For most floor coating companies, booked appointments take far fewer units and far less of the owner's time per installed floor than shared marketplace leads. Shared leads typically close at 5 to 12%, so one floor takes about 8 to 20 leads, while booked estimates that close at 40 to 50% take about 2 to 2.5 estimates per floor. To compare cost, use one formula: cost per installed floor = price per unit x units per floor. Shared leads only win when they are very cheap and you have someone calling every one within a minute.
What is the actual difference?
A shared lead is a homeowner's contact info, sold to you and to other contractors at the same time. You pay when the lead arrives. Then you race to call, reach, qualify, and book them.
A booked appointment is a confirmed estimate on your calendar. Someone else ran the ads, made the call, qualified the homeowner, and picked a time. You show up and run the estimate.
So the question is not which is cheaper per unit. A lead will always cost less than an appointment. The question is what it costs to get a floor installed. If you want the comparison between exclusive and shared leads, read exclusive vs shared floor coating leads. This page puts shared marketplace leads directly against booked appointments.
How many units does each option take per installed floor?
These are example numbers, not a client's results. They use the close rates already published on this site: shared marketplace leads typically close at 5 to 12%, and estimates contractors book themselves close roughly 40 to 50%, a range we apply to booked appointments here. We left prices out on purpose, because lead and appointment prices vary by provider and market. We did not use the higher close rates from our case studies, to keep the example conservative.
| Source | Close rate (example) | Units per installed floor | Cost per installed floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared leads, low end | 5% of leads | 20 leads | 20 times your lead price |
| Shared leads, high end | 12% of leads | About 8.3 leads | About 8.3 times your lead price |
| Booked estimates, low end | 40% of estimates | 2.5 estimates | 2.5 times your appointment price |
| Booked estimates, high end | 50% of estimates | 2 estimates | 2 times your appointment price |
The formula behind the last column is the one to keep:
Cost per installed floor = price per unit x units per floor.
A unit is whatever you pay for: a lead or a booked estimate. Units per floor is 1 divided by your close rate on that unit. A 5% close rate means 20 units per floor; a 40% close rate means 2.5.
Now turn it around. How many shared leads does one booked estimate replace? Divide shared leads per floor by booked estimates per floor.
| Your shared lead close rate | Vs booked estimates at 40% (2.5 per floor) | Vs booked estimates at 50% (2 per floor) |
|---|---|---|
| 5% (20 leads per floor) | 1 booked estimate does the work of 8 leads | 1 booked estimate does the work of 10 leads |
| 12% (about 8.3 leads per floor) | 1 booked estimate does the work of about 3.3 leads | 1 booked estimate does the work of about 4.2 leads |
That ratio is your break even. At a 5% shared lead close rate and a 40% estimate close rate, shared leads are cheaper per floor only if one lead costs less than one eighth of one booked estimate. Pull your last few marketplace invoices for your real lead price, put it next to any appointment price you are quoted, and run both through the formula. If your lead price is above the break even for your close rates, booked appointments are cheaper per floor before you count a single hour of your time.
For context, the average ticket across Appointly client jobs is roughly $3,500. Whatever your cost per installed floor comes out to, divide it by your own average ticket to see what share of each job goes to getting it. Our post on what a booked floor coating estimate is worth goes deeper on the value side.
How much owner time does each one take?
This is where the gap gets wide. Cost per floor is only half the bill. The other half is your hours.
Again, example assumptions, not measured results: 20 minutes of calling, texting, and follow up per shared lead, 90 minutes per estimate including the drive, and 2.5 estimates run per installed floor on the shared side.
| Source | Chasing time per floor | Estimate time per floor | Total owner time per floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared leads at 5% | 20 leads, about 6.7 hours | About 3.75 hours | About 10.5 hours |
| Shared leads at 12% | About 8.3 leads, about 2.8 hours | About 3.75 hours | About 6.5 hours |
| Booked estimates at 40% | None | About 3.75 hours | About 3.75 hours |
| Booked estimates at 50% | None | About 3 hours | About 3 hours |
Change the assumptions to match your shop. The shape stays the same: with shared leads, every hour of chasing comes before you ever stand in a garage. With booked appointments, your time goes to the estimate and the install.
There is also a hidden cost the table does not show. Shared leads are a race. When the homeowner picks up, they may already have heard from other contractors, and the estimate starts as a price comparison. Speed decides a lot of that. About 90% of homeowners answer when called within one minute, according to our benchmarks, and the answer rate falls fast after that.
What about no-shows?
They change the math on both sides. About 80% of booked estimates show with no reminders, and about 95% show when the estimate is confirmed at booking and reminded 24 hours and 1 hour out. If you book shared leads yourself and skip reminders, plan on more empty driveways.
With any booked appointment service, ask how no-shows are handled and whether every estimate is confirmed and reminded. Every empty driveway raises your units per installed floor, so the show rate can move your cost per floor as much as the close rate does.
Who should still use shared leads?
Shared leads are the right tool for some floor coating companies. Be honest about whether you are one of them.
- You have a dedicated setter. If someone in the office calls every lead within a minute, all day, your close rate climbs toward the high end and the break even price rises with it. The tradeoffs are in in house appointment setter vs outsourced.
- You need fill in, not a foundation. A small marketplace budget can plug gaps in a slow week while your main source carries the calendar.
- Your market has no booked appointment option. If the provider you want already works with a contractor in your area, shared leads may be what is available for now.
- Your shared leads are very cheap. If your invoices show a price below the break even table above, the math favors you.
If you are leaning toward moving off the marketplace, the step by step plan is in how to replace Angi and HomeAdvisor leads.
Who should switch to booked appointments?
- Owner operators who run estimates and installs themselves and cannot answer the phone from a garage.
- Shops that keep buying shared leads but cannot point to how many floors they produced.
- Contractors who close well in person but lose deals in the race to call first.
Frequently asked questions
Are booked appointments worth more than shared leads for floor coating?
For most floor coating contractors, yes. Shared leads typically close at 5 to 12%, so you buy 8 to 20 leads per installed floor and chase every one. Booked estimates that close at 40 to 50% take about 2 to 2.5 estimates per floor in example math, with no chasing, and owner time per floor drops from about 6.5 to 10.5 hours to about 3 to 3.75 hours.
How do I calculate my cost per installed floor from shared leads?
Add up what you paid for shared leads over a month and divide by the epoxy or garage floor coating jobs you installed from those leads. Then add the hours you spent calling and running estimates. Compare that to the same formula for booked estimates: the price you are quoted for a booked estimate times the estimates you need per floor, which is 1 divided by your estimate close rate.
When are shared leads cheaper than booked appointments?
When the lead price is low enough for your close rates. Use cost per installed floor = price per unit x units per floor. In our example math, at a 5% shared lead close rate a lead has to cost less than about one eighth to one tenth of a booked estimate's price to win. At 12%, it has to cost less than about a quarter to a third.
Do booked appointments close better than shared leads?
Usually, because the homeowner has already been called, qualified, and booked, and nobody else is bidding at the same moment. Estimates contractors book themselves close roughly 40 to 50%, while shared marketplace leads close at 5 to 12% of leads. Close rates still move with your product, your price, and how you run the estimate.
Can a polyaspartic or concrete coating company use both?
Yes. Many owners use booked appointments as the main source and keep a small shared lead budget for fill in. Track both on cost per installed floor and owner hours, and move budget toward whichever wins.
See how your shared leads stack up
The fair comparison is cost per installed floor plus your hours. Run your own invoices through the formula and tables above before you decide.
Appointly runs Meta ads from its own ad account, calls every homeowner within minutes, educates and qualifies them, and books confirmed floor coating estimates on your calendar. One contractor per market, and appointments are never shared or resold.
Book a strategy call and we will check whether your market is open, how many estimates a week your crew can run, and how many shared leads you are buying today for each floor you install.
About the author
Patrick Mietka
Co-founder, Appointly Solutions
Patrick runs the Meta ad campaigns and the numbers behind every Appointly client. He has managed lead generation and appointment booking for floor coating and home service contractors across the US, and writes about what actually turns ad spend into booked estimates.