Where home-improvement sales actually come from: 16,724 leads, three years
We followed every lead one contractor received from September 2023 to August 2026, from first contact to signed contract. About 1 in 13 became a sale. Leads from Google search and Maps, referrals and the showroom were a quarter of the volume and nearly two-thirds of the sales.
- 1 in 13 leads became a signed sale (1,244 of 16,724) S5
- 62% of signed sales came from leads who called the contractor (September 2023 to August 2025) S5
- 7x how often Google search and Maps leads signed compared with purchased leads (16.2% vs 2.2%) S5
The funnel
Leads 16,724 → Booked 5,995 (35.8% of leads) → Held 4,915 (82.0% of booked) → Signed 1,244 (25.3% of held).
| Year | Leads | Signed % of leads | Unqualified % of leads | Cancelled or no-show % of booked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 5,024 | 11.1% | 19.1% | 11.8% |
| Year 2 | 5,841 | 6.6% | 33.9% | 19.8% |
| Year 3 | 5,859 | 5.1% | 43.3% | 21.9% |
Callers vs. call-backs
| Group | Leads | Booked | Held | Signed | Kept | Signed % of held |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Called the contractor | 3,928 | 61.2% | 51.2% | 14.7% | 11.6% | 28.7% |
| Contractor called them back | 3,293 | 48.3% | 40.7% | 10.8% | 8.6% | 26.7% |
Where the sales came from
| Source group | Leads | Share of leads | Signed | Share of signed sales | Signed % of leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google organic search & Maps | 3,013 | 18.0% | 488 | 39.2% | 16.2% |
| Referrals & repeat customers | 444 | 2.7% | 167 | 13.4% | 37.6% |
| Showroom & events | 658 | 3.9% | 150 | 12.1% | 22.8% |
| Purchased leads (lead marketplaces & vendors) | 6,398 | 38.3% | 139 | 11.2% | 2.2% |
| Social media ads | 1,375 | 8.2% | 43 | 3.5% | 3.1% |
| All other sources | 4,836 | 28.9% | 257 | 20.7% | 5.3% |
When online inquiries arrive
Of 1,964 timestamped online inquiries (web forms and online lead forms, excluding giveaway entries), 62% arrived outside Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 31% on weekends, 20% on weekday evenings and 10% before 8 a.m. Sunday was the busiest day.
Leads nobody reached
Of 3,281 leads received from January to June 2026, 588 (17.9%) were marked as never spoken to.
Methodology and limitations
Data: a CRM export from one contractor, pulled September 10, 2026. Window: leads created September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2026; 17,218 records, 494 removed, leaving 16,724 leads.
Download the data (CSV). Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).
By James Robinson, founder of Keystone.
The 2026 Missed-Call Report: The Lead You Paid For, Then Lost · The Keystone Missed-Call Revenue Index