PatchLead charges Canadian home-service contractors $60 to $150 per connected call, in Canadian dollars, depending on the trade and the job type. You are billed only when a homeowner is transferred to your phone and stays on the line past a minimum length — 60 seconds for plumbing, 60–90 for heating and air conditioning, 120 for roofing — so short calls and misfires cost nothing. There is no setup fee, no monthly subscription and no minimum spend.
Most lead-generation pricing is quoted in a way that makes it impossible to compare. A price per lead tells you nothing if the lead is a form fill sent to four companies, and a monthly retainer tells you nothing at all. The number below is per conversation with a homeowner who is already on the phone and already asking for your trade.
This page states the figure, then explains every condition attached to it: what makes a call billable, what makes it free, what you control, and what happens when a call turns out to be a bad fit. If something here is unclear, that is a problem with the page rather than a detail to settle later — the whole point of publishing it is that you should be able to do the arithmetic before you talk to anyone.
The price per connected call
PatchLead charges between $60 and $150 per connected call, in Canadian dollars. Where a given job type sits in that range depends on what the work is worth: a furnace replacement enquiry is priced differently from a thermostat question, because the job behind it is worth a different amount to you.
The second column is the one people miss. A call is not billable the moment it connects — it becomes billable only once you and the homeowner have been talking for a minimum length of time. Below that, the call is free, with no action required from you.
| Trade | Price per connected call | Billable after |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | $60–$150 | 60 seconds |
| Heating and air conditioning | $60–$150 | 60–90 seconds |
| Roofing | $60–$150 | 120 seconds |
Rates are set per trade and job type and confirmed with you before your first call.
- Prices are per connected call, not per lead, not per click, and not per month.
- All amounts are in Canadian dollars. PatchLead operates in Canada only.
- No setup fee, no monthly subscription, no minimum spend, no contract term.
- Your exact rate is agreed with you before your first call is sent.
What makes a call billable, and what makes it free
Billing is triggered by one thing: the length of the leg between you and the homeowner. The time our assistant spends qualifying the caller before the transfer does not count toward it, and is never billed.
That means the common failure modes of buying leads are free here. A caller who hangs up as you pick up costs nothing. A wrong number costs nothing. A transfer that drops costs nothing. You are not filing anything or asking for anything to make that true — the call simply never becomes billable.
- Plumbing calls become billable after 60 seconds of conversation.
- Heating and air conditioning calls become billable after 60–90 seconds.
- Roofing calls become billable after 120 seconds.
- Anything shorter is free, automatically.
- The same homeowner reaching you again within 30 days is not charged a second time.
Exclusive: one call, one contractor
Every call is exclusive. It rings one contractor at a time, and the same conversation is never sold to two companies at once — you are not racing three other shops to call back a form that four people bought. Only the contractor who answers is charged.
The honest qualifier, because it matters when you are deciding: if you do not pick up, the call moves on to another contractor rather than sitting in a queue. That is what keeps the homeowner served. What it is not is a shared lead — at no point is one homeowner's enquiry sold to several contractors to compete over.
Working it through to cost per booked job
Cost per lead is the wrong number to compare, because the models deliver different things. The number that decides whether this works for you is what you pay for each job you actually book.
The arithmetic is simple: divide the price per connected call by the share of those calls you convert into work. At $90 a call and one booking in three, a booked job costs you $270 in lead spend. At one in four, $360. At one in five, $450. Whether those are good numbers depends entirely on the gross profit on the job, which you know and we do not.
Run the same arithmetic on a shared lead. A cheaper lead that reaches you as one of four quotes, hours after the homeowner asked, converts at a different rate — and the correct comparison is the two cost-per-booked-job figures, not the two sticker prices.
What you control
Spend is capped by you, not by us. Every control below is set from your account and takes effect on the next call.
- A daily cap on how many transfers you accept. Reach it and you pause until tomorrow.
- Which job types you take within your trade — take water-heater work and skip drain cleaning.
- The postal codes you cover, and how far you will travel from each.
- Pausing and resuming incoming calls, from the portal or your phone.
- Calls are placed Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm, and not on Sundays.
How your balance works
PatchLead runs on a prepaid balance rather than charging a card per call. You top the balance up, each billable call is deducted from it, and when it runs low you are notified and can pause or add funds. Your card is not charged every time a call comes in.
If a billed call was a clear bad fit, you can dispute it from that call's row in the buyer portal within 48 hours of the call, and we review the recording. Where a dispute is upheld the amount is credited back to your account balance to spend on future calls.
Where PatchLead currently runs
- Cities
- Almonte, Burlington, Calgary, Concord, Edmonton, Gloucester, Huron, Listowel, Ottawa, Pickering, St. Paul, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties
- Provinces
- Alberta, Ontario
- Postal areas
- K0A, K0C, K1G, K1J, L1V, L4K, L7L, N0G, N4W, T0A, T2C, T2M, T2W, T2Y, T3N, T5A, T5L, T6E
The cities, provinces and postal areas we route today are listed below, straight from the coverage configuration rather than from copy someone has to remember to update. Plumbing and heating and air conditioning are live; roofing is open for applications but does not yet have live coverage.
If you work outside that area, you can still apply. We will hold your details and contact you when we open in your area rather than sending you calls we cannot supply. We would rather tell you we are not there yet than take your money for a service area we do not cover.
Common questions
How much does a lead generation company charge per call?
PatchLead charges $60 to $150 per connected call in Canadian dollars, depending on the trade and job type. Across the wider market the figure varies enormously because the models differ: shared form leads are cheaper per unit but are sold to several contractors, and pay-per-click buys a website visit rather than a conversation. Compare cost per booked job rather than sticker price.
What does a live transfer lead cost?
With PatchLead, $60 to $150 per connected call in Canada, billed only once the call passes its minimum length — 60 seconds for plumbing, 60–90 for heating and air conditioning, 120 for roofing. A live transfer costs more per unit than a shared form lead because the homeowner is already on the phone asking for your trade, and because only one contractor is charged for it.
Am I charged if the call is short or the caller hangs up?
No. A call becomes billable only after the conversation between you and the homeowner passes its minimum length. Anything shorter is free automatically, with nothing for you to claim or file. Wrong numbers, immediate hang-ups and dropped transfers all fall below that threshold and cost nothing.
Is the call exclusive, or do other contractors get it too?
It is exclusive. The call rings one contractor at a time and the same conversation is never sold to two companies at once, so you are not competing with three other shops over one homeowner. Only the contractor who answers is charged. If you do not pick up, the call moves on to another contractor rather than going to voicemail.
Is there a monthly minimum or a contract?
No. There is no setup fee, no monthly subscription, no minimum spend and no contract term. You fund a prepaid balance, each billable call is deducted from it, and you set a daily cap on how many transfers you accept. If you stop topping up, nothing further is charged.
Can I cap what I spend per day?
Yes. You set a maximum number of transfers per day from your account. When you reach it you pause automatically until the next day. You can also pause and resume at any time from the portal or your phone, and set which job types within your trade you are willing to take.
What if a billed call was a bad fit?
Dispute it from that call's row in the buyer portal within 48 hours of the call and we review the recording. Where the dispute is upheld, the amount is credited back to your account balance to spend on future calls. A homeowner who declines on price is a normal commercial outcome rather than grounds for a credit.
What hours do calls come through?
Calls are placed Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm, in the homeowner's local time, and not on Sundays. Outside those hours nothing is dialled. You can narrow that further with your own calling hours, and you are simply not in the running for a call while you are closed or paused.