Disclosure: we sell the third model on this page, verified referrals, and we pilot verified inbound calls. Judge us by the same rules we apply to everyone else: for non-legal work, one partner per area and five published checks, and if a referral fails one it is not sent and not billed.
What are you actually buying?
A UK shared lead commonly costs £15–40. It is a contact record: a name, contact details and an enquiry your team must reach, qualify and convert. The same record may also have been sold to competing businesses at the same time.
Pay per call buys a live inbound phone call. Billing happens when the call connects or passes the provider’s published qualification rule. The customer is already speaking to someone, so the gap between form submission and first contact, the gap where leads die, does not exist.
The labels describe delivery, not quality. A lead can be exclusive and still unreachable. A call can connect and still be the wrong job in the wrong postcode. With either model, ask what must be proven before you are billed and what happens when a delivery fails the rule.
A lead gives your team someone to call. A call gives your team someone already talking.
What does each model cost?
Exclusive US MVA calls clear at $200–500: Offer Globe buys in that range, and CallScaler publishes a $75–200 publisher payout on the supply side. Our own offer sits in the same market: pilot pricing from $450 per verified inbound call. The higher unit price pays for a live, exclusive conversation rather than a saved contact record.
Pay per lead and pay per call economics
| What matters | Pay per lead | Pay per call |
|---|---|---|
| Published market price | UK shared leads: £15–40 | Exclusive US MVA calls: $200–500 |
| What arrives | A contact record for your team to work | A live inbound phone call |
| Competition for the customer | Checkatrade: 10–20+ trades on one enquiry. MyBuilder: 3–5. Rated People: max 3 | An exclusive call has one buyer for that call |
| Other published pricing | MyBuilder £5–35 typical, £50+ larger jobs. Rated People £15–40 plus £30–60/mo. Checkatrade £30–500+/mo, no per-lead fee | CallScaler publisher payout $75–200. Our pilot: from $450 per verified inbound call |
| Buyer workload | Reach, qualify, chase and follow up on the record | Answer, qualify and handle the live conversation |
None of the five biggest UK platforms publishes a full price list. That makes sharing rules, contract terms and billing definitions part of the real price. The useful comparison is never sticker price: it is what you paid per sales conversation your team actually had, and what the team had to do to get there.
When do calls beat leads?
At $200–500 for an exclusive MVA call, the model suits high-ticket work where one live conversation can carry the acquisition cost. Speed-to-lead is built in: the customer is already on the phone, so nobody is racing you to the callback.
Calls are also easier to audit. A provider can define a connected or qualified call, record the delivery event and publish a dispute rule. None of that removes sales risk. Your team still has to answer, listen and convert, and a ringing phone nobody picks up is money gone.
For attorneys, we are an advertising and marketing service delivering exclusive calls: one buyer per call, never resold. Delivery is structured to stay compatible with state bar advertising and qualifying-provider rules, which is why legal work is framed per call rather than per territory.
When do leads win?
Shared UK leads at £15–40 can suit volume campaigns and lower-ticket work. The mechanism works when a staffed team reaches records fast, qualifies them consistently and keeps working the list; the model rewards throughput, not the individual unit.
Leads also give the buyer more control over follow-up, which matters when a sale needs repeated contact rather than one inbound conversation. The weak point is hidden labour: every unreachable, duplicated or low-intent record still lands in your team’s queue, and you paid for it either way.
Sharing changes the economics again. Read shared leads vs exclusive leads before treating every contact record as the same product.
Is there a third category?
Yes: the referral. Our non-legal model applies five published checks to every referral and gives one partner per area. Intent and fit are confirmed before delivery, and if a referral fails one check it is not sent and not billed.
That differs from buying a record and from buying an unscreened call: a referral is an accepted, intent-confirmed introduction governed by a stated quality bar, with no retainer and no lock-in. In the UK, an exclusive, intent-confirmed referral runs £45–120against £15–40 for the shared record it replaces.
The dated, per-platform version of those numbers, UK trades platforms and US call markets side by side, is in lead prices UK and US.
See The Referral Standard for the acceptance rubric, then referrals vs leads for the head-to-head, and shared vs exclusive leads for how record-selling splits again underneath. The right model depends on whether you want a list to work, a live conversation to answer, or a checked introduction to accept.
What should you check before buying either?
Put the five published checks to any provider, in writing, whichever model they sell. A provider should state what counts as billable, what fails, and how a disputed delivery is resolved.
Ask whether the person is real and reachable before you are billed; whether the job is described in the customer’s own words; whether a timeline is stated; whether anyone has checked the job is still open rather than already done or signed; and exactly how many businesses receive the same enquiry or call. A vague answer to any of the five shifts the quality risk onto you.
Straight answers
What is the difference between pay per lead and pay per call?
Pay per lead buys a contact record: a name and details your team must reach, qualify and convert, and the same record may be sold to competing businesses. Pay per call buys a live inbound phone call, billed when the call connects or passes the provider’s published qualification rule.
Is pay per call more expensive than pay per lead?
Per unit, usually yes, because the customer is already on the phone. UK shared leads commonly sell for £15–40, while exclusive US MVA calls clear at $200–500. Those are different markets and different products, so compare each on cost per sales conversation your team actually had, not on sticker price.
When does pay per call work best?
Pay per call fits high-ticket work where one live conversation can carry the acquisition cost. Speed-to-lead is built in because the customer is already on the phone, but your team still has to answer well: a missed or mishandled call is the most expensive kind.
When is pay per lead the better choice?
Pay per lead can fit volume campaigns and lower-ticket work when you have a staffed team ready to work contact lists fast. The trade-off is hidden labour: your team carries the cost of reaching, qualifying and chasing every record, including the unreachable and resold ones.
How are referrals different from leads and calls?
A referral is an intent-confirmed introduction checked before billing, not a raw record or an unscreened call. Our non-legal model gives one partner per area, applies five published checks to every referral, and if one check fails the referral is not sent and not billed.
Where should you go from here?
If territorial exclusivity and checked delivery fit your economics, that is the product we build: exclusive trade leads, one company per area, with every referral checked before it is sent. If you are still comparing contact records, start with shared vs exclusive leads and take the five checks with you.
Published 12 August 2026. UK lead prices and sharing figures are from the platforms’ own published terms and the UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker (22 July 2026). US call figures are from Offer Globe and CallScaler’s published pages. Pilot pricing is ours and is identified as such.