Know what a customer is worth — so you know what an ad is worth

You can't tell whether an ad is "too expensive" until you know what a customer is actually worth to you. And a customer isn't one job — it's the repeat work and the referrals they bring over time. Once you know that number, blind ad spending turns into confident investing: you know exactly how much you can pay to win a customer and still come out ahead.

Do this

1. Add up what a typical customer spends with you over a year — not just their first job.
2. Add the value of the referrals a happy customer sends your way. That's their real worth.
3. Set your ceiling: you can spend a slice of that to win one new customer and still profit.
4. Judge every campaign against it — a cost-per-customer under their worth means keep going.

What you can spend to win a customer

An ad that costs $40 per customer is a bargain — or a disaster. It depends entirely on what a customer is worth. Do this math once:

First job ................... $90 Comes back ~3x a year ....... $270 Sends ~1 referral a year .... $90 --------------------------------- A CUSTOMER IS WORTH ......... ~$360 / year

If a customer is worth $360, spending $40-90 to win one is a great deal. Spending $200 is not. Now "is this ad working?" has a real answer instead of a gut feeling. Know the number before you spend a dime.