Part of the 90 Leads resource library. This article reflects guidance as of October 2026.
“Leads are up” is not a complete marketing report.
For an HVAC contractor, the useful questions come afterward:
Were the inquiries qualified? Did your office book them? Were the jobs completed? What did the work contribute after direct job costs and advertising?
A simple scorecard can connect those steps without turning your office into a reporting department.
Define the stages before counting them
Start with consistent definitions:
- Inquiry: A call, form submission, or other customer request.
- Qualified opportunity: A request that fits your service, territory, and other acceptance criteria.
- Booked appointment: A confirmed visit or consultation.
- Sold job: Work the customer has approved.
- Completed job: Work that has actually been performed.
A booked replacement consultation is not a sold installation.
Likewise, a maintenance question is not necessarily an emergency-service opportunity.
Keep those distinctions visible so you do not compare unlike activities.
Record why opportunities do not move forward
Use a short list of reasons:
- Outside service area.
- Service not offered.
- No appointment availability.
- Customer could not be reached.
- Customer declined the stated charge.
- Project postponed.
- Duplicate or non-customer inquiry.
These notes help distinguish targeting problems from operational problems.
If many qualified callers cannot be scheduled, your marketing may be doing its job while your capacity is the constraint.
If most inquiries are outside the territory, the campaign or website may need attention.
Add the financial layer
For this scorecard, keep three concepts separate:
- Revenue: Money generated by the completed work.
- Gross profit: Revenue minus the direct costs assigned to that work.
- Contribution after advertising: Gross profit minus the campaign’s advertising spend.
That final number is not net profit. Overhead, taxes, and other expenses may still remain.
Use consistent accounting definitions with the person responsible for your books.
A hypothetical example
The following numbers illustrate the calculation. They are not a client result or an industry benchmark.
| Measure | Example |
|---|---|
| Advertising spend | $3,600 |
| Qualified opportunities | 80 |
| Booked appointments | 40 |
| Completed jobs | 30 |
| Revenue from completed jobs | $18,000 |
| Direct job costs | $12,000 |
| Gross profit | $6,000 |
| Contribution after advertising | $2,400 |
In this example:
- Cost per qualified opportunity is $45.
- Cost per booked appointment is $90.
- Advertising cost per completed job is $120.
Those numbers answer different questions.
A low cost per inquiry can still produce weak business results if qualification, booking, completion, or job economics are poor.
Separate the work types
Track repair, replacement, and maintenance separately where practical.
A replacement opportunity may have a longer decision cycle. A repair inquiry may book quickly but produce different revenue and direct costs.
Also distinguish first-time customers from returning customers when the records allow it.
Do not assume every job that mentions your company’s name was created by the newest campaign.
Review the scorecard with the office
A short recurring review can focus on:
- Which inquiries were a good fit.
- Where the handoff broke down.
- Whether the team had capacity.
- Which completed work produced acceptable economics.
- What to change next.
The goal is not to blame dispatch for every missed booking or advertising for every unsold job.
It is to find the specific constraint.
A useful HVAC marketing report follows the work from inquiry to completion—not just from impression to click.
Ask 90 Leads to help build a scorecard that reflects the jobs your business actually wants to perform.
