Almost every article on the best lead generation for contractors ranks companies on qualities the writer cannot check. This one starts from what can be checked, which is published price, and then says plainly what you have to measure yourself, because the best leads for contractors are the ones your particular business converts.
Best lead generation for contractors: the ranking, and the criterion
- Fixr: Publishes exclusive, shared and affiliate lead prices for seven contractor trades and states what a verified lead costs it to generate.
- 99 Calls: Publishes priced bands for the wider market and names which platforms sit in the shared half and which in the exclusive one.
- Aged Lead Store: Publishes a complete per-lead ladder by record age and order size, from $.10 a lead, the floor of this market stated openly.
- Thumbtack: Publishes no rate and explains why: no subscription fees, and the pro sets their own lead prices, so cost per lead is a decision rather than a quote.
What is checkable
Whether a company publishes a price, what that price is, and when it was read. Five of the seventeen sources checked for this record publish a figure on a page that reads: fresh exclusive tiers from $100 to $225 by trade, shared versions at roughly half, and aged records at $0.15 to $10. Everything else in this category is assembled from marketing copy.
What you have to measure
Contact rate, speed to first conversation, and close rate, in that order. A lead you cannot reach is worth nothing at any price; a lead you reach late in an urgent trade is worth a fraction; and only your own close rate turns a cost per lead into a cost per job. No published figure substitutes for those three, and a month of records answers all of them.
The comparison worth making
Buying against building. In the nearest published comparison, generating leads through paid media costs $50 to $120 against $80 to $150 to buy them exclusive, with the lower figure conditional on real competence. The gap is small enough that the decision usually turns on whether you want to own the channel, not on the price.
Questions people ask about best lead generation for contractors
What is the best lead generation for contractors?
There is no single answer. What is checkable is which companies publish a price: five of seventeen, with fresh exclusive tiers running $100 to $225 by trade.
How do I judge the best leads for contractors?
On contact rate, speed to first conversation and close rate, measured over a month. Those three decide value and none of them is published by anybody.
Should I build or buy?
On published figures the gap is $50 to $120 self-generated against $80 to $150 bought exclusive. It usually turns on whether you want to own the channel rather than on price.
Are the best leads always exclusive?
Not always. Where both tiers are published, exclusive costs roughly double, so it is worth it only when it more than doubles your close rate, which depends mostly on how fast you answer.