Most UK roofing contractors are buying shared leads without fully understanding what they are paying for. A shared lead from Checkatrade, Rated People, or MyBuilder looks straightforward on paper — you pay a set amount, you receive a homeowner's contact details, you call them and try to win the job. Simple.
The problem is what the price tag doesn't show. The homeowner is simultaneously speaking to three, four, or five other roofing contractors. The job won't go to the best roofer — it will go to whoever calls first, quotes most aggressively, or catches the homeowner at the right moment. The price you paid for the lead was only the beginning of the cost.
This guide works through the real economics of both lead types — the maths most lead platforms would prefer you not to see — and shows at what point exclusive leads consistently deliver a better return than shared ones, regardless of the higher upfront cost per enquiry.
What "Shared" and "Exclusive" Actually Mean
Before getting into the numbers, it's worth being precise about definitions — because lead platforms are deliberately vague about this, and many contractors don't know exactly what they are buying.
The critical distinction is the homeowner's mindset at the moment of contact. A homeowner who filled out a comparison form on a lead marketplace is in a fundamentally different state of mind from a homeowner who searched "roofer near me," scrolled through Google Maps, read your reviews, and called your number directly. The first is exploring options. The second has already made a partial decision — they chose to contact you above everyone else who appeared in the results.
The Real Numbers: Cost Per Booked Job
The price listed per lead on a shared platform is almost meaningless as a performance metric. The number that actually matters is cost per booked job — how much you spent in total to win one piece of work. Working that figure out for both lead types reveals why shared leads are almost never as cheap as they appear.
Let's use a realistic example based on typical UK roofing market conditions in 2026.
❌ Shared Lead (e.g. Checkatrade)
* Subscription only. Does not include time cost of chasing unresponsive leads or price reductions from competitive pressure.
✅ Exclusive Lead (Google Ads)
* On a £3,500 average roof replacement, this is a 3% marketing cost. And the cost per job falls as your GBP ranking improves over time.
The Hidden Costs of Shared Leads
The subscription or per-lead price is only the first layer of cost. Shared leads carry a series of additional costs that never appear on an invoice but directly eat into your margins on every job you do win.
Homeowner Intent: Why the Source of a Lead Changes Everything
Not all leads are equal — even among exclusive ones. The channel that generates an enquiry determines the homeowner's state of mind when they contact you, which directly determines your likelihood of converting them into a booked job. Here is how intent levels compare across the main roofing lead sources:
Referrals sit at the top of the close rate table — because a homeowner who was personally recommended by someone they trust arrives with almost no sales resistance. But referrals cannot be manufactured at scale. The next best category is emergency Google searches and Google Maps inbound calls — which can be generated at volume through paid and organic search investment.
When Shared Leads Actually Make Sense
It would be dishonest to say shared leads are never worth using. There are two specific situations where they have genuine utility for UK roofing contractors.
Starting out with zero reviews and no Google presence
A brand new roofing business with no Google reviews, an incomplete GBP, and no website has very little to show an inbound caller who's comparing options. In that situation, Checkatrade provides a structured framework — it handles the trust signalling (background checks, vetting), the review platform, and a directory presence — that a new contractor cannot replicate overnight. Used for 6–12 months while building Google presence in parallel, it serves a legitimate bridging purpose.
Filling short-term gaps in an otherwise healthy pipeline
Even established contractors occasionally hit a quiet week. A short burst of lead platform activity during a slow period — without a long-term subscription commitment — can fill gaps without the overhead of running a permanent shared lead account. The key is to use it tactically and time-limitedly, not as a permanent lead source.
The Scenario Comparison: Same Budget, Different Approaches
Here is how the same £800/month marketing budget plays out across three different approaches over a 12-month period for a UK roofing contractor in a medium-sized city.
| Metric | Shared Leads Only | Google Ads Only | Google Ads + GBP SEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly spend | £800 (subscription) | £800 (ad spend) | £500 Ads + £300 SEO |
| Leads/month (month 1) | 20–25 shared | 14–18 exclusive | 12–16 exclusive |
| Close rate | 8–12% | 38–45% | 38–45% |
| Jobs won/month | 2–3 jobs | 5–7 jobs | 5–7 jobs |
| Leads/month (month 12) | 20–25 shared (no change) | 16–20 exclusive (optimised) | 20–30 (Ads + free Maps leads) |
| Cost per booked job (month 12) | £270–£400 | £115–£160 | £70–£110 (Maps leads are free) |
| Asset built after 12 months | Nothing — stop paying, leads stop | Campaign data, Quality Score | Map Pack ranking + campaign data |
| Year 2 cost per lead (same budget) | Same or higher (subscription rises) | Slightly lower (better data) | Significantly lower (organic rankings) |
The combined Google Ads and GBP/SEO approach takes slightly longer to produce maximum results but delivers the best economics by month 6 and continues to improve indefinitely after that. By month 12, a contractor in this position is receiving a meaningful proportion of their leads at zero cost from organic Map Pack rankings — leads that the shared platform approach can never replicate.
How to Calculate Your Own Numbers
Don't take our word for any of this — calculate it yourself using your own data. Here is a simple framework you can apply to your current lead sources this week.
- Step 1: List every lead source you used in the last 3 months and what you paid for each (subscription fees, per-lead costs, ad spend).
- Step 2: For each source, count how many leads you received, how many you successfully contacted, and how many converted into booked jobs.
- Step 3: Divide total spend per source by jobs won from that source. That is your cost per booked job per channel.
- Step 4: Multiply cost per booked job by 12 for an annual figure. Compare that against the average job value from each source — shared lead jobs are often lower value because of price pressure.
- Step 5: Add a time estimate — how many hours per month did you spend chasing leads from each source? Assign a rough hourly value to your time. Add that to the cost per booked job figure.
For most contractors who go through this exercise honestly, the cost per booked job from shared lead platforms is significantly higher than it appeared when they signed up — and significantly higher than exclusive inbound leads from Google, even at a higher nominal cost per enquiry.
The Bottom Line
Shared leads are not cheap. They are priced cheaply — which is a different thing. The true cost, once you account for low close rates, invalid leads, price competition margin erosion, and the time spent chasing unresponsive homeowners, is consistently higher per booked job than exclusive inbound leads generated through Google Ads and local SEO.
More importantly, shared leads build nothing. Every year you spend on a lead platform is a year your competitors who chose Google are building Map Pack rankings, review bases, and website authority that compounds and reduces their cost per lead further. The gap widens every month.
"The best time to move from shared to exclusive leads was two years ago. The second best time is now."
For a full breakdown of how to build a Google-based exclusive lead pipeline, read our complete guide to getting more roofing work in the UK. For a direct platform comparison, see Checkatrade vs Google Ads — an honest comparison.
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