Lead economics

Exclusive or shared, priced honestly.

$200 to $300 per shared lead with no exclusivity, against enquiries that arrive only to you.

What you are actually buying

A shared platform lead from Angi or HomeAdvisor costs $200 to $300 and is sold to several contractors at the same moment. Close rate lands between 8 and 20 percent, which at the midpoint puts one booked job near $1,786 in lead cost alone, or over 13 percent of a median $13,400 job. The platform owns the relationship, and prices rise with demand, so they rise hardest exactly when you need volume most.

The speed-to-lead trap

Because the lead is shared, the winner is usually whoever calls within minutes. That turns your office into a dispatch desk and rewards staffing rather than skill. Contractors who close at the top of the 8 to 20 percent band are almost always the ones with someone paid to answer instantly, which is a real cost that never appears in the lead price.

Side by side

Exclusive enquiries against shared platform leads.

Criterion
Exclusive enquiry
Shared platform lead
01 Cost per lead
Exclusive enquiry Amortised build cost, falling over time
Shared platform lead $200 to $300, rising with demand
02 Close rate
Exclusive enquiry 50 to 70 percent
Shared platform lead 8 to 20 percent
03 Cost per booked job
Exclusive enquiry Roughly $180 to $400
Shared platform lead Roughly $1,000 to $3,750
04 Exclusivity
Exclusive enquiry Yours alone
Shared platform lead Sold to three or four contractors
05 Time to first lead
Exclusive enquiry Weeks to months after launch
Shared platform lead Same day
06 Volume on demand
Exclusive enquiry Grows, but not on command
Shared platform lead Buy as much as you can afford
07 Who owns the relationship
Exclusive enquiry You, from first contact
Shared platform lead The platform
08 Price control
Exclusive enquiry Fixed once built
Shared platform lead Set by the platform, revised upward
09 Behaviour after a storm
Exclusive enquiry Steady, if pages were published early
Shared platform lead Volume spikes, price spikes, exclusivity worsens
10 What you own after three years
Exclusive enquiry A site and the research behind it
Shared platform lead Nothing

COST PER BOOKED JOB CALCULATED FROM PUBLISHED LEAD COSTS AND CLOSE RATES. SOURCES: GHOSTREP, GETBIDDABLE, WEBSITE AND SEO AGENCY. RANGES AS PUBLISHED SEPT 2026.

Where shared leads still earn their place

Filling a slow week, entering a metro where you have no presence yet, or keeping a new crew busy while organic work builds. Used deliberately and measured at cost per booked job, they are a tool. Used as the foundation of the business, they are a toll that never reduces, because the cost per job cannot fall while the lead is shared.

The three-year comparison

Eighty booked jobs a year from shared leads at $1,786 acquisition cost is roughly $143,000 a year, or $429,000 over three years, with nothing owned at the end. That is the number the pricing on this site is set against, and it is why the audit and rebuild are published prices rather than a conversation.

Questions to ask any lead vendor

Four, before you spend anything.

01
Is this lead exclusive, in writing, or shared.

Silence means shared.

02
How many contractors receive the same enquiry, and how is order determined.
03
What is the refund policy for an unqualified or duplicate lead, and what counts as either.
04
Can I pause the account in a slow month without penalty.

How to use shared leads without depending on them

Four rules that keep the channel a tool rather than a foundation.

01
Cap the monthly spend before you start, and treat the cap as a decision rather than a budget
02
Answer within minutes during business hours or do not buy at all
03
Take only the services and suburbs you actually want, and decline the rest
04
Review cost per booked job monthly, and pause without sentiment when it passes 10 percent of job value

What the platform relationship costs beyond money

The homeowner's relationship is with the platform, which means reviews, repeat work, and referrals partly accrue there rather than to you. A customer acquired through your own site remembers your name. One acquired through a platform remembers the platform. Over years, that difference compounds against the channel that never gets cheaper.

Exclusive does not always mean good

Some vendors sell exclusivity at a premium on leads that are exclusive but poorly qualified, generated from broad campaigns rather than intent. Ask how the lead was generated, not just whether it is exclusive. An exclusive lead from a form nobody meant to fill in closes no better than a shared one.

Run the numbers on your market.

$2,500, and you see cost per booked job for every channel you use.