Lead generation services: what each kind charges a contractor

Advertised prices, checked

How to compare lead generation services that charge differently

1. Sort the quote into one of the four models. Rate card exclusive, rate card shared, bid marketplace, or aged list. A number from one model tells you almost nothing about a number from another, and most sellers do not volunteer which one they are.
2. Convert everything to cost per closed job. Multiply the lead price by the number of leads you need to close one. This is the only figure that compares a $2 aged record with a $190 exclusive lead honestly, and it usually reorders the list.
3. Ask what happens when the lead is bad. Credit policies vary more than prices do, and none of the sources in this record publishes one. A source that replaces an unreachable lead at $150 may be cheaper than one that does not at $100.
4. Test at the smallest volume they will sell. Every published price in this record falls with volume, which is exactly why a first order should not chase the volume discount. Buy the smallest batch, measure your close rate, then negotiate.

The rate-card services

Fixr publishes a rate card by trade and tier: exclusive high-intent roofing leads at $150 to $180, shared at $80 to $120, siding at $225 and above exclusive, and separately a much cheaper affiliate tier at $50 to $75 exclusive and $20 to $40 shared. It also publishes what a lead costs it to produce, around $70 raw for a window lead rising to about $140 once verified.

A rate card is the easiest model to compare and the hardest to negotiate. What it buys you is certainty about the unit price and no certainty at all about volume, which is the opposite of the bidding marketplaces.

The bidding marketplaces

Thumbtack's pro page states there are no subscription fees and that a pro sets their own lead prices. So there is no rate to compare: your cost per lead is your bid, and your volume is a function of where that bid sits against other contractors in your category and ZIP code.

This is genuinely different from a refusal to publish. It also means a marketplace cannot be ruled in or out on price before you use it. Run it for a month, work out what you actually paid per lead, and compare that number against the rate cards rather than comparing the models.

The aged lists, and the price they are not

Work Aged Leads bands the aged market at $0.15 to $8 per lead against roughly $15 to $80 and above for fresh real-time records. Aged Lead Store's own home service page puts its floor at $.10 a lead.

Those figures get quoted at contractors as though they were lead generation prices. They are not: they buy a list of people who asked for work weeks or months ago, most of whom have already found somebody. As a supplement to a fresh source, worked properly at volume, they can pay. As a substitute, they are the cheapest way to waste a month.

Common questions

Which lead generation service is cheapest?

Aged list resellers, by two orders of magnitude, and they are selling a different product. Among the sources publishing fresh lead prices, the shared tiers start around $80 and the exclusive tiers around $150.

Do lead generation services charge a monthly fee as well?

Some do and none of the sources in this record publishes what it is. Thumbtack's page is the one explicit statement, and it says there are no subscription fees at all.

How many leads do I need to close one job?

The published examples in this market use five to fifteen per cent close rates, so between about seven and twenty leads. Your own last hundred are a better guide than anyone else's example.

Is it cheaper to generate leads myself?

Fixr puts self-generated home improvement leads at $50 to $120 against $80 to $150 buying exclusive, and is explicit that the lower figure assumes you know what you are doing with paid media. The gap is narrower than most contractors expect.

Prices by trade

• Roofing leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• HVAC leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Solar leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Home Improvement leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Window leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Siding leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Kitchen leads: what the sources that publish a price charge
• Bathroom leads: what the sources that publish a price charge