Buy leads, or run your own ads?

What are you paying for?

An ad platform bills a media event. A lead seller bills a delivered inquiry. Neither invoice is a closed job. The comparison below uses Google’s and Meta’s public billing descriptions and Adsora’s published lead terms.

How do Meta and Google say they charge?

Google’s Ads help says that with cost-per-click bidding you are charged when someone clicks the ad, and that you set an average daily budget. Over a month, Google says you are not charged more than that average daily budget times 30.4. Daily spend can be higher on a busy day. Google also says some formats are billed differently, including impressions for some YouTube placements. Payment settings include postpay, prepay, and monthly invoicing, depending on the account.

Meta’s billing help says you set budgets and spending limits, and that ads compete in an auction. Meta says you are usually charged based on impressions unless a different charge is specified when the ad is created. Automatic billing charges you at a payment threshold and again on the monthly bill date. Meta also says the budget and the amount spent can differ, and that a final bill can exceed one ad’s budget because it includes the ads and fees for the billing period.

Those pages do not promise a cost per closed home-services job. A click price and an impression price are not a lead price until you count the inquiries and the jobs that follow.

What changes when you buy the lead instead?

Adsora’s published offer is an exclusive homeowner inquiry, typically $50–120 per lead, delivered to one buyer. There is no long-term contract and no minimum purchase. A credit may be requested within 7 days for a duplicate, a disconnected or invalid phone number, a lead outside the agreed ZIP codes, or a plainly fraudulent or fabricated lead. A homeowner who does not answer or does not buy is not, by itself, a credit.

The offer is aimed at established companies with sales teams. Adsora generates 300K+ leads a year. That volume is not a close rate, and it is not a promise that every ZIP code has supply. You still contact the homeowner and record whether the job closes.

Which one costs less per closed job?

Use the same formula for both. Cost per acquisition equals spend divided by jobs closed. For leads, spend is leads purchased times the cost per lead. For ads, spend is the media cost you were actually billed. Close rate is jobs closed divided by the leads or inquiries you are counting. Cost per lead divided by close rate is the cost per acquisition when every lead was purchased at that price.

A hypothetical, not an Adsora result: 100 leads at $80 is $8,000. Ten closed jobs is a 10 percent close rate and an $800 cost per acquisition. The same $8,000 of ad spend and the same 10 jobs is also $800. A $4 click is cheaper than an $80 lead only if the clicks produce inquiries and jobs at a rate that wins that math.

Keep the counted event the same on both sides. Do not compare ad clicks with exclusive leads, or booked appointments with form fills, and then call the lower number the better channel. The pricing page walks through the same close-rate steps and includes a calculator for your own figures.

How should a buying team choose?

Run the ads when your team can operate the accounts, the capture page, and the follow-up, and when you want to pay a media platform for delivery rather than a lead seller for an inquiry. Buy the leads when you want one buyer per inquiry, a published $50–120 range, no minimum purchase, and a sales team that will work the record.

Many established companies do both. The decision on a given trade is which path produces a workable cost per closed job in the ZIP codes you serve. Bring the trade, the markets, and the current follow-up capacity to the buying conversation. Adsora does not promise territory exclusivity, and a homeowner may still request other quotes.