Customer LTV Calculator
Home service customers are worth more than their first job. Factor in repeat revenue and referrals to see the real customer lifetime value — and bid accordingly.
Customer Economics
Your typical job revenue on a first-time customer. Roofing: $8-15K. HVAC: $2-10K. Plumbing: $200-2.5K.
Of every 100 customers, how many book a second job with you? 15-30% is typical for recurring services, 5-15% for one-time installs.
Revenue from a typical repeat job (usually smaller than first job — maintenance vs install).
Of every 100 customers, how many send you a new paying customer? 10-20% is healthy; 30%+ is exceptional.
Job value of an average referred customer. Usually close to first-job value.
Customer Lifetime Value
$3,250
1.3× first-job value — that's the real customer worth to your business over the lifetime of the relationship.
Breakdown
Why LTV matters for ad spend
Most contractors bid based on first-job value — then wonder why they can't outbid competitors. Factor LTV into your max CPA. If LTV is 2× first-job, you can pay 2× more to acquire customers and still profit.
Build LTV into your ad strategy
Free strategy call — we'll show you how to bid at LTV instead of first-job value.
Common Questions.
Why should contractors care about LTV?
Most contractors bid to acquire customers based on first-job value alone. That's leaving money on the table. If a customer produces $2,500 first job + $1,500 in repeat work + 15% chance of a $3,000 referral, their true LTV is ~$4,450 — you can afford to spend 80% more to acquire them and still win.
How do I measure repeat rate accurately?
Pull your last 24 months of invoices. Count unique customers who booked 2+ jobs. Divide by total customers in that window. That's your repeat rate. For recurring services (pest control, HVAC maintenance), repeat rate is much higher than one-time installs.
What's a realistic referral rate?
10-20% is healthy; 30%+ is exceptional. The biggest lever: ask every happy customer for a review + referral at time of completion. Contractors with systematic referral requests see 2-3x higher referral rates than those who wait for referrals to happen organically.
Should LTV replace cost per booked job as my primary metric?
No — they're complementary. CPBJ tells you unit-economic efficiency. LTV tells you how much you can afford to pay for that efficiency. Use CPBJ to optimize campaigns daily; use LTV to set your max bid + decide whether a campaign is profitable long-term.
Does LTV vary by lead source?
Yes — meaningfully. Referral customers typically have 20-40% higher LTV than paid-ad customers (warmer intro, higher trust, more likely to refer back). Directory leads (HomeAdvisor/Thumbtack) tend to have the lowest LTV because they're price-shoppers already comparing. Track LTV per source so you can bid smarter per channel — the same CPA on referrals vs. cold ads isn't equal profit.