Last updated 21 October 2026
How to get more leads for your business.
How to get more leads for your business, and more work as a tradesman, in one line: plug the leak, work the free channels you own, then buy leads that come to you alone. The honest answer starts with the first: before you go buying more leads, keep the ones you already get. Most trades do not have a leads problem, they have a leak. People find them and do not call, because the profile is thin, the website is vague, or the phone rings out.
So the order matters. Fix the leak, squeeze the free channels you already own, then buy leads that come straight to you. Paying a directory to share leads around should be a stopgap, not the plan. If you want the one-line version of which advertising to buy: your Google Business Profile first because it is free, then Google Ads pointed at your own website, and a directory only if the numbers still work after both. Ads put you in front of someone already searching for your trade and the lead is yours alone. A directory sells the same job to several trades at once. Here is how to work through it.
Start here
You probably have a leak, not a shortage.
It is tempting to think more leads means more advertising. But there are only two reasons you are not getting enough work: people are not finding you, or they find you and do not get in touch. The second is far more common than trades expect. You can be getting plenty of interest and quietly losing most of it. If your website gets visits and the phone still does not ring, work through why your website is not getting leads to find which leak it is.
Pouring more traffic into a leaky bucket just wastes money faster. So the cheapest leads you will ever get are the ones you are already nearly getting, and plugging the leak comes before anything you pay for.
The free stuff first
Start with what you already own.
Four things cost nothing and, for most trades, are the biggest untapped source of work. Do these before you spend a penny on ads or directories.
- Your Google Business Profile. Free, and it puts you on the map for "near me" searches. Fill it in fully, add photos of real jobs, keep your hours right.
- Reviews. What a stranger has to go on before calling. Ask every happy customer, every time. A steady trickle beats a one-off flurry.
- Answering fast. Ring people back in minutes, not hours, and you will win work off rivals who let it ring out.
- Referrals. Ask. A quick "if you know anyone who needs the same doing, send them my way" turns one good job into the next one, for free.
Reviews do the most heavy lifting of the four, so it is worth getting deliberate about them. We wrote a full guide on how to get more Google reviews without breaking the rules that get profiles wiped.
The one most trades get wrong
Speed beats everything.
When someone needs a trade, they rarely wait. They message a few and go with whoever gets back to them first and sounds sound. You do not need to be the cheapest or the biggest, you need to be the first to pick up. It is the closest thing to free leads there is.
Plug the leak
Turn lookers into callers.
When someone lands on your website, they decide in seconds whether to call. Give them one obvious thing to do. A clear phone number they can tap, a few real photos, your reviews, and a short line on what you do and where. No maze, no waffle, no hunting for how to reach you. A website that converts turns the interest you are already getting into actual leads, which is why it does more for your phone than another advertising channel ever will. What plugs a leak is rarely what looks best to the person who owns the business, which is why we set out why we do not simply build what we are told.
When free is not enough
Buy leads you own, not leads you rent.
Once you have squeezed the free channels and plugged the leak, buying leads makes sense, if you buy the right kind. There are two ways to pay for work, and they are not the same.
Leads you own
Your own Google ads bring people straight to you. Nobody else is sold the same job, so you are not undercutting anyone, and you can turn it on and off as your diary fills.
Leads you rent
Directories sell the same lead to several trades at once. You pay whether you win it or not, and the customer never really becomes yours. Fine as a stopgap, not a foundation.
We dig into both in detail: whether Google Ads are worth it, and whether Checkatrade is worth it, with the rented side broken down for your own line of work in buying leads in your trade. The short version: own the lead where you can, rent it only while you build.
The straight comparison
The four ways to advertise, side by side.
Nearly every page answering this is written by somebody selling one of the four. We sell one of them too, so here is the comparison with our own numbers in it and the row where we come off worse left in. The question that actually decides it is not what a lead costs, it is whether the lead is yours alone.
| Route | What it costs | Lead shared? | How fast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your Google profile, reviews and word of mouth | Free, but it costs you time | No | Slow to build, then steady |
| Google Ads to your own website | £2.81 to £26.95 a click depending on your trade | No, it is yours alone | Days |
| Facebook and Instagram ads | No UK trade figure we can stand behind, so we will not invent one | No | Leads can arrive quickly but go cold fast, because you are interrupting rather than answering a search |
| A directory (Checkatrade, Bark, MyBuilder) | Checkatrade: reported at roughly £70 to £150 a month plus VAT. Bark: £1.80 a credit plus VAT, spent to unlock each lead. MyBuilder: a fee each time you are shortlisted, set job by job | Yes, with several other trades | Days |
Click costs are Google Ads keyword data for the United Kingdom, broken down by trade in how much to spend on Google Ads. The Checkatrade figure is what trades report paying for a lead-generating plan, not a price it publishes. The Bark and MyBuilder lines come from their own terms. The detail is in what Checkatrade costs and Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark.
Everything here about Bark's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 23 September 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Everything here about MyBuilder's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 24 August 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Where we come off worse
A directory gets you in front of people faster than we can.
If your diary is empty next week, a directory will put work in front of you quicker than building anything, because the audience is already there and you are renting it. That is a real advantage and it is why we call it a stopgap rather than a con. What you are paying for is speed, and the price is that the same job goes to several trades and the customer stays theirs. Use it while the things you own are still warming up, then stop.
The order that works
The honest ladder.
- Plug the leak. Sort your website and answer fast, so you keep the interest you already get.
- Work the free channels. Google profile, reviews, referrals. The cheapest leads there are.
- Buy leads you own. Your own ads, for work that comes straight to you and nobody else.
- Rent only as a stopgap. A directory to tide you over while the above builds, never the whole plan.
Why us
Why take our word for it?
Because the first things on that ladder are free, and we told you to do them anyway. We build websites and run ads for trades, so we only come in at step one and three, and we would rather you fixed the free stuff first than paid us to paper over a leak. We only do well when your phone actually rings.
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask.
- What is the fastest way to get more leads?
- Answer faster and convert what you already get. Most trades lose more work to slow replies and a weak website than to a shortage of interest. Ring people back within minutes, make sure your website has an obvious way to call you, and you will win more of the leads already coming your way before you spend a penny on new ones.
- Is it worth paying for leads?
- It depends how you pay. Paying for a lead that is yours alone, like a click from your own Google ad, can pay for itself many times over. Paying a directory for a lead that is also sold to three or four rivals means you compete on price for work you have already paid to chase. Buy leads you own, not leads you rent.
- How can I get more leads for free?
- The free channels are the ones you own: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady stream of genuine reviews, answering every call and message fast, and asking happy customers for referrals. None of it costs money, and for most trades it is the biggest untapped source of work.
- Why am I not getting trade leads?
- Usually it is one of two things: people are not finding you, or they find you and do not get in touch. The second is more common than trades think. If your Google profile is thin, your website is slow or vague, or calls go to voicemail, you can be getting plenty of interest and still lose it. Fix the leak before you try to pour more in. If you have a website that gets visits and no calls, our guide on why a website is not getting leads walks through which leak it is, in order.
- How do I get more work as a tradesman?
- Work the ladder from the bottom. Answer every call and message fast, ask every happy customer for a review and a referral, and keep your free Google Business Profile complete. Then make sure your website turns a visit into a call. Only when all of that is working does it make sense to pay for more, and the work worth paying for comes from your own Google ads, where the job goes to you and nobody else.
- How do I get better leads, not just more of them?
- Change where they come from. A better lead is someone searching for the exact job you do, in the area you cover, who contacts you alone. A lead from your own Google ad answers a search that person typed, and nobody else is sent it. A directory lead is shared by design: Bark says up to five professionals can respond to one, and MyBuilder charges you a fee each time a homeowner shortlists you. More of those means more people to compete with on price.
- Are lead-generation sites like Checkatrade a good way to get leads?
- They can get you work quickly when you are starting out, but on the sites that sell leads the same job goes to several trades, so you are rarely the only one calling. Treat them as a stopgap while you build channels you own, not as your long-term plan. We go into the detail in our guide on whether Checkatrade is worth it.
Ready to keep every lead yours?
See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll show you where your leak is and how to fix it. Got a question first? Just message us.