What a lead generation agency does with your money

A lead generation agency promises a set number of leads a month. What you're buying is a turn with people the company found. A lead is often sold to more than one business. For a clinic or a studio, that's buying junk you don't need or want.

Where a lead generation agency spends your money

Most of the work happens before your phone rings. The company builds its own websites, made to look like a directory or a page that compares businesses. They offer to find you a physio or a plumber nearby. Then the company pays for Google and Facebook ads to send people to those pages.

When someone fills in the form or taps the phone number, the company passes them on to the businesses paying for that area. Your money pays for the ads, the pages and the staff who run them. The company keeps what's left.

The words "lead generation" get used for a second kind of business too. Some agencies run ads in your name, on an account you own, and send people to your own website. Then they bill you for every lead that comes in. The pages and the ads are yours, but the bill goes up with each name, whether that person books or not.

At My Ads Team, we charge a flat monthly fee per service, not a fee for each lead.

What you get from a lead generation agency

What arrives is a name, a phone number and a short note about the job. Sometimes it's a live call, put through on a phone number the lead company owns.

The person didn't pick you. They picked a page that wasn't yours and said yes to getting a call.

Who owns the leads from a lead generation agency

Everything that brings people in belongs to the lead company. The pages. The ads. The spot in Google. The list of every person who ever filled in a form.

A year of leads you buy won't move your own website up in Google by one spot.

Cost per lead vs. what a paying customer costs you

The pitch usually leads with a cost per lead. That's the price of a name and a phone number. It doesn't tell you if the person picked up when you called back, or if they'd booked someone else an hour before. Or if it was even a job you do.

The number to count is what one paying customer cost you. It comes from your own calendar and your own invoices, a few months in.

Why shared leads don't work for clinics and studios

A clinic or a studio runs on people who come back. Someone who likes their physio might keep coming for years. A family that finds the right dance studio might stay until the kids finish school, so they take their time picking one.

By the time they book, they're often looking at two or three names. A lead you buy puts you on that list as someone they've never heard of, calling from a number they don't know. The same form may have gone to the clinic down the street.

It's the same for any job that needs trust, like the cleaner who'll have a key to your house or the person who looks after your mom at home.

When buying leads makes sense

Sometimes it is worth buying leads. I see that as the exception more than the rule. A pipe bursts at eleven at night. Someone's locked out in the rain. The furnace quits on the coldest morning in January.

That person isn't comparing anyone. They want the first business that answers and can come today, and they may not need you again for years.

If most of your jobs look like that, and you don't have time to build your own search, buying leads can make sense. Call back fast.

Local SEO: getting found nearby in your own name

The other way to get found nearby is to build it in your own name. Your website comes up when someone in your town searches for what you do. Your Google Business Profile shows up on the map, with your reviews under it.

It's slower than buying leads, and it takes steady work every month. But each page and each review is still yours next year, and nobody else gets sold the person who calls you.

Building that is what our SEO services are for, and the ads we run sit beside it. Our services page sets out the rest.

Is paying per lead worth it?

It's not usually a good idea to pay per lead unless you know how they're getting you the leads. Ask which pages and which ads the people come from, and whose name is on them.

With AI, a lot of the work that brings in leads can now be set up for you by someone who does it for a living. That's the pages, the ads and the reply that goes out when someone fills in a form, built on your own website and ad accounts. Then you run it in your own name. That's the kind of work we do.

Get a lead generation pitch checked before you sign

If a lead company's pitch is sitting on your desk, bring it and we'll go through what you'd be paying for. Book a call

Frequently asked questions

Is a lead generation agency paid per lead or per month?

Most lead generation companies charge per lead. Some charge a monthly fee instead. Ask which one before you sign, and what the money pays for: every name that comes in, or the work of finding them.

Who owns the leads a lead company sends, and what happens when I stop paying?

The names already sent to you are yours to call. Everything else stays with the company, and new names stop coming the day you stop paying.

How do I tell whether a lead is mine alone?

Look for the word exclusive in the deal. If it isn't there in writing, assume other businesses in your area got the same name.

What should I have in place before I pay anyone for leads?

The deal in writing. It should say what counts as a lead, and whether you get your money back for a wrong number or a job you don't do.