Lead platforms quote you a tidy price per lead. That number is not what a job actually costs you, and the gap is where the money quietly leaks. Here is the real maths.
The real number is cost per job, not cost per lead
You pay per lead. But the same lead is sold to several tradies, so you do not win all of them. Say a lead costs you $30 and you win one in four (you are racing three other blokes each time). That is not a $30 job, it is $120 in lead fees for the one you won. A lead that looks cheap on the sticker can be dear once you do that sum.
Work out your own number: take what you pay per lead, and multiply by how many leads it takes you to win one. That is your true cost per job. It is almost always higher than people expect.
What the platform price does not count
- The hours quoting jobs you never win.
- Racing to reply first, every time, or losing.
- Competing on price, which trims the margin on the jobs you do win.
Compare it to leads you own
A review-rich Google presence and your own website bring in leads that are yours. They do not go to four other tradies, they do not bill you per lead, and they compound: the work you put in keeps paying off month after month. The cost is mostly upfront plus a bit of upkeep, not a fee every time the phone rings.
The honest version
Do not bin the platforms overnight, especially if you need work this week. But every dollar you can shift from renting leads to owning your pipeline lowers your cost per job over time. We went deeper on that in is hipages worth it and hipages alternatives for tradies.
That owned pipeline is exactly what BizEdge Get Found builds: your site, your reviews, your Google presence, for $89 a month. That is less than a few won-and-lost leads on a platform, and it is yours.