The whole debate over exclusive leads vs shared leads comes down to one question most tradespeople never actually do the maths on: how much does it really cost you to win one job? A £15 shared lead sounds cheaper than a £50 exclusive one — right up until you count the four other trades phoning the same customer, the evening you spent writing a quote that went nowhere, and the diesel you burnt driving to a price-shopper. The cheapest lead and the cheapest job are rarely the same thing.
If you've ever quoted hard, turned up keen, and still lost the job to "someone a bit cheaper", you've felt the difference already. Let's put numbers on it so you can decide where your marketing money is actually best spent.
What exclusive leads vs shared leads actually means
The two models look similar from the outside — an enquiry lands on your phone — but they work in opposite ways once you understand who else is getting that same enquiry.
A shared lead is sold to several tradespeople at once. This is the standard model on most lead platforms and aggregators. A customer fills in one form, and that single enquiry is matched out to anywhere from three to five trades. You're not the only roofer or sparky who got the ping; you're in a queue with everyone else, all racing to call first and quote lowest.
An exclusive lead goes to one tradesperson only — you. Nobody else gets that customer's details. There's no race to ring first because there's no one to beat to the phone, and the customer isn't lining you up against four other quotes by default. You're having a conversation, not entering an auction.
That single difference — one trade versus several — is what drives every number that follows.
Why shared leads convert in single digits and exclusive far higher
When a lead is shared with four or five trades, you're competing for the same job before you've even said hello. Even if you're brilliant, the maths is stacked against you. If five trades all chase one customer and only one wins, the average win rate across that group is one in five — around 20% at best. In practice it's usually lower, because some of those enquiries are tyre-kickers, wrong numbers, or people who've already booked someone by the time you call.
That's why typical conversion on shared platform leads often sits in the single digits to low teens — frequently under 10% once you account for dead enquiries and the customers who never pick up. You're not just competing on price and speed; you're competing with the platform's own habit of selling the same lead to your rivals.
Exclusive leads flip this. With no other trades on the line, your conversion is governed by the things you actually control: how good your quote is, how you come across, and how fast you respond. Tradespeople working genuinely exclusive, screened enquiries commonly report win rates several times higher than shared leads — often in the 30 to 50% range, or better, when the enquiry has been pre-qualified by a human first. You don't need a higher win rate to come out ahead, but you almost always get one.
Key takeaways
- Shared leads are sold to three to five trades at once; exclusive leads go to you alone.
- Shared-lead win rates often sit in the single digits to low 20s; exclusive, human-screened leads convert far higher.
- The number that matters is cost per closed job, not the headline price per lead.
- A "cheap" shared lead can cost more per won job than a higher-priced exclusive one.
- Always confirm exclusivity in writing before you sign up to anything.
The metric that matters: cost per closed job, not per lead
Here's where most lead-buying decisions go wrong. Tradespeople compare the price per lead, because that's the number staring at them on the pricing page. But you don't pay your mortgage with leads — you pay it with jobs you actually won. The only figure worth comparing is cost per closed job: what you spent on leads divided by the number of jobs that money turned into.
The formula is simple. Take the price of one lead, then divide by your conversion rate. A £15 lead that converts at 8% costs you roughly £187 per won job (£15 ÷ 0.08). A £50 lead that converts at 40% costs you £125 per won job (£50 ÷ 0.40). The "expensive" lead is actually a third cheaper per job.
| Shared lead | Exclusive lead | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per lead | £15 | £50 |
| Typical conversion | 8% | 40% |
| Leads needed per job | ~12.5 | ~2.5 |
| Cost per closed job | ~£187 | ~£125 |
| Quotes written per job | ~12 | ~2 to 3 |
These figures are illustrative ranges, not guarantees — your own numbers will vary by trade, area and how good your follow-up is. But the shape holds up almost everywhere: once you divide by conversion, a higher-priced exclusive lead routinely beats a cheap shared one on the only metric that pays the bills. And the table doesn't even capture the time cost yet, which is where shared leads really start to hurt.
The hidden costs of bidding wars: wasted fuel, time and margin
The cost-per-job sum above only counts the money you hand the platform. It ignores everything else you spend chasing shared leads, and that's where the real damage is.
- Time. Twelve quotes to win one job means twelve site visits, measure-ups, write-ups and follow-up calls — mostly in the evenings after a full day on the tools. Two or three quotes to win one job gives you those evenings back.
- Fuel and vehicle wear. Every quote that needs a site visit is diesel, mileage and an hour or two out of your day. Multiply that across a dozen dead-end enquiries a month and it's a real line on your costs.
- Margin. Shared leads breed bidding wars. When the customer knows they've got five quotes coming, everyone drops their price to win, and you end up doing the job for less than it's worth just to stay in the running. Exclusive leads take you out of the race to the bottom and let you quote a fair, profitable price.
- Morale. Losing four jobs out of five wears you down and makes you doubt your pricing, when the real problem was simply that the deck was stacked from the start.
Add those up and the gap between shared and exclusive widens further still. The headline price per lead is only the visible tip of what shared leads actually cost you.
When exclusive leads are worth paying more for
Exclusive leads aren't automatically the right answer for every trade in every situation. They make the most sense when:
- Your jobs are worth real money. If your average job is a full rewire, a re-roof, a loft conversion or a whole-house repaint, paying more for a lead you're likely to win is a no-brainer. The lead cost is a rounding error against the job value. It's no surprise that exclusive lead models tend to suit higher-ticket trades — the maths behind exclusive leads for electricians or leads for roofers looks very different once a single won job covers dozens of lead fees.
- Your time is your bottleneck. If you're booked solid and can't afford to spend evenings quoting jobs you'll probably lose, a higher win rate matters more than a low lead price.
- You're tired of price-shoppers. Exclusive, screened enquiries from people actively searching for your service tend to be higher-intent than a form-filler casting a wide net across five firms.
Shared leads can still suit a brand-new business desperate for volume, or trades doing small, fast, low-value jobs where you genuinely don't mind a low win rate. But for established tradespeople who want fewer, better jobs at a fair price, the cost-per-closed-job maths almost always points to exclusive.
How to confirm exclusivity before you sign anything
"Exclusive" gets thrown around loosely, so don't take it on trust. Before you pay for a single lead, get clear answers — ideally in writing — on these points:
- Is this lead sold to anyone else, ever? Some platforms call a lead "exclusive" but still resell it after a time delay. Ask directly: is this customer's enquiry given to any other trade, now or later?
- How is the lead generated and screened? A lead that's been spoken to by a human and qualified for intent and location is worth far more than a raw form fill. Ask who checks the enquiry before it reaches you.
- Is it from my actual coverage area? An exclusive lead 40 miles away is no use. Confirm leads are filtered to where you actually work.
- What exactly am I paying for, and when? Per qualified lead, per month, or per click? A fixed, transparent fee per genuine enquiry is easy to plug into the cost-per-job sum above. Vague or bundled pricing is a red flag.
- Who owns the customer and the review? With exclusive leads going to your own brand, repeat work and reviews stay yours, with no platform taking a cut on the next job. Make sure that's the case.
If a provider can't give you straight answers on those five, the "exclusive" label probably doesn't mean what you think it does.
At My2ndBrand we built our model around exactly this maths: every lead is exclusive to you, human-screened by our call centre, from your coverage area, and charged as a single fixed fee per qualified enquiry — no monthly retainer, no shared leads, no bidding wars. If you'd like to see how the numbers would work for your trade, take a look at how it works and our pricing, then get in touch and we'll talk through your area honestly before you commit to anything.
