Which of your jobs came from your marketing?

Friday afternoon, the monthly marketing report lands in your inbox. You open it. A line going up for website visits. A chart of where the clicks came from. A table of search terms. A note that cost per click went down 8%.

Then you ask the question you actually care about. Did I sign more jobs this month because of this, or fewer?

The report can’t tell you. That isn’t because anyone is hiding something.

Why the report stops at clicks

Whoever runs your marketing reports what their tools can see. Their tools see visits, clicks, calls and form fills. Those are real.

What happens after the call is out of their view. The visit, the estimate, the handshake and the signed contract happen at the kitchen table and in your job software. Unless someone tells them which calls turned into jobs, they can’t count jobs.

So the report stops at clicks, and you’re left guessing which spending works.

Why it matters more now

Leads cost more than they used to. In LocaliQ’s data, the typical roofing lead from search ads cost about $101 in 2020 to 2021 and about $228 in 2024 to 2025. They’re different samples, so the exact jump is rough, and LocaliQ sells ads. (LocaliQ 2021, LocaliQ 2025)

At those prices, it pays to know which ones turn into signed jobs. Then you can keep paying for what works and cut what doesn’t.

One question fixes most of it

Here’s a made-up example of what you’d be able to see. Twelve signed jobs in March. Seven from referrals and past customers. Three from Google search and the map. One from Google ads. One from a lead service. Once you have that, every marketing conversation gets easier.

Getting there takes one question and a habit.

1. Ask every new lead, “How did you hear about us?” Use the same choices every time: a referral or past customer, Google search or the map, Google ads, a lead service, a yard sign or truck, something else. Write the answer down before you hang up.
2. Keep it where your jobs live. A field in your job software works. So does a simple sheet with the name, the date and the source.
3. Once a month, count signed jobs by source. Count signed jobs, and leave leads out of it. A source that brings lots of calls and no jobs is costing you.
4. Share the count with whoever runs your marketing. It tells them where your money is working. A good agency or web person will be glad to have it.
5. Add call tracking later, if you want more detail. A tracking number shows which ad or listing a call came from. CallRail starts at about $55 a month (Capterra). If you use one on your Google listing, put the tracking number as the main phone and keep your usual number as the additional one (WhatConverts).

It takes about 20 minutes to set up, then a few seconds a call. After a month of it, you’ll be able to answer “where did my last ten jobs come from?”