The short answer
There's no universal good number. Your maximum cost per lead = average job value × profit margin × share of enquiries you win. Anything below that is profitable; the lower, the better.
You can pay up to
€600
per enquiry and still make money.
Why benchmarks mislead
Industry averages mix very different businesses. A €40 enquiry is expensive for a cleaning service and cheap for a solar installer. Your own numbers decide what's good.
The formula
Take your average job value, multiply by your profit margin, then by the share of enquiries that become jobs. The result is the most one enquiry can cost before an ad loses money.
Example: a €12,000 bathroom with 25% margin, and you win 1 in 5 enquiries: €12,000 × 0.25 × 0.2 = €600. Every enquiry under €600 is profitable; you'd still aim well below it.
Use it to set budgets
Once you know your maximum, compare it with your real cost per enquiry for each service. Move budget toward services with the biggest gap. Orbit Grow shows cost per enquiry per service and suggests these shifts.
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What's the difference between cost per lead and cost per click?
Cost per click is what Google charges for one click. Cost per lead is your total ad spend divided by enquiries. Only the second tells you if ads pay off.
Should I count every form fill as a lead?
Count real enquiries. Spam and wrong numbers distort the number, so mark leads as qualified, quoted or won where you can.
Does a higher cost per lead ever make sense?
Yes, if those leads are more likely to become big jobs. That's why tracking won jobs per search matters.