Contractor leads: how trade businesses get customers, compared by trade
Updated: October 01, 2026
Contractors get leads in two ways: they pay for them (lead platforms, lead sellers, Local Services Ads, search ads), or homeowners find them directly (their Google Business Profile, their website, referrals, an exclusive local site). Paid leads come fast, but some are shared with competitors. Direct leads take months to build but cost nothing per lead. This guide shows how much homeowner demand there is for 10 trades and links to a full channel comparison for each.
How often homeowners search, by trade
The table adds up monthly Google searches for one main term per trade together with the city name, across 15 large US cities, plus the lowest and highest average cost per click advertisers paid in those cities. These are Google Ads keyword averages, pulled on October 1, 2026 through the DataForSEO API. Google rounds them, so read them as estimates, not counts. Every trade has many more searches than its main term: problems, services, neighborhoods.
| Trade | Search term + city | Searches per month, 15 cities | Cost per ad click | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | plumber | 70,400 | $13.49–$55.69 | Guide |
| Pest Control | pest control | 45,020 | $21.00–$36.14 | – |
| Roofing | roofer | 28,000 | $7.07–$32.28 | Guide |
| HVAC | hvac | 27,220 | $4.51–$42.28 | Guide |
| Landscaping | landscaping | 25,760 | $3.78–$12.09 | – |
| Junk Removal | junk removal | 25,320 | $13.76–$25.13 | Guide |
| Electrical | electrician | 24,700 | $7.53–$24.51 | Guide |
| Handyman | handyman | 15,800 | $6.58–$13.11 | – |
| Painting | painters | 12,100 | $5.07–$24.10 | – |
| Water Damage | water damage restoration | 8,330 | $14.22–$85.73 | Guide |
Each of these searches is a homeowner looking for help in their own city. The company that shows up gets the call directly, with no fee per lead.
One business per trade per metro. Ask whether yours is open
The channels in short
- Lead platforms (Thumbtack, Angi). You pay per lead, and prices vary with the job, the number of available pros and your market (Thumbtack Help). The homeowner can compare several pros. Work out your cost per won job with the Thumbtack cost calculator, and see Is Angi worth it?.
- Lead sellers and pay-per-call. A fee per lead or call. Ask in writing whether a lead goes to you alone or to several companies.
- Google Local Services Ads. You pay when a customer gets in touch through the ad, by call or message (Local Services Help). Google's checks come first.
- Google search ads. A fee per click; the table shows the range per trade.
- Your Google Business Profile, website and reviews. Google ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile Help). See how to get more Google reviews, what to do if the profile is suspended and the owned options in Thumbtack and Angi alternatives.
- An exclusive local lead site. One business per trade per metro, so every enquiry from the site goes to you alone. A new site takes months to rank.
Channel comparisons by trade
- How to get roofing leads
- How to get HVAC leads
- How to get plumbing leads
- How to get electrical leads
- How to get junk removal leads
- How to get water damage leads
Each one has a 15-city table for that trade's three main search terms.
Measure by won job, not by lead
Whatever the mix, track where every job you win came from. After three months, divide what each channel cost by the jobs it won. That number, not the price per lead, shows where the next dollar should go.
Sources
- Thumbtack Help: How much do I pay for leads and opportunities? (2026-10-01)
- Local Services Help: Getting started with Local Services Ads (2026-10-01)
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking (2026-10-01)
- DataForSEO API docs: Google Ads Search Volume (data source of the tables) (2026-10-01)
Is your trade open in your metro?
We run exclusive local lead sites: one business per trade per metro. Tell us your trade and metro. If it's open, we build the site for your area, and every enquiry from it goes to you alone.