How to use the marketing ROI calculator
- Lead & client cost. Enter your monthly ad budget, any other marketing costs, the average cost per click and two conversion rates: clicks to leads and leads to booked clients. You get cost per lead (CPL) and cost per acquired client (CAC).
- Lifetime value. Enter the first job price, the recurring visit price, how many new clients turn recurring, how often they're cleaned, how long they stay and your gross margin. You get customer lifetime value (LTV) in revenue and in gross profit.
- Targets. Set the LTV : CAC ratio you want. The calculator shows the maximum you can afford to pay for a client and for a lead.
- Read the verdict. ROAS, lifetime ROI and LTV : CAC tell you whether the campaign makes money — and how much room you have to bid higher or need to cut costs.
How CPL, CAC, LTV and ROI are calculated
Clicks = ad budget ÷ cost per clickLeads = clicks × click-to-lead % · Clients = leads × lead-to-client %CPL = total spend ÷ leads · CAC = total spend ÷ clientsLTV (revenue) = first job + recurring % × visits per month × lifetime months × visit priceLTV (gross profit) = LTV revenue × gross marginROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend · ROI = (clients × LTV profit − spend) ÷ spendMax CAC = LTV profit ÷ target ratio · Max CPL = max CAC × lead-to-client %
ROAS on the first job shows how fast ad spend comes back. Lifetime ROAS and ROI show the full value of the clients you win, which is what matters in a recurring business. ROI uses gross profit, not revenue, because revenue that goes straight to wages and supplies doesn't pay back ads.
CAC payback is how long a recurring client takes to repay what it cost to win them: first the gross profit of the first job, then the monthly gross profit of their recurring visits.
Typical marketing numbers for cleaning companies
Typical ranges for home cleaning in the US and Canada. Costs swing widely by city, season and how competitive your area is — treat these as a rough guide and trust your own tracking over any benchmark.
| Metric | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Google Ads cost per click, house cleaning | often $2–$8, higher in big cities |
| Click-to-lead conversion, good landing page | often 5–15% |
| Lead-to-client (booking) rate | often 20–50%, higher with fast replies |
| Cost per lead | often $25–$100 |
| Cost to acquire a client | often $75–$300 |
| Recurring client lifetime | often 6–24 months |
| Healthy LTV : CAC | 3 : 1 or better is a common rule of thumb |
Worked example
A company spends $1,500 a month on Google Ads at $4.50 per click. 8% of clicks become leads, and 35% of leads book. The first job is a $220 deep clean; half of new clients go recurring at $160 a visit, twice a month, for 12 months on average. Gross margin is 35%.
- Clicks: $1,500 ÷ $4.50 ≈ 333 → leads: 333 × 8% ≈ 26.7 → clients: 26.7 × 35% ≈ 9.3.
- Cost per lead: $1,500 ÷ 26.7 ≈ $56. CAC: $1,500 ÷ 9.3 ≈ $161.
- LTV revenue: $220 + 50% × 2 × 12 × $160 = $2,140; at 35% margin that's $749 of gross profit.
- LTV : CAC = $749 ÷ $161 ≈ 4.7 : 1. Lifetime ROI ≈ 366%.
- First-job ROAS: 9.3 × $220 ÷ $1,500 ≈ 1.4×; lifetime ROAS ≈ 13.3×.
- For a 3 : 1 ratio, the company could pay up to $250 per client — about $87 per lead.
The campaign looks thin on the first job alone, but strong over the client's lifetime. The biggest lever isn't the ad budget: if only 30% of clients went recurring instead of 50%, LTV would fall to about $1,370 and the ratio to around 3 : 1.
5 marketing ROI mistakes
- Judging ads by cost per clickCheap clicks that never call are expensive. Judge campaigns by cost per booked client and the lifetime value of those clients.
- Measuring ROI on the first job onlyIn a recurring business, most of a client's value comes later. First-job ROAS under 1× can still be a great campaign.
- Using revenue instead of profitA $160 visit isn't $160 to pay back ads with — after labor and supplies, maybe $50–$60 is left. Use gross profit for ROI and max CAC.
- Slow replies to leadsLeads that wait hours for an answer book somewhere else. Faster replies lift the lead-to-client rate at no extra ad cost.
- Not tracking the source of each clientWithout knowing which ad or page brought each booking, you can't tell which spend to cut and which to scale.