Most tradies have tried a pay-per-lead service at some point. You sign up to a lead site, pay for each job you want to quote on, and hope you get there before the other four tradies who bought the same lead. Others have tried paying a marketing agency a monthly fee to run their own ads.
Both can work. They just suit different stages of a business, and they come with very different trade-offs. Here's how we'd think about it.
01How pay-per-lead usually works
With pay-per-lead, a platform or company collects enquiries from homeowners and sells them to tradies. Sometimes you pay for every lead. Sometimes you pay to unlock contact details or to quote. Often the same lead is sold to several businesses at once.
The appeal is obvious. No big upfront cost, you only pay when there's a job to look at, and you can turn it on and off whenever you like.
02Where pay-per-lead falls down
The catch is that you're renting someone else's customers. A few things tend to happen over time:
- You're often competing with several other tradies for the same job, which pushes prices down
- The homeowner is choosing between businesses on a platform, not choosing you
- You build the lead site's brand instead of your own
- When you stop paying, the work stops completely
It can be a decent way to fill gaps when you're starting out. As a long-term plan for a growing business, it tends to keep you on a treadmill.
03How running your own marketing is different
When you run your own marketing, whether that's Google Ads, Facebook ads, local SEO or all three, the enquiries come to you directly. Nobody else gets sold the same lead. The person contacted your business because they saw your work, your reviews and your name.
Over time that builds something you own: a recognisable brand, a website that ranks, a pile of reviews and an ad account full of data on what works. Every month makes the next one a little easier.
The trade-off is that it takes a bit longer to get going. Campaigns need a month or two to find their feet, and you need someone to manage them properly.
04Which one fits you?
Pay-per-lead might suit you if:
- You're just starting out and need work quickly
- You only want to fill occasional gaps in your schedule
- You don't want to invest in your own marketing yet
Your own marketing usually makes more sense if:
- You want a steady flow of work you're not sharing with competitors
- You want to choose the type of jobs and areas you work in
- You want to build a business that's worth more over time
- You want to stop competing on price alone
05Making your own marketing less risky
The biggest worry tradies have about running their own marketing is paying for months with nothing to show for it. That's fair, and it's why we work the way we do. Under our 10 Quote Guarantee, you don't pay us anything until we've delivered 10 quotes for your business. It's month to month after that, with no lock-in contracts.
If you're weighing up the options, it's worth knowing your numbers first. Our guide on cost per lead vs cost per job shows how to compare them properly. Or get in touch and we'll talk it through honestly.
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