In this article
Ask five contractors what a lead costs and you will get five numbers with nothing in common. That is not because anyone is lying. It is because “a lead” is priced four different ways, and the four are not comparable.
Here is how the pricing actually works, and how to put two quotes side by side without fooling yourself.
The four ways contractor leads get priced
| Model | How you pay | What you carry the risk on |
|---|---|---|
| Per shared lead | A price per contact, sold to several contractors | Winning the race, every time |
| Per exclusive lead | A higher price per contact, sold once | Volume, since fewer leads clear the bar |
| Flat monthly rate | One price regardless of volume | A slow month costs the same as a busy one |
| Ad spend | Cost per click or impression | Everything: targeting, creative, follow-up |
None of these is inherently better. They move the risk to different places, and the right one depends on which risk your business can absorb.
What drives the number up
Price tracks the value of the job at the end of it. That is really all there is to it.
- Trade. A roof replacement or a solar install is worth many times a service call, so more contractors compete for those homeowners.
- Territory. Dense metros have more contractors bidding for the same houses.
- Season. Storm season for roofing, the first heat wave for HVAC, spring for landscaping.
- Exclusivity. A lead sold once has to carry its whole cost. A lead sold four times splits it, on paper.
- Qualification. Someone has to pay for a person to make the call. Either the provider does it before you buy, or you do it after.
That last one is the one contractors underprice most often. Qualification does not disappear when a provider skips it. It moves onto your team, at your hourly cost, after you have already paid for the lead.
A cheaper lead is usually cheaper because a step was removed. Find out which step it was before you decide it is a better deal.
The only number worth comparing
Cost per lead tells you what you spent. Cost per closed job tells you what it was worth.
Take a month of spend on one source, count the jobs you actually closed from it, and divide. That is the number to put next to another provider’s, and it is the only one that survives contact with reality.
Industry-wide figures for shared against exclusive lead performance, not theBuildd-specific results. What you see depends on your trade, territory and follow-up speed.
A lead at half the price that closes at a third of the rate is not half the price. It is more expensive, and the invoice will never tell you that.
What we charge, plainly
We price on a flat monthly rate rather than per lead, because a per-lead auction rewards whoever is most willing to overpay in a busy month.
| Plan | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | $200 one-time | 4 to 7 exclusive leads, same qualification and delivery |
| Lead Generation | $3,000 / month | Exclusive, phone-qualified leads, territory locked by zip code |
| Lead Generation, bi-weekly | $2,000 / 2 weeks | The same, billed on a two-week cycle |
| Lead Gen + SEO | $3,500 / month | Everything above, plus local SEO content and Google Business optimization |
Promo pricing is available for $2,500 a month. There is no contract and no setup fee, and you can cancel month to month. Bad leads are replaced rather than refunded.
Most contractors see 10 to 15 qualified leads a week, though volume depends on your trade, territory size and local demand.
Want to test the quality before committing?
The $200 trial delivers 4 to 7 exclusive leads with the same qualification call and the same delivery window as a monthly plan.
How to budget for it
Work backwards from a job, not forwards from a budget.
- Take your average job value and your gross margin on it.
- Decide what share of that margin you are willing to spend to win the job.
- Multiply by the number of jobs a month you need.
That gives you a monthly number you can defend. If a provider’s pricing does not fit inside it at a realistic close rate, the answer is no, regardless of how good the leads sound.
Run any new lead source for a full month before judging it, and track close rate separately from lead volume. A source can deliver fewer leads and still be the most profitable thing you buy.