Shared Leads vs Direct Enquiries: What the Maths Actually Says for Tradies
6 min read •25 Apr 2026
Most lead platforms work the same way. A homeowner posts a job. The platform distributes that job notification to multiple tradies in the area. Everyone responds. One person wins the work. The rest paid for contact with a customer they never got. The model has been the default in Australian trades marketing for years, and for many operators it produces real work. The question worth asking is whether the economics hold up once you run the actual numbers.
How the shared lead model works in practice
On platforms like hipages and Oneflare, the core mechanic is lead distribution. A customer posts a job, the platform notifies a set of tradies in the relevant category and area, and those tradies respond with quotes. The customer chooses one. The others don't get the job.
The cost structure varies by platform. hipages Group's FY25 annual report put average annual spend per subscribing tradie at $2,267, which works out to roughly $189 per month once upgrades and plan adjustments are factored in. Oneflare operates similarly. These figures include the base subscription plus the per-lead costs that accrue when tradies accept job notifications.
The subscription fee is a fixed cost. The per-lead cost is a variable cost that scales with how many jobs you respond to. Most tradies respond to more leads than they win, which means the cost per acquired job is higher than the per-lead fee suggests.
The cost-per-job calculation most tradies don't run
The relevant number isn't what you pay per lead. It's what you pay per job you actually win. If your conversion rate on shared leads is one in four - which is roughly the realistic range for competitive trade categories in regional and metro areas - and each lead costs $50, your effective cost of acquisition is $200 per job. For a $600 job that's a material slice of margin. For a $250 job, the economics are close to flat.
A common real-world scenario: ten leads at $50 each is $500 in lead costs. Win three of those jobs at an average of $600 each. Revenue is $1,800, lead cost is $500, cost of acquisition is $167 per job. That's workable for most trades at that job size. At $350 average job value, the same scenario produces $1,050 revenue against $500 in lead costs, and the margin picture changes significantly.
The maths isn't an argument against paid lead platforms in every case. It's an argument for knowing your actual numbers rather than evaluating the subscription on its headline cost.
What changes when enquiries come directly to you
A direct enquiry - one where a customer found your business page, read your services, and contacted you without going through a marketplace - has a structurally different conversion dynamic. The customer chose you specifically before making contact. There's no competitive quoting process happening simultaneously. The conversation starts from a different position.
Conversion rates on direct enquiries are typically higher than on shared marketplace leads for this reason. The customer already has context about your services, your service area, and how to reach you. The friction between their initial search and contacting you is lower, and there's no parallel conversation with four other tradies happening at the same time.
This doesn't mean direct enquiries are automatically better in every situation. Marketplace platforms have genuine consumer traffic that an individual business page doesn't replicate. The comparison isn't which model wins - it's how the two work together and what each one costs per acquired job in your specific context.
See how Tradie Card works
Tradie Card gives you a Google-indexed business page where every enquiry comes directly to you, with no sharing and no per-lead charges. Every plan includes a Lead Inbox so enquiries are captured and easy to follow up.
Every plan includes a built-in Lead Inbox so each direct enquiry is captured and easy to follow up.
Get Started FreeThe volume question: can direct enquiries replace marketplace volume?
For most sole traders and small trade businesses, the honest answer is: not immediately. Marketplace platforms have established consumer bases that take time to replicate through organic search and a business page. A tradie who has been on hipages for two years generating consistent work isn't going to replace that volume overnight by switching to a direct enquiry model.
What tends to work is using both strategically. Marketplace platforms for short-term volume, particularly when starting out or in a new service area. An owned business page for compounding search visibility over time, where each enquiry costs nothing per contact and goes exclusively to you.
The tradies who do best with direct enquiries are typically the ones who have invested time in their Google Business Profile, have an indexed page that clearly describes their services and service area, and have built enough reviews that a new customer arriving at their page feels confident making contact. That's a 6 to 12 month build for most operators, not an overnight switch.
Tracking what you're actually spending
The most useful thing any tradie can do who's running paid lead platforms is track cost per acquired job, not cost per lead. Ask every new customer how they found you. Keep a simple note - even in the notes app on your phone - of where each job came from and what the job value was. After three months, the pattern of which channels are actually profitable at your job sizes will be clear.
For most operators, this exercise produces one of two outcomes: confirmation that the current spend is working at acceptable margins, or clarity that a channel is producing volume without proportionate return. Neither outcome is a surprise after the fact. Both are invisible without tracking.
Shared lead platforms can generate real work, but the cost per acquired job is higher than the per-lead fee suggests once conversion rates are factored in. Knowing your actual numbers is more useful than evaluating platforms on their headline cost.
Related reading: Is hipages Worth It? What Australian Tradies Actually Need to Know, What Does It Actually Cost to Market a Trade Business in Australia?.
Frequently asked questions
For most tradies, yes. They serve different functions - marketplace platforms provide short-term consumer volume, an owned indexed page builds compounding search visibility over time. Using both strategically tends to produce better results than relying on either exclusively.
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