How is pay-per-lead different from a lead marketplace?

Three ways: the lead comes from your own site and goes only to you; you approve each one before it is billed; and the site, the ranking and the profile remain yours when you stop. A marketplace sells the same enquiry several times and leaves nothing behind.

What counts as a lead you have to pay for?

A new customer, in your service area, asking about a service you offer, on a call over 60 seconds or through a form or text describing a real job. Spam, wrong numbers, sales calls, existing customers and anyone outside your area are never billed.

Two conditions. You need some demand already, because a site converts demand rather than inventing it, and someone has to answer the phone. We check both before we sign, and we take one partner per trade per city.

Problem · diagnosis and fix

You are paying for leads that four other shops also bought.

Bought leads are a race: the enquiry goes to several businesses at once and the fastest caller wins. The alternative is a site that earns its own enquiries, with a bill you approve line by line.

Get the free audit See the fix

4
usual causes, each with its own fix below
Each cause is checked in the fix below
Free
audit that tells you which cause is yours, in writing
Every engagement starts with it

Sound familiar?

How it shows up.

Half the leads you pay for never pick up
The customer says three other companies already called
You spend the first minute of every call explaining who you are

Root causes

The 4 reasons it happens.

Figures are from our study of 662 local business websites in Orange County, tested in September 2026.

01
The lead is shared by design
Marketplaces describe selling each enquiry to three to five businesses. The price is low because the lead is diluted.
02
Nobody filters before billing
Wrong numbers, people outside your area and sales calls arrive at the same price as a real job, and disputing them takes longer than the job would have.
03
You build nothing
When you stop paying, the leads stop. There is no site, no ranking and no profile left behind.
04
Your own site is not earning
The reason you buy leads is usually that the site produces none. That is the fixable part.

The fix

What to do, in order.

Each step is something you can check or ask for today. The free audit does the checking for you and puts the answer in writing.

01
Own the source
Step 1
A site that ranks for your jobs in your city produces enquiries nobody else receives, month after month.
You getA cause you can rule in or out.
02
Approve before you pay
Step 2
In our partner deal every call and form lands in your ledger with the recording attached. You have seven days to reject any lead with one tap; only approved leads are invoiced.
You getA cause you can rule in or out.
03
Pay a published price
Step 3
The per-lead price is on the page before you sign: from $20 for cleaning to $85 for roofing, at or below the lowest marketplace price for the same trade.
You getA cause you can rule in or out.
04
Keep what is built
Step 4
The domain, content and Business Profile are yours from day one and the code follows after 12 months, so the asset stays when the deal ends.
You getA site that produces enquiries you can count.

Questions

Questions about this problem.

: Three ways: the lead comes from your own site and goes only to you; you approve each one before it is billed; and the site, the ranking and the profile remain yours when you stop. A marketplace sells the same enquiry several times and leaves nothing behind.
: A new customer, in your service area, asking about a service you offer, on a call over 60 seconds or through a form or text describing a real job. Spam, wrong numbers, sales calls, existing customers and anyone outside your area are never billed.
: Two conditions. You need some demand already, because a site converts demand rather than inventing it, and someone has to answer the phone. We check both before we sign, and we take one partner per trade per city.