ChuckFree spreadsheet · no email required

Which of your
lead sources
actually pay?

Most contractors know what they spend on leads. Far fewer can say which source paid for itself last month. This is the spreadsheet that answers it — and tells you the most you can afford to pay for a lead before you agree to anything.

Download the workbookSee what is inside
✅ Free, and it stays free. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
01
The number nobody writes down

A cheap lead is not the same as a good one.

A $40 lead you close one time in fifty is a worse buy than a $300 lead you close one time in three. Price on its own tells you nothing. What a lead is actually worth to you is your profit on a job, multiplied by how often a lead becomes one.

Profit on one job$1,500A $3,000 job at 50% gross profit — before overhead, not the invoice total.
Leads that become jobs40%Four out of every ten leads turn into work you actually invoice.
What one lead is worth$600Pay less and the source makes you money. Pay more and it costs you money, however busy it makes you feel.
What is inside

Four tabs. Every formula already built.

Fill in the gold cells. The workbook does the rest, and it recalculates as you type.

Start Here

What the workbook does and how to fill it in. Gold cells are yours to type in, grey cells work themselves out.

Lead Sources

One row per source. Put in five numbers and it returns cost per lead, close rate, cost per job, profit after lead spend, return per dollar, break-even cost per lead, and a plain verdict: scale it, keep it, or cut it.

Break-Even Calculator

Works both directions. The most you can pay for a lead — and, when someone quotes you a price, the close rate you would need to make that price work.

Monthly Tracker

The same four numbers every month with year-to-date totals, so you can see whether it is getting better or worse rather than guessing.

02
How to use it

Fifteen minutes, once a month.

You need last month's numbers and nothing else. No new software, no tracking to set up.

1

List every source you pay for

Google Ads, a lead broker, directories, door hangers, referrals — one per row.

Two minutes
2

Add five numbers per source

What you spent, leads received, jobs won, average job value, and your gross profit percentage.

Ten minutes
3

Read the last column

The workbook tells you plainly whether to scale each source, keep it, or cut it.

Instant
4

Check the break-even before you buy

Next time someone quotes you a lead price, you will already know whether it can work.

Every time
03
Questions

Straight answers.

Is the lead source scorecard really free?

Yes. No email address, no account, no trial. Download it, keep it, and send it to anyone who needs it.

What is a break-even cost per lead?

It is the most you can pay for one lead before that lead source starts costing you money. Work out the gross profit on a typical job, then multiply it by how often a lead turns into a job. If a job leaves you $1,500 of gross profit and one lead in four becomes a job, a lead is worth $375 to you. Pay more than that and the source loses money no matter how busy it makes you.

What do I need before I can fill it in?

Five numbers per lead source, all from last month: what you spent, how many leads it produced, how many of those became jobs, your average job value, and your gross profit percentage. Everything else is calculated for you.

Does it work in Google Sheets, or do I need Excel?

Both. It also opens in Apple Numbers. The formulas deliberately avoid newer Excel-only functions so nothing breaks when you upload it to Google Sheets.

Why does a cheap lead sometimes lose money?

Because price on its own tells you nothing. A $40 lead you close one time in fifty is a worse buy than a $300 lead you close one time in three. Only your close rate and your margin decide whether a lead was cheap, and those are the two numbers this workbook makes you write down.

How much should a contractor spend on marketing?

There is no single right answer, which is why the workbook shows your lead spend as a percentage of the revenue it produced rather than handing you a number. What matters more is whether each individual source is above or below its own break-even cost per lead.

Who made this

Built by the team behind LeadChuck.

We sell leads, so we will be straight with you: this workbook will sometimes tell you a source you pay for is not worth it. That is the point of it.

No email wall

We did not put a form in front of it. If it is useful, you will remember where you got it.

Nothing is hidden

Every formula is visible and editable. Change anything you like — it is your copy.

Take the workbook.

Free, no email, no account. Then go and find out which of your lead sources has been carrying the others.

Download the Lead Source Scorecard

LeadChuck · Pay-per-lead · ACH only, never cards