"How much should I pay for a lead?" is the wrong question. The right one is: how much is a lead worth to me? Get that backwards and you either overpay for leads that never pay off, or skip good ones because they felt expensive. Here's the math that tells you exactly what a cleaning lead is worth — and what you should actually pay.
The only formula that matters
A lead is worth close rate × gross profit per job × retention multiplier:
Close rate — how often you turn a lead into a paying job.
Gross profit per job — what's left after supplies, travel, and your time.
Retention multiplier — how many jobs that one client becomes. A one-time clean that turns into a biweekly is worth many times a single visit.
Work an example. Say you close one in three leads, make $120 gross on a typical job, and a third of those clients stay on as recurring accounts. That recurring tail means each booked client is worth far more than one visit — so a single lead is comfortably worth more than its price tag. Pay less than what the formula gives you and you profit; pay more and you're buying yourself a job that loses money.
What the big platforms actually charge
Thumbtack: roughly $10–$80 per cleaning lead, and each lead is shared with 4–5 other pros (Pipeline On).
Angi: a monthly subscription ($0–$350 depending on your market) on top of per-lead charges, with each lead sent to 2–4 contractors (Flying V Group).
The sticker price is the trap. What matters is the — and there the picture flips. Industry comparisons put Angi's cost per booked job at around $542 and Thumbtack's at around $250 (). A "$15 lead" that costs you $542 to actually book is not a cheap lead.
Luciano Rezende · Founder, CleanerFlow
Luciano founded CleanerFlow after years building tools for residential cleaning professionals. He writes about the economics of getting clients, pricing jobs, and running a cleaning business that lasts.
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Why a cheap shared lead is usually the expensive one
When the same lead goes to four or five cleaners, your close rate collapses — and 78% of homeowners hire whoever responds first (Verse.ai). A low close rate means you pay for many leads per booked job, which is exactly how a $15 lead quietly turns into a $500 job. The math is simple: the fewer cleaners you compete with on a lead, the higher your close rate, and the lower your real cost per job.
Why the cap matters more than the price
A hard limit on how many cleaners receive the same lead is the single biggest lever on your real cost — bigger than the per-lead price itself. Fewer buyers means a higher close rate, which means a lower cost per booked job, even if the lead costs more up front. That's the whole reason we explain why we cap every lead at three buyers. And because the first responder wins, how you handle the first call often decides whether you booked the lead you paid for.
You cannot price a lead without knowing your own close rate, gross profit, and retention. Track them for one month: how many leads you got, how many became jobs, your profit per job after costs, and how many of those clients turned recurring. Most cleaners have never written these numbers down — and that is precisely why they overpay. Once you know them, the formula stops being theory and becomes a number you can act on.
How to raise the close rate you're paying for
The price you pay is fixed the moment you buy; the close rate is the part you control. Respond first and fast, quote with confidence instead of dropping your price, and lead with the outcome — a spotless home, on time, every time — rather than an hourly rate. A higher close rate lowers your effective cost per job more than any discount a platform will ever give you. And a small lift compounds: going from a 25% to a 35% close rate doesn't just win more jobs — it cuts your cost per booked job by nearly a third on the very same leads.
A month of leads, worked out
Picture a real month. You buy 20 leads at $40 each — $800 spent. You close 6 of them, a 30% rate, each worth $120 in gross profit — $720 back. On paper you barely broke even, and most cleaners would quit the channel right there. But look closer: two of those six clients become biweekly regulars. Over the next year those two alone are worth thousands, not hundreds. The month that looked flat was quietly one of your most profitable, because the value lived in the retention tail, not the first job. Judging leads on the first job alone is exactly how good leads get mistaken for bad ones.
The break-even number you can't ignore
Your break-even per lead is your gross profit per job times your close rate. Close 30% of leads at $120 gross and you break even at about $36 per lead on the first job alone — before any recurring value. Anything below that is profit on day one; anything above has to be earned back through retention. Write that one number down. It turns every "is this lead worth it?" into a clean yes or no instead of a gut guess, and it stops you chasing cheap leads that never clear the bar. Run it once and you'll be surprised how many of the "expensive" capped leads actually clear it, and how many of the "cheap" shared ones never do.
Watch the fixed costs, not just the per-lead price
A per-lead price is a variable cost — you pay only when you buy. A monthly subscription is a fixed cost — you pay it whether or not you book a single job. Angi's $0–$350 a month sits on top of every lead, so a slow month still bills you. When you compare platforms, fold the subscription into your cost per booked job, not just the lead price. A "free to join" platform with a fat monthly fee can quietly cost more than a higher per-lead source with no subscription at all.
So what should you pay?
Pay below what the formula says a lead is worth to you. If a lead is worth $130 to you, a capped lead at the higher end of the range that you can actually close is a good buy; a cheap shared lead you close five percent of the time is not. Cheap was never the goal — steady profit per booked job is what actually wins.
And remember that leads are an accelerator, not a strategy. They buy you demand today while your free channels grow. For the full picture of where work comes from, read how to get cleaning clients.
