management but no advertising, so the “return” compares revenue to management fees only. Your costs and tickets will differ. The point isn’t the exact multiple; it’s that leads from search, especially from the Google Business Profile, were high-value jobs at a low acquisition cost.

Are new customers or repeat customers worth more?

Both matter, in different ways. Half of the booked jobs came from new customers and half from existing ones. But new customers produced 69.5% of the revenue, with an average ticket of $5,293 compared with $2,337 for existing customers.

Search is how new customers find you, and new customers often bring the bigger jobs: replacements, installs and full projects instead of tune-ups and small repairs. Existing customers matter too, which is why review requests and past-customer campaigns are part of a complete system.

What should home service companies do with this?

The study covered HVAC, but the same shopping pattern shows up across home services, from plumbers and roofers to painters, pressure washers, gutter installers and window companies. Five practical moves:

Treat your Google Business Profile like your main storefront. Fill in every service, keep your categories accurate, post every week and add real job photos.
Earn reviews constantly. Profiles with steady, recent reviews win the map pack and the call. Tap For Review cards and automated requests make it routine. More in how to get more Google reviews.
Answer every call. With 95% of leads calling, every missed call is a lost job. If you can’t reliably pick up during jobs, after hours and on weekends, set up an AI receptionist to answer for you, capture the customer’s details and book the appointment, so no lead goes to voicemail.
Measure cost per booked job, not cost per lead. Track which calls became revenue so you know what your marketing is really worth.
Keep your website strong, too. It supports the profile, gives Google and AI tools the details they need to recommend you, and converts the homeowners who do click through.

This is exactly what our GBP Lead Machine is built around, and it’s included in every Catapult Local program.

Source: Jon Torrey, “How Much Revenue Does SEO Generate for HVAC Contractors?,” The Data-Driven Trades, September 28, 2022. Data from five HVAC contractors, June–August 2022.

FAQ

Questions About This Topic

Does this study apply to trades other than HVAC?

The study only covered HVAC contractors, so the exact numbers won't carry over. But the pattern behind them, homeowners finding companies in Google Maps and calling the one that looks most trustworthy, is how customers shop for most home services, from plumbing and roofing to painting, pressure washing and gutters.

Is a Google Business Profile more important than a website?

For organic leads, the profile is where most of the action happens. But the two work together: Google and AI tools use your website to understand and trust your business, and many homeowners check the site before they call. You need both, and the profile deserves at least as much attention.

What is a good cost per booked job for a home service company?

It depends on your trade, your market and your average ticket. In this study, SEO cost about $127 per paying customer against an average ticket of $3,820. Whatever your numbers, cost per booked job is a far more useful measure than cost per lead.

Why does answering the phone matter so much?

Because 95% of the leads in this study called. When a homeowner's call goes unanswered, most call the next company on the list. Missed-call text back and an AI receptionist close that gap, especially after hours and when your team is on a job.