Overview

The Goal Performance System (GPS) is how Conduit sizes a marketing opportunity before anyone spends a penny.

Instead of starting with a marketing budget and working forward to a promised result, GPS starts with how the client's business actually makes money. From there, we determine:

1. Does growing this way make sense?

2. Where should the marketing budget go?

3. What should the client realistically expect back?

The goal is to build a plan around the client's actual economics rather than relying on generic marketing benchmarks.

1. Start With the Client's Numbers

Four figures do most of the work in GPS, using our GPS Estimator. Each comes either directly from the client or, when that information isn't available yet, from published industry data.

What a Customer Is Worth

Typical Sale × Margin = Customer Value

This represents what is left from a typical sale after paying the direct costs associated with delivering the product or service, such as:

• Labor

• Materials

• Product costs

Marketing costs are not included yet.

Example

If the average sale is $9,500 and the client's margin is 35%:

$9,500 × 35% = $3,325

A new customer is therefore worth approximately $3,325 before marketing expenses.

Maximum Cost to Acquire a Customer

The customer's value also represents the absolute maximum the business could spend acquiring that customer before reaching break-even.

Using the example above:

Maximum Customer Acquisition Cost = $3,325

This is a ceiling, not a target.

Our goal is not to spend the entire $3,325 acquiring a customer. The number tells us how much economic room exists before marketing stops being profitable.

Maximum Cost Per Lead

Not every lead becomes a customer, so we adjust the acquisition ceiling based on the client's lead-to-customer conversion rate.

Maximum Cost Per Lead = Maximum Customer Acquisition Cost × Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

For example, if a customer is worth $3,325 and approximately 15% of leads become customers:

$3,325 × 15% ≈ $499

The business could therefore theoretically afford to spend up to approximately $499 per lead before reaching its break-even point.

Determine How Much Room We Have

Next, GPS compares the client's maximum affordable CPL against what leads typically cost within their industry.

Room = Maximum Affordable CPL ÷ Typical Industry CPL

Continuing the roofing example:

• Maximum affordable CPL: $499

• Typical industry CPL: $140

$499 ÷ $140 ≈ 3.6x

The client therefore has approximately 3.6x of room against the typical cost of acquiring a lead. More room gives us greater flexibility in how we buy media.

2. Determine Whether the Economics Work

Once we know what the client can afford to pay for a lead, we compare that number against industry advertising costs.

There are three general outcomes.

The Numbers Work Well

The industry's expected lead costs fall below the client's ceiling.

This gives us room to prioritize volume rather than having to hunt for unusually inexpensive leads.

Works, With Careful Buying

Some of the expected market falls below the client's ceiling, and some falls above it.

The opportunity can still work, but we need to be more selective about where and how the budget is deployed.

Worth a Closer Look First

Expected lead costs are higher than what a customer is currently worth to the business.

When this happens, we review the inputs before recommending additional marketing investment. One of the client's assumptions—sale value, margin, conversion rate, or another input—may be understated.

Why GPS Doesn't Use a Universal "Good CPL"

There is no universally good cost per lead.

A $150 lead could be extremely profitable for one business and completely unaffordable for another.

It depends on:

• What a sale is worth

• The client's margin

• How often leads become customers

Instead of comparing every client against a generic CPL target, GPS compares what the market charges against what that specific client's economics can support.

3. Determine Where the Budget Goes

Once we've established that the economics work, GPS determines how to allocate the marketing budget.

The basic principle is:

Fund the people already looking for the client first, then expand outward as budget allows.

Each channel has a different role.

Paid Search

Paid Search puts the client in front of people at the moment they're actively searching for the product or service.

Because this is generally the most dependable source of near-term leads in the plan, it is funded first.

Paid Social

Paid Social helps reconnect with people who weren't ready to convert when they first encountered the business while also reaching new audiences that resemble the client's best customers.

SEO / AEO / GEO

SEO, AEO, and GEO build visibility that the client owns rather than rents.

This includes visibility across:

• Traditional search results

• Google's answer experiences

• AI tools such as ChatGPT

Unlike advertising, this visibility can continue generating value after paid media spend stops.

Programmatic Display

Programmatic Display reaches potential customers before they begin actively searching.

Its role is to grow the audience that the other channels can eventually convert.

Because Display requires enough reach to be effective, it is introduced once the budget can support it without taking necessary investment away from higher-intent channels.

4. Build the Performance Forecast

GPS does not provide one single projected lead number.

Instead, the plan provides three performance levels because real advertising costs vary.

The Safe Number — The Goal

This is the number Conduit sets as the official goal and reports against.

It is intentionally the most conservative of the three projections.

What We Push For

This represents the performance level the team works toward through ongoing optimization.

It is more aggressive than the safe goal but still grounded in realistic market costs.

A Very Good Month

This represents what performance could look like when acquisition costs land toward the most efficient end of the industry's range.

It is an upside scenario—not the number used to set the client's official expectation.

Example

A GPS forecast might show:

• Safe Goal: 19 leads

• What We Push For: 29 leads

• Very Good Month: 57 leads

In this example, 19 leads is the official goal, not 29 or 57.

The higher figures show the potential upside as campaigns mature and costs become more efficient.

5. Why There Is a Range

Advertising costs aren't static.

They vary based on factors including:

• Geography

• Competition

• Industry

• Account maturity

• Historical account performance

New accounts also typically begin toward the more expensive end of the range while platforms collect data and campaigns move through their learning periods.

As the account develops history, GPS can replace broader industry assumptions with the client's actual performance. The forecast should therefore become increasingly specific to the client over time.

6. Estimate What the Client Actually Keeps

Lead volume alone doesn't tell us whether a marketing plan is worthwhile.

GPS ultimately asks: After delivering the work and paying for the advertising, what is left?

Using the example from the GPS guide:

That equals approximately: $1.38 back for every $1 spent.

This is the clearest measure of whether the proposed marketing plan makes financial sense.

7. Information Needed to Build a GPS Plan

The information required depends on the client's primary objective.

Lead Generation

For trades, service businesses, professional firms, and other businesses where a lead is generated and followed up by a salesperson or team, ask:

What is a typical sale worth?
Use a normal, middle-of-the-road sale—not the client's best-case scenario.

What is left after completing the work?
Use the client's margin after labor, materials, and product costs but before marketing.

How often do leads become customers?
For example, out of every 10 leads, approximately how many ultimately buy?

Do customers come back?
This is optional, but repeat business can materially change the economics.

Ecommerce / Online Sales

For businesses where customers purchase directly online without a sales follow-up process, ask:

What is a typical order worth?
Use the client's average order value.

What is left after fulfillment?
Use the margin after product and shipping costs but before marketing.

Awareness Campaigns

Awareness campaigns are evaluated differently because directly attributing an individual sale to an awareness impression is often unreliable.

Instead, define success metrics upfront, including:

Reach — How many of the right people saw the campaign?

Impressions and Frequency — How often did the audience see the message?

Traffic — How many people visited the client's site afterward?

Engagement — What did those visitors do after arriving?

Strong awareness campaigns should eventually influence lower-funnel performance by increasing branded search and helping reduce acquisition costs elsewhere.

8. What If the Client Doesn't Have Their Numbers Yet?

That's common, especially for new businesses or businesses that haven't historically tracked their funnel closely.

For the first 90 days, GPS can use published industry benchmarks as the baseline.

Once approximately three months of actual campaign performance is available, replace estimates with:

• The client's real performance data

• Actual conversion rates

• Actual acquisition costs

• Observed account averages

Then rebuild the plan. The GPS model becomes more accurate as client-specific performance data accumulates.

9. Where Industry Benchmarks Come From

Lead-cost benchmarks in the GPS methodology are based on WordStream by LOCALiQ's 2026 benchmarks, covering 13,474 U.S. search campaigns.

Sale value, margin, and conversion-rate assumptions can begin as industry estimates when client-specific figures aren't available.

These should be among the first inputs replaced with actual client data.

10. Why SEO and Display Aren't Included in the Forecast

GPS intentionally counts the full marketing investment as a cost while forecasting leads only from Paid Search and Paid Social. This is intentional.

SEO and Display still contribute to performance, but their impact builds differently over time. SEO creates visibility that can continue generating value after advertising stops, while Display expands the audience and creates demand that other channels can capture.

Rather than promising a specific immediate return from those channels, GPS allows their contribution to show up through actual performance.

11. Are GPS Projections Guaranteed?

No. GPS projections are built from a combination of:

• Client-provided business economics

• Published industry benchmarks

• Real account performance as it becomes available

The safe number is the performance level used to establish the official expectation.

As more client-specific data becomes available, industry assumptions should be replaced with actual account history so the model becomes increasingly accurate.

Quick Reference: GPS Workflow

Step 1: Understand the economics
Determine sale value, margin, conversion rate, and customer value.

Step 2: Calculate the ceiling
Determine the maximum the client can afford to spend acquiring a customer and a lead.

Step 3: Compare against the market
Compare the client's affordable CPL against typical industry costs.

Step 4: Allocate the budget
Fund high-intent channels first, then expand into supporting channels as budget allows.

Step 5: Establish expectations
Calculate the safe goal, optimization target, and strong-month scenario.

Step 6: Measure profitability
Determine what the client keeps after fulfillment and marketing costs.

Step 7: Replace assumptions with reality
As account history develops, replace industry benchmarks with the client's actual performance data.

GPS Estimator

The quickest way to build a plan is to enter the client's information into the Conduit GPS Estimator.

If a client doesn't know one of the required figures, the estimator can use the appropriate industry average as a temporary assumption. That assumption should be clearly identified and replaced with the client's actual figure once it becomes available.