How we measured this
We surveyed 340 NextFlow customers across the UK, asking them to attribute their last 10 won jobs to a lead source and estimate the cost per lead for each channel. These are real numbers from small service businesses — not marketing agency projections.
Cost per lead and ROI vary enormously by trade, location, and average job value. These rankings are averages. Your mileage will vary.
The rankings
1. Customer referrals: Cost per lead near zero, close rate above 60%. The undisputed winner. 2. Past customer reactivation: Emailing or texting customers from 12-36 months ago. Cost near zero, conversion 40%+. 3. Google Business Profile: Free to set up, generates steady inbound for local searches.
4. Hosted lead page (nextflow.page link in bio): Low cost, measurable, great for Instagram and TikTok. 5. Paid Google Ads: Works well for high-value trades (kitchens, extensions), expensive for small jobs. 6. Facebook/Instagram ads: High volume, low intent — works if you have a fast follow-up system. 7. Doorhangers and flyers: Surprisingly still alive for local trades, but labour-intensive.
The businesses with the lowest cost per lead are not running ads. They are systematically asking every happy customer for a referral and keeping their Google profile updated.
Survey of 340 NextFlow customers, April 2026
The takeaway
Before spending on ads, make sure you have a system for capturing and converting the leads you already get. Most small trade businesses are losing 50%+ of their inbound leads to slow response times or broken follow-up — no ad budget fixes that.
- Build your referral ask into your post-job workflow
- Set up a Google Business Profile if you have not already
- Use a hosted page for social traffic before investing in ads
- Only run paid ads when your reply time is under 10 minutes