Contractor lead companies, contractor lead sites and lead generators for contractors are three names for a field containing at least four different businesses. Sorting them out is the first useful step, because a quote from one kind tells you almost nothing about a quote from another.
Four businesses, one label
Rate-card sellers generate enquiries and sell them at a published price by trade and tier. Marketplaces let contractors bid against each other, so there is no rate to publish at all. Pay-per-call networks charge when a phone connects. Aged resellers sell lists of older enquiries at a published $0.15 to $10 a record. All four are described as contractor lead companies and none of them is priced like the others.
What a contractor lead site is
Usually the consumer-facing front of one of the above: a site that ranks for what homeowners search, captures an enquiry and routes it to contractors. Occasionally it is a directory that sells placement rather than leads. Ask which, because a paid listing and a delivered enquiry are different products and the second is much easier to measure.
Judging lead generators for contractors
The useful questions are the same across all four kinds: how many contractors receive the enquiry, how fast it arrives, what counts as billable and what happens when it is wrong. Twelve of the seventeen sources checked for this record publish no price and none publishes answers to those four, so they are negotiated in every case rather than compared.
Questions people ask about contractor lead companies
What are contractor lead companies?
Four different businesses under one label: rate-card sellers, bidding marketplaces, pay-per-call networks and aged-record resellers, priced on incomparable bases.
Are contractor lead sites the same thing?
Usually the consumer-facing front of a lead company. Sometimes a directory selling placement rather than enquiries, which is a different and harder-to-measure product.
How do lead generators for contractors charge?
Per lead on a rate card, per bid in a marketplace, per connected call in a network, or per record in an aged list. Published fresh tiers run $100 to $225 by trade.
What should I ask all of them?
How many contractors get the enquiry, how fast it arrives, what counts as billable, and what happens when it is wrong. None of the four publishes answers.