Pay Per Lead vs. Pay Per Appointment: What Contractors Actually Pay Per Job

Every contractor who has bought leads has had the same week: a stack of names, half of them dead numbers, a quarter of them already talking to three other companies, and one guy who wanted a price over the phone and hung up.

So the question isn't really "leads or appointments." It's what does it cost me to sign one job — and almost nobody selling you leads will do that math with you. Let's do it.

The three things you can buy

There are three ways contractors pay for homeowners who want work done:

1. Shared leads. A homeowner fills out a form on a lead portal. The portal sells that same form to several contractors at once.
2. Exclusive leads. Same form, but sold to you alone. You still have to call, qualify, book and confirm.
3. Appointments. Someone else does the calling, qualifying, booking and confirming. You get a time on your calendar with a homeowner who is expecting you.

Each one costs more per unit than the one before it. That's exactly why the per-unit price is the wrong number to compare.

Shared leads: cheap per lead, expensive per job

Industry pricing for shared home-improvement leads runs roughly $85–$150 per lead, and a shared lead typically goes to 3–4 contractors at the same time. Close rates on shared leads land somewhere around 6–12%.

Run it at the middle of those ranges — about $118 a lead and a 9% close rate — and you're paying roughly $1,300 in lead costs for every job you sign. That's before the part nobody invoices you for:

• Somebody has to call every lead inside five minutes. A lead contacted within five minutes is about 21× more likely to convert than one called at thirty. If you're on a roof at minute five, you need a person whose job is the phone.
• You're bidding against the other three. When the same homeowner gets four quotes, the contractor who wins usually wins on price. The discount you give to beat them is a real cost of that lead — on a big ticket it can dwarf the lead price.

Exclusive leads: better, still raw

Exclusive leads fix the bidding war, which is a big deal. But a lead is still a name and a phone number. Somebody still has to:

• reach them fast,
• find out whether they own the home and want the work you actually do,
• get both decision-makers to agree on a time,
• and remind them the day before so they're actually home.

Vendors love to quote booking rates. Ask them for booked appointments that were kept, not booked appointments. A booked appointment nobody shows up for still cost you the lead, the calls, and an afternoon.

Appointments: the price that includes the work

With appointments, the unit you pay for is further down the funnel: a homeowner who answered, qualified and agreed to a time. That's why the per-unit price is higher — and why the per-job cost is often lower. Fewer of your hours go to dead calls, fewer of your estimates go to people who were never going to buy, and nothing goes to the four-way bidding war.

But "appointment" means very different things to different vendors. Before you buy, get straight answers to these:

1. Is it exclusive? If they won't say "only you, never resold," it isn't.
2. What counts as an appointment? The homeowner owns the property, both decision-makers are home, and you get enough time to measure and present. Anything less shouldn't count.
3. What happens on a no-show? You shouldn't pay for an empty driveway. Ask how no-shows are handled before you sign, not after the first one.
4. Who calls the homeowner, and how fast? Minutes, seven days a week — or the good ones go cold.
5. Do they confirm? The day before and the morning of. That alone prevents most no-shows.

The number to bring to any sales call

Whatever you're comparing, convert it to one figure: cost per appointment that actually happens, and then cost per signed job at your close rate. Count everything — the setter's wages and commissions, the agency retainer, the ad spend, the CRM, your own hours managing it.

We built a calculator that does exactly that, with every assumption on a slider: what one real appointment costs you to make yourself. Put in your own numbers.

Which one fits you

If you…	Probably start with
Have a full-time setter answering in minutes, 7 days a week	Exclusive leads
Are the setter, the estimator and the closer	Appointments
Sell small tickets with fast decisions	Leads (shared or exclusive)
Sell $8,000+ jobs where both spouses decide	Appointments
Want to own the ad account and the data long-term	Your own ads, run properly

There's no shame in any of them. The mistake is comparing them on the sticker price instead of the price of a signed contract.

If you sell roofing, impact windows and doors, kitchens, bathrooms, pools, driveways or ADUs, that's what the Handshake Program does: exclusive, verified homeowners on your calendar — and you never pay for a no-show.