Score any lead vendor or channel across six criteria and see immediately whether it's worth your money or your time. Works for Angi, Yelp, Thumbtack, Google LSA – anything.
Is this lead sent only to you, or does it go to 3, 5, even 10 other companies at the same moment?
Factor in CPL, close rate on these leads, and what you actually pay per booked job – not just the sticker price.
Are these phone-verified, in-market homeowners ready to book? Or are they tire-kickers, wrong-area, or already-booked?
How fast does the lead reach you after the homeowner requests? Seconds matters – response time is the biggest driver of close rate.
Can you pause, adjust geography, or scale independently? Or does the vendor control your lead flow and pricing?
Does the asset you're building get more valuable over time – reviews, rankings, brand equity – or does value reset to zero the moment you stop paying?
A score of 1 means your lead went to nine other tree companies the moment you received it. You're in a race before you even pick up the phone. A 5 means that call came to you and only you.
Divide what you spend monthly by how many jobs you actually book from that source – not how many leads arrive. A $15 lead with a 5% close rate costs $300 per job. A $150 exclusive lead that closes 40% costs $375 – close but not as far apart as the sticker suggests.
A quality lead is a real homeowner, in your service area, with a real tree problem, who wants a real quote – not someone who clicked an ad out of curiosity, already booked someone else, or is 40 miles outside your territory.
Studies across service businesses consistently show that the company that calls within 5 minutes of a request wins the job 70%+ of the time. Speed is the single biggest lever on close rate. Know how fast your source actually reaches you.
Can you turn it off next week without penalty? Change your service area in 10 minutes? Adjust budget when you're fully booked? Or are you locked in, at the mercy of vendor pricing changes and algorithmic whims?
Shared lead platforms: when you stop paying, leads stop. Zero residual. Your own Google Business Profile, review engine, or website: the rankings, reviews, and domain authority you build this year still work for you in three years – even if you pause spend.
If you scored any vendor below 18/30, you're paying for leads that are probably costing you more than they're returning. Grab a 15-minute call with Fridolin – we'll walk through exactly what an owned lead system would look like in your market.
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