Glossary
The words this site uses, defined once.
Most Google Ads glossaries define the platform's vocabulary. This one defines the vocabulary of an accountable local-service account: the difference between a lead and a booked job, what contribution margin actually measures, and the terms behind the Profit Ledger and the Payback Window. Every guide here links back to these.
- Lead
- An enquiry: a call, form, message, or chat that arrives from an ad. It records interest, not a commitment. A lead is the first countable event, and the furthest thing from revenue that still deserves counting.
Also called: enquiry, contact.
- Qualified enquiry
- A lead that fits the service, the location, and the basic criteria the business can actually serve. It is not yet a booking. It is a lead that has passed the first filter and is worth a follow-up.
Sits between a raw lead and a booked job.
- Booked job
- An enquiry that reached the outcome the business defines as a booking: a confirmed date and time, an accepted work order, a signed estimate, a deposit, or a dispatched job. The definition is written down before results are reviewed, so it cannot move to flatter a number.
Not the same as a completed or paid job.
- Completed job
- A booked job that was actually delivered. It is closer to revenue than a booking, because a booking can still cancel, but it is not profit until the costs of delivering it are known.
Precedes client-confirmed revenue.
- Charged lead
- In Local Services Ads, a lead Google has billed for. A charged lead is not automatically a valid lead, and a valid lead is not automatically a valuable one: a charged lead can still be out of area, out of scope, or a wrong number eligible for a credit.
Contrast with: valid lead, credited lead.
- Valid lead
- In Local Services Ads, a lead that meets Google’s criteria for a legitimate customer enquiry and so is not eligible for a credit. Valid describes billing eligibility. It says nothing about whether the job was serviceable or profitable.
Valid is a billing status, not a business outcome.
- Contribution margin
- The revenue left from a job after the variable costs of delivering it: labour, materials, disposal, travel. It is the money a booked job actually contributes toward overhead, acquisition, and profit. Not the same as gross margin, and never assumed: it is the owner’s own figure, stated and held stable between periods.
The basis for the maximum allowable cost per booked job.
- Cost per booked job (CPBJ)
- Attributable advertising spend divided by the number of attributable booked jobs. The number a platform lead report cannot give you, and the one compared against the contribution a single booked job can carry.
See the Cost Per Booked Job calculator.
- The Profit Ledger
- The monthly one-page reconciliation: money in, money out, verdict. Money out is stated at its verification tier: revenue confirmed by the client, and profit estimated at the client’s own stated margin where margin is on file.
The site’s core reconciliation artifact.
- The Payback Window
- The risk-containment structure on every engagement: a spend cap, a proving period, and a verdict date, all set in writing before launch. It gives an owner a defined maximum downside and a dated decision.
See the proving-period guide.
- Proving period
- The bounded window over which a new campaign is tested, matched to how a given trade actually books and pays. Long enough for a fair answer, short enough that a wrong bet stays small.
The middle term of the Payback Window.
- Verdict date
- The day the proving period ends and the Ledger says continue, adjust, or stop. Set before launch, so the decision is made against a number rather than a mood.
The end of the Payback Window.
Start here
Three numbers are enough to start.
- What the last marketing attempt cost, all-in
- What a booked job is usually worth
- How many jobs you can take on now
Send what you have. A missing number is not a blocker. Working it out is part of the audit. No contracts, ever. I reply within 12 hours.
Send the numbers
What is happening with your advertising?
Spend, leads, and what you suspect is going wrong. I reply within 12 hours.