Close rates, channel by channel.
Organic and referral at 50 to 70 percent, cold paid at 8 to 15, shared platforms at 8 to 20, and why the spread is that wide.
Three tiers, three very different numbers.
Published ranges for the same trade, measured on signed jobs rather than appointments.
Organic and referral
Enquiries that arrive because the company was found or recommended.
Cold paid advertising
Paid clicks with no prior relationship and no recommendation behind them.
Shared platform leads
Angi and HomeAdvisor enquiries, sold to several contractors at once.
SOURCES: GHOSTREP, GETBIDDABLE, WEBSITE AND SEO AGENCY. RANGES AS PUBLISHED SEPT 2026.
Why the spread is so wide
Two variables explain nearly all of it: intent and exclusivity. An organic enquiry has already chosen you, having read a page that answered the question they typed. A shared platform lead was sold simultaneously to three or four competitors, so you are one quote among several before the conversation starts. A cold paid click sits between the two on intent and has no recommendation behind it at all.
What each tier is actually measuring
The definitions matter, because vendors quote whichever number flatters the channel.
The homeowner searched, read, and contacted you, or a neighbour told them to. Both behave the same way commercially.
A click from a search or social ad, no prior awareness, often comparing three contractors in the same session.
Sold without exclusivity at $200 to $300 each. The upper end of that range usually means you were first to call.
The multiplier nobody prices in
Close rate multiplies every dollar in a channel. Doubling a 10 percent close rate is worth more than halving lead cost, and it is usually more achievable, because close rate responds to what the buyer saw before they made contact. A homeowner who read your claims page, saw your licence details, and looked at three of your projects in their suburb arrives at a different conversation than one who clicked an ad.
Where your own numbers will differ
These are industry ranges, not your figures. Your organic close rate depends on how well your site pre-qualifies: a page that publishes real price ranges filters out the people who were never going to sign, which lowers enquiry volume and raises close rate. Companies that publish nothing tend to report higher volume and worse close rates, and mistake the first for success.
How to measure it honestly
Four rules that stop the number flattering you.
Repair enquiries close faster and lower than replacement ones, and blending them hides both.
Storm season distorts any single quarter beyond usefulness.
What to do with the finding
Not abandon paid channels. Recognise that a channel's close rate is close to fixed while its cost is not, so improving economics means shifting mix toward the channels that close, and improving what the buyer sees before they contact you. Both are what a rebuild is for, and the arithmetic behind it is worked out in the cost-per-job guide in this cluster.
Improving a close rate you can actually improve
Five changes, in order of effect, and none of them are sales training.
On any shared or paid channel, speed decides more outcomes than anything said on the call.
Publishing real ranges filters out enquiries that were never going to sign.
Where the number is deceiving you
A high close rate on tiny volume is not a strong channel, and a low one on a channel producing most of your revenue may still be worth running. Read close rate alongside volume and cost per booked job rather than on its own. The three together tell you what to grow. Any one of them alone tells you almost nothing.
Commercial closes differently
The published figures here are residential. Commercial decisions involve more people, longer timelines, and formal specification, so close rates are lower across every channel and job values are considerably higher. If commercial work is a target, measure it as a separate pipeline. Blending it with residential hides the performance of both.
Related guides.
$200 to $300 per shared lead with no exclusivity, against enquiries that arrive only to you.
Where each genuinely wins, and why most established roofers end up running both.
Close rates of 50 to 70 percent against 8 to 15 percent, and what that does to cost per booked job.
Run the numbers on your market.
$2,500, and you see cost per booked job for every channel you use.