Agency vs pay-per-lead services.
Rent leads or own the pipe?
Pay-per-lead services such as Angi, Thumbtack, and similar marketplaces charge you for each customer request they send. A marketing agency builds the website, ads, and rankings that make customers come to you directly. Here is a fair look at both, including when buying leads is the right move.
At a glance
The short version.
SearchPod
An agency builds your own lead source. Your website, your Google Ads account, and your ranking pages all belong to you, and every lead that comes in goes only to you. SearchPod's management fee for Google Ads is a tenth of what you spend (minimum $600 a month), SEO pages are $50 apiece, and a new site is a single one-time price. Setup is free, you can leave any month, and a poor first 30 days costs you nothing.
Pay-per-lead services
A pay-per-lead service runs a marketplace. A homeowner or buyer fills out a request, and the platform sells that request to one or more businesses that match. You pay per lead, per click, or a listing subscription, and the price varies by trade and market rather than being published as a flat rate. The platform owns the customer relationship, the listing, and the data. On most marketplaces the first business to call back has the edge, so pros who buy leads often staff a phone line just for fast callbacks.
Comparison
Feature by feature.
| Feature | SearchPod | Pay-per-lead services |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A system: site, ads, rankings, tracking | Individual leads or clicks |
| Lead exclusivity | Every lead is yours alone | Leads are often sent to several businesses |
| Who owns the asset | You own the site, ad account, and data | The platform owns the listing and customer data |
| What happens when you stop | Site and rankings keep working | Leads stop immediately |
| Price | Published on our pricing page: 10% Google Ads fee, $50 SEO pages | Varies by market and trade; not published as a flat rate |
| Speed to first lead | Days for ads; months for SEO | Often same day |
| Contract | Month to month, no setup fee | Varies; some plans bill per lead, some are subscriptions |
| Reporting | Cost per lead by channel and keyword | Lead count and spend inside the platform |
Why it matters
The bottom line.
Leads that are only yours
On a marketplace, the same request can go to several competitors, and the fastest caller often wins. When someone finds your website from a search ad or a ranking page, they call you and nobody else. You are not racing three other companies for the same job.
An asset that stays after you stop
Money paid to a lead service buys leads for that day. Money paid to build pages that rank keeps working after the invoice is paid. Stop a lead service and the phone goes quiet; pause an SEO program and the pages still rank.
Your data, your rankings, your customer list
Every call, form, and keyword that produced a lead is tracked in accounts you own. If you ever change agencies, the history comes with you. On a platform, your reviews, your profile, and your lead history live on their site.
Prices you can see before you start
Lead service pricing depends on your trade, your area, and the type of request, and it changes. SearchPod publishes its prices and adds no markup on ad spend. You know the fee before the first lead arrives.
Common questions, answered.
Buy leads when you need work this week and have nothing else built. A brand-new contractor with no website, a business testing a new service area, or a company filling a slow season can get value from a marketplace fast. It is also a fair option if your budget is too small for a Google Ads program with a $600 monthly management minimum.
Yes, and many service businesses do. Keep a lead service running for volume while an agency builds your own site, ads, and rankings. As your own leads grow, you can cut the marketplace spend. Write down what each booked job cost from each source, and let that number make the decision.
Google Ads can be live within days of getting access to your account, so paid leads can start almost as fast as a marketplace. SEO takes longer, usually months, but the pages keep producing. A new website from SearchPod is a one-time package from $1,500.
SearchPod does not charge per lead. For Google Ads, SearchPod's fee is 10% of the monthly budget you choose, with a floor of $600, and nothing is added on top of the spend. SEO pages are $50 each, starting at ten pages a month. Your cost per lead depends on your market and your budget, and you see it in the report every month rather than paying a set fee per request.
Comparisons are based on publicly available information and our honest read of it, last reviewed July 2026. Competitors change — if something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it fast.