How do I measure ROI on domestic cleaning advertising in the UK?

Measuring ROI for Domestic Cleaning Advertising in the UK: What It Really Means

If you run a domestic cleaning business in the UK, you already know that advertising can feel like pouring money into a bucket with holes. One month you try leaflets. Next month you boost a Facebook post. Then you pay for a directory listing or sponsor a local school newsletter. You get some enquiries, a few bookings, and plenty of “I’ll get back to you” messages that never turn into paying customers.

Return on investment (ROI) is how you stop guessing. In simple terms, ROI tells you whether your advertising is generating profit after you account for costs. But in domestic cleaning, the tricky part isn’t the formula—it’s the tracking. Many cleaning businesses don’t know which advert created which customer, how much each customer is worth over time, or how to separate “busy season” demand from marketing performance.

This article is a practical, UK-focused guide for measuring ROI on domestic cleaning advertising. You’ll learn how to track leads accurately, calculate customer value properly, measure profitability rather than vanity metrics, and make decisions with confidence. Along the way, you’ll see how invoice24 (your free invoice app) can act like your ROI “engine room” by making revenue tracking, customer history, and job-by-job profitability much easier to manage.

What ROI Looks Like for a Domestic Cleaning Business

Let’s start with the classic ROI formula:

ROI (%) = (Profit from advertising − Advertising cost) ÷ Advertising cost × 100

That’s the headline. But most cleaning businesses accidentally use revenue instead of profit and then wonder why they feel busy but still stressed about cash. For cleaning services, ROI should be tied to profit because travel time, supplies, staff wages (or your own time), and admin all eat into revenue.

A better way to think about ROI is to break it into three layers:

1) Lead ROI: Did the advert create enquiries at a reasonable cost per lead?

2) Customer ROI: Did those leads convert into paying customers, and at what cost per acquisition?

3) Lifetime ROI: Did those customers stay, rebook, upgrade, refer others, and become profitable over time?

Domestic cleaning often has repeat potential (weekly/fortnightly cleans), which means “lifetime ROI” is usually the most important layer. A leaflet drop might look weak if you only count first bookings, but it can look brilliant if those customers stay for 6–18 months. Conversely, an ad campaign might produce loads of one-off end-of-tenancy cleans, which can be profitable, but the repeat value may be low.

Step One: Decide What You’re Measuring (And What Success Means)

Before you calculate anything, define what you want the advertising to achieve. In domestic cleaning, there are typically four common goals:

Regular domestic clients: Weekly or fortnightly recurring work.

One-off deep cleans: Spring cleans, post-renovation, move-in cleans.

End-of-tenancy / landlord work: Often higher value, time-sensitive, and review-driven.

Upsells: Add-ons like oven cleaning, fridge cleaning, carpet cleaning (if you offer it), inside cupboards, etc.

Each goal changes your ROI calculations because the expected customer value and delivery cost differ. A recurring client might have a lower first invoice but high lifetime value. An end-of-tenancy clean might be a larger invoice but more labour-intensive and less repeatable.

Set a simple target per goal, such as:

Target cost per acquisition (CPA): “I can spend up to £60 to acquire a recurring client.”

Target payback period: “Advertising cost must be recovered within the first 2 cleans.”

Target margin per job: “Each job must hit at least 40% gross margin.”

Once you set targets, ROI becomes a decision tool rather than a spreadsheet exercise.

Step Two: Build a Tracking Foundation You Can Actually Maintain

The biggest reason cleaning businesses fail to measure ROI is that tracking feels complicated. The solution is to create a simple tracking routine that you can do consistently—even when you’re busy.

At a minimum, you need to capture these fields for every enquiry:

Lead source: “Google”, “Facebook”, “Leaflet”, “Nextdoor”, “Referral”, “Local directory”, “Van signage”, etc.

Date: When they enquired and when they booked.

Service type: Regular, one-off, end-of-tenancy, deep clean.

Quote and outcome: Quoted, booked, declined, no response.

Value: First invoice amount and (later) total invoices.

Here’s the key: you don’t need a complex CRM to do this. You can use a simple system where invoice24 becomes the “source of truth” for revenue and customer history, while your enquiry log captures lead sources.

With invoice24, you can keep invoicing consistent and organised, which makes it easier to see what each customer has paid over time. When you later analyse ROI, you’re not relying on memory or scattered bank entries—you’re pulling totals from clean invoice records.

Tracking Methods That Work in the Real World

Domestic cleaning enquiries come from a mix of online and offline channels, so your tracking should match that reality.

1) Tracking Phone Calls

If you take calls, you can track them in a few ways:

Ask “How did you hear about us?” This is simple and surprisingly effective if you record the answer immediately.

Use unique phone numbers per channel: This can be helpful, but it’s not essential for small operations. If you do it, keep it simple: one number for website/Google, one for leaflets, one for directories. Only use this approach if you’ll keep it updated.

Use call notes: Add a short note in your enquiry log, then ensure the customer’s first invoice in invoice24 includes the same label or reference so you can match revenue back to source later.

2) Tracking Website Leads

Your website can be a powerful source of recurring clients, but only if you can see what’s working. Basic tracking includes:

UTM tags: These are small bits of text added to your ad links so you know which campaign or platform drove a click. For example, you might have a “Facebook spring clean” campaign link and a separate “Google search” link.

Dedicated landing pages: If you run ads, sending people to a page designed for that advert improves conversions and makes tracking clearer.

Form fields: A simple “How did you hear about us?” dropdown on your contact form can fill tracking gaps.

Once someone becomes a paying customer, invoice24 helps you keep the commercial record tidy: every job invoiced, every payment tracked, and a clean history for later ROI calculations.

3) Tracking Social Media and Community Platforms

In the UK, domestic cleaning businesses often get leads from Facebook groups, Nextdoor, local Instagram pages, and community forums. The challenge is that these platforms can blur together: a customer sees your post, then later Googles you, then messages you. Attribution can be messy.

Instead of aiming for “perfect” tracking, aim for “useful” tracking:

Use a simple rule: credit the source they mention first, or the last action that led to the enquiry (for example, “I found you on Nextdoor and then visited your site”).

Track it consistently: Even if attribution isn’t perfect, patterns will emerge across dozens of leads.

4) Tracking Leaflets and Door Drops

Leaflets can work extremely well for domestic cleaning if you target the right areas and present a clear offer. But they’re notorious for being hard to track.

Make leaflets trackable with one or more of these tactics:

A unique offer code: “Quote CLEAN10 for £10 off your first clean.”

A dedicated web link: A short URL printed only on leaflets.

A dedicated phone number: If you can manage it.

When you invoice the customer in invoice24, add the code or note so you can later filter customers acquired by leaflet drops and calculate the revenue they generated over time.

Step Three: Understand the Core ROI Metrics for Cleaning Advertising

To measure ROI properly, you need a few core metrics. Don’t worry—these can be calculated with basic numbers.

1) Cost Per Lead (CPL)

CPL = Advertising cost ÷ Number of leads

Example: You spend £200 on a local Facebook campaign and get 20 enquiries. Your CPL is £10.

CPL is useful because it tells you if an advert is generating interest at a reasonable price. But CPL alone can be misleading because some platforms produce low-quality leads that never convert.

2) Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Conversion rate = Number of customers ÷ Number of leads × 100

Example: 20 leads, 5 bookings. Conversion rate is 25%.

Conversion rate reveals lead quality and how well your quoting and follow-up process works. Improving conversion rate often increases ROI faster than spending more on ads.

3) Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

CPA = Advertising cost ÷ Number of new customers

Example: £200 spend, 5 customers. CPA is £40.

CPA is one of the most important numbers for domestic cleaning businesses because it connects spend directly to customer creation.

4) Average First Job Value

First job value = Total revenue from first jobs ÷ Number of customers

This metric helps you understand payback. If your CPA is £40 and your first job is typically £60, you might feel confident—until you factor in costs. That’s why we go further.

5) Gross Margin Per Job

Gross margin = (Revenue − Direct costs) ÷ Revenue × 100

Direct costs include labour (wages or your time costed realistically), supplies used on that job, and travel directly tied to the job. If you don’t cost your own time, you’ll overestimate ROI and underpay yourself in reality.

6) Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV is the total profit you expect from a customer across their entire relationship with your business. For domestic cleaning, a simple version is:

CLV = Average profit per clean × Average number of cleans the customer stays

If a customer yields £25 profit per clean and stays for 20 cleans, CLV is £500.

This is where invoice24 becomes genuinely powerful. If you invoice consistently through invoice24, you can see how many jobs each customer has had and how much they’ve paid. That makes CLV estimation much more accurate than guessing from bank statements or diary notes.

Step Four: Calculate ROI Using Profit, Not Revenue

Let’s walk through an example that mirrors real UK domestic cleaning advertising.

You spend £300 on a mix of Facebook ads and leaflet printing in a month. You get:

Leads: 30 enquiries

Bookings: 8 new customers

Service mix: 5 recurring, 3 one-off deep cleans

First month revenue from these customers is £1,000. If you stop here, you might think your ROI is amazing. But now include costs:

Direct labour cost: £550

Supplies: £60

Travel costs: £40

Total direct costs: £650

Gross profit from those jobs: £1,000 − £650 = £350

Now apply ROI:

ROI = (£350 − £300) ÷ £300 × 100 = 16.7%

That’s still positive, but it’s not “£1,000 revenue from £300 spend” levels of excitement. And this still doesn’t include overheads like insurance, phone, admin time, software, and equipment replacement. If overheads are significant, your net ROI could be lower.

The point isn’t to discourage advertising—it’s to calculate it in a way that protects your business. When you measure ROI properly, you can invest more confidently because you know your true payback.

Step Five: Use Cohorts to Measure What Happens After Month One

Domestic cleaning ROI often improves over time because recurring customers keep paying. That means you should measure ROI using cohorts—groups of customers acquired in the same period or via the same campaign.

For example:

January leaflet cohort: Customers who joined from January leaflets

February Google cohort: Customers who joined from Google ads in February

Then track those cohorts over 3, 6, and 12 months. Many cleaning businesses discover that one channel “wins” long-term even if it looks average in the first month.

If you invoice through invoice24, cohort tracking becomes much easier because each customer’s invoice history provides an ongoing record of revenue. Even if you start simple—just tagging the customer source in your internal notes—you’ll have the data to calculate long-term performance later.

Step Six: Attribute Revenue the Sensible Way (Not the Perfect Way)

Attribution is the process of deciding which advert gets credit for a sale. In domestic cleaning, customers often interact with multiple touchpoints: a leaflet, a Facebook post, a Google search, a recommendation from a neighbour, then your website.

You have three practical attribution options:

First-touch attribution: Credit the first place they heard of you.

Last-touch attribution: Credit the last action before enquiry (e.g., they clicked your Google listing).

Simple “self-reported” attribution: Credit what they tell you when asked.

For small and growing cleaning businesses, self-reported attribution plus consistent logging is usually the most efficient. It won’t be perfect, but it will be good enough to reveal which channels deserve more investment.

Step Seven: Don’t Ignore Operational ROI Leaks

Sometimes advertising “doesn’t work” because operations leak profit. Measuring ROI helps you spot these leaks, which often create bigger gains than changing platforms.

Common ROI leaks in domestic cleaning

Slow follow-up: If you reply hours later, the customer books someone else.

Weak quoting process: You underquote to win the job, then margin disappears.

Wrong service fit: You attract bargain hunters when you want premium recurring clients.

Inconsistent scheduling: Jobs spread too widely, increasing travel time and reducing daily capacity.

Missing add-ons: You don’t offer or mention higher-margin extras.

ROI measurement is not just marketing analytics. It’s a lens that shows you where money is made or lost end-to-end.

Step Eight: Practical ROI Measurement by Channel

Let’s look at common advertising channels in the UK domestic cleaning market and how to measure ROI for each.

Google Search and Local Visibility

People searching “domestic cleaner near me” or “house cleaning [town]” often have high intent. The ROI measurement approach:

Track: Number of enquiries from Google, conversion rate to bookings, average job value, repeat frequency.

Watch out for: Enquiries outside your service area, time-wasters, and people comparing multiple quotes.

Improve ROI by: Tightening service areas, clarifying minimum booking size, and highlighting trust signals (reviews, insured status, DBS-checked staff if applicable).

Once booked, invoice24 helps you keep the financial trail clean: invoices by customer, job descriptions, and payment tracking. This makes it easier to calculate how much revenue each acquired customer actually produced.

Facebook and Instagram

Social advertising can be strong for domestic cleaning when your offer is clear and local targeting is accurate.

Track: Spend, leads, cost per lead, cost per booked job, and the mix of one-off vs recurring clients.

Watch out for: Leads who enquire casually, price-shopping, and low commitment.

Improve ROI by: Using a simple qualifying question (“Is this for weekly/fortnightly or one-off?”), offering a limited-time new customer incentive, and following up quickly.

Leaflets and Door Drops

Leaflets still work in many UK neighbourhoods, especially when targeted at areas with your ideal customers.

Track: Number of leaflets delivered, total cost (printing + distribution), enquiries, bookings, and customer retention.

Watch out for: Spreading too widely, inconsistent branding, and no call-to-action that can be tracked.

Improve ROI by: Repeat drops (brand familiarity matters), focusing on fewer areas, and including an offer code.

Referrals and Word of Mouth

Referrals often deliver the best ROI because acquisition costs are low, and trust is already built.

Track: