Shared leads look cheap until you do the math on what a booked job actually costs you. Here's how both models really work — including when shared leads are the right call.
Every lead service is selling you the same thing on the surface: a homeowner's name and phone number. The difference — the entire difference — is who else got it. That single fact determines your close rate, how fast you have to move, what you can charge, and whether the lead was worth anything at all.
The big marketplaces — HomeStars, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Bark and the rest — collect a homeowner's request and sell it to three to six contractors at the same time. Everyone pays. One of you wins the job — usually whoever calls back within the first few minutes — and the platform gets paid three to six times for one homeowner. The homeowner, meanwhile, gets five phone calls in an hour and starts screening them by price.
That last part is the hidden cost. Shared leads don't just lower your odds of winning; they change how you win. When five companies quote one job, the job goes to the lowest credible bid. You're not selling your work anymore — you're bidding against your own market.
An exclusive lead is generated for one company and delivered to one phone: yours. The provider runs ads or ranks pages in your market, and every call or form that comes out of them belongs to you alone. No callback race, no five-way bid. The homeowner talks to one contractor — which means you quote on value and availability instead of desperation.
One caution, because the industry abuses this word: some providers call a lead "exclusive" because that individual lead only went to you — while they run identical campaigns for three of your competitors in the same city. The strong version of exclusivity is market exclusivity: the provider works with one company per trade, per city, full stop. Always ask which one you're buying.
| Shared leads | Exclusive leads | |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets the lead | 3–6 competitors, simultaneously | You alone |
| Typical close rate | 10–15% | 30–50% (urgent trades) |
| Price per lead | Low ($20–60) | Higher ($75–150+) |
| Cost per booked job | High — you pay for every race you lose | Lower — most leads become conversations |
| Speed pressure | Minutes. First callback usually wins | Same day is fine — nobody else is calling |
| Pricing power | Race to the lowest bid | Quote on value |
| Bad-lead disputes | Formal process, often designed to deny | Reputable providers replace, no questions |
| What the provider optimizes for | Selling each lead more times | Keeping one client winning |
Here's the calculation the lead marketplaces hope you never run. Say you're comparing a $40 shared lead against a $100 exclusive lead:
Even before counting the hours your estimator burns quoting races you'll lose, the "expensive" lead costs less per job won. And that's with conservative numbers — in urgent trades where the exclusive close rate pushes 50%, the gap roughly doubles. Swap in your own close rates and job values; the structure of the math doesn't change.
An honest comparison has to include this, because shared leads aren't always the wrong tool:
If none of those describe you, the shared model is quietly taxing every job you win.
I run the exclusive model in its strongest form: one company per trade, per city, across Canada — with call tracking and recording on every lead, free replacement of bad leads, and no contracts. Not because I'm above selling a lead five times, but because the math above is also my business model: I only win when you keep winning your market.
I generate exclusive, high-intent leads for Canadian service businesses — one company per niche, per city, coast to coast. Every campaign comes with call tracking, call recording, and instant lead delivery. And you deal with me directly: no account managers, no ticket queues. You text me, I text back.
One company per trade, per city, Canada-wide. Here's how it works for each: