Average ticket is total revenue divided by the number of completed jobs over the same period. Most businesses track it by department, because averaging a small repair with a full replacement produces a number that describes nothing anyone actually sells. It is the figure that turns a marketing metric into a business decision.
Briefly explained
- Revenue divided by completed jobs.
- Blend departments and it stops meaning anything.
- It differs sharply by lead source.
- Without it, cost per lead cannot tell you which channel is best.
How do you calculate it properly?
Revenue over jobs, for one period, within one department.
The discipline is in the second and third parts. One number covering every kind of work you do will sit between two realities and describe neither. If service, maintenance and installation have different prices, they need different lines on the report.
Why does it differ by lead source?
Because the source shapes the intent.
Someone searching with urgency usually needs a repair today. Someone reading a replacement page has been thinking about a larger purchase for a fortnight. Shared-lead platforms tend toward price shoppers. Referrals and repeat customers tend toward the work you want.
How does it change marketing decisions?
It is the second half of a calculation that is meaningless without it.
A channel with an expensive cost per lead can be the best one you have if it brings large jobs. A cheap source can quietly fill the schedule with small work and crowd out the jobs that pay for the year. Only the two numbers together tell you which is which.
What should you track it against?
- By lead source, so channels compete on the value of the work rather than the volume
- By department, so a seasonal shift in mix is visible
- Next to close rate, because average ticket on quoted work flatters any source that quotes big jobs it rarely wins
- Over a year, since one unusually large job distorts a month. See year over year.
What do the terms mean?
- Ticket: One completed job and what it invoiced.
- Department: The category of work, such as service, maintenance or installation.
- Close rate: The share of quoted jobs that became work.
- Cost per booked job: Spend divided by jobs won. Average ticket is what makes that figure useful.
- Customer lifetime value: What the same customer is worth across every job they ever give you.
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