Lead volume, average tickets rise in Q2

We caught up with SearchLight’s Jonathan Torrey, who analyzes monthly demand trends across a nationwide set of HVAC contractors, about what happened in Q2 — and what’s next.

• The takeaway: Customer acquisition costs (CAC) decreased, while lead volume and average tickets increased.

Details: From April to June, CAC from Google LSAs dropped by 34% and lead volume jumped by 71%.

• Average tickets popped, too — by 49% since February.

• From organic channels, including Google Business Profiles and Facebook, CAC fell by 14% from May to June, with lead volume up 25%.

• See June’s LSA breakdown and May’s organic breakdown. 

The big picture: “Every year since we started tracking this data (4.5 years or so), June is the least expensive month to acquire a paying customer via organic/PPC,” Torrey told Homepros in an email.

• “July is usually the second least expensive month and average tickets tend to be higher in both months,” he added.

• “We could theorize all day long on why x, y, z is happening, but if we see in [the] data that it is happening, and we see it quickly, we can adapt.”

Torrey noted that lead volume itself is a vanity metric, adding, “If we only look at increases in lead volume, we may be missing that despite a higher volume, it's not impacting the bottom line… because they aren't converting at high enough rates, [or] aren't the right types of jobs — low tickets, no flip opportunities.”

• “The fundamentals are so important here — answering the phone, responding to chats, responding to forms, following up on unsold estimates.”

Looking ahead: Torrey won’t speculate on August but is optimistic about July. “July looks good, but I still think we're in a bottom-cycle market and it could suddenly slow at any time,” he noted. 

• “August historically sees a summer slowdown… Weather will (obviously) play a big role.”