In high-ticket services a cheap lead almost always lies. We recalculate the funnel by qualified leads and let the cost per lead rise where it pays back with a deal.
Optimizing for the form brings people who “just asked the price”. In the assistant hiring service case, recalculating the funnel by qualified leads reversed the conclusions: the cheap combo turned out to be loss-making, the expensive one — paying back at 248%.
Ads across the whole region bring leads from places the crew will not go. We cut by radius and districts, with separate combos for every city of presence.
A call and a WhatsApp chat break off at the ad account’s doorstep. We stitch the lead to the CRM and send the deal status back to Meta — the algorithm learns from contracts.
Separate campaigns for the service area and points of presence, own budgets and creatives for every city.
Questions on the form and the pre-lander filter out unqualified people before a manager spends an hour on them.
Meta receives the “qualified lead” or “contract” event, not any submitted form.
Tracking of WhatsApp clicks and calls so the deal’s source is not lost.
We measure the cost of a contract, not a lead. The acceptable cost per lead is derived from the ticket and lead-to-sale conversion.
Budget growth in steps with control of the cost per qualified lead: in the gold buyback case that is 14,338 leads at $18.32 taken to 3,463 deals at 153% ROMI.
| $51.29 | per lead, paid back 618% over five months | Brought 54 countertop buyers — 618% ROMI in five months |
| $59.42 | per lead at a $5,490 average ticket | Expensive leads paid off with a $5,490 average ticket — 1173% ROMI |
| $46.56 | per lead for a store chain, 682 of them | Loaded a store chain with a flow of 682 leads at $46.56 |
| $18.32 | per lead at mass volume, 14,338 of them | The audience was not looking for a pawnshop — we found it with creative, not targeting |
| 248% | ROMI after recalculating the funnel by qualified leads | Cheap lead-form leads were misleading — we scored by qualified leads, 145% ROMI |
In our cases — from $12 to $65. The spread is set by the ticket: at an average ticket of $5,000+ a $59 lead pays back, at a $200 ticket it does not.
Recalculate the funnel by qualified leads and retrain the algorithm. It usually turns out that the cheapest combo brings a loss and the expensive one brings profit; the budget moves to the latter.
Yes. In the stone store chain case the campaigns are split by location, each with its own budget and creatives. The total flow — 682 leads at $46.56.
Preferably. Without a deal status, optimization goes for the form, not the contract — that is the main cause of “cheap but empty” leads.
A lead in our local services cases costs from $12 to $65, depending on the ticket. The ad budget to work with us is from $3,000 per month.
A fixed fee plus a percentage of ad spend. The ad budget is separate — from $3,000 per month.
Egor Balandin
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