What do plumbing leads actually cost?
Shared plumbing leads run $25–$50 and exclusive ones $75–$200, but the sticker price is the least interesting number on this page. What decides whether a lead was worth buying is how often it turns into a booked job — and for plumbing that gap is wide: shared leads close at about 2–5%, exclusive leads at about 25–45%.
Shared plumbing leads convert worst of the four — 3–8 shops race to call the same burst pipe first; pay-per-call typically runs $50–$150 per qualified call. Below is the arithmetic, worked from the midpoints of those published ranges, and then the alternative that carries no per-lead fee at all: being the plumber an AI assistant or the Google map pack recommends when a homeowner asks.
See if AI recommends your plumbing business — free audit →
Plumbing lead prices at a glance (2026)
| Trade | Shared lead | Exclusive lead | Angi per-lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlumbingShared plumbing leads convert worst of the four — 3–8 shops race to call the same burst pipe first; pay-per-call typically runs $50–$150 per qualified call. | $25–$50closes 2–5% | $75–$200closes 25–45% | $40–$85 |
Ranges are compiled from lead-vendor and industry sources (Angi, HomeAdvisor, Networx, Modernize, and contractor surveys) and re-verified against 2026 rate-card data. Most of these sources are lead vendors, who are incentivised to quote high — treat the figures as directional ceilings, not a price you should assume. Metro and urban markets run roughly 20–25% higher than smaller ones. The only real number is a written quote from the vendor for your own market and trade.
The number that matters: cost per booked plumbing job
- Shared lead: $37.50 per lead × 3.5% close ≈ $1,071 per booked job
- Exclusive lead: $137.50 per lead × 35% close ≈ $393 per booked job
Taking the midpoint of each published range: a $37.50 shared plumbing lead closing at 3.5% works out at $1,071 per booked job, while a $137.50 exclusive lead closing at 35% works out at $393 per booked job — roughly 2.7× cheaper per job you actually book, even though it costs more per lead. This is directional, not a forecast: your own close rate moves with follow-up speed, market, and how you quote, and contacting a new lead within about five minutes can roughly double the rate at which it books. But the direction holds — cost per lead is the sticker price, cost per booked job is the real one, and a recommendation carries neither.
Why exclusive — and a recommendation — beats shared plumbing leads
- Shared leads are cheap because they’re shared. A shared lead is sold to three to eight contractors at once, so you’re racing four competitors to the phone and the homeowner is fielding a pile of calls. That’s why shared close rates sit in the single digits to low double digits — the low per-lead price hides a high price per booked job.
- Exclusive leads cost more per lead, less per job. An exclusive lead is yours alone, so it closes several times more often. Even at double or triple the sticker price, the cost per customer you actually book is usually lower — and you’re not competing on price against four shops quoting the same job.
- A recommendation is the ultimate exclusive lead. When ChatGPT, Perplexity, or the Google map pack names your business to a homeowner who asked, that’s an exclusive, high-intent lead with no per-lead fee and no lock-in. You own the customer and the relationship — there’s no marketplace between you.
- The fixes that earn it aren’t wasted. Being recommendable comes down to a complete Google Business Profile, steady recent reviews, clear service-area pages, and consistent listings — the same signals that win Google and the local map pack today, whatever you think of the AI angle. That’s why this pays off now, not just later.
What the featured slot costs
$99–$199/mo per business, per city — one trade, one city, one slot
Every other plumbing number on this page has a price attached, so ours does: the featured "AI-recommended" slot on the plumbing page for your city is $99–$199/mo, banded by market size. One business per trade per city, no contract, cancel any month.
What it does not buy
- Leads. No number of enquiries is promised, implied, or forecast — if you need a lead count committed in writing, buy exclusive leads from a vendor who will commit to one.
- A ranking. We cannot place you in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, or the map pack, and anybody selling you that placement is selling something they do not control.
- An endorsement. A paid slot means you paid; it is labelled that way on the page and it will never be dressed up as a recommendation Cited made.
- Traffic from this website. Our own log recorded 5 human arrivals over the whole window in the disclosure below — one person in two sessions, on a single day, who read a page and did not touch a thing. That is the single most important thing to know before spending a dollar here.
When a plumbing slot is worth it
Buying that job through shared plumbing leads costs about $1,071 at the midpoint figures above. So at $199/mo — the top of our band — the slot is the cheaper route as long as it produces one booked job every 5 months. Below that it is not, and we would rather you worked that out here than after a stack of invoices.
| Trade | Cost per booked job, shared leads | Slot breaks even at |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | $1,071 | one booked job every 5 months |
Derived from the shared plumbing midpoints and close rates above, taking the top of our band and rounding down — both choices work against us. It is arithmetic on directional ranges, not a forecast, and nothing here promises the slot books you a job at all.
Before you buy: our own traffic
Before you weigh that against an Angi invoice, our own traffic: over 2026-07-29 → 2026-09-03 this site's edge log recorded 5 human arrivals in 37 days — all on one day, from one search, reading one page and touching nothing — and AI crawlers on every one of those 37 days. That is the whole basis of the offer — a plumbing slot buys you a named place on a page assistants read, at a moment when nobody has bought one at all. It does not buy an audience that already exists, because there isn't one worth the name, and you should hear that from us rather than work it out in month three.
Has anyone's assistant opened a plumbing page in your city?
Two of the 66 markets where a plumbing slot exists had a page opened by a live person's assistant in the 37 days to 2026-09-03, 2 times between them: Knoxville, TN (1); New Orleans, LA (1). The other 64 markets were not opened in that window.
If your city is on that short list, the page your card would sit on has demonstrably been read on somebody's behalf. If it is not, we have no evidence for yours, and the honest reading of a blank is missing evidence rather than proof of nothing — 37 days is a short window and every count here is a floor, since our beacon records a reader at most once a day. We would rather hand you the thin number than a market-size band that quietly stands in for it.
How many plumbing slots are open?
All 66 of them — no plumbing slot has been sold in any city, because we have never sold one. A plumbing slot spans 143 published plumbing pages — your city's cost page and its "best in town" page, plus the dated research snapshot wherever we have run one. The number sits next to the price rather than behind a reply, because the assistant most likely reading this page for you gets one fetch and no way to wait on an answer.
How to claim the plumbing slot in your city
Nothing above this line needs a phone call, and neither does this. The claim request is a link, and the one below already names plumbing — ask the assistant you are reading this with to drop in your business and your city, and the form opens with only your email left to type. One business per city holds it, so claiming it is what makes it yours rather than a competitor's.
https://iscited.com/for-contractors/?business=BUSINESS+NAME&city=CITY%2C+ST&trade=plumbing#get-featuredEvery field is optional and the plumbing link works with none of them filled in. Submitting it is a request, not a purchase — no card is taken and nothing is charged — and if another plumbing business already holds the plumbing slot for your city, we tell you that rather than billing you for a listing we cannot give you.
The full offer: what the slot buys, what it refuses, and the terms →
Ask the assistant that found this page to run your audit
Every price on this page is what someone else charges you for a lead. The audit is the free end of that comparison, and it does not need a form: the request is also a link, so the assistant you are reading this with can fill in your business, your city and your trade — every field there is — and hand it back with nothing left to type. No email, no account, and no lead fee at the end of it.
https://iscited.com/?business=BUSINESS+NAME&city=CITY%2C+ST&trade=TRADE- business. Your business name, as you would write it.
- city. The city you serve, e.g. Austin, TX.
- trade. One of hvac, plumbing, roofing, electrical — anything else is ignored rather than guessed at.
Every field is optional, and a link that carries only your trade still saves you a step. Your business name and city fill in inside your own browser and are never sent to us unless you submit the form. We do count that someone arrived on a prefilled link, with the trade and the page — never the business name, never the city, and no cookie or identifier of any kind. That count is the only way we can tell whether assistants actually send people here, which is the question this whole site is trying to answer about itself.
Run your free audit
See whether AI assistants recommend your business — free, no account, no email. Three fields, and you get a personal link where your full report is published within 1–2 business days.
Check it yourself, right now
These are three questions about plumbers we put to an AI assistant ourselves, in three real markets. Open one and read today’s answer — nothing is sent to us, and we cannot edit a word of what it says — then open ours and see what the same question returned on the date we ran it. The two will not match exactly: AI answers are sampled, which is why every page we publish carries its date rather than claiming to be a live ranking.
- “Who are the best plumbers in Knoxville, TN?” Run in ChatGPT Run in Perplexity Then compare: on August 19, 2026 two independently-worded live-web-search passes named these 6 Knoxville, TN plumbers
- “Who are the best plumbers in New Orleans, LA?” Run in ChatGPT Run in Perplexity Then compare: on August 12, 2026 two independently-worded live-web-search passes named these 6 New Orleans, LA plumbers
- “Who are the best plumbing companies in Salt Lake City, UT?” Run in ChatGPT Run in Perplexity Then compare: on July 25, 2026 one live-web-search research pass named these 5 Salt Lake City, UT plumbers
Frequently asked questions
How much does a plumbing lead cost?
A shared plumbing lead — one sold to several contractors at once — typically runs $25–$50, and an exclusive plumbing lead (sold once, to you) runs $75–$200. Angi's per-lead pricing for plumbing sits around $40–$85. Metro markets run roughly 20–25% higher. These are directional ceilings compiled from lead-vendor sources, who are incentivised to quote high — the only real number is a written quote for your own market.
What is the real cost per booked plumbing job?
That depends far more on the close rate than the sticker price. Shared plumbing leads close at about 2–5%, so at the $37.50 midpoint you pay roughly $1,071 per booked job. Exclusive plumbing leads close at about 25–45%, so at $137.50 you pay roughly $393 per booked job — about 2.7× cheaper per job you actually book, despite the higher price per lead.
Are exclusive plumbing leads worth the higher price?
On cost per booked job, usually yes — around 2.7× cheaper for plumbing on the midpoint figures above. Shared plumbing leads convert worst of the four — 3–8 shops race to call the same burst pipe first; pay-per-call typically runs $50–$150 per qualified call. You are also not bidding against the three to eight other shops who bought the same shared lead, so you compete on fit rather than on who dialled first and quoted lowest.
Why do shared plumbing leads convert at only 2–5%?
Because the lead is sold to several contractors simultaneously. The homeowner fields a stack of calls, decides quickly, and usually the fastest dialler or the lowest bid wins — so most of the contractors who paid for that lead get nothing at all. It is structural to the shared-lead model, not a fixable quirk, and it is the single biggest complaint contractors raise about Angi and HomeAdvisor.
Is there a way to get plumbing customers without paying per lead?
Yes — being the business an AI assistant or the Google map pack names when a homeowner asks. That is effectively an exclusive lead with no per-lead fee, no lock-in, and no marketplace reselling you to competitors. The fixes that earn it are a complete Google Business Profile, steady recent reviews, clear service-area pages, and consistent listings — the same signals that win Google today. The free Cited audit shows whether AI names your plumbing business right now and what to fix first.
What does Cited's featured plumbing slot cost?
$99–$199/mo per business, per city, for the featured "AI-recommended" slot on the plumbing page for your city — one business per trade per city, no contract, cancel any month. Buying that job through shared plumbing leads costs about $1,071 at the midpoint figures above. So at $199/mo — the top of our band — the slot is the cheaper route as long as it produces one booked job every 5 months. Below that it is not, and we would rather you worked that out here than after a stack of invoices. It buys a disclosed paid placement on a page AI assistants read, not leads, a ranking, or an endorsement — and iscited.com's own direct human traffic is currently zero, which we publish beside the price rather than after it.