Are Meta Ads Worth It?

We walk through a simple funnel and a clear profitability test to judge whether Facebook and Instagram lead forms pay for a painting business. We show the benchmarks, the speed-to-lead standards, the diagnostic order, and a BANT filter that protects your calendar and close rate.

• four-step funnel from lead to job closed
• cost per booked job as the north star metric
• seven per cent marketing cap tied to average job size
• benchmarks for cost per lead, set rate, close rate
• speed to lead within three minutes and three days to estimate
• diagnostic order for set, show, and close rates
• follow-up cadence with scripts and reminders
• BANT questions to filter budget, authority, need, timeline

Quick pause. If this way of thinking about marketing is helpful for you, I wrote a book called Profitable Painter that breaks down these exact frameworks in more detail: pricing, owner pay, cash flow, marketing math. It normally costs about 20 bucks on Amazon, but you can get it for free. Just cover the shipping. There's a link in the description if you want to go deeper.
Click the video on the screen now, and I'll see you there.

This episode was originally recorded as a video for YouTube.

If you hear me say things like “in this video” or reference visuals, don’t worry —
the content still works perfectly in audio form.

And if you ever want to watch the video version, you can find it on the
 Profitable Painter YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@BookkeepingForPainters

Chapters

• 0:40 Are Meta Leads Worth It?
• 0:59 The Four-Step Funnel Model
• 3:41 Benchmarks And Speed To Lead
• 4:29 The Profitability Test
• 5:45 Diagnose The Bottleneck
• 6:50 Improve Lead Quality With BANT
• 7:31 Final Recap And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

If you're spending money on Facebook or Instagram lead ads for your painting business and you're asking yourself, are these leads actually worth it? This video is for you. Maybe you're getting leads but they feel flaky. Maybe your calendar is full but jobs aren't closing, or maybe you're spending thousands on ads and you don't really know if it's working or not. Today I'm going to show you exactly how to evaluate Facebook lead performance using simple math so you can decide whether to scale, fix, or shut it down. If you click this video, you're probably wondering three things. First, how do I know if my Facebook leads are actually profitable? Second, what numbers should I be tracking beyond just cost per lead? And third, how do I improve lead quality so my time isn't wasted on tire kickers? In this video, I'm going to go through all three using the same framework we use with painting businesses doing anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to multiple millions per year. If we haven't met before, I'm Daniel Hunan. I'm a CPA and former painting business owner. Over the last several years, I've helped over 500 painting businesses understand their numbers, fix their marketing math, and scale profitably. And when it comes to Facebook ads, most problems aren't Facebook problems. They're math and process problems. Part one, the only meta lead funnel that matters. Let's start with the model. This is the only funnel we use to evaluate meta lead performance. There are four steps. First, leads. Second, estimate scheduled, what we call set. Third, estimates actually run. Fourth, jobs closed. Most owners stop at cost per lead. That's a mistake. Facebook gives you cost per lead, but that's not the number that determines profitability. What matters is cost per booked job. And to get there, we have to look at conversion at every step. Think of this like a leaky pipe. If any part of the funnel is broken, your cost per book job explodes, even if cost per lead looks fine. Here are the core definitions. Cost per lead is ad spend divided by total leads. Set rate is estimate scheduled divided by leads. Close rate is jobs one divided by estimates ran. If you don't track ran, you can use jobs one divided by estimate scheduled, but just know it's less accurate. From there, we calculate cost per book job. That's cost per lead divided by set rate times close rate. This one number tells you whether Facebook is working. One quick clarification before we go further. Metrics like CPM frequency, click-through rate, and creative performance do matter when it comes to ad equality. Those are levers that your ad manager pulls to improve lead volume and consistency. But this video isn't about optimizing ads inside Meta. This is about how you, the business owner, decide whether Facebook leads are worth your money. That decision comes down to funnel math, cost per book job compared to your average job size and marketing budget. If the math works, ads are doing their job. If it doesn't, then you decide whether to fix process, fix targeting, or fix the ads themselves. Benchmarks so you don't panic. Before you overreact, you need expectations. Here are typical benchmarks for painting businesses running meta lead forms. Cost per lead usually falls between$50 and$100. Set rate should be at least 50% in most cases. Close rate on Facebook leads should be 30% or higher. And yes, that's a lower close rate than what you will get on referrals, and that's normal. These people don't know you yet, but here's the part that's non-negotiable. Speed. If you're not calling leads within three minutes, your set rate and close rate are artificially suppressed. And if you can't get out to the estimate within three days, your bleeding opportunities. Before you judge Facebook, fix speed to lead. The is this profitable test. This is where most clarity comes from. Step one, what's your average job size from this channel? If you don't know, start with your overall average and refine it later. Step two, set your marketing cost cap. As a rule of thumb, marketing should be around 7% of job size. So on a$5,000 job, your marketing cap is about$350. That's the most you want to pay to acquire that job. Step three, compare that cap to your actual cost per book job. If your cost per book job is under the cap, the channel is likely healthy. If it's over, you don't guess. You improve conversion, lead quality, or process. Let me walk you through a simple example. Assume your cost per lead is$60, your set rate is 50%, your close rate is 30%. Here's the math. Cost per estimate is$60 divided by 0.5, that's$120. Cost per book job is$60 divided by 0.5 times 0.3. That's about$400. If your average job is$6,000, your marketing cap is$420. So$400 fits comfortably within that. It's a green light. Quick pause. If this way of thinking about marketing is helpful for you, I wrote a book called Profitable Painter that breaks down these exact frameworks in more detail: pricing, owner pay, cash flow, marketing math. It normally costs about 20 bucks on Amazon, but you can get it for free. Just cover the shipping. There's a link in the description if you want to go deeper. All right, back into it. Diagnosing what's broken. When Facebook performance is bad, don't guess. Diagnose in this order. First, speed to lead. If no one owns inbound calls, nothing else matters. You need a named role, immediate notifications, and a three-minute response time standard. Second, set rate. If your set rate is under 50%, the issue is usually follow-up cadence, script, or lead quality. Six call attempts, texts, voicemails over 48 hours. Third, show rate. If people aren't showing, you need stronger confirmation and reminders. Fourth, close rate. If close rate is under 30%, look at service mismatch, budget mismatch, or weak trust building. Outbound leads need more proof. Part five, improving lead quality with Bant. This is where most businesses win back their time. Bant stands for budget, authority, need and timeline. You want these questions inside your Facebook form or immediately after. What are you looking to get done? Interior, exterior cabinets? What's the rough size? When do you want the work completed? Have you set a budget range? Will all decision makers be available? Is the person requesting the estimate the owner of the property? If a lead isn't in your service area, has no real need, no timeline, or no budget alignment, don't clog your calendar. That's how to protect your close rate and sanity. So let's recap. To evaluate Facebook leads correctly, track the full funnel. Leads to set to close. Judge performance by cost per book job, not cost per lead. Keep marketing spend around 7% of job size. Fix speed and process before blaming ads. And use Bant to improve lead quality. No guessing, just math. Marketing brings cash in, but keeping cash is a different game. In the next video, I'm going to break down four cash flow plays every painting business owner should know to stop feeling stressed about money, even while growing. Click the video on the screen now, and I'll see you there.