You're Not Buying Leads. You're Renting Them.
Thumbtack, Angi, Bark and Checkatrade sell the same enquiry to you and three competitors. You pay whether you win it or not. Here's what that actually costs — and what the alternative looks like.
The number nobody shows you
Cost per lead is the figure on the invoice. Cost per job is the one that matters.
Lead networks charge per enquiry, not per job won. Because the same enquiry is usually sold to three or four businesses, you are paying for enquiries you will lose.
If leads cost £30 and you win one in four, your real cost per job is £120 — not £30. If you win one in six, it is £180. Neither figure appears anywhere on your invoice, and both rise as more competitors join your area.
| If you win… | £20 leads | £40 leads | £60 leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 3 | £60 per job | £120 per job | £180 per job |
| 1 in 5 | £100 per job | £200 per job | £300 per job |
| 1 in 8 | £160 per job | £320 per job | £480 per job |
| 1 in 10 | £200 per job | £400 per job | £600 per job |
Illustrative figures. Actual lead prices vary widely by trade, platform and area — check your own last three months of invoices against jobs won to find your real number.
Why shared leads convert worse than direct enquiries
Three structural reasons, none of which are about how good you are at your job.
The conversation starts as a price comparison. The customer knows they sent one enquiry and got four responses. That frames the discussion around cost before you have said anything.
Speed beats suitability. Most shared leads go to whoever replies first, which rewards whoever happened to be free rather than whoever is the better fit.
They found the platform, not you. A customer who found you through search has usually already seen your reviews, your photos and your previous work. A platform lead arrives knowing nothing about you.
Renting vs owning
Renting leads
- Cost per job rises as competitors join your area
- Every enquiry shared with three or four rivals
- You pay whether you win the job or not
- Volume controlled by the platform, not you
- Reviews build the platform's reputation, not yours
- Stop paying, and the enquiries stop that day
Owning the channel
- Cost per job falls as rankings compound
- Every enquiry comes to you alone
- Fixed monthly cost regardless of volume
- Visibility you control and can build on
- Reviews build your own Google profile
- Rankings persist even if you pause the work
To be fair to the lead networks: they are genuinely useful when you are starting out with no reputation, or when you have real gaps in the schedule to fill. The problem is not using them. The problem is depending on them, because you are building someone else's asset with your money.
What replacing it looks like
Run both in parallel and taper. Cutting the lead network on day one is a mistake.
Weeks 1–4
Google Business Profile rebuilt properly, review system set up, technical issues on the site cleared. Lead network spend unchanged.
Weeks 5–10
Map Pack rankings start moving. Service and area pages go live. First direct enquiries arrive.
Months 3–4
Direct enquiry volume becomes predictable enough to measure. Begin reducing lead network spend.
Months 5+
Organic covers the base load. Lead networks become a tool for filling gaps rather than a dependency.
Shared Leads — Frequently Asked Questions
Costs vary by trade and area, but reported figures commonly fall between £8 and £80 per lead, with higher-value trades such as roofing, HVAC and legal sitting at the top of that range. The important detail is that the fee is charged per lead, not per job. Because the same enquiry is typically sold to three or four businesses, the real cost per won job is the lead price multiplied by the number of leads needed to win one — often four to ten times the headline figure.
They are worth it in two situations: when a business is brand new and has no other source of work, and when there is genuine spare capacity that would otherwise go unused. They stop being worth it when they become the primary channel, because the cost per job rises as more competitors join your area, you cannot control volume, and you build no asset. Businesses that rely on lead networks for years typically have no organic visibility to fall back on if the platform changes its pricing or its algorithm.
Owning the channel the leads come from. In practice that means ranking in Google's local Map Pack for the services you offer in your area, a website that converts the traffic it receives, and a steady flow of reviews. The enquiries then arrive exclusively to you, at a cost that falls over time rather than rising, and the visibility remains yours regardless of what any platform decides to charge.
For a single-location local business, expect meaningful Map Pack movement in six to ten weeks and enough enquiry volume to start reducing lead network spend by month four. Most businesses run both in parallel for three to six months and taper the paid leads as organic volume becomes predictable. Cutting the lead network on day one is a mistake — you need the overlap.
Three reasons. The customer is comparing you against competitors who received the identical enquiry, so the conversation starts as a price comparison. Response speed decides most of these, which favours whoever happens to be free at that moment rather than whoever is best. And the customer found the platform, not you, so there is no prior familiarity with your business. A direct enquiry from someone who found you in search has usually already seen your reviews and your work before making contact.
Not immediately, and possibly not ever. The sensible position is that lead networks are a reasonable supplement and a poor foundation. Keep them for filling genuine gaps in your schedule, and build your own channel so that you are choosing to use them rather than depending on them. The goal is optionality, not purity.
Work out your real cost per job
Bring your last three months of lead network invoices and how many jobs you actually won. We'll calculate your true cost per job and tell you honestly whether SEO would beat it in your area — including when it wouldn't.