Contractors see 14% bump in Q3 organic lead volume

I recently caught up with my analytics friend, Jon Torrey from SearchLight, who tracks industry demand trends, to get an idea of how some contractors performed in Q3 compared to last year. 

• Note: This data was pulled from an anonymous sample of HVAC contractors spread throughout the country — who have opted into sharing. 

What’s happening: Torrey split Q3 performance into two categories: “Organic” (including non-paid Google listings and Facebook) and Local Services Ads (LSAs) 

• Specifically, he shared with me customer acquisition cost, lead volume, and average ticket trends.

Organic: In Q3, unique lead volume from organic channels grew 14% year-over-year, and average tickets rose 7%. 

• Customer acquisition costs were flat, at just under $74. 

• And notably, “closed revenue” per contractor jumped by 19%.

The big picture: “Unique leads for organic went up year-over-year and those leads converted to bookings and run jobs at a higher rate. [That], on top of average tickets increasing, [resulted] in an increase of revenue per brand,” Torrey told me in an email. 

Local Services Ads: A mostly negative mixed bag, on the other hand. Lead volume dropped nearly 50% year-over-year, which sucks, however, Torrey largely attributed the drop to Google “spreading” leads across more contractors.

• Customer acquisition costs also took a bad turn and jumped 33% year-over-year, hitting $355. 

• Yes, but: Average tickets were strong, growing 38%.

“Some brands still crush with LSAs, but the average of my anecdotal experience is that the flood gates have slowed quite a bit and [contractors are] seeking alternative channels… or even funneling back into traditional to capitalize on organic demand,” Torrey said.  

Looking ahead: He noted that while it’s hard to tell, especially with an upcoming election, Q4, according to SearchLight’s data, is so far looking stronger than last year across all three metrics. 

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