MUNDELEIN, Ill. — 5 September 2026
Lead Smart Inc, a US pay-per-call and lead-generation affiliate network for home services, today published a refreshed payout file covering 296,513 live ZIP-code and service combinations across 41,259 distinct ZIP codes, 28 verticals and 53 state codes. The median qualified phone lead now pays $42.00, up from $32.50 in the network’s 20 August file; the mean is $71.71, the top decile is above $189.50, and the ceiling has set a new high at $507.00. Of the records published, 66,053 pay $100 or more per call and 22,870 pay $200 or more.
The refresh lands a day after 99 Calls published a year-over-year comparison of Google Local Services Ads costs across its managed campaigns, showing lead costs up 11% to 69% depending on the trade. Both datasets point the same direction: the price of a home-service customer is rising, on Google and off it.
What Google charges, and what the same call pays
99 Calls compared average cost per charged lead in its Local Services Ads campaigns between 2025 and 2026, including only categories with at least 30 leads in both periods. Every reported industry except plumbing was more expensive in 2026.
| Trade | Google LSA CPL 2025 | Google LSA CPL 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appliance repair | $20.33 | $34.35 | +69.0% |
| Junk removal | $19.85 | $33.14 | +67.0% |
| Landscaping | $22.67 | $37.29 | +64.5% |
| Handyman | $25.06 | $38.51 | +53.7% |
| Electrical | $28.58 | $43.15 | +51.0% |
| Roofing | $73.62 | $106.87 | +45.2% |
| Cleaning services | $22.94 | $33.21 | +44.8% |
| Window repair | $46.83 | $59.99 | +28.1% |
| Water damage | $171.64 | $215.31 | +25.4% |
| Tree services | $33.93 | $37.77 | +11.3% |
| Painting | $32.94 | $33.06 | +0.4% |
| Plumbing | $70.06 | $66.17 | −5.6% |
Source: 99 Calls, published 4 September 2026, from its production Local Services Ads campaign data.
Lead Smart’s file shows the affiliate side of the same demand, as of 5 September 2026.
| Vertical | Median payout | Highest in file | ZIP codes covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Damage (CPL call) | $213.00 | $507.00 | 18,665 |
| Biohazard (CPL call) | $210.50 | $288.50 | 9,958 |
| Fire Damage Removal (CPL call) | $193.00 | $365.50 | 15,064 |
| Roofing (CPL call) | $130.00 | $169.00 | 8,242 |
| Siding (CPL call) | $115.50 | $135.00 | 6,195 |
| Personal Injury Attorneys | $99.00 | $247.50 | 963 |
| Solar (CPL call) — new | $73.50 | $81.00 | 496 |
| Mold Removal (CPL call) | $65.50 | $159.00 | 11,656 |
| Plumbing (CPL call) | $48.00 | $76.00 | 5,766 |
| Pest Control (pay-per-call) | $42.50 | $42.50 | 35,283 |
| Roofing (pay-per-call) | $42.00 | $166.95 | 27,746 |
| HVAC (pay-per-call) | $38.50 | $122.50 | 19,660 |
| Plumbing (pay-per-call) | $33.25 | $221.95 | 23,430 |
| Gutters (pay-per-call) | $32.50 | $32.50 | 36,714 |
| Electrical (pay-per-call) | $24.50 | $74.03 | 16,754 |
| Appliance (pay-per-call) | $14.00 | $39.38 | 13,568 |
Lead Smart data as published 5 September 2026. Cost-per-lead entries pay on a qualified lead; pay-per-call entries pay on call duration. The two columns are not like for like — 99 Calls figures are what an advertiser pays Google, Lead Smart figures are what a publisher is paid — but they bracket the same transaction.
Solar opens, and personal injury nearly triples its map
Comparing the 5 September file with the network’s 24 August extract:
- A new vertical opened. Solar cost-per-lead is live in 496 ZIP codes at a $73.50 median and an $81.00 ceiling — the first vertical Lead Smart has added to the public file this year.
- Personal injury attorney coverage went from 344 to 963 ZIP codes, with the median rising from $50.33 to $99.00.
- Water damage set a new ceiling, $497.50 to $507.00, with the median up from $201.00 to $213.00.
- Appliance repair repriced hard. Its median more than doubled, $6.33 to $14.00, while coverage nearly halved from 25,573 to 13,568 ZIP codes — buyers paying materially more in fewer markets, in the same trade where Google’s cost per lead rose 69%.
- Pest control added 3,470 ZIP codes and roofing pay-per-call added 1,372, at unchanged medians.
- Coverage overall tightened slightly, 303,441 to 296,513 records, while the all-vertical median rose about 29%. Buyers are concentrating budget rather than spreading it.
The number everyone quotes is the average cost of a lead. The number that decides whether a campaign works is what a lead is worth in one ZIP code, in one trade, this week. Appliance repair is the whole argument: our median for that call doubled while the map for it shrank by half. An annual industry report cannot see that. Seth Pikus, Chief Executive Officer, Lead Smart Inc
Rising costs, and the call that never gets answered
Higher acquisition costs put more weight on what happens after the phone rings. Invoca’s 2026 Home Services Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report, built on more than 70 million analysed calls, found that 38% of home-service calls answered by a person are genuine leads and 45% of those leads convert on the call. The same report measured calls driven by generative AI search for the first time: calls referred by ChatGPT carry the highest phone-lead rate of any channel at 45%, about five points above paid search.
For contractors paying $106.87 for a roofing lead on Google, a five-point improvement in answer rate, lead rate and conversion rate compounds into roughly 38% more conversions from the same call volume, by Invoca’s arithmetic — a cheaper lever than outbidding the auction.
Every year the platforms get more expensive and every year the same contractors let calls ring out. We have paid publishers more than fifty million dollars for phone calls, and the difference between the buyers who grow and the buyers who churn has almost never been the price of the call. Matthew Zivkovic, Founder, Lead Smart Inc
Journalists, analysts and contractors may cite these figures with attribution to Lead Smart Inc, data as of 5 September 2026. The underlying tool is public at affiliate-bid-coverage.leadsmartinc.com. The network publishes a fuller quarterly benchmark; the August 2026 edition is at Home Services Pay-Per-Call Benchmark Report.
About Lead Smart Inc
Lead Smart Inc is a US-based pay-per-call and lead-generation affiliate network specialising in home services. Founded in 2008 by Matthew Zivkovic and led by CEO Seth Pikus, Lead Smart connects more than 10,000 registered affiliate publishers worldwide with buyers across more than 200 home-service categories plus legal verticals, serving an estimated 50,000-plus home-service business locations nationwide. The network has paid more than $50 million to its affiliate publishers across Lead Smart and its predecessor businesses, maintains live payout coverage in all 50 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico, has been voted a top-three pay-per-call network in OfferVault’s Top Networks Survey for seven consecutive years, is ranked #5 among more than 400 pay-per-call networks in mThink’s 2026 Blue Book, and was named to the Inc. 5000 in 2023 at No. 2,449. Learn more at leadsmartinc.com.
Media contact
Lead Smart Inc · 75 E Division Street, Suite B, Mundelein, IL 60060 · (855) 466-5542 · info@leadsmartinc.com.
Sources
Payout figures are from Lead Smart’s public affiliate bid coverage tool, complete extract of 296,513 rows taken 5 September 2026, compared with the extract of 24 August 2026; they are minimum expected payouts and exclude buyer-side reconciliations. Google Local Services Ads cost-per-lead figures are as published by 99 Calls on 4 September 2026 from its production LSA campaign data. Call answer, lead and conversion rates are as published in the Invoca Home Services Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report 2026. Rankings are as published by OfferVault, mThink and Inc.