Did you know that 10% of U.S. households hire a professional service to clean their homes?
In fact, as more people are recognizing the timesaving benefits of hiring a house cleaning service, the industry is projected to reach $20 billion dollars per year in sales with an annual growth rate of 20%.
Well, that’s a lot of businesses to go around!
But first thing first – you need to generate high-quality leads that will turn into clients.
Since more and more people are searching for local service businesses using the Internet, you need to establish an online presence so it’s easy for prospects to find you in searches.
Online lead generation is more than just building a website and hoping that your prospects will stumble upon it. The reality in today’s online marketing world is, “if you build it they won’t come.”
You need a reliable system to get found by potential clients and generate leads using digital marketing techniques.
If the mention of online marketing is making your head spin, you aren’t alone. Thankfully, there are many lead generation services you can use to help you get in front of prospects looking for a house cleaning service.
These lead generation services use different methods to attract, verify, and distribute leads. It’s important to find one that’s the best fit for your needs, business model, and market so you can get the highest ROI from your investment.
To help you get started, we have done the legwork and selected 10 popular lead generation services for house cleaning businesses:
Exclusive Leads |
Lead Verification |
Lead Source(s) |
|
HomeYou.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Prospects submit requests on vendor’s website |
HouseCleaningMarketing360.com |
N/A |
N/A |
Prospects visit contractor’s website |
Ring-Leader.net |
Yes |
Yes |
Prospects visit contractor’s website |
CraftJack.com |
No |
Yes |
Prospects submit requests on vendor’s website |
SalesGenie.com |
No |
Yes |
Vendor’s vetted database |
FreeCarpetCleaningLeads.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Vendor set up sales calls on your behalf |
HireRush.com |
No |
Yes |
Prospects submit requests on vendor’s website |
PayPerSaleLeads.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Prospects visit contractor’s website |
Thumbtack.com |
No |
Yes |
Prospects submit requests on vendor’s website |
99calls.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Prospects visit contractor’s website |
Figure 1: How each pay-per-lead website handles lead generation, verification, and distribution
What You Need To Know When Selecting a Lead Generation Service For Your House Cleaning Business
There are different types of lead generation services – some are pay-per-lead or pay-per-call, some are pay-per-sale, while others set up the marketing funnel for you.
There are pros and cons to each of these models, which we’ll discuss later. Before we do, it’d be helpful to understand the commonly used terms and what they mean for your business:
Should I Get Shared Leads or Exclusive Leads?
It depends on where you’re at in your business, the business development resources you have at your disposal, and your priority.
If a lead generation service doesn’t specify “exclusive leads,” you’re probably buying shared leads that are sold to multiple house cleaning companies.
You can often find shared leads for a lower price per lead. However, you’ll likely be competing against other house cleaning businesses. The chances of winning a client will be lower and you may even get into a bidding war that could lower your profit margin.
Exclusive leads are often more expensive. However, you avoid competing against other house cleaning services and the chances of getting the business are much higher.
Shared leads typically works well for house cleaning companies that have the resources to pitch new businesses while exclusive leads are often more suitable for those new in business or don’t have the time and personnel to conduct a lot of sales calls.
What’s the Advantage of Getting Verified Leads?
Unless you want to spend hours chasing after bad leads, select a lead generation service that’ll send you verified leads so you can focus your time and effort on prospects that are ready to hire a house cleaning company.
There are different ways vendors use to verify leads:
- Vendors that use online marketing techniques to drive traffic to their websites typically have prospects fill out a detailed form to request a quote. This helps screen out those that aren’t ready to engage with your service.
- Vendors that charge per valid call or per sale will typically contact the potential clients on your behalf before sending the leads to you to ensure that they’re “legitimate.”
- Vendors that set up your marketing funnel will often create a web form on your website or landing pages for prospects to submit their requests for a quote or, better yet, encourage the prospects to call you directly. While direct calls are not technically verified leads, they are direct exclusive leads that are often ready to set an appointment.
In the case where a lead vendor has prospects call you directly, find out how to dispute a lead. Often direct leads are recorded and reported. This allows you and the lead vendor to post-qualify leads. You should not have to pay for unqualified leads.
Why Should I Care about Lead Source?
Your leads will come from different sources, such as paid advertising, organic searches, offline promotion, and referrals.
Some of these sources may deliver higher quality leads to you than others. You should focus your lead generation efforts on them so you can get the most out of your resources.
If you use a lead generation service that drives traffic to your website, you can track the conversion rate to identify the best sources.
In addition, you can analyze the targeting and messaging of these sources to identify what makes your prospects “tick” so you can do more of what works.
Some full-service vendors will also analyze your website metrics and help you fine-tune your SEO strategies so you can attract the highest quality leads.
Cheaper leads aren’t always better. Some pay-per-lead services purchase leads from third-party databases and resell them. Even though those leads may be less expensive, their quality often varies and you could be spending a lot of time vetting those contacts.
Why is Price Per Lead Important?
Your price per lead has a direct implication on client acquisition cost and therefore, your ROI.
To maximize your ROI from lead generation services, you need to know the price-per-lead and your conversion rate so you can purchase the right number of leads at the right price.
Many lead generation services price their leads base on the location, market demand, and the nature of your services. You may have to contact each vendor to get an accurate quote.
Here are the pricing structures of some of the vendors on our list:
Cost Per Lead |
Notes |
|
HomeYou.com |
Depends on the type of service and location |
|
HouseCleaningMarketing360.com |
Varies based on package |
|
Ring-Leader.net |
$99 per month for unlimited leads |
Recently changed from $30/lead to $99 / month |
CraftJack.com |
$14 to 27 per lead |
You can get a speed-to-call discount by responding promptly to requests |
SalesGenie.com |
Varies based on package and industry |
|
FreeCarpetCleaningLeads.com |
Free – pay only for real customers |
|
HireRush.com |
Free basic plan. “Plus” plan is $19.95/month and “Premium” plan is $49.95/month. |
|
PayPerSaleLeads.com |
Fee varies for different industries and averages at 10% of the sale, up to a maximum charge of $250. |
|
Thumbtack.com |
$7-$11 to send a quote |
10-quote package offering a 30% discount |
99calls.com |
$25 per exclusive lead after intro period |
Intro offer: $199 setup and $99/month for first 10 months of unlimited leads |
Figure 2: Price-per-lead comparison
10 Lead Generation Services For House Cleaning Companies
The right cleaning leads service for your company depends on your business needs and budget.
Doing your due diligence before engaging with a vendor will help ensure that you’re making the best use of your marketing budget.
Here are the details we’ve been able to collect, as well as the pros and cons, of these 10 lead generation services:
1. HomeYou
Cost per house cleaning lead: Depends on the type of service and market.
Lead distribution system: Both shared and exclusive leads, varies by package.
Lead source: The vendor uses online marketing techniques (e.g., SEO) to drive traffic to its website on which potential clients submit their requests for quotes.
Lead Verification System: The vendor verifies the requests before sending the lead to house cleaning companies.
Pros:
- Many contractors are satisfied with the quality of the leads from this vendor.
- The vendor offers refunds on bad leads.
Cons:
- Price per lead may be higher than some other pay-per-lead websites.
- Better Business Bureau has revoked there accreditation. Link
Reviews:
Source: Better Business Bureau
2. House Cleaning Marketing 360
Cost per house cleaning lead: Varies based on package.
Lead distribution system: The vendor will build your website and help you generate exclusive leads from it.
Lead source: The vendor uses online ads to drive traffic to your website.
Lead Verification System: Website visitors fill out a web form to request a quote.
Pros:
- The vendor offers a variety of on-demand marketing services, including website design and development, content creation, online advertising, and video production.
- Packages include the use of an online lead management tool.
Cons:
- The monthly fee structure of the full-service packages can be more expensive than pay-per-lead models.
Reviews:
3. RingLeader Marketing
Cost per house cleaning lead: $30 per lead $99 / month
Lead distribution system: Exclusive leads sent directly to your phone or email.
Lead source: The vendor will build your website and use online marketing techniques to drive traffic to it.
Lead Verification System: Calls generated from the website will be transferred to your phone. You only pay for valid calls.
Pros:
- You only get charged for calls with qualified leads.
- The pay-per-call model makes it easy to control your budget.
- You pay for a maximum of 10 leads in any given month. Leads exceeding that number are free.
Cons:
- Price changed from $30 / lead to $99 / month. Implies vendor is unable to provide more than 3 house cleaning leads per month.
- Zero reviews for this company.
- Unable to find any house cleaning customers.
- Seems to be a cheap clone of 99 Calls.
Reviews:
No reviews available at the time of publication.
4. CraftJack
Cost per house cleaning lead: $14 to 27 per lead.
Lead distribution system: Leads shared by several cleaning companies.
Lead source: The vendor uses online content to drive traffic and then have prospects fill out a web form to request a quote.
Lead Verification System: The vendor verifies and screens the leads over the phone before passing them onto house cleaning businesses.
Pros:
- The vendor’s lead management software makes it easy for contractors to track potential clients and receive text or email alerts on new leads.
- Requesting a credit for bad leads through the lead management tool is convenient.
- The vendor offers a “speed-to-call” discount to encourage contractors to respond quickly.
Cons:
- Purchasing shared leads means you may be competing with other house cleaning businesses.
Reviews:
Source: Better Business Bureau
5. SalesGenie
Cost per house cleaning lead: Depends on package and solutions.
Lead distribution system: Shared leads.
Lead source: The vendor gathers data from a variety of databases, including 4,000+ phone directories and 350+ new business sources such as secretaries of state, county courthouses, and public records.
Lead Verification System: The vendor calls all the leads to verify the information before distributing them.
Pros:
- The vendor has a team of 350+ employees that constantly updates and verifies its database with new prospect information.
- The vendor offers a variety of marketing tools and services, such as direct mail, email, and data enhancement.
- You get 150 free leads upon sign up.
Cons:
- The full-service packages can be more expensive than pay-per-lead services.
- More targetted lead list than lead generation. You need to call or email prospects. Unclear if one can filter based on FTC Do Not Call List and Opt-In to comply with CAN-SPAM Act.
Reviews:
Source: G2 Crowd
6. Free Carpet Cleaning Leads
Yes, they provide house cleaning leads too.
Appears to be an alternative persona for a digital marketing company named Cloud LGS located in Tempe, AZ.
Cost per house cleaning lead: Leads are free. Pay only for real customers.
Lead distribution system: Exclusive leads.
Lead source: The vendor generates leads with online advertising and sends them to your phone.
Lead Verification System: N/A
Pros:
- Free Leads – You only pay for leads that turn into customers.
- There’s no long-term contract or termination fee.
Cons:
- Monthly packages may be more expensive than some pay-per-click services.
Reviews:
No reviews available at the time of publication.
7. HireRush
Cost per house cleaning lead: Free basic plan, pay approximately $7 per quote.
“Plus” plan is $19.95/month, includes 5 free quotes.
“Premium” plan is $49.95/month, includes unlimited free quotes.
Lead distribution system: Shared leads.
Lead source: The vendor drives traffic to its website on which prospects submit their requests.
Lead Verification System: Leads are verified and then distributed through the vendor’s website messaging system.
Pros:
- The free plan allows you to receive messages and requests via the vendor’s system.
- The paid plans give you a custom phone number, a custom website/domain, and other SEO-enhancing features.
- You can get a refund if you purchase a lead, set your quote, but don’t get the job.
Cons:
- The flat monthly fee may be more expensive than some pay-per-lead models.
- It appears that with unlimited quotes comes with unlimited competitors.
Reviews:
Source: SiteJabber
8. Captivate
Cost per house cleaning lead: Free leads. Pay-per-sale model. Fee varies for different industries for the pay-per-sale model and averages at 10% of the sale, up to a maximum of $250.
Lead distribution system: Exclusive leads.
Lead source: The vendor runs online marketing and lead generation campaigns to drive traffic to your website.
Lead Verification System: Prospects fill out a web form or call a dedicated phone number.
Pros:
- Pay-per-sale model means you only pay for leads that convert.
- The vendor will create a website or landing pages for your business and help you drive traffic with SEO techniques.
- The vendor uses geo-targeting to ensure you’re only getting leads in your service area.
Cons:
- Cost per sale is higher than most pay-per-lead services.
Reviews:
Source: Yelp
9. Thumbtack
Cost per house cleaning lead: $7-$11 to send a quote.
Lead distribution system: Shared by several contractors.
Lead source: Prospects fill out a form on the vendor’s website to request quotes.
Lead Verification System: The vendor reviews each lead before distributing it to contractors.
Pros:
- You can review a detailed description of each request before bidding for the job.
- Thumbtack is quite popular and have a large user base, giving you the opportunity to gain exposure to many prospects.
- You only pay for each quote you send, there are no hidden or additional fees.
- Contractors with a compelling description and good reviews on their profiles can get good quality leads at a low cost.
Cons:
- Many contractors will receive the same requests so you will be competing for the same job.
- Potential clients can’t get in touch with you directly since your contact details aren’t visible on the Thumbtack profile.
Reviews:
Source: Better Business Bureau
10. 99 Calls
Cost per house cleaning lead: $25 per exclusive lead after the intro period.
Introductory Price: $199 setup fee. $99 per month for the first 10 months to get unlimited leads.
Lead distribution system: Exclusive.
Lead source: 99 Calls Lead Generation System promotes your business so it appears on top of search engine results and gets found by prospects in need of your service in your local area.
Pros:
-
You receive exclusive leads that are more likely to turn into clients.
-
You get an optimized website that will rank high on Google to generate long-term results.
-
The vendor will get your company listed on many prominent directories and optimize your Facebook business page and Google My Business listing. These profiles will be properly set up so you can promote special offers and get found by potential clients.
-
99 Calls Lead Generation packages guarantee a minimum number of leads per month or your bill is prorated.
-
You can track results with free monthly reporting to maximize your ROI.
Reviews:
Source: Better Business Bureau
Also see:
Google reviews for 99 Calls
Facebook reviews for 99 Calls
Conclusion
As more consumers are using housecleaning services regularly, there are plenty of new business opportunities.
Using a lead generation service will help ensure that you’re reaching high-quality prospects in the right place at the right time with the right message so you can maximize the ROI of your marketing dollars.
Since vendors have different methods for generating, distributing, and verifying leads, you may have to experiment with a few of them before finding one that works best for your business and market.
Track the cost and conversion rate of the leads delivered by each vendor to identify a service that generates the best results for you.
Of course, make sure you provide excellent customer service so you can retain your ideal clients and have them refer friends and neighbors to your business.
Do not use thumbtack. Total scam!
Thumbtack charges up to 50.00 or more for some leads. The bigger the job the bigger the charge and it is usually competitive so they get that amount per pro that is contacted you are charged regardless if you get the job or not. They do refund if client does not respond back within 4 hours of your bid. It is very costly. I was spending close to 400 a month and the leads I got did not cover that expense. They claim to be fair but I don’t think charging that amount per pro is all that fair, it’s a killing. One lead could make them 200 and only one pro gets the job. I don’t know how many leads a day they get but that to me looks like a pretty nice bank for the day.
Hi Angela. Thank you for your comment. $50 seems high for a shared commercial cleaning lead. Our exclusive organic house cleaning leads are $24.90. The PPC leads can vary depending on the level of competition in your area, but those are exclusive as well. Give us a try – I think we can get you a solid return on your investment! 800-717-4669.