How much does lead generation cost for tradesmen?
Ask what lead generation costs and you will get a different answer from every supplier, because they are not selling the same thing. One charges per enquiry, another a monthly fee, another sets up something you keep. The headline figure on its own tells you very little.
We are not going to quote market averages, because anyone who does is guessing. Instead, this article explains the models, what to ask, how to work out your own cost per enquiry, and which costs hide behind the advertised ones.
The five main ways tradesmen pay for enquiries
Almost every offer falls into one of five models. Each moves risk and cost in a different direction, so it helps to know which one you are looking at before comparing anything.
Pay per lead means you are charged for each enquiry sent to you. A monthly platform fee means you pay to be listed or to respond to jobs. Advertising means paying a network such as Google or Facebook for clicks or views. An agency retainer means a regular fee for someone to manage marketing. Your own website and local SEO means building a channel that you keep.
- Pay per lead: charged for each enquiry
- Monthly platform fee: pay to be listed or to respond
- Advertising: pay for clicks or views
- Agency retainer: pay for someone to run it
- Own website and local SEO: build something you keep
What each model really asks of you
Pay per lead is simple to understand, but you pay whether or not the customer answers the phone or picks you. Platform fees give access, though the work you win still depends on how well you respond and quote. Both are effectively rented, so the cost continues for as long as the work does.
Advertising can switch on quickly and off again, but it needs someone to manage it, and the clicks stop the moment the budget does. A retainer buys time and skill, so ask exactly what is delivered each month. Your own website is slower to start, but once it is found, enquiries are not charged individually.
How to work out your own cost per enquiry
This is the number that matters, and you can calculate it yourself. Take everything you spent on a channel over a set period, including fees, ads, set-up and your own time. Divide it by the number of genuine enquiries that came from that channel. That is your cost per enquiry.
Then go one step further and divide the same spend by the jobs you actually won. That is your cost per job. A cheap enquiry that never converts can cost more per job than an expensive one that does. Use at least three months of data, because a single quiet or busy fortnight proves nothing.
- Total spend, including set-up and your time
- Number of genuine enquiries from that channel
- Number of jobs actually won
- Spend divided by enquiries, then by jobs
Questions to ask before you sign anything
A sensible supplier will not mind questions. Ask who owns the website, the domain and the Google Business Profile if you leave. Ask what happens to your enquiries and reviews at the end. Ask how enquiries are counted, and whether duplicates, wrong numbers and out-of-area requests are included in the total.
Also ask what you are expected to do. Leads need fast replies, reviews need chasing, and content needs photos of real jobs. Ask whether the area or trade is shared with competitors. And ask how the supplier will show you where each enquiry came from, because without that you cannot judge anything.
- Who owns the site, domain and profile afterwards?
- How is an enquiry counted?
- Is the area or trade shared with others?
- What reporting will I see?
The hidden costs people forget
The invoice is rarely the whole cost. Your time counts: quoting for jobs you do not win, driving to look at work in the wrong area, answering enquiries that go nowhere. If you pay per lead, add the leads that were not usable. If you run ads, add the cost of the person managing them.
Then there is the cost of starting again. If everything you built sits inside a platform and you stop, your reviews, profile and visibility may stay behind. That is not wrong, but it belongs in the sum. A channel you own has its own costs, mainly patience, as new sites take weeks to months to be found.
Our own two packages, stated plainly
For the sake of fairness, here is what we charge, and these are the only prices in this article. Business in a Box is £995 one-off, shown reduced from £1,995. It includes a custom website for your trade and area, mobile-optimised, with contact forms, click-to-call and a map, SEO content for your services, lead tracking and enquiry notifications, Google Business Profile setup and verification, service area and category setup, and review strategy guidance. Turnaround is 24 hours, and it does not include Facebook advertising.
RankRanger Pro is £200/month. It covers directory submissions to Google Business Profile, Foursquare and 30+ UK directories, NAP consistency, automatically created service and location pages, local SEO content, schema markup, internal linking, automated posts to your site and Google Business Profile, completed jobs turned into case studies, and ongoing local coverage. We work on an exclusive-area basis, one client per trade per area. Results vary and depend on competition, reviews and effort, and nothing is guaranteed. Ask us to check whether your area is still available.
The short version
- Compare models, not headline figures: they move risk differently.
- Work out cost per enquiry and cost per job from your own records.
- Count your time and unusable leads as real costs.
- Ask who owns the site, domain and profile if you leave.
- Give any channel at least three months of data before judging it.
- Owned channels start slowly but are not charged per enquiry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I pay per enquiry?
There is no honest universal figure. What you can afford depends on your average job value, your profit on it and how many enquiries you convert. Work backwards from those three numbers and you will know your own limit.
Is a website cheaper than buying leads?
Not always at the start, since a site takes weeks to months to be found and results are not guaranteed. The difference is that a site you own is not charged per enquiry. Track both for a few months and compare your own cost per job.
What should I track to judge any channel?
Record every enquiry with its source, whether you quoted, and whether you won the job. Add up what you spent on that channel. After three months or so, you will have a cost per enquiry and a cost per job for each one.
Want this done for your business?
If you would like to compare the two packages against what you spend now, ask us to talk it through and check whether your area is still available. See lead generation for tradesmen, the packages and some live examples.
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