Free vs paid foundation leads: what an inspection-first funnel really costs

The funnel that makes the numbers honest

Foundation sales run through four gates, and every channel leaks at a different gate. A lead becomes a conversation, the conversation becomes an inspection, the inspection becomes a proposal, and the proposal becomes a signed contract. Companies that only track the first gate end up buying cheap leads that never reach a driveway.

Before comparing free and paid, write down your own rates for each gate from the last ninety days. The worked example below uses typical numbers, but yours are what matter.

• Gate 1 — Contact rate: what share of leads you actually reach live
• Gate 2 — Inspection rate: what share of reached leads book a visit
• Gate 3 — Proposal rate: what share of inspections get a written scope (should be nearly all)
• Gate 4 — Close rate: what share of proposals sign

What free leads really cost

Free channels — Google Business Profile, referrals, your unclosed-proposal list, cost-guide content — cost owner time instead of dollars, and at foundation ticket sizes they're usually the highest-ROI activity in the business. The catch is throughput: free channels rarely fill an inspection calendar on their own, and they don't respond when you need volume this month.

Price your time honestly. An owner hour spent on reviews and proposal follow-ups returns more than an hour spent on anything else — but there are only so many owner hours in a week, and a two-crew operation needs 15–25 inspections a month to stay full.

What paid leads really cost — run the full funnel, not the sticker price

A $15 shared lead looks cheap on sticker price. Homeowner Henry doesn't charge per lead at all — coverage is a flat $5 a month per county with every lead in it included — but the shared lead still usually costs far more per signed contract, because the contact rate collapses when four other companies are calling the same homeowner in the same hour.

The table below runs both through a realistic funnel. Adjust the rates to your own numbers — the shape of the result is stable across markets.

The inspection-first wrinkle: booked inspections are the real inventory

Unlike painting, where a phone quote can win the job, foundation work requires the visit. That makes the booked inspection your real unit of inventory, and it means no-shows and unschedulable leads are the silent killer of paid channels. A channel that books inspections at a high rate beats a channel that delivers more raw leads at a lower price, every time.

This is also why SMS verification matters more in this trade than most: a verified phone number is the difference between a lead that books and a form fill that never answers.

When paid makes sense — and when it doesn't

Paid leads make sense when your free channels are running and the calendar still has holes, when you're entering a new county with no referral base, or when a crew finishes early and you need inspections this week. They make no sense as a substitute for the free channels — a company with no reviews and no follow-up process will lose money on any lead source.

If you buy, buy where competition is capped. Homeowner Henry sends each job to no more than three contractors and allows only 3 per county for the trade, which keeps the contact rate high enough for the math above to hold. Coverage is $5 a month per county, every lead included, no contract, cancel any time.

Speed to lead beats everything else you could change

The single highest-return change most contractors can make is calling faster. A homeowner who fills out a form is in buying mode for a window measured in minutes, not days. If you call back the next morning, you are quoting against someone who already walked the roof.

Build the habit into the crew's day: whoever is nearest a phone calls within five minutes, texts if there's no answer, and calls again that evening. Three touches in the first 24 hours, then weekly for a month. Most jobs that look dead are simply un-followed-up.

• Call within 5 minutes, text immediately if there's no answer
• Three contact attempts in the first 24 hours, at different times of day
• Every lead gets a written estimate or an explicit no — never silence
• Log the outcome of every lead so you can price your channels next quarter

The only number that matters: cost per booked job

Lead price on its own tells you nothing. What tells you everything is cost per booked job — lead price divided by your close rate — measured against your average ticket.

Run it honestly for one month. Count every lead you paid for, every one you actually reached, every estimate you gave, and every contract you signed. Most contractors are shocked by the reach rate, not the close rate: leads you never get on the phone are the real leak.

• Cost per booked job = (leads bought x price per lead) ÷ jobs signed
• At $5 a month per county with leads included, one booked job pays for years of coverage
• A $15 shared lead at a 1-in-20 close rate costs $300 per job — and eats four times the phone time
• Compare that number to your gross profit per job, not to your revenue

How Homeowner Henry does it differently

Henry is a homeowner-facing site: people arrive from local foundation cost guides and city pages, describe the job, and verify their phone number by text before the request is released. There is no auction and no resale to directories.

Every job goes to a maximum of three foundation contractors, and only 3 contractors per county hold the trade at all. When three are in, the county closes. Coverage is $5 a month per county and every lead in your counties is included — no charge per lead, no contract, cancel any time.

The verdict

Run both, in order: free channels first because they're the highest return per dollar, then capped paid leads to fill the inspection calendar past what free can produce. Judge every channel on cost per signed contract, never on cost per lead — the sticker price is the least informative number in the whole funnel.

Shared vs capped-competition leads through the four gates (typical rates — use your own)

The capped-county lead has no per-record cost at all — it's covered by the flat monthly county fee — and far more of them answer the phone. The gap widens further on phone time spent chasing shared leads.

The five-minute callback script

Say this on the first call, before anyone else reaches them.

Confirming the inspection so it actually happens

No-shows are the silent killer in this trade. Confirm twice, in writing.

Free channels on the same basis — cost is your time, not dollars

Most two-crew foundation companies need 15–25 inspections a month. Free channels typically cover half to two-thirds — capped paid leads cover the rest.

Questions contractors ask

Are free foundation leads better than paid ones?

Per dollar, almost always — referrals and past proposals close at the highest rates in the business. The limitation is volume: free channels rarely fill an inspection calendar alone, so most companies run free first and buy capped leads to cover the gap.

Why do cheap shared leads cost more per job?

Contact rate. When four or five companies call the same homeowner in the same hour, most leads never answer anyone. Run the full funnel — contact, inspection, close — and the $15 shared lead usually costs more per signed contract than a capped-county lead, which has no per-lead cost at all under the flat monthly county fee.

What close rate should I expect from inspection to contract?

Well-run foundation companies close one in three to one in five inspections. Below that, look at the scope presentation and follow-up process before blaming the lead source.

How many leads do I need per month?

Work backward: inspections needed ÷ your lead-to-inspection rate. If you need 6 paid inspections and book 42% of leads, that's about 15 leads — then measure and adjust with your own numbers.

What does a foundation lead cost on Homeowner Henry?

Leads are included. You pay $5 a month for each county you cover, and every phone-verified homeowner in those counties comes to you at no extra charge. No contract, cancel any time.

Are the leads exclusive?

A job goes to no more than three foundation contractors, and only 3 foundation contractors hold a county at once. They are not resold to directories or bidding sites.

What if a lead is bad?

Wrong number, out of area, or not a real project gets a replacement credit. You tell us, we credit it — no dispute forms.

Sources and further reading

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Construction Trades
• SBA — Marketing and Sales for Small Business