Owned Quote Links vs. Shared Roofing Leads: Cost per Signed Roof

The easy button

A roofing marketplace gives the contractor access to homeowner opportunities generated through the platform. The homeowner enters through the marketplace, not through a quote-request path controlled by the roofing company.

And the first few can genuinely work out. Somebody signs. The math seems fine.

The problem is not the price per contact. It is what happens to that contact after you buy it. On a shared lead, the marketplace may sell the same homeowner request to several competitors while you are reading the notification.

One form, four phones

Shared-lead marketplaces can run on one mechanic: the same homeowner request is sold to several competing contractors at once. One form submitted can mean four phones ringing - not because the homeowner asked four roofers, but because the seller shared the lead.

That single design choice creates three separate problems for your shop, and none of them shows up in the price per contact.

Your position changes before you ever get on the roof

When the same request reaches several contractors, speed and price can become the homeowner's easiest comparison points. Your craftsmanship, your warranty, your tear-off process, and the way your crew leaves a yard cleaner than they found it are all hard to evaluate before an inspection. So the homeowner may compare the one thing everybody can compare from a kitchen table: the number.

The lead did not get worse. Your position did.

Price pressure you did not create

A homeowner who gets several calls in an hour may fall back on the one thing they can compare: price. That is how a full tear-off can get shopped down before anyone has climbed a ladder.

You built your margin on doing the work right - flashing done properly, cleanup done daily, and the warranty you actually honor. The bidding war does not price any of that. It just finds the cheapest number and dares you to beat it.

The marketplace fee is a line item you can see. The margin you give up to win the bid is not.

Lead quality is not always what the listing says

In January 2023, the FTC issued a proposed order against HomeAdvisor, Inc. The Commission approved the final consent order in April 2023.

The FTC complaint alleged that HomeAdvisor made false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about lead quality and source. HomeAdvisor disputed the FTC's allegations and stated that it was not found guilty of wrongdoing, nor held liable for any of the FTC's claims. The matter resolved by consent order, not by a finding of liability.

Either way, buying a lead means trusting someone else's description of a homeowner you have never spoken to.

Cost per lead is the wrong metric

The number that decides whether a channel is worth running is not cost per lead. It is cost per signed roof.

The math is simple, and the numbers are yours: use your own invoices and records, not an article.

Take what a shared lead costs you and divide it by how many of those leads you actually signed. That is your real cost per roof from that channel. The fee may be listed per contact, but the close rate is your operating result.

Then run the same division on requests that arrived through your own link, using a comparable market and period. The request was not resold by a marketplace, and your process led the conversation instead of a marketplace price comparison.

The gap between the two divisions is the price of competition and conversion work that may never show up as a line item.

When a shared lead is still the right call

None of this means shared leads are a scam, or that no shop should ever buy one. Say it straight:

A brand-new shop with an empty pipeline may buy a few shared leads to hear real homeowner conversations while its own quote link and referrals build. Paying for speed to a first job can be a legitimate trade, as long as you know what you are paying for.

A market with unusually low local competition changes the math. If fewer competing contractors receive the request, the competition penalty can shrink.

A storm-season cash crunch can make volume tempting. Just know that shared-lead competition may increase at the same time as more contractors pursue storm work.

The point of the math is not that shared leads never work. It is that you should price what they really cost - competition, margin erosion, and a homeowner file governed by marketplace terms - before deciding they are your channel.

For the operational routine after a request arrives, see our roofing lead follow-up process. For why every bought edge - shared leads, tools, or an AI receptionist - eventually flattens, see the edge that erodes.

Own the intake, own the customer relationship

Running your own quote link means the request reaches your business without marketplace resale. You set the inspection process. You keep the history - the past repairs, maintenance notes, and referral conversations that can turn one job into the next.

When a homeowner fills out your Kaldwick form, the record can capture the IP address, timestamp, consent language, and the consent version they saw. Your own intake can capture that context firsthand.

We are taking 20 founding teams: $0 during the beta, no card. If you want your own quote link instead of a shared lead, apply here.

The bottom line

A marketplace may sell the same homeowner request to more than one contractor, because that is the product. Your quote link does not resell a homeowner request, because that is the product too.

One model prices the contact. The other prices the roof. Pick the math that matches what you actually do.

Frequently asked questions