The Complete Guide to SearchLight Platform for Home Service

From Vanity Metrics to Verifiable Revenue

The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight is a revenue attribution and sales intelligence platform that connects your digital marketing channels directly to customer revenue in your CRM. Instead of measuring success by clicks or cost-per-lead, SearchLight tracks which marketing efforts generate paying customers and real dollars.

What SearchLight Does:

• Captures every conversion across phone and website, then connects that data to customer revenue in your CRM
• Tracks revenue by marketing channel so you know which campaigns drive actual dollars
• Measures key metrics like booking rates, customer acquisition costs, and revenue by zip code
• Identifies funnel leaks such as unsold estimates from specific channels
• Provides enterprise-level analytics trusted by 700+ contractors and leading agencies

For years, home service businesses have measured marketing with the wrong yardstick: website clicks, form fills, and cost-per-lead. As one industry leader put it: "Clicks don't show up to your bottom line. The dollars do." Most contractors need more revenue, not just more leads. They need to know which marketing channels fill their bank account and where their budget is leaking on leads that never convert.

Traditional reports are full of vanity metrics—numbers that look impressive but don't confirm profitability. A thousand visitors or a low cost-per-lead means little if they don't become paying customers. Searchlight changes the conversation from "how many clicks did we get?" to "how much revenue did we generate?"—a critical shift for Home Service businesses aiming for profitable growth.

I'm Jennifer Bagley, CEO of CI Web Group, and I've spent over a decade helping contractors focus on what drives growth. The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight is a tool we recommend because it delivers the transparency contractors deserve.

What Makes SearchLight The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry?

The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight is a revenue attribution and sales intelligence platform built for home service businesses. It acts as the bridge between your marketing spend and your bank account, showing exactly which marketing dollars turn into actual revenue.

SearchLight's core function is its key differentiator: it connects every marketing channel directly to the revenue in your CRM. When a customer calls from an ad or fills out a web form, SearchLight follows them through the entire journey to see if they become a paying customer and what they spend.

Built for the home service industry, it understands the customer journey from an emergency search to a completed job. It captures all phone and web conversions, matching them to real dollars from new and existing customers.

The trust in SearchLight is proven by real-world adoption. The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight is used by over 700 contractors and 20 leading agencies. Impressively, four of the top ten largest private equity groups in the U.S. trust SearchLight's data for their home service portfolio companies.

When financial powerhouses managing millions in investments choose a platform for accurate revenue reporting, it speaks volumes about its reliability. They demand rigorous data, not vanity metrics. A perfect example is SearchLight's partnership with Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, where SearchLight provides the detailed revenue attribution needed to drive business decisions.

As one industry leader stated, "No one in the home services industry delivers accurate reporting quite like Searchlight." That's because clicks don't show up on the bottom line—dollars do. SearchLight is laser-focused on tracking those dollars back to their source.

How SearchLight Delivers a Complete Picture of Marketing Effectiveness

Connecting a new customer to their origin—a Google ad, a Facebook campaign, a truck wrap—is often guesswork for home service businesses. The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight solves this problem.

SearchLight provides a complete picture of marketing effectiveness by capturing every conversion, from website forms to phone calls. More importantly, SearchLight integrates this data with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, connecting the first click or call directly to the revenue in your bank account. As one contractor put it, SearchLight "takes data from contractors' CRMs, advertising accounts, websites, and more, and works its magic to help contractors really understand where revenue is coming from." It's sophisticated data integration that provides visibility into your entire customer journey.

The power of integration shines with call tracking. While platforms like CallTrackingMetrics (CTM) log calls, SearchLight takes that data further. By aligning call data with its robust attribution system, SearchLight measures which calls turn into revenue. For our clients across Texas and the Pacific Northwest, this means clear connections between calls, booked jobs, and marketing performance. You can access your CallTrackingMetrics account via their Login Portal or learn about integrations on their Support Partners page, but pairing it with SearchLight provides the complete story.

This moves you beyond misleading vanity metrics like clicks and conversions. A low cost-per-lead is meaningless if those leads don't book jobs. SearchLight helps us focus on what matters: booking rates, average ticket values, and real revenue. Understanding The Metrics Every Leader Should Know is essential for growth.

A valuable aspect of SearchLight is its ability to identify where your marketing funnel leaks money. If a channel generates leads that rarely convert or estimates that don't become sold jobs, SearchLight pinpoints the inefficiency. These insights about unsold estimates and funnel leaks are gold, showing you where to focus optimization. Instead of blindly spending on marketing, you can make surgical improvements to your customer journey.

Open uping Actionable Insights with Key SearchLight Features

The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight transforms raw data into actionable insights, helping you move forward with confidence.

Channel Breakdowns: A Key Feature of The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight

This feature analyzes channel performance to show which marketing efforts deliver real results. SearchLight goes beyond clicks and leads to show which channels convert the most revenue and breaks down your customer acquisition cost (CAC) by channel. You can see precisely what it costs to acquire a customer from Google Ads versus Facebook, enabling confident decisions about scaling what works. If Google Local Services Ads generate customers at half the cost of other channels, you know where to invest more. Conversely, you can adjust or eliminate spend on channels that generate leads but few paying customers. For a deeper look at important numbers, see our guide on Essential KPIs Home Service Digital Marketing.

Revenue by Zip Code: How The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight Optimizes Local Spend

Home service is a local business. SearchLight provides geographic revenue tracking, showing what marketing channels drive revenue by zip code across your service area. This creates heatmaps of your territory, revealing geographic performance. You might find Google Ads excel in certain zip codes while Facebook is more effective in others. This service area intelligence is invaluable for contractors. With this data, you can inform local marketing budgets with surgical precision, investing more in high-value zip codes and adjusting your messaging based on what's working locally. To see this in action, see how Searchlight provides a complete picture of marketing effectiveness.

Measuring True Lead Quality and Conversion Rates

Not all leads are equal. SearchLight helps you understand which leads are worth pursuing. The platform tracks your Match Rate—the percentage of leads matching a new opportunity in your CRM. This reveals lead quality issues. For instance, if a channel generates 100 leads but only 20 match, there's a problem. More importantly, the Paying Customer Rate shows the percentage of leads that become sold jobs. This metric connects directly to your bottom line and is far more valuable than a simple lead count.

SearchLight also excels at differentiating new versus existing customer revenue, a distinction many CRMs struggle with. This is critical because your strategy for acquiring new customers should differ from your strategy for retaining existing ones. These insights allow you to optimize your entire sales process. For more on tracking the right metrics, explore our thoughts on Reporting Metrics for Home Service Success.

The Tangible Benefits for Your Home Service Business

When we recommend The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight, it's because it delivers results that show up in your bank account. The change we see in businesses across Houston, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest is the shift from guessing with marketing dollars to strategically investing in channels you know bring in revenue.

Smarter budgeting is possible when you see which channels generate real revenue. SearchLight helps you "budget smarter and improve your sales outcomes" by showing booking rates, customer acquisition costs, and revenue by channel and ZIP code. This precision ends the frustration of wondering if your marketing is working.

Your sales outcomes improve when your team knows which leads are most likely to convert. SearchLight identifies high-quality leads from channels that consistently produce paying customers, so your team spends less time on dead ends and more time closing deals.

Accurate ROI measurement connects every dollar spent directly to completed, paid jobs. No more vague estimates—you see your actual return on investment for each campaign, giving you the confidence to scale your business.

Understanding lead quality becomes clear with Match Rate and Paying Customer Rate metrics. These numbers provide "best accuracy in measuring lead quality and revenue impact," so you know which channels send serious buyers versus tire-kickers.

This all adds up to a genuine competitive advantage. While competitors operate on clicks and impressions, you'll have a complete understanding of your customer journey and most profitable marketing investments. SearchLight empowers us to make data-driven decisions that generate real results for your business. To see how we can apply these strategies, learn more about our Services.

Frequently Asked Questions about SearchLight

Here are answers to common questions home service owners have about The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight.

How does SearchLight integrate with my existing tools?

SearchLight is built to work seamlessly with the tools you already use. It uses API connections to pull data from your digital marketing channels (Google Ads, social media, website) and integrates deeply with the CRMs home service businesses depend on, including ServiceTitan, Pro, File Edge, Service Fusion, Service Monster, Sera 2, and High Level. It also works with call tracking providers like CallTrackingMetrics (CTM). SearchLight takes this scattered data from your website, CRM, phone tracking, and chats, and normalizes it into one unified view. This eliminates the need to jump between dashboards, giving you a single, accurate picture of your performance.

What makes SearchLight's revenue attribution superior?

Unlike typical marketing reports that stop at clicks or form fills, SearchLight's revenue attribution is fundamentally different. SearchLight connects every conversion—phone call or web form—directly to the actual dollars in your CRM. It tracks revenue, not just activity. Instead of counting leads, you see which leads became paying customers and how much they spent. This moves you beyond vanity metrics to focus on what matters: booking rates, ticket values, and total revenue generated. By integrating data from your CRM, ads, and website, SearchLight goes beyond last-click attribution to build a complete picture of the customer journey, ensuring your decisions are based on financial outcomes.

How does SearchLight help with marketing budget decisions?

SearchLight provides the hard data needed for smarter budget decisions, eliminating guesswork. It shows you clear ROI by channel, identifying which advertising efforts convert the most revenue. This allows you to confidently scale what works and cut what doesn't. The platform also provides detailed customer acquisition costs (CAC) by channel and ZIP code, which is critical for forecasting. Knowing it costs $200 to acquire a customer from one channel versus $75 from another provides a clear signal for budget allocation. The revenue-by-zip-code feature helps you invest more in high-performing areas. Finally, SearchLight uncovers funnel leaks—like leads that don't convert to jobs—allowing you to reallocate budget from inefficient campaigns to profitable ones.

Conclusion: Drive Growth with Data, Not Guesses

The contractors who thrive are the ones who understand where every marketing dollar goes and what it returns. For too long, our industry has made decisions based on incomplete data, celebrating clicks while wondering why revenue is flat. It's like driving with an incomplete map—you'll waste time and fuel.

The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight provides the complete map. It connects every marketing channel to actual CRM revenue, changing how you see your business. Detailed channel breakdowns show which campaigns generate real dollars. Revenue tracking by zip code identifies profitable neighborhoods. Metrics like match rate and paying customer rate reveal true lead quality.

The impact is tangible: smarter budgeting, improved sales outcomes, precise ROI measurement, and a significant competitive advantage.

At CI Web Group, our philosophy is built on data-driven marketing, complete transparency, and measurable results. SearchLight embodies these principles, providing the clarity you need to make smart investments that fuel real growth. The question isn't whether you can afford revenue analytics—it's whether you can afford to continue marketing in the dark.

It's time to turn on the lights. Take control of your marketing ROI and see what true performance reporting looks like. Find how The #1 Trusted Revenue Analytics Platform For The Home Service Industry. SearchLight can transform your marketing from an expense into an investment.

Ready to drive growth with data instead of guesses? Let's illuminate your path forward: https://www.ciwebgroup.com/reporting/.