The CPA you need to know. The CFO that helps you grow.

MASCPA

Hey, fellow Thumbtack Pros. I’m Mark A. Stiles, CPA. I’ve been on Thumbtack since 2018, proud to be a 7 time Top Pro, and I genuinely love the platform. I attribute part of my company’s growth to working with Thumbtack, so when I saw this new Pro Community, I knew I wanted to jump in.

It is core to our company's ethos to have educated customers. Since we’re all here for leads, I figured we should start with leads. One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners make is asking: “How much did that lead cost me?”

That number matters, but it doesn’t tell you whether Thumbtack is actually making you money. Here’s a simpler way big business makes decisions. Thumbtack is transparent so you understand your spend vs leads received. That spend divided by the customers that hired you gives you your acquisition cost ("CAC"). That's a great number but only when combined with Lifetime value. This is calculated by:

Average gross profit per job × average number of jobs that customer hires you for

So, if you spend $1,000 and win 5 customers, it cost you $200 to acquire each customer.

If the average customer produces $400 in gross profit per job and hires you 3 times, that relationship may produce about $1,200 in gross profit.

So next time you think (or someone else tells you) “Thumbtack leads are expensive.”

Ask yourself or them: What does it cost to acquire a customer, and what is that customer worth to your business?

That’s the kind of stuff I hope to contribute here: taking the numbers that can feel overly complicated and turning them into information you can actually use to run your business.

Curious how everyone here measures it today: Are you tracking the cost of the lead, the cost to win the customer, or what that customer is worth over time?

ArvinC

Hi @MASCPA , welcome to the Community, Mark! 👋 Seven-time Top Pro and with us since 2018, so you definitely have a lot of experience to bring to the conversation!

I really appreciate the way you broke this down. Looking beyond the price of an individual lead and thinking about customer acquisition cost and lifetime value gives pros another way to evaluate what their marketing spend is actually producing for their business.

This is exactly the kind of Pro-led expertise we love seeing in the Community, especially when it takes something that can feel complicated and makes it practical for other business owners.

Really looking forward to seeing more of your CPA and CFO perspective in future conversations, Mark!