MUNDELEIN, Ill. — 20 August 2026
Lead Smart Inc, a US pay-per-call and lead-generation affiliate network for home services, today published a refreshed payout file covering 408,398 live ZIP-code and service combinations across 41,689 distinct ZIP codes, 27 verticals (25 currently accepting traffic) and 53 state codes. The median qualified phone lead pays $32.50, the mean is $56.61, the top decile is above $177.00 and the ceiling is $497.50. Roughly one record in six — 69,911 of 408,398 — pays $100 or more, and 24,091 pay $200 or more.
The refresh lands in the same month Google begins moving Local Services Ads into Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. Google’s published rollout schedule puts the first phase in August 2026, covering US home and storefront service advertisers including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, roofing and pest control, with broader groups late in 2026 and non-US accounts in 2027.
What the two sides of the same lead pay
Contractors buying leads and publishers generating them rarely see each other’s numbers. Placed side by side, the gap is the story of the vertical. 99 Calls reported an average Local Services Ads cost of $58.06 per charged lead across 4,459 leads and $258,867 of spend in the second quarter of 2026, with HVAC at $50.21 and roofing at $101.15 — roofing having climbed from the mid-$60s a year earlier. Lead Smart’s published file shows the affiliate side of the same demand.
| Vertical | Median payout | Highest in file | ZIP codes covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Damage (CPL call) | $201.00 | $497.50 | 20,373 |
| Fire Damage Removal (CPL call) | $193.00 | $365.50 | 16,690 |
| Roofing (CPL call) | $130.00 | $169.00 | 10,012 |
| Siding (CPL call) | $115.50 | $136.50 | 7,227 |
| Mold Removal (CPL call) | $65.50 | $159.00 | 13,268 |
| Plumbing (CPL call) | $44.50 | $107.50 | 9,404 |
| Roofing (pay-per-call) | $42.00 | $166.95 | 27,817 |
| HVAC (pay-per-call) | $38.50 | $122.50 | 21,663 |
| Plumbing (pay-per-call) | $33.25 | $221.95 | 25,066 |
| Gutters (pay-per-call) | $32.50 | $32.50 | 36,714 |
| Electrical (pay-per-call) | $23.38 | $72.45 | 19,339 |
Lead Smart data as published 20 August 2026. Cost-per-lead entries pay on a qualified lead; pay-per-call entries pay on call duration.
What moved in nine days
The network last published this file on 11–12 August 2026. Comparing the two pulls shows how quickly live buyer bids move, which is the argument for publishing them continuously rather than annually:
- Waterproofing more than doubled, median $22.00 to $50.00, while its ZIP coverage narrowed from 7,026 to 4,024 — buyers paying more in fewer places.
- Kitchen remodeling halved, median $112.00 to $56.00, on slightly narrower coverage.
- Auto accident attorney ceilings rose from $96.25 to $123.75.
- Bathroom remodeling pay-per-call softened, median $22.00 to $17.60.
- Biohazard ceilings came down, $299.50 to $262.50, on flat medians.
- Coverage tightened overall: 21 of 27 verticals lost ZIP coverage, for a net 9,585 fewer ZIP-by-service records than nine days earlier, while roofing pay-per-call gained 1,061 ZIP codes. Medians for water damage, fire damage, roofing cost-per-lead and gutters were unchanged.
A contractor who has only ever bought Google leads has no idea what the same phone call is worth two inches away from Google. That is not a secret we benefit from keeping. Publish the payout by ZIP code and by service, update it every day, and let people argue with the number. Seth Pikus, Chief Executive Officer, Lead Smart Inc
Why the migration matters to publishers
Local Services Ads keeps its pay-per-lead billing inside Performance Max, but bidding, targeting and budget control move into Google Ads and into automated optimisation. Contractors who lose lead-cost predictability usually widen their sourcing, and that demand reaches independent publishers through networks. Lead Smart’s position is that the useful response is disclosure: the coverage tool is public, requires no login and no affiliate account, and is resynchronised daily.
Every time the platforms change how leads are bought, the contractors call us within the quarter. The networks that win that call are the ones whose numbers were already on the table before the change. Matthew Zivkovic, Founder, Lead Smart Inc
Journalists, analysts and contractors may cite these figures with attribution to Lead Smart Inc, data as of 20 August 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 408,398 rows taken 20 August 2026, compared with the extract of 12 August 2026; they are minimum expected payouts and exclude buyer-side reconciliations. Google’s migration schedule is as published in Google Ads Help, “Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.” Local Services Ads cost-per-lead figures are as published by 99 Calls for the second quarter of 2026 (4,459 charged leads, $258,867 spend). Rankings are as published by OfferVault, mThink and Inc.