Ask what junk car leads cost and you’ll hear numbers from a few dollars to a hundred. The spread is real, because the word “lead” covers very different things: a name on a list sent to six buyers, a form with the car’s details, a seller ringing your phone right now.
The price per lead is the wrong number to compare. What matters is what a car costs you once you add up everything you spent to get it.
- Cost per car = what you spent ÷ cars you bought. Compare sources on that.
- Cheap leads get expensive when they’re shared, out of your area, duplicates or junk.
- Your close rate moves your cost per car more than the lead price does.
- Clunqr Leads is $30 a lead, exclusive, with no monthly fee. Buyers who work their leads close 37% on average, about $81 a car.
The four ways leads are priced
Per lead
You pay for each seller sent to you, whether you buy the car or not. It’s simple and predictable, and it puts the closing on you. Ask what counts as a lead: a missed call, the same seller calling twice, a form with a fake number.
Per call
You pay for each phone call, usually one that lasts longer than a set number of seconds. Calls are strong leads, but a long call isn’t always a seller, and a short one sometimes is.
Per car
You pay only when you buy the car. It’s the lowest risk, so the price per car is higher, and the service usually expects you to log every lead and every sale in their system so they can bill you.
Monthly fee
You pay a marketing company to run ads or SEO for you. You might get many leads or few; the cost per lead isn’t fixed, so you have to measure it yourself.
The hidden costs of cheap leads
A low price per lead can hide costs that only show up in your close rate:
- Shared leads. If five buyers get the same seller, you’re paying for a one-in-five chance at the car, and you’ll probably have to pay the seller more to win. See exclusive vs shared leads.
- Out-of-area leads. A seller an hour away costs fuel and a driver’s afternoon, or a lead you can’t use.
- Duplicates. The same seller sent twice, or calling back, billed twice.
- Junk. Wrong numbers, people looking for parts, people who want retail price for a car that doesn’t run.
- Slow delivery. A form you get an hour late is a seller who already took another offer.
Ask any lead seller how they handle each of these.
The formula
Cost per car = lead price ÷ close rate
Or, for any source, including your own ads:
Cost per car = total spent on the source ÷ cars bought from it
Some examples:
| Lead price | Close rate | Lead cost per car |
|---|---|---|
| $10 | 5% | $200 |
| $15 | 10% | $150 |
| $30 | 25% | $120 |
| $30 | 37% | $81 |
| $30 | 45% | $67 |
The cheapest lead on the list is the most expensive car. Run your own numbers in the junk car lead cost calculator.
What’s a good cost per car?
It depends on what you make on a car. If your average car leaves you $300 after you pay the seller, the tow and your time, then a lead source at $81 a car leaves you $219, and one at $200 a car leaves you $100.
A useful way to look at it is the break-even close rate: the lowest close rate where a lead source still pays for itself.
Break-even close rate = lead price ÷ what you make on a car
At $30 a lead and $300 a car, you break even closing 10%. Anything above that is profit. Knowing that number tells you how much room you have to get better.
Your close rate is the lever
You can’t do much about what a lead costs. You can do a lot about how many you close:
- Answer the phone. Every missed call is a lead you paid for. See missed calls cost you cars.
- Make a fair first offer. It wins more cars than a low one you raise later. See how to price a junk car.
- Follow up. Many sellers don’t say yes on the first call. See follow-up texts that win junk cars.
- Pick up fast. The seller who has to wait until next week keeps shopping.
Moving from 25% to 37% at $30 a lead takes your cost per car from $120 to $81. That’s the same as getting your leads a third cheaper.
What Clunqr Leads costs
- $30 a lead. Packs of 10, 25, 50 or 100, or any number from 5. Unused leads roll over.
- No monthly fee. The app comes with your leads.
- Exclusive. Each seller in your area goes to you and nobody else.
- What counts: a new seller who calls your Clunqr number, answered or not, or asks for an offer online. The same seller within 15 days is one lead.
- Bad leads can be disputed from the lead page. An approved dispute puts the lead back on your balance.
Buyers who log their offers and work their leads close 37% of them on average, about $81 a car in lead cost. Every lead comes with a text to the seller when you miss their call, your offers sent by text, and up to 10 days of follow-up. See pricing.
Clunqr Leads sends junk car sellers in your area to you and nobody else, $30 a lead, with an app that texts sellers, follows up on your offers and puts missed calls first. See how it works or apply for your area.
