A good cost per lead (CPL) is the number that still leaves you profit after you factor in your close rate and the value of a new customer, so “good” can be $30 for one business and $300 for another.
In PPC, CPL only means something if you define a “lead” the same way every time. For most Orlando service businesses, we treat a lead as (1) a phone call that lasts long enough to show intent, or (2) a form submission or booking that includes real contact info and the service you actually sell. If you count spam, wrong-area calls, job seekers, and price shoppers as leads, your CPL looks better on paper while revenue stays flat.
What “good” looks like in practice
The fastest way to judge CPL is to convert it into cost per booked job: Cost per booked job = CPL ÷ close rate. Then compare that number to your gross profit per job (or first-year value for recurring services). If you can’t cover your ad cost and still keep a healthy margin, the CPL is not good, even if it matches a benchmark.
| Example scenario | Average gross profit from 1 sale | Close rate from lead to sale | Max CPL if you can spend up to 25% of gross profit on ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local home service (mid-ticket) | $600 | 30% | $45 |
| Emergency or higher-ticket repair | $1,200 | 25% | $75 |
| Dental new patient (first 12 months) | $1,500 | 20% | $75 |
| Legal case type with high upside | $5,000 | 10% | $125 |
Those are example math checks, not promises, but they show why “good CPL” is really “good customer acquisition cost for your margins.” If your close rate is low because calls go to voicemail or the front desk cannot book, your CPL will look high no matter how good the ads are.
Benchmarks you can use as a starting point
Benchmarks help you sanity-check, not set goals. Recent Google Search benchmarks put overall average CPL in the $70 range, with local-service categories often clustering from roughly $30 on the low end to $130+ for competitive categories like legal. Home improvement and home services frequently land near $90+, and subcategories like roofing can run much higher. Use these numbers to gauge whether you are wildly off, then judge your real results by profit and lead quality.
| Business category | Typical starting CPL range you may see in Google Search | Why the range is wide |
|---|---|---|
| Auto repair, basic consumer services | $25 to $60 | Higher intent, more volume, shorter decision cycle |
| Pest control, lawn care, cleaning, handyman | $40 to $100 | Seasonality, competition, service area density |
| HVAC, plumbing, electrical | $60 to $140 | Emergency demand, high CPCs, call handling matters |
| Dental | $70 to $120 | Insurance mix, offer type, landing page trust |
| Legal | $120 to $300+ | Very high CPCs, longer sales cycle, screening needed |
How to improve CPL without chasing cheap leads
In Orlando, “cheap leads” often means more spam and more out-of-area traffic. A better play is to lift conversion rate and lead quality so you pay for fewer, better contacts: tighten location and service-area filters, add negative keywords, separate brand vs non-brand, use call-only or call assets for urgent services, and build landing pages that answer the top trust questions fast (pricing ranges, service area, proof, and a frictionless tap-to-call). If your landing page is the weak link, our web design work usually pays off quickly because even a small conversion-rate lift reduces CPL at the same spend.
Finally, track what happens after the click. If you are not tracking calls, forms, and booked jobs cleanly, you will chase the wrong CPL. This is why we treat conversion tracking as a requirement, not a bonus, and why many businesses choose a managed approach through our PPC services when they want stable CPL tied to revenue instead of vanity metrics.
If you tell us your average profit per job and your close rate from lead to booked work, we can give you a clear CPL target that fits your numbers and your Orlando competition level.
