A step-by-step calculator for tree service businesses to determine safe bidding limits in paid ad platforms while maintaining profitability.
Average value of first job
Average follow-up jobs per customer
Should include OpEx, Crew wages, fuel, dump fees, etc.
Leads that become paying jobs
Profit to keep after ad spend
(Leads ÷ Clicks) × 100%
You can safely bid up to $1,480 per customer or $15 per click and still maintain a 20% profit margin.
Let Google's algorithm bid within these limits to maximize your tree service growth without felling your profits! 🌲
Enter your average contract value, your direct cost to deliver the work, and the share of leads that turn into booked jobs. The calculator works backward from your margin and returns your breakeven ceilings: the most you can afford to pay for a booked job, a lead, and a click before advertising starts losing money. Set bids and budgets below those ceilings and the math stays on your side.
Cost per booked job (CPA) is what you pay in advertising to win one signed job. Cost per lead (CPL) is what you pay for one call or form fill, whether or not it books. Cost per click (CPC) is what you pay when someone clicks your ad. Most tree services are told to judge marketing on lead volume. Lead counts do not pay the crew. These three ceilings tell you whether a campaign is actually making you money.
A tree service with a $1,800 average ticket and 55 percent direct costs keeps $810 per job. That is the absolute most it can pay to win one booked job and break even. If 30 percent of leads become booked jobs, the ceiling per lead is $243. If 1 in 10 clicks becomes a lead, the ceiling per click is about $24. A well-run search campaign should land well under those ceilings; for most tree services we see healthy campaigns book jobs at $200 to $500 each on $1,000 to $2,500 average tickets.
Between $200 and $500 on a typical residential ticket. Above $500 usually signals a targeting, ad copy, or follow-up problem rather than a budget problem. If your number is over your ceiling from the calculator, the fix is rarely more spend. It is better filtering and faster follow-up.