A paid contact may be charged before you know whether it becomes a project. The terms vary, so check what counts as a billable lead, whether it can be shared, and how disputes are handled.
Meanwhile, someone may have contacted you through a referral, listing, or website. Those channels have costs too, including marketing and the time spent following up. Log them alongside paid contacts.
Compare the channels with the same measures: spend, inquiries, estimates, and completed projects. That makes it easier to see which sources fit your trade and service area.
What the regulators actually found
The Federal Trade Commission's HomeAdvisor case concerned the company's representations about lead sources, service fit, and expected conversion. It was about HomeAdvisor's claims, not a finding about every lead service.
The FTC alleged that HomeAdvisor's statements about the types of services and areas its leads would match were misleading. The order and complaint describe that company's conduct. They do not show what every buyer received or how another platform works.
The FTC also addressed HomeAdvisor's statements about lead conversion. When reviewing another plan, ask how its results are measured and whether its figures apply to your trade, area, and budget.
Read the FTC case for its exact scope and dates. Use it as a reason to check a provider's own terms and records, not as proof that all paid leads have the same problem.
The refund tells you the scale
In November 2023, the FTC said it had sent more than $3 million in payments to eligible HomeAdvisor members through its claims process. The agency reported 110,372 checks. Those payments were tied to the HomeAdvisor case and do not mean every paid lead was invalid.
See the FTC's refund announcement for eligibility and claims-process details. It reports payments connected with this case, not a measure of lead quality across the industry.
What a bought lead really costs
For each source, add its fees, advertising spend, and staff time used to follow up. Divide that total by completed projects from the same period. Track inquiries, reached contacts, estimates, and jobs so you can see where requests fall away.
Some services set different fees by job type or area; others use different billing. Check the current price list and terms instead of assuming large projects cost more to acquire.
For a referral, listing, or website inquiry, count the marketing, site, and follow-up costs that helped bring it in. Response time is useful to track, but it is only one part of whether the inquiry becomes work.
Track reply time and outcomes
One Californian handyman interviewed by Handyman Startup says unanswered calls can cost work. That is one operator's view, not a measured result for all contractors.
Use your own call log to see what happens after a missed call. Note the time, callback, estimate, and outcome instead of assuming the first reply always wins.
Some customers contact several contractors, while others start with one. A prompt reply lets you clarify the work and say when you can follow up. The reply-time guide separates a practical target from the older research often cited on this topic.
We dig into the real targets in how fast to reply to leads. The short version: minutes beat hours, and seconds beat minutes.
The catch with answering your own
A referral or website inquiry still takes time to handle, and it can be missed when you are on a job. Track how often that happens before deciding what needs to change.
Steve names this too. “The one downside is that you have to do all the work yourself.” You are the estimator, the crew, and the front desk, all in one truck. The phone competes with the tools, and the tools usually win.
Record the source, response time, and result for calls you miss. We cover a simple follow-up process in missing the call while you are on the job.
Where SvarKlar fits
SvarKlar can handle written inbound work that is included in the written order. It is the receptionist for those agreed channels.
For channels and tasks included in the written order, it can reply to texts, web forms, or direct messages and text back missed callers. It can ask about location, scope, and timing, then book or pass the request to you if that work is part of the setup.
The written side can collect details and help with follow-up. A reply does not guarantee a booking; use your own records to see whether that work improves the path from inquiry to project.
If you want the longer walk-through, see the AI receptionist guide and how SvarKlar works.
Buy leads, answer your own, or both
This is not a vow to never buy a lead again. Paid platforms can fill a slow week. The point is the order of operations.
Review every channel's full cost and results. You may choose to improve response to your existing inquiries before adding spend, but the right order depends on your workload, market, and lead quality.
Include follow-up time and your website, listing, or referral costs in your comparison. We also cover the workload of running a one-owner shop in the one-owner trap.
The rest of our guides for your trade live in the general contractor resource hub, including how price-shoppers eat your phone time in price-shopper phone leads.
The FTC's refund count belongs to the HomeAdvisor case. For your own lead sources, compare the money spent and completed projects, then decide which channels to keep.
Want to see how fast your inbound leads would get one? Book a call, or see how the service works first.