What Is a Good Cost Per Lead for a Plumber or Electrician in Johannesburg?
R150 to R600 for general work, R300 to R900 for emergency jobs. How to work out what a lead is actually worth to you, and why the landing page decides the price.
Realistic cost per lead benchmarks for Johannesburg trades, and how to judge whether yours is good.
TL;DR: Quick Answer
R150 to R600 for general work, R300 to R900 for emergency jobs. How to work out what a lead is actually worth to you, and why the landing page decides the price.
Key takeaways
- Very cheap quotes (under R5,000) almost always exclude copywriting, SEO, custom design and post-launch support
- Professional copywriting can represent 20-35% of a total website project cost, and is worth it for search visibility
- On-page SEO built into the website at launch costs a fraction of what it costs to retrofit after the site is live
- Hosting, SSL, domain and maintenance add R3,000-R10,000 per year on top of build cost
- E-commerce adds significant cost due to payment gateway integrations, product data, security requirements and checkout UX
- Timeline and client responsiveness directly affect cost: slow feedback rounds extend agency hours
For Johannesburg trades, expect roughly R150 to R600 per enquiry on general work and R300 to R900 on emergency or specialist jobs. But a benchmark is the least useful number here. What decides whether your cost per lead is good is what a customer is worth to you.
Work out your own number first
Average job value, times gross margin, times the proportion of enquiries that become customers.
A geyser replacement at R6,000 with 35% margin is R2,100 of gross profit. If one enquiry in three converts, each enquiry is worth about R700 to you.
At R400 per lead you are buying R700 for R400 and should buy as many as you can get. At R900 you are losing money on every one, even though R900 sits inside a published benchmark range.
This is why two plumbers can look at the same cost per lead and reach opposite conclusions, and both be right.
Typical Johannesburg ranges
| Work type | Cost per click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|
| General plumbing | R8 to R25 | R150 to R450 |
| Emergency plumbing | R25 to R60 | R300 to R900 |
| Geyser replacement | R15 to R40 | R250 to R700 |
| General electrical | R10 to R30 | R180 to R500 |
| COC and compliance | R12 to R35 | R200 to R550 |
| Solar and inverter installs | R25 to R70 | R400 to R1,200 |
All figures exclude VAT. Advertising spend is billed separately by the platform and is never marked up by Juicy Designs.
Johannesburg sits at the higher end of South African auction costs. The same campaign in Bloemfontein or Polokwane typically costs noticeably less per click, because fewer advertisers compete for the same searches.
Why yours might be higher
The landing page, most often. Cost per lead is cost per click divided by conversion rate. At R20 a click, a page converting at 1% produces a R2,000 lead; the same clicks on a page converting at 5% produce a R400 lead. Nothing in the bidding changes that arithmetic.
Wasted spend. Open the search terms report. Clicks from people searching for jobs, courses, DIY guides or areas you do not serve raise your cost per lead without any chance of converting.
Untracked calls. If phone enquiries are not counted, your cost per lead is overstated, sometimes by half. Trades get a large share of enquiries by phone, so this distortion is common and large.
Too many campaigns. A small budget split five ways competes in none of the auctions properly.
Emergency work is a different calculation
Emergency searches cost more per click because intent is unmistakable and everyone bids. They are usually still worth it: conversion rates are higher, the customer is not shopping around, and margins on after-hours work are better.
The two things that decide whether emergency advertising pays are whether you actually answer the phone at 22:00, and how fast. A campaign running out of hours while calls go unanswered is the most expensive mistake in trade advertising.
Getting your number down
Fix the landing page first, because it multiplies everything. One page per service, tappable phone number in the header, WhatsApp option, short form, visible price range, proof of past work.
Then clean the search terms weekly. Then tighten geography to the areas you actually serve profitably. Then, once you have around 30 conversions a month, let smart bidding work.
Juicy Designs manages trade accounts to cost per lead. See Google Ads in Johannesburg or a free account audit. Related: what Google Ads costs and spending but no calls.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead for a plumber or electrician in Johannesburg?
Roughly R150 to R600 per enquiry for general work, and R300 to R900 for emergency or specialist jobs where competition is heavier. What matters more than the benchmark is whether the figure is below what a customer is worth to you.
How do I work out what a lead is worth?
Multiply your average job value by your gross margin, then by the proportion of enquiries that become customers. If a job is worth R4,000 at 40% margin and one in three enquiries converts, each lead is worth about R530.
Why is my cost per lead higher than the benchmark?
Usually the landing page rather than the bidding. A page converting at 1% makes every lead cost five times what the same clicks would cost at 5%. After that, check for wasted spend in the search terms report.
Is emergency work more expensive to advertise for?
Yes. Emergency searches carry high intent and every competitor bids on them, so cost per click is higher. The offsetting factor is that emergency jobs usually convert at a higher rate and carry better margins.
What cost per click should I expect in Johannesburg?
Roughly R8 to R35 for general trade searches and R25 to R60 for emergency terms. Johannesburg auctions are more contested than most of the country, which is why the same campaign costs less in a smaller city.