Start with your own invoice and enquiry list. Mark which contacts were relevant, which booked, which jobs were completed and what you spent replying. Keep refunds and duplicate contacts visible.
A lead is an opportunity to speak with a customer. The charge and any refund depend on the product terms; a lead is not a guaranteed job.
This is not a piece telling you paid leads are a scam. Plenty of good owners use them and would tell you to keep using them. It is a piece about the math, and about the leads you are already paying to attract without realizing it.
What a rented lead actually costs
For a hypothetical example, suppose ten contacts cost $30 each and three become booked jobs. The contact spend is $300, or $100 per booked job before your reply time. These are example inputs, not a platform price or a measured appliance-shop result.
Use your own job margin for the next step. A servicer writing as Lorainfurniture shared their own ticket and profit figures. They are one shop's historical account, not an industry benchmark or a reason to mix their margin with another owner's lead costs.
If a booked job leaves $150 before acquisition in the hypothetical example above, $100 of contact spend leaves $50 before reply time and other excluded costs. Replace every input with your own definition and records; a different booking rate changes the result.
Shared leads mean you are not the only one buying
Check whether the product sells the same enquiry to other providers, lists several quotes or simply sends traffic to your site. Those are different products. The contract should explain what you receive.
A customer can compare shops even after contacting you directly. Neither a paid contact nor a referral is exclusive merely because it reached your phone.
A useful reply matters for every source. Our lead-response guide explains the evidence limits; speed alone does not prove that an enquiry will book.
When rented leads turn sour
Before paying, check the service area, job types, duplicate policy, budget controls and the process for disputing an unsuitable contact. Save the terms you accept.
Check the minimum term, renewal, cancellation and any extra charges. Compare those with your expected workload instead of relying on a single positive or negative review.
The FTC's 2023 HomeAdvisor refund notice concerns allegations about that company's lead marketing and membership charges. It does not establish the quality of every paid lead or every other platform.
The lead you already own
Your own website, truck sign, repeat customers and referrals can all bring enquiries. Count the money and staff time spent supporting those sources, even when there is no separate bill for each contact.
A direct enquiry may have no per-contact platform fee. That does not make acquisition or handling free, and the caller can still choose another shop.
A solo shop also has limited time to reply. The one-man shop guide covers that scheduling problem. Better intake can help handle both direct and paid enquiries.
Direct enquiries still need handling
Agree who checks new messages, what information the first reply collects and when a person calls back. Then measure whether those changes improve your own booking outcomes.
In the agreed setup, SvarKlar collects the brand, model, warranty details and reported fault through your chosen channels. It follows approved booking rules or passes the details to a person. The missed-call guide includes an example first reply.
Choose channels from your own enquiry records. AI call answering, written replies and missed-call text-back can help with intake; the shop still needs confirmed availability and a human route for unclear cases.
After-hours enquiries need an honest answer about availability. A late fridge call is not automatically a high-margin job or a confirmed visit. See after-hours emergency leads for the intake context.
So which kind of lead should you run?
Either source can make sense. Keep the channels that bring suitable jobs at a cost your margin can support. Trial a bounded spend, record outcomes and review before increasing it.
Compare sources over the same period and count completed work. Include refunds, missed enquiries, time spent replying and any ongoing website or advertising cost.
The detail your earned leads need is the same detail the apps charge you to collect: brand, model, warranty status, what failed. Capturing it cleanly the moment a lead lands is its own skill, and we cover it in capturing brand, model, and warranty up front. If you want the wider picture of how a tool like this handles inbound, the AI receptionist overview lays it out.
Choose lead sources using your own cost per booked job and the profit left after doing the work. Direct enquiries need reliable replies too; neither source guarantees a sale.
Want to see how SvarKlar would catch your inbound? Book a call or see how the service works.
More guides like this are collected in our appliance repair resources.