The lead never says if it's one post or the whole boundary.

Your numbers

Pick the size of job, and see what a lead is worth to you.

Start from a post, a gate or a full run, or type in what your average fence is worth. Then tell it your win rate and what a seller wants for each lead.

The 10 to 15 percent line is a working guide nobody has measured for fencing, so check it against your own margins before you rely on it.

Buying the click yourself

Reaching a fencer takes a bid 9 times higher than reaching a homeowner.

"fencing leads", the search a fencer types to find a seller, gets about 10 searches a month, too few for Google to report an average click price. It does report the bid to reach the top of the page: £50.63. The same bid on "fencing contractors near me", the biggest homeowner search at 9,900 a month, is £5.39. Average clicks on the homeowner searches run from £2.06 for "fence panel replacement" to £3.69 for "fence replacement". We've turned clicks into leads with WordStream's 7.33% conversion rate for home improvement search ads, which comes from American accounts, so read the last column as a rough steer.

Figures taken from Google Ads for UK searches on 24 September 2026. Each click price is an average of what advertisers bid in the auction, a guide to your bill rather than a quote for it.

At £28 to £50 a lead, your own ads cost more than Leads Do Work's £21 and land around Zapo's £40. What you get for it is control over which jobs you pay for, and when:

• →Bid on replacement searches, not one-post repairs
• →Raise the budget the day a big storm is named
• →Ask for the panel count on your form
• →The lead goes to you and nobody else
• →Google bills you directly, with no markup
• →The account stays in your name

A bought lead arrives on the seller's quota. Your own campaign can go to full budget the same day the Met Office names a storm, and back down when the phone goes quiet. To work out a sensible monthly figure, see how much to spend on Google Ads.

The storm call-out

The urgent repair is exempt. The new fence quoted on the same visit is not.

A customer who agrees a job at their home normally gets 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and you can only start inside that time if they ask you to, in writing for a doorstep contract. Regulation 28 carves out one case: a visit the customer "specifically requested ... for the purpose of carrying out urgent repairs". It also sets the edge of it. Services "in addition to the urgent repairs", and goods beyond the parts the repair needs, still carry the full rules.

So on a storm call-out, make safe and fix what you were called for. If you then price the whole run on the same doorstep, hand over the cancellation notice with the quote, and get their request in writing if they want you back this week. Leaving the notice out is an offence, and it stretches the cancellation period by up to 12 months.

Call-back speed, and the studies on it, are covered in our roofing leads guide. Leads Do Work says as much about its own storm leads: they're "often urgent", and the fencers who "respond quickly" win more of the work.

Which way to go

Pay for the run, not the post, and save the budget for the storms.

Mowing and hedge rounds are a different business, covered in our gardening leads guide, and the same decision across every trade is in our guide to trade leads.

Questions fencers ask

Fencing leads, answered.

How much do fencing leads cost in the UK?

Leads Do Work lists a wooden fencing lead at £21 plus VAT, a gate lead at £31, and adds an £11 weekly fee. Lead Pronto sells fencing inside its landscaping leads from £15 a lead. Bark credits cost £1.80 each plus VAT, and Zapo, which used to be Get Work, charges £400 to £1,600 a month plus VAT for managed search ads. Buying the click yourself on a fencing search costs £2.06 to £3.69 in Google Ads.

Is a fencing lead worth buying for one post or a small repair?

Not on its own. Won at one in 3, Leads Do Work's £21 lead costs £63 per customer, which is 97% of a replacement concrete post and 50% of repairing a 1.8 metre square section of lap fence. The same £63 is 6% of an 11 metre run. The lead price stays flat while the job underneath it can be 32 times bigger.

Are fencing leads shared with other fencers?

Mostly. Leads Do Work says 1 to 3 others usually compete for a job, never more than 5. MyJobQuote lets up to 3 tradesmen take a lead and Bark up to 5, while MyBuilder lets any number respond. Zapo and Leads Everyday say their fencing leads are exclusive, and Lead Pronto agrees how its leads are shared with you before it starts.

Do storms bring more fencing work?

Some storms do. UK searches for "fence repair near me" hit 12,100 in January 2024, when Storms Henk, Isha and Jocelyn came through, and 6,600 after Storm Éowyn. Storms Ashley and Bram left them at 1,300. Last winter they never went above 1,900 a month.

How high can a garden fence be without planning permission?

In England, 2 metres, or 1 metre where the fence is next to a highway used by vehicles. That comes from the permitted development rules in the General Permitted Development Order 2015. An existing fence that is repaired or altered can stay at its old height if that was taller, and the rights don't cover a fence around a listed building. Anything else needs the council.

Is the fence on the left or the right mine?

Neither by default. HM Land Registry says there is no rule that the fence on the left or right belongs to the property, and that which side the posts and rails are on is not a reliable guide either. The deeds may say, and T marks on a deed plan often show who maintains it, but Land Registry says they are not always conclusive.

Does the Party Wall Act cover a garden fence?

Not a timber one. The government guidance lists a garden wall standing on two owners' land as a party wall "but not including timber fences". Building a new wall on or at the boundary is covered, so a brick wall on the line is a different job.

Can a customer cancel an emergency fence repair?

Usually not the repair itself. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 exempt a visit the customer specifically asked for to carry out urgent repairs. The exemption stops at the repair: any extra work agreed on the same visit, such as a new fence, still comes with the 14 day cancellation right.

Is it legal to buy fencing leads?

Yes, but the checks are yours. The ICO expects a business using bought marketing data to check it in proportion to the risk, and says the seller's assurances don't settle it. A text or email also needs consent that names you.