You can buy plumbing work by the lead, rent it by the call, or build routes that bring it in without a per-enquiry fee. The adverts for all three promise jobs. What separates them is how many of those jobs you win and what you pay to win each one.
This guide compares the three for a plumbing business, then gives you a calculator to turn your own figures into a cost per won job. We have put no market prices on the page. Lead prices vary by seller, area and job type, so the only price that matters is the one on your own invoice.
Three kinds of plumbing leads
| Route | What you pay for | Who else gets the enquiry | Check before you pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared leads | Each enquiry, or a credit to open it | Usually several firms, so you are racing to ring first | How many firms receive each one, and what happens when a lead is a duplicate or a dead number |
| Exclusive or pay-per-call | Each call or each enquiry, often with a minimum length or a checked detail | Sold as yours alone, but read the terms to confirm | How a billable call is defined, whether you can hear recordings, and the refund rules |
| Your own enquiries | Building and running a site, a Google Business Profile, local pages and sometimes ads | Nobody. The customer chose to contact you | That calls and forms reach you, which our enquiry test covers |
Exclusive plumbing leads are sold as yours alone, but the word "exclusive" has no fixed meaning, so read what the seller promises. Nobody sorts these three cleanly in practice. A firm might run Google Ads to its own site and also buy shared leads for quiet weeks. The table is about where each enquiry came from, because that decides what it costs and what you can reuse.
Work out what a won job costs
A lead has no value until someone says yes to a quote. Follow it down the chain:
- Leads received in a month.
- Of those, how many you actually spoke to.
- Of those, how many you quoted.
- Of those, how many you won.
Each step has its own conversion rate. A seller can show you a healthy number at the first step while the rate that pays your bills, quotes that become booked jobs, sits far lower.
Cost per won job is the month's spend divided by the jobs won. It is almost always far higher than the cost per lead, because most leads never become jobs. A shared lead with a low win rate can cost more per job than an enquiry that arrived without a fee.
Say you spend £500 and receive 20 leads. You reach 15, quote 10 and win 2. Cost per lead is £25. Cost per won job is £250. The £500 and the win rate are round numbers picked to make the sums easy. They are not a market price and not a Mudfish result.
Cost-per-won-job calculator
Put in last month's real figures. Nothing leaves your browser, and the page stores nothing. With JavaScript off, use the three formulas below the form.
Fill in the boxes above to see your results.
- Cost per lead = spend ÷ leads received.
- Cost per won job = spend ÷ jobs won.
- Result for the month = (jobs won × job value × margin) − spend.
The result is a view of one month. A single good or bad month can mislead you, so repeat the sum for three months before you change a budget. The calculator also leaves out your time on the phone, which has a cost too.
Questions to ask a lead seller
- Did each homeowner ask for a plumber, and what exactly did they agree to? Ask to see the form wording.
- How many other firms get the same lead?
- What counts as a billable lead or call, and what do you refund? If you take emergency plumbing calls, ask how a missed call is treated.
- Can you hear a sample of recorded calls, or read a sample of enquiries, before paying?
- What is the minimum term, and what happens to the phone numbers if you leave?
The first question carries legal weight. The Information Commissioner's Office says that, in general, you must not make marketing calls to a number registered with the Telephone Preference Service or the Corporate TPS unless that person has specifically consented to your calls (ICO, telephone marketing guidance, read 31 October 2026). Someone who asked for a plumber is not the same as a name bought on a list. Get the answer in writing. This is not legal advice.
The ICO telephone marketing guide sets out the rule in full.
When each route makes sense
Paid lead generation can fill a quiet fortnight, or give a new firm its first customers while a site and reviews are still being built. The risk is dependence. When you stop paying, the leads stop, and nothing you built stays behind.
Your own enquiries start slowly. A Google Business Profile needs reviews, a site needs pages that match what customers type for the jobs and the service area you cover, and both need someone to answer the phone. In return they keep working, and the customer who finds you has not been sold to four other plumbers. Our page on stopping payment for shared trade leads covers the owned route, and marketing for plumbers shows what Mudfish builds for it.
Most plumbing businesses end up with a mix. The calculator tells you which part of the mix earns its money, and the answer can change from month to month.