Tunnel = a 1-mile stretch of road you own. Zone = a neighborhood-sized area of about 0.28 square miles that you own. Background = the whole member network, no geography limit. Full glossary
No source at our sourcing bar publishes a customer acquisition cost for electrical contracting, so we derive one instead of quoting someone's blog. LocalIQ's home-services benchmark puts the median electricians search lead at $93.69 (April 2024 to March 2025), the lowest cost per lead of the trades it breaks out. A contractor who closes a quarter to a half of the leads they pay for is therefore spending roughly $187 to $375 to land one customer. That is our arithmetic on LocalIQ's median, not a published figure, and it moves with your own close rate.
Electrical work spans a wide job-value range, from a commodity service call (an outlet or a ceiling fan) to a high-ticket panel upgrade or EV-charger install, and the right acquisition channel differs by job type. HomeAdvisor's True Cost Guide puts an electrical panel upgrade or replacement at a national average of $1,346, with a typical range of $518 to $2,192. That ticket is what a lead is worth against its cost, which is the decision the numbers above are for.
Panel age and panel brand are the strongest predictors of electrical service demand. Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, Zinsco and Pushmatic panels went into homes from roughly the 1960s through the 1980s and are now the subject of routine insurer scrutiny at renewal, which creates a geographically concentrated buyer pool: the neighborhoods built in that window. EV-charger and generator installs sit at the other end of the map, clustering in higher-income and newer-build neighborhoods where EV adoption and whole-home backup power are already common purchases. No source at our bar publishes a per-job ticket for EV-charger installation, so we do not quote one.
Our arithmetic: LocalIQ median CPL $93.69 at a 25% to 50% close rate
LocalIQ Home Services Search Advertising Benchmarks, Apr 2024 to Mar 2025Typical range $518 to $2,192
HomeAdvisor True Cost Guides, updated June 2026Google Local Services Ads charge per lead, but Google publishes no prices, and it certainly publishes nothing broken out by job type. Its help center says only that 'you're charged for each valid lead you receive through your Local Services ad' and that 'lead prices may vary depending on your location, the job type, the type of lead, or your bidding mode'. Anyone quoting you a per-lead dollar range for panel upgrades or EV-charger installs on LSA is quoting an agency, not Google. Note also that from August 2026 Google is migrating Local Services Ads into Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals for US home-service businesses, and manual maximum cost-per-lead bidding is going away.
Google Search Ads are the channel with a real published benchmark. LocalIQ's home-services study puts the median electricians lead at $93.69 at a $12.18 median cost per click and a 9.08% conversion rate, drawn from US home-services campaigns run between April 2024 and March 2025. The shape of those three numbers is the useful part: electricians pay the highest cost per click of any trade in the study but convert at the highest rate, which is what pulls the cost per lead down to the lowest. A trade that converts that well is one where a wasted click hurts more than usual, and those are national medians on an auction, so a specific metro and quality score move all three.
Median, US home-services campaigns, Apr 2024 to Mar 2025; CPC $12.18, CVR 9.08%
LocalIQ Home Services Search Advertising BenchmarksGoogle states prices vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode
Google Local Services Ads HelpThe primary cross-channel CPM comparison, published by Solomon Partners and hosted by the OAAA in 2025, puts out-of-home bulletins at $3 to $10 per thousand and posters at $3 to $13. Worth knowing before anyone sells you a billboard on price: the same table puts social media at $2 to $8 and digital display at $5 to $6, so billboards are not the cheap channel per impression. As a live market example, the AdQuick 2026 Jacksonville guide lists static bulletins at $1,800 to $6,500 per four-week flight and posters at $800 to $2,200, on a blended local traditional-billboard CPM of $5 to $12, with digital running $5 to $12 CPM on freeway bulletins and $12 to $22 on downtown LEDs, giving each advertiser about 8 seconds of exposure every 64 to 80 seconds. AdQuick is a marketplace rather than a measurement body, so we treat those as asking prices. Geopath, the body that defines the out-of-home impression, states that impressions include passengers, include duplicated views, and are the gross count of all exposures rather than a count of people, which is the reason a board's headline number tells an electrician nothing about how many of those exposures own the panel that needs replacing.
Lead marketplaces mostly do not publish prices. Networx is the exception: its help center lists $10 to $100+ per lead on Pay Per Lead and $15 to $120+ on Exclusive Leads, and states that a single Pay Per Lead 'will go to up to 4 contractors in total' (its page was last updated in 2023). Thumbtack publishes no dollar figures but does state a cap of five pros contacted in the first four hours of a customer's search, after which the customer can contact more. Angi's FY2025 annual report describes lead revenue as fees paid by pros for consumer matches 'regardless of whether the Pro ultimately provides the requested service', which is the model stated in a securities filing. The FTC alleged in 2022 that HomeAdvisor had for years made false or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold; those allegations were resolved by consent order in 2023 with up to $7.2 million in refunds, and were never findings of fact. No source at our bar publishes a shared-lead close rate, so we do not quote one.
Pay Per Lead; goes to up to 4 contractors in total (Networx help center, 2023)
Networx: How much do leads costBulletins $3 to $10, posters $3 to $13; social media $2 to $8 on the same table
Solomon Partners / OAAA Major Media CPM Comparison, 2025Panel vintage and housing-stock era predict electrical demand more precisely than any raw traffic count. A neighborhood built during the peak Federal Pacific or Zinsco installation window, roughly the 1960s through the 1980s, is now aging into the window where a renewal inspection turns into a panel replacement. A newer-build, higher-income neighborhood is the buyer pool for EV chargers and whole-home generators instead. That is the targeting logic behind 'hyperlocal advertising for electricians' as a real category.
Cost Per Verified Delivery (CPVD) is built around that logic. A contractor owns a road segment (a tunnel) or a neighborhood-sized residential cluster of about 0.28 square miles (a zone) and pays from $0.25 each time a real phone is GPS-verified moving through it. Geo-targeting matters more than channel for high-ticket work like EV chargers: a CPVD zone over a high-income coastal or exurban corridor captures the actual buyer pool, where a metro-wide search campaign pays $12.18 a click to reach renters and apartment dwellers who cannot install a home charger at all.
On the dimensions a contractor evaluates before committing a season's marketing budget. Every figure below is the published benchmark named in the last column, not a blended estimate, and where a platform publishes no price we say so rather than filling the cell.
| Channel | Published cost | Best case fit | Source and caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Local Services Ads | Not published | General service calls to panel upgrades | Google states prices vary by location, job type and bidding mode; migrating into Performance Max from Aug 2026 |
| Google Search Ads | $93.69 per lead (median), $12.18 CPC | High-intent panel and EV-charger searches | LocalIQ home-services benchmark, Apr 2024 to Mar 2025; highest CPC and highest conversion rate of the trades broken out |
| Static / digital billboards | $3 to $13 CPM across OOH formats | Metro-wide brand awareness only | Solomon Partners / OAAA 2025; impressions are gross exposures including passengers, per Geopath |
| Lead marketplaces (Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor) | Networx $10 to $100+; Angi and Thumbtack publish none | Volume fill for commodity service calls | Networx help center (2023): one lead goes to up to 4 contractors; Angi FY2025 10-K: pros pay per match either way |
| WilDi Maps CPVD | From $0.25 per GPS-verified delivery | Panel-vintage and income-targeted mesh | Our published rate card; no auction, no shared leads, charged only when the member claims |
The honest framing is portfolio balance, not 'replace PPC'. Search continues to capture in-market high-intent demand, and at a $93.69 median lead it is the cheapest lead of the trades LocalIQ breaks out; the alternatives below capture the upstream panel-vintage and income-segment demand that an auction prices poorly.
A typical electrical CPVD deployment combines three product tiers matched to panel vintage and income geography. Zones are neighborhood-sized residential clusters of about 0.28 square miles each, best placed over neighborhoods built during the peak Federal Pacific, Zinsco or Pushmatic installation window for panel-upgrade demand, or over higher-income coastal and exurban clusters for EV-charger and generator demand. Tunnels are 1-mile road strips on high-volume commuter corridors, useful for repetition-driven brand recognition. Background is metro-wide rotation at the $0.25+ base rate, building the trust signal that converts when a panel finally fails an inspection.
The natural starter deployment is one zone over the highest panel-vintage or highest-income cluster (matched to the contractor's target job mix), background rotation metro-wide, and an optional tunnel if the office sits on a high-volume corridor.
The product
WilDi Maps is not a single flat-rate product. You pick the tier that matches how local you need to be. All three are GPS-verified per claim, with no auction, no exchange rake, no Middleman Tax.
1-mile road strip
Premium
Hyper-local, just-in-time
Claim a one-mile stretch. When a member enters the strip, they get a just-in-time message, perfect for emergency services, on-route specials, and anything where being right there now beats brand awareness later.
Best for
0.28-square-mile area
Premium
Hyper-local, area-based
Claim a one-square-mile block, not tied to a single road. Catches the residential cluster, retail district, or industrial park where your work actually lives. Same just-in-time delivery as tunnels; different geometry.
Best for
City-wide rotation
From $0.25
per claim, tier-based
City-wide brand presence on rotation. Highest reach for the budget; best when familiarity beats precision. Per-delivery rate drops by tier (Enterprise: $0.25 / Pro: $0.32 / Local: $0.40 / Starter: $0.50). See /pricing for the live rate card.
Best for
What the member gets when an ad is claimed
If the member wants to act on the ad, the app navigates them straight to the advertiser's location.
Click-through to any URL: ordering page, brand site, blog post, lead form.
Open a specific page inside the WilDi app: promo details, daily specials, claim instructions.
See the full pricing breakdown on the pricing page.
The one figure with a published benchmark behind it is search: LocalIQ puts the median electricians lead at $93.69 on Google Search Ads, at a $12.18 median cost per click and a 9.08% conversion rate, across US home-services campaigns run April 2024 to March 2025. That is the lowest cost per lead and the highest cost per click of the trades in the study. Close a quarter to a half of those leads and you are spending roughly $187 to $375 per customer, which is our arithmetic rather than a published number. Google publishes no Local Services Ads lead prices at all. WilDi Maps' Cost Per Verified Delivery (CPVD) starts from $0.25 per GPS-verified delivery on background rotation.
It depends on what is being sold. Google Search is the channel with a published price, a $93.69 median lead, and it captures the buyer who is already searching. Google's Local Services Ads charge per lead but publish no prices, so nobody can tell you in advance what a panel-upgrade lead costs there. Lead marketplaces mostly publish nothing either, and the one that does, Networx, states that a Pay Per Lead goes to up to four contractors. WilDi Maps' from $0.25 CPVD background rate (tunnels and zones priced higher for hyper-local precision) lets a contractor target a specific corridor, for instance a neighborhood with 1970s to 1980s panels at end of life, without competing in a real-time auction.
Geo-targeting matters more than channel. No source at our sourcing bar publishes an EV-charger lead price or install ticket, so we do not quote one; what is published is the trade-wide search benchmark, a $93.69 median lead at a $12.18 median click, and that click is charged whether or not the person can install a charger where they live. A CPVD zone over a higher-income, EV-adoption corridor captures the actual buyer pool, where a metro-wide campaign pays to reach renters and apartment dwellers who cannot install a home charger at all.
Only Networx publishes prices: $10 to $100+ per lead on Pay Per Lead, $15 to $120+ on Exclusive Leads, with a single Pay Per Lead going to 'up to 4 contractors in total' (its help page was last updated in 2023). Thumbtack publishes no dollar figures but caps a customer at contacting five pros in the first four hours of their search. Angi's FY2025 10-K states that pros pay for the consumer match whether or not they end up doing the job. Nobody at our sourcing bar publishes shared-lead close rates, so we do not quote one. The structural point stands without a number: you are paying for the introduction, not the job, and on a commodity service call the introduction can be a real share of the ticket.
Hyperlocal advertising for electricians means targeting by panel vintage and housing-stock era rather than by raw traffic volume. Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, Zinsco and Pushmatic panels installed from roughly the 1960s through the 1980s are now the subject of routine insurer scrutiny at renewal, while newer, higher-income neighborhoods are the buyer pool for EV chargers and generators. Cost Per Verified Delivery makes this concrete: an electrician owns a road segment or residential zone directly, with GPS-verified delivery, and pays only when an opted-in member claims the offer.
Cost Per Verified Delivery is WilDi Maps pricing for hyperlocal delivery. The contractor owns a road segment (tunnel), a neighborhood-sized residential cluster of about 0.28 square miles (zone), or metro-wide rotation (background), and pays from $0.25 each time a real phone is GPS-verified moving through their mesh during the campaign. There is no auction, no bid-stream guess, and no Middleman Tax. The natural electrical deployment combines one zone over the highest panel-vintage or highest-income cluster, background-tier rotation, and an optional tunnel on a commuter corridor.
Background reaches everyone active in the WilDi app: nationwide by default, or limited to one area you choose (your city, your side of town) so budget is never spent outside it. A zone is a neighborhood-sized area you hold exclusively: while it is yours, no competitor can run there. A tunnel is a one-mile stretch of road you can place anywhere, and it follows the road's contours, ideal for the approach to your shop or a route your customers already drive.
The Starter tier opens with a $50 deposit, and that deposit becomes your ad budget. Background deliveries on Starter run $0.50 per verified delivery, so the first deposit buys 100 GPS-verified deliveries to the phones of real local people out on the road. There is no auction and no platform fee stacked on top.
One verified delivery of your offer to the phone of one real person who was physically inside your chosen geography at that moment, confirmed by GPS on the device itself. That person also taps to acknowledge the offer, so a delivery is never an invisible impression. Bots, background tabs, and off-screen impressions cannot generate one. You are billed only when a verified delivery happens.
Four public tiers: Starter ($50 minimum deposit, background only), Local ($250, up to 2 tunnels and 1 zone), Pro ($1,000, up to 8 tunnels and 5 zones), and Enterprise ($3,000, up to 25 tunnels and 15 zones). Per-delivery background rates step down by tier, from $0.50 on Starter to $0.25 on Enterprise. An Agency tier is available through sales.
About this analysis
Written by Timm Ross, founder of WilDi Maps. Jacksonville-based. Veteran-owned. Sources cited inline; numbers updated as the underlying research updates.
Published · Last updated
More about Timm RossFixed from $0.25 per GPS-verified delivery. No auction, no bid stream, no Middleman Tax.
