MUNDELEIN, Ill. — 5 October 2026
Lead Smart Inc, a pay-per-call and lead-generation affiliate network for home services founded in 2008, today released the full-quarter Q3 2026 edition of its U.S. Home Services Inbound Call Index, an open quarterly benchmark of when American homeowners actually reach a home-service business by phone, which trades they call about, and what those calls pay the publishers who generate them. The edition analyses 163,748 connected homeowner calls placed between 1 July and 30 September 2026.
A narrow calling day, now with a price on missed calls
About 59 percent of connected calls arrived between 9am and 3pm Central and 82 percent between 8am and 5pm, peaking in the 10am and 11am hours. Weekdays carried 85.9 percent of demand; Monday volume was 3.3 times Sunday’s. Only 0.5 percent of calls, 826 in total, arrived between midnight and 6am.
Since 1 October 2026, according to Google’s notice to Local Services Ads advertisers as reported by Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch, certain missed calls during a business’s posted hours can be charged as leads once the caller waits more than 20 seconds. The Index shows that exposure sits in exactly the weekday hours when crews are out on jobs.
Pest control took over as summer ended
The five largest trades — pest control, HVAC, plumbing, appliance repair and junk removal — made up 74.3 percent of connected calls. HVAC and plumbing narrowly led in July; pest control’s share rose from 17.1 percent in July to 21.9 percent in August and 27.3 percent in September.
| Trade | Connected calls | Share of demand | Median payout per qualified call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pest control | 36,746 | 22.4% | $42.50 |
| HVAC | 25,845 | 15.8% | $37.80 |
| Plumbing | 24,729 | 15.1% | $31.50 (pay-per-call) |
| Appliance repair | 19,795 | 12.1% | $7.36 |
| Junk removal, dumpster & portable toilet | 14,579 | 8.9% | — |
| Roofing | 11,119 | 6.8% | $42.63 (pay-per-call) |
| Restoration (water, fire, mould, biohazard) | 3,687 | 2.3% | $192.50–$224.50 (water, fire, biohazard) |
Payouts are minimum expected publisher payouts from Lead Smart’s public coverage file, extract of 3 October 2026; all-vertical median $38.50, highest single payout $497.50 (water damage). Payouts reprice continuously by ZIP code and buyer demand.
Everyone in this industry quotes averages, and averages are where the useful information goes to die. A homeowner with a flooded basement and a homeowner with ants in the kitchen are not the same event, they do not call at the same hour, and they are not worth the same money. We see these calls every day, so we publish them every quarter and let people argue with the numbers.Matthew Zivkovic, founder, Lead Smart Inc
The practical takeaway for a contractor is staffing. If your phone is not answered live between 9am and 3pm on a weekday, you are missing the majority of the homeowners who will ever call you, and from this month a missed call in those hours can cost you money as well as the job.Seth Pikus, chief executive officer, Lead Smart Inc
Hourly, daily, monthly and trade-level tables plus methodology: U.S. Home Services Inbound Call Index, Q3 2026. ZIP-level payouts, no login: affiliate-bid-coverage.leadsmartinc.com.
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 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
Demand figures: Lead Smart Inc call-tracking records, connected inbound homeowner calls on home-service campaigns, 1 July – 30 September 2026, US Central time. Payout figures: Lead Smart public affiliate bid coverage file, extract of 3 October 2026. Google Local Services Ads lead charge policy effective 1 October 2026, as reported by Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch, 25 August 2026.