Pay Per Lead vs Subscription for Tradespeople: Which Wins?

Q: How much should an electrician expect to pay per lead for an EICR job?

Realistic ranges in the UK currently sit around £10–£30 per EICR lead, depending on the platform, your location, and whether you're buying exclusively. Given that a domestic EICR might be priced at £150–£250, the CPA can eat into margins significantly if your conversion rate is below 30–40%. These figures vary

For most established electrical businesses, a subscription model tends to offer better long-term ROI — but pay per lead has a genuine role for specific job types and for tradespeople who are just getting started. The honest answer is that neither model is universally better. It depends on your job mix, your conversion rate, and how your cash flow sits at any given point.

I'm an electrician at Energy North Ltd, based in the North East of England, and I've spent real money on both models across multiple platforms. Below is what I've learned — with actual figures where I can give them, and honest caveats where I can't.

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What Is Pay Per Lead and How Does It Work for Electricians?

Pay per lead means you pay a fixed fee — or a variable one — each time a platform sends you a customer enquiry. You're not paying for the job; you're paying for the contact. Whether that contact turns into booked work is entirely down to you.

Platforms operating this way include Bark.com, Rated People, and MyBuilder. The mechanics vary slightly: Bark typically sells the same lead to multiple tradespeople simultaneously, whereas some platforms give you the option to buy exclusively. Either way, you're spending money before you've earned a penny from that customer.

The key metric here is your lead conversion rate — the percentage of purchased leads that become actual jobs. If you're buying ten leads and booking one job, you've effectively paid ten times the listed lead price for a single acquisition. That number — your cost per acquisition (CPA) — is what really matters, not the cost per lead headline figure.

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What Is a Subscription Lead Generation Model?

A subscription model means you pay a fixed monthly or annual fee for a listing or profile on a platform. Customers find you through the platform's directory and contact you directly. You're not charged per enquiry.

Checkatrade, TrustATrader, and Which? Trusted Traders all operate broadly this way. Google Local Services Ads is a hybrid — you pay per lead, but it functions more like a vetted listing and tends to attract higher-intent enquiries than typical lead marketplaces.

The appeal is predictability. You know your monthly cost regardless of enquiry volume. The downside is that you're paying whether leads come in or not.

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The Real Costs: Pay Per Lead vs Subscription Side by Side

I won't give you fixed prices as gospel because they change, vary by region, and depend on job category. What I can give you is a realistic framework.

On pay-per-lead platforms, electricians in the North East typically see lead prices ranging from around £8–£15 for smaller jobs (like a landlord electrical certificate or minor repairs) up to £25–£50+ for larger jobs like EV charger installations or full rewires. Leads for EICR work tend to sit somewhere in between.

If your conversion rate is 25% (one in four leads booked), a £20 lead becomes an £80 CPA. If you're closing one in ten, that's £200 CPA. For a domestic EICR priced at £150–£250, those numbers can quickly make the job unprofitable before labour costs even come into the picture.

Subscription platforms like Checkatrade typically run from £80–£150+ per month depending on your trade category and region. That gives you a fixed annual marketing cost of roughly £1,000–£1,800. If you're booking even four or five decent jobs a month through it, the ROI is usually strong.

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Lead Quality: Which Model Sends Better Enquiries?

This is where pay per lead really struggles. Leads sold to multiple contractors simultaneously often result in a race to the phone — the customer gets three calls in five minutes and picks the first price they hear. There's very little loyalty or context. Many enquiries on Bark.com, in my experience, are price shoppers or people who filled in a form without fully understanding the cost of the work.

Subscription directories tend to attract customers who've already decided they want a vetted tradesperson. They've read reviews, compared profiles, and made a deliberate choice. Conversion rates are usually higher and the conversations are more serious.

That said, quality varies enormously by platform and by job type, which I'll come to below.

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How Each Model Affects Cash Flow for a Small Electrical Business

For a sole trader or small team, cash flow is everything. Pay per lead gives you flexibility — spend more when you need work, pull back when the diary is full. But it's unpredictable, and a bad month where you've bought fifteen leads and booked two jobs can genuinely sting.

A subscription is a fixed overhead. It reduces flexibility but makes budgeting easier. For a business that's established and has steady throughput, that predictability is often worth more than the flexibility of pay per lead.

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Which Works Best for Specific Electrical Services (EICR, EV Chargers, Rewires)?

EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report): These are competitive, relatively low-value jobs. Pay per lead can work if you're buying exclusively and have a fast response time, but the margins are tight. A subscription listing where you build up reviews tends to win over time.

EV charger installation: Higher value work (typically £800–£1,500+ installed), often linked to the OZEV grant scheme. Pay per lead can justify itself here because the CPA is a smaller proportion of the job value. Google Local Services Ads works particularly well for this.

Consumer unit upgrades and full rewires: High value, high trust. Customers doing their research will check reviews and credentials (NICEIC or NAPIT registration, Part P Building Regulations compliance). A subscription platform with strong reviews suits this work better than a bulk lead marketplace.

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When Pay Per Lead Makes More Sense

You're just starting out and have no review history yet
You're filling gaps in a quiet diary on a short-term basis
You're targeting specific high-value jobs where the margin covers the CPA
You want to test a new service area without committing to a monthly fee

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When a Subscription Model Makes More Sense

You have reviews and a track record to show
You want predictable marketing costs
Your conversion rate from enquiries is consistently above 30–40%
You're building a long-term local brand rather than just buying work

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What We Use at Energy North Ltd and Why

At Energy North Ltd we've used both. Bark.com gave us some early traction when we needed to fill the diary quickly, but the lead quality was inconsistent and we found ourselves spending time chasing people who'd already picked someone else.

We've found subscription-based directories and Google Local Services Ads to be more sustainable for our mix of work — EICR testing, EV charger installations, and consumer unit upgrades in the North East. The enquiries take longer to build up but they convert better and the customers understand what they're paying for under BS 7671 18th Edition Wiring Regulations.

We haven't abandoned pay per lead entirely, but it's no longer our primary channel.

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Key Takeaways for Tradespeople Choosing a Lead Model

Track your CPA, not just your lead cost. A cheap lead that never converts is the most expensive lead you'll buy.
Match the model to the job type. High-value jobs can support pay per lead; competitive low-margin work generally can't.
Your conversion rate matters more than the platform. A slow response time will kill ROI on any model.
Subscription builds compounding value through reviews. Pay per lead doesn't.
Use both if you can afford to test them — but set a budget limit and measure the results honestly.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is pay per lead worth it for electricians just starting out?

It can be — particularly if you have no reviews yet and need to get jobs on the board quickly. The key is to set a strict monthly budget, track every lead you buy against jobs booked, and switch to a subscription model once you've built up a review history. Don't rely on it indefinitely; the economics rarely improve over time.

Which lead generation platforms do most electricians in the UK use?

The most commonly used are Checkatrade, Rated People, MyBuilder, Bark.com, and TrustATrader. Which? Trusted Traders has a strong reputation but a more rigorous vetting process. Google Local Services Ads is growing quickly among tradespeople who want higher-intent leads. NICEIC and NAPIT membership also generates direct enquiries through their own Find a Contractor directories.

How much should an electrician expect to pay per lead for an EICR job?

Realistic ranges in the UK currently sit around £10–£30 per EICR lead, depending on the platform, your location, and whether you're buying exclusively. Given that a domestic EICR might be priced at £150–£250, the CPA can eat into margins significantly if your conversion rate is below 30–40%. These figures vary and will change — always check current platform pricing directly.

Can I use both pay per lead and a subscription service at the same time?

Yes, and many tradespeople do. The risk is spreading your budget too thin and not tracking results properly for each channel. If you're going to run both, keep a simple spreadsheet: leads in, jobs booked, revenue generated, cost per channel. That'll tell you within a couple of months where your money is working.

How do I know if a lead generation platform is sending me quality leads?

Track your conversion rate per platform over at least 90 days. Also look at the jobs being booked: are they the kind of work you want, at the prices you need? Pay attention to whether customers have read your reviews before contacting you — that's usually a sign of a higher-quality enquiry. If you're consistently buying leads where the customer has already contacted five other electricians, that's a quality problem the platform won't fix for you.

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If you're looking for a qualified, NICEIC-registered electrician in the North East for EICR testing, EV charger installation, consumer unit upgrades, or any other electrical work, you can get in touch with the team at Energy North Ltd at [energynorth.uk](https://energynorth.uk). We're happy to give straightforward advice before you commit to anything.