Pay per lead: what contractors actually pay, and for what

Advertised prices, checked

Working out whether pay per lead pays for you

1. Get the exclusivity in writing. The published tiers show shared leads at roughly half the exclusive price for the same homeowner. If a quote does not say how many contractors receive the lead, the price is not comparable with anything.
2. Get the replacement policy in writing. Wrong numbers, tyre-kickers and homeowners who never filled anything in are the normal failure modes. What happens then is worth more than a $20 difference in unit price and nobody in this record publishes it.
3. Measure speed to first contact. On shared leads the contractor who calls first usually wins, so a source that delivers by email digest is selling you a worse product than one that texts you in seconds, at the same price.
4. Compute cost per job, then decide. The worked example published in this market is $190 a lead at a forty per cent close on a $12,000 roof: about $475 of lead cost per job against roughly $4,000 of gross profit. Run the same arithmetic on your own numbers before you sign.

What pay per lead costs where it is published

99 Calls' roofing cost guide bands exclusive pay-per-lead sources at roughly $40 to $550 a lead and shared marketplaces at roughly $25 to $200, and works an example at $190. Fixr's rate card sits inside that: $150 to $180 exclusive for roofing, $225 and above for siding, at least $160 for windows.

The width of those bands is the honest finding. A pay-per-lead price is a function of the job value behind it, so a repair enquiry and a full replacement in the same trade can be a five-fold difference in price from the same seller.

Where the risk actually sits

In a pay-per-lead deal the seller is paid for delivering a contact and you are paid for closing one. Every gap between those two, a wrong number, a homeowner who asked six weeks ago, a job outside your area, is your cost.

That is not an argument against the model; it is an argument for pricing it as an experiment. Buy the smallest batch a source will sell, measure what proportion you could actually reach, and only then take the volume discount that every published ladder in this record offers.

Pay per lead against pay per call and pay per sale

Pay per call charges you for a connected phone call rather than a form, which filters out a good deal of noise and costs more per unit for the same reason. Pay per sale charges only when work is won and is rare in home services because the seller has to trust your reporting.

None of the sources in this record publishes a pay-per-call or pay-per-sale rate. Where you are quoted one, ask what counts as a qualifying call: a minimum duration and a valid service area are the two clauses that decide whether the model is fair.

Common questions

What does pay per lead cost for contractors?

Where it is published, roughly $80 to $225 per exclusive lead by trade, with one source banding the wider exclusive market at $40 to $550 and shared marketplaces at $25 to $200.

Is pay per lead better than a monthly retainer?

It is more transparent per unit and it puts all the delivery risk on you. A retainer reverses that. Which is better depends on whether you can measure your close rate well enough to know when you are overpaying.

Do I get a refund for a bad lead?

Sometimes, and no source in this record publishes its policy. Ask for it in writing before the first invoice; it moves the effective price more than the headline rate does.

What is a good close rate on paid leads?

The published examples in this market work at five to fifteen per cent, with a higher figure on exclusive leads answered quickly. Anything you are told about typical rates should be checked against your own last hundred.

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