A qualified tile lead is an inquiry that fits the services, location, capacity, and customer requirements agreed with the business. It is not every call, form submission, website visit, or AI mention.
The definition should be written before reporting begins. Otherwise, an agency and an owner may use the same word to describe very different outcomes.
This guide describes the measurement framework we use to discuss reporting. It is not a live dashboard, a sample customer result, or a claim that every field is automatically collected.
Separate the stages
Keep these events distinct:
- Visibility: a search appearance, profile view, or observed AI citation.
- Visit or interaction: a website visit, profile action, or call button click.
- Contact: an actual call, message, or estimate request.
- Qualified inquiry: a contact that fits the agreed criteria.
- Estimate: a proposal or assessment recorded by the business.
- Booked work: a project the business records as accepted.
- Collected revenue and gross profit: financial outcomes recorded separately.
A platform may report an interaction without confirming a conversation. A homeowner can contact the business more than once about the same project. Neither should silently inflate the lead count.
Agree the qualification criteria
For an installation company, useful criteria can include:
- A service the crew actually performs.
- A project location within practical coverage.
- A project size that fits the business's minimum requirements.
- A suitable timeframe and current capacity.
- An authorized decision maker or someone coordinating the request.
- Enough information for the next estimating step.
Not every criterion is available on first contact. Mark the inquiry as awaiting information instead of guessing. Do not reject a real opportunity solely because an online form did not capture a detail that can be clarified.
Our lead generation service page explains how discovery and qualification connect.
Count projects rather than repeated touches
Define how repeat contacts, missed calls, spam, wrong numbers, suppliers, job applicants, and existing customer support requests are handled.
A homeowner who calls twice and submits a form about one shower is not automatically three new opportunities. Use a consistent deduplication approach that respects privacy and the tools available.
Keep the raw contact record and the reporting classification distinguishable. If an owner changes the qualification decision after a conversation, the report should reflect the updated understanding rather than preserve an inflated original count.
Keep attribution honest
Record a source when it is identifiable, and keep unknown as a valid category. Available information might include a tagged website visit, a tracked contact path, or the customer's own answer.
These sources have limits. Someone may first discover the business through an AI answer, return later by name, and call from a different device. A source record may explain one touch without proving the entire journey.
Do not add source totals from overlapping tools as if they were unique people. Do not credit every unexplained inquiry to whichever channel is being sold.
Treat AI visibility as a separate observation
For sampled AI questions, record the exact wording, tool, date, relevant location context, and what was observed. Answers can vary, and a sample is not a universal ranking.
An identifiable referral from ChatGPT or Perplexity is a visit, not a qualified lead by itself. A citation without a recorded click is not evidence of an inquiry.
Google says activity from its AI search features is included in overall Web reporting in Search Console. Do not invent a separate measured AI total from a report that does not provide that breakdown.
Our AI search service explains the work and its limits.
Calculate costs using a consistent period
Cost per qualified inquiry is the relevant acquisition cost divided by the number of qualified inquiries in the agreed period or cohort. Specify which expenses are included.
Cost per booked job requires reliable booked outcomes. Do not divide this month's spend by a few jobs selected from a different period without explaining the mismatch.
For profitability, compare costs with gross profit after direct job costs, not the full project invoice. If a reliable close rate or margin is unavailable, acknowledge that instead of inserting an industry average.
The marketing cost guide covers the broader financial questions.
Make the monthly review useful
A practical review should answer:
- What work was completed and what remains blocked?
- How many genuine new contacts were recorded?
- Which were qualified, unsuitable, duplicate, or awaiting information?
- What services and locations did they concern?
- What estimates and booked outcomes has the owner confirmed?
- Which sources are identifiable and which remain unknown?
- What should change next?
This is more useful than a large traffic number with no connection to the estimating process. Keep personal customer details out of broadly shared reports where they are unnecessary.
Common questions
Does a missed call count as a lead?
It is a contact attempt. Whether it becomes a qualified opportunity depends on what is learned through an appropriate follow up. Do not automatically classify it as a suitable project.
Do you guarantee a number of qualified leads?
No. More Tile Jobs provides a marketing service, not a fixed contact quota or promise of booked work.
Can reporting prove marketing caused every job?
No. Attribution has limits, and referrals, repeat business, multiple touches, and unknown sources need to be distinguished. The aim is a reliable record, not certainty the data cannot support.
Request an audit to review your current presence and the inquiry information available.
Use your records in the calculator
The tile marketing calculator turns your own spend, inquiry counts, estimates, booked jobs, revenue, and direct costs into comparable metrics. Follow the same group of project inquiries through to its outcomes; do not mix unrelated groups because their dates happen to match.
If suitable inquiries stall after the estimate, use the estimate follow up templates to review the handoff. For inquiries from social ads, the Facebook advertising guide explains why a submitted form is not a booked installation.
Sources
- Google: AI features and Search Console reporting
- OpenAI: search crawler documentation
- Our current service scope
Sources reviewed October 20, 2026. This framework depends on available tools, appropriate consent, and accurate outcome information from the business.