Contractor growth · Lead costs
How much do plumbing and HVAC leads cost?
Almost every page that answers this question sells leads, ads or software, and the numbers quoted most often have no source. This puts the figures that state a sample next to what the platforms themselves publish, and shows where a missed call still costs you.
WritingBy Landon LittleOctober 10, 20269 min read
The short answer
A plumbing or HVAC company can buy leads five ways: Google Local Services Ads (pay per lead), Google search ads (pay per click), pay-per-call networks, marketplaces such as Angi and Thumbtack, and lead sellers that run campaigns for you. Only the first two have published data with a stated sample, and almost none of the sellers print a price. The tables below keep those apart, with the date we read each page.
What a lead costs, from data with a stated sample
| Source | Channel | Cost per lead | Sample and period |
|---|---|---|---|
| SearchLight Digital | Google Local Services Ads | Plumbing $57; HVAC $51; drain and sewer $59; all home services $53 | 888 contractors, 1,774 campaigns, $6.72M spend, February 2026, before lead credits |
| SearchLight Digital | Google search, plumbing | Non-branded $183; median account $168, middle half $107 to $253; Performance Max $82 | 524 plumbing contractors, $14.6M spend, January to March 2026 |
| SearchLight Digital | Google Ads, HVAC and plumbing together | $104 blended; non-branded search $149; branded search $34; Performance Max $72 | 816 contractors, 8,077 campaigns, $14.88M spend, January 2026 |
| LocaliQ | Search ads on Google and Microsoft | Plumbing $129.02; air conditioning $127.74; heating and furnaces $129.02; all home services $90.92 | 3,211 US home-service campaigns, April 2024 to March 2025, medians |
| LocaliQ | Facebook lead campaigns | Home and home improvement $42.95 | LocaliQ's own campaigns; no sample size or dates stated |
| The Media Captain | Google Local Services Ads | Plumbing $69; HVAC $80 | "Over 100" of the agency's accounts; no period or per-trade counts |
Three cautions. SearchLight's figures cover January to March 2026, which is heating season, and its Local Services Ads numbers are before Google's lead credits. LocaliQ reports medians, while SearchLight reports averages weighted by spend. And every source here sells software or ad management to contractors. They agree on the shape, though: a Local Services Ads lead cost about a third of a non-branded search lead.
What Google, Angi and Thumbtack publish
| Platform | How you pay | Published price | When a lead is billed or credited |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Local Services Ads | Per valid lead; you bid to maximize leads, to a target cost per lead, or to a maximum per lead | None; varies by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode | A call missed in business hours is billed if the caller stays on more than 20 seconds; the same number again within 15 days is not billed twice; invalid leads are credited automatically, usually within 30 days |
| Angi Leads | A fee for each lead you match to | None; the fee differs by job size | Credit requests within 30 days; no credit because the customer never called back or hired someone else; credits expire after six months |
| Thumbtack | You set your own price per lead for each service, within a weekly budget | None; prices vary with the job, the pros available and your market | Open opportunities show the price first and are charged only if the customer responds |
| Yelp Ads | A daily budget | As little as $5 a day on average; no per-lead price | No term contract for self-serve advertisers |
| Houzz Pro | A monthly advertising package | From $499 a month | Aimed more at remodeling and design than at service calls |
Because neither Angi nor Thumbtack publishes a lead price, the numbers quoted for them come from contractors. Housecall Pro's guides, written by a field-service software company that does not sell leads, report $15 to $85 a lead plus about $300 a year in membership on Angi, and $10 to over $100 a lead on Thumbtack.
Pay-per-call and lead sellers that print a price
| Seller | Plumbing | HVAC | What the page says |
|---|---|---|---|
| ResultCalls | Three starting prices on one page: $24.85, $49.85 and $79.85 a call | From $79.85 a call | Exact price depends on category, services and coverage area; what makes a call billable is not stated |
| Fixr | No plumbing page | Repair: $80 to $120 exclusive, $100 for a "duo" lead; replacement: $100 to $180 exclusive, $150 duo | Prices vary by region, season and urgency |
| Minyona | $50 to $200 a qualified lead | $50 to $200 a qualified lead | Plus a one-time $2,000 setup fee; runs through your own ad account |
| 33 Mile Radius | Not published; the page's own calculator uses $50 to $80 a lead | Not published; the calculator uses $90 to $250 a lead | Price varies by area; no setup or monthly fee; a call that rings four times unanswered, goes to voicemail or reaches an answering system or call center is billable |
| Bark | Credits at $2.35 each | Credits at $2.35 each | Each lead costs a number of credits, shown before you respond; packs lower the price per credit; credits expire three months after purchase |
| eLocal, Networx, Inquirly | Not published | Not published | No price on the pages we could read; pricing comes after sign-up |
A word on the pay-per-call figures that rank for these searches. CallScaler's marketplace pages say plumbing calls pay $25 to $70 and HVAC calls $30 to $80, and a September 2026 press release from the Lead Smart network gives median payouts of $33.25 for a plumbing call and $38.50 for HVAC. Those are what networks pay the publishers who generate the calls. A plumber buying the same call pays that plus the network's margin.
What the guides claim, and how solid each is
| Source | What it claims | Who wrote it | How solid |
|---|---|---|---|
| CONTRACTOR magazine (August 4, 2026) | Plumbing $25 to $75 a lead with a 30% to 45% close rate; HVAC $30 to $90 with 25% to 40%, on Google search and Local Services Ads | The founder of a home-service marketing agency, in a contributed column | Blends the author's own accounts with reported ranges; no sample |
| Housecall Pro, Google Ads for plumbers (March 23, 2026) | $50 to $100+ a lead on Google Ads; $25 to $80+ on Local Services Ads | Housecall Pro, which sells field-service software | Cites other blogs; no data of its own |
| Housecall Pro, Google Ads for HVAC (March 21, 2026) | $100 to $150 a lead on Google Ads; $50 to $80 on Local Services Ads | Housecall Pro | Cites LocaliQ and SearchLight |
| FieldCamp | HVAC: Local Services Ads $45 to $85; Angi $50 to $150; Thumbtack $15 to $75; exclusive leads $100 to $250 | FieldCamp, which sells HVAC software | No sources given |
| WebFX | Plumbing and other high-volume services $30 to $98 a consumer lead; HVAC $100 to $250 | WebFX, a marketing agency | Cites its own database; no sample or method published |
| PipelineOn | HVAC Local Services Ads $72 to $95, credited to SearchLight | PipelineOn, which sells visitor-identification software | SearchLight's own page says $51 for HVAC; $72 is its Performance Max figure |
| The ACCA figure, repeated by Mediagistic | $250 to $300 per HVAC lead | An HVAC marketing agency, attributing it to ACCA | No link or citation; we could not find the ACCA source |
The figures quoted most often have the least behind them. The ACCA number has no traceable source, and the $69 plumbing and $80 HVAC Local Services Ads figures come from an agency that states no period.
From cost per lead to cost per booked job
A cheap lead that never books is not cheap. SearchLight's Local Services Ads data shows 44.5% of plumbing leads and 44% of HVAC leads booking. Fixr, which sells HVAC leads, says 60% to 80% of its leads are reached, 20% to 35% set an appointment and 5% to 15% close. The CONTRACTOR column's own example: a $70 HVAC lead closed one time in three is about $210 per booked job.
- Take last quarter's spend on one channel.
- Divide it by the jobs that channel actually produced, not the leads it sent.
- Do the same for every channel and compare that number, not the lead price.
The paid call nobody answers
On the terms we read, a missed call is often a billed call. Google charges for a call missed during business hours when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. 33 Mile Radius bills a call that rings four times unanswered, goes to voicemail, or is picked up by an automated answering system or call center. The fee is the small part. The job behind the call is the part you lose.
Where Nova fits
Nova does not sell leads. It does three things around them. The AI receptionist answers every call by voice for $199 a month flat, asks your qualifying questions and books the job into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or Google Calendar. Missed-call text-back is $99 a month on its own and sends a text within 60 seconds. And for leads you do not pay for one at a time, there is a website from $600 setup plus $149 a month (pricing), Local SEO at $597 a month, and ads management for a flat $397 a month up to about $2,000 in ad spend, with the spend paid to Google directly.
If you are weighing a marketplace against your own site, the Angi Leads and Thumbtack comparisons set out the trade, and How to get more plumbing work ranks every channel by what it costs to run.
Sources
- Datasets read on October 10, 2026: SearchLight Digital on Local Services Ads by trade, plumbing Google Ads and HVAC Google Ads; LocaliQ on home services search ads and Facebook ads; The Media Captain.
- Platform pages read on October 10, 2026: Google Local Services Help on how leads work, bidding and lead credits; the Angi Leads pro FAQ and credit guidelines; Thumbtack Help on paying for leads and setting lead prices; Yelp Ads; Houzz Pro pricing.
- Seller pages read on October 10, 2026: ResultCalls plumbing and HVAC; Fixr; Minyona plumbing and HVAC; 33 Mile Radius pricing and billable-lead terms; Bark credits; CallScaler plumbing and HVAC; the Lead Smart press release.
- Guides read on October 10, 2026: CONTRACTOR, Housecall Pro on plumbing ads, HVAC ads, Angi and Thumbtack, FieldCamp, WebFX, PipelineOn and Mediagistic.
- Figures are copied from each page on the read date. Lead prices and benchmarks change with season and market, so check the source before you budget.
Questions this post answers
- How much do plumbing leads cost?
- It depends on the channel. On datasets that state a sample: about $57 a lead on Google Local Services Ads (SearchLight, February 2026, 230 plumbing accounts), $129.02 on Google search ads (LocaliQ's median, April 2024 to March 2025) and $183 on non-branded Google search (SearchLight, first quarter 2026, 524 plumbing accounts, with the middle half of accounts between $107 and $253). Angi and Thumbtack publish no plumbing lead price.
- How much are pay per call plumbing leads?
- Most pay-per-call networks do not publish a price. ResultCalls' plumbing page lists starting prices of $24.85, $49.85 and $79.85 a call on the same page, and Minyona quotes $50 to $200 a qualified lead plus a $2,000 setup fee. Figures such as CallScaler's $25 to $70 a call are what networks pay the publishers who generate calls, not what a plumber pays. On 33 Mile Radius's terms, a call that rings four times unanswered or goes to voicemail is billable.
- How much do HVAC leads cost?
- About $51 a lead on Google Local Services Ads and $149 on non-branded Google search, per SearchLight's 2026 data, and $127.74 for air conditioning and $129.02 for heating search ads in LocaliQ's medians. Fixr, which sells HVAC leads, lists $80 to $120 for an exclusive repair lead and $100 to $180 for an exclusive replacement lead.
- How much does Google Local Services Ads cost per lead?
- Google does not publish a price. Its help center says lead prices vary by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode, and that you are charged for each valid lead, including a call missed during business hours when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. SearchLight's February 2026 data puts the average at $57 for plumbing and $51 for HVAC, before Google's lead credits.
- How much does Angi charge per lead?
- Angi publishes no price list. Its pro FAQ says you pay a fee for each lead you match to and that the fee differs by job size. Housecall Pro's guide reports $15 to $85 a lead and about $300 a year for membership, as contractor-reported estimates. Angi's credit guidelines do not credit a lead because the customer never called back or hired someone else.
- How much is a lead on Thumbtack?
- Thumbtack publishes no prices. Its help center says you set your own lead price for each service, that prices vary with the job, the number of pros available and your market, and that you pay the exact amount you set, within a weekly budget. Housecall Pro's guide says pros report $10 to over $100 a lead depending on trade, job size and market.
Stop paying for calls nobody answers.
The AI receptionist answers every call for $199 a month flat and books the job into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber or Google Calendar. Missed-call text-back on its own is $99 a month.
Building in this trade? See HVAC websites, or see pricing.