THE SHORT ANSWER
Four questions decide it: how quickly you need leads, what you can afford per acquired customer, how much you can commit monthly for at least three months, and who will manage it weekly. Answer those honestly and the channel choice is usually obvious. Most bad channel decisions come from skipping the fourth question, because an unmanaged channel is the most expensive one.
Question one: how fast do you need leads
If the answer is this month, your options are bought leads, marketplaces or paid search, and nothing else. SEO, referrals and content cannot produce volume on that timeline no matter how well funded. Being honest here prevents the most common mistake, which is starting a slow channel to solve an urgent problem and then abandoning it just as it starts working.
Question two: what can you afford per customer
Take your average job value, subtract materials and labour, and decide what share of the remaining margin you will spend to win the job. That number, divided by the leads you need per customer, is your maximum cost per lead. Every channel that cannot hit it is excluded, and every channel that can is worth considering.
Most businesses have never calculated this, which is why they evaluate channels on whether the cost per lead feels expensive rather than on whether it clears the threshold.
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote.
Question three: what can you commit monthly
Not what you could spend once, but what you can spend every month for at least three months. Paid channels need continuity to learn: a stop-start budget pays the learning cost repeatedly and never reaches the efficient phase. Below roughly EUR 1,000 a month, buying leads generally outperforms running your own ads simply because there is not enough data for an account to optimise.
Question four: who will manage it weekly
This is the question that decides more outcomes than the other three, and it is the one usually left implicit. A search account nobody reviews drifts within a month. A Meta account nobody refreshes fatigues within six weeks. If the honest answer is nobody, choose the channel that needs no management, which is buying leads, and revisit when there is capacity.
The default order for a business starting from zero
Bought exclusive leads, for immediate volume and to establish your real close rate
Google Search ads, once you know what you can afford per lead and can fund eight weeks of learning
Local SEO and content, in parallel and slowly, using the reviews and photos the first two channels generated
A referral process, made explicit rather than left to chance
Meta or video, last, once you have a proven offer worth putting in front of people who were not searching
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Which lead generation channel should I start with?
If you need leads this month, bought leads or paid search. If you have three to six months and a budget that can survive the learning period, start with search ads and build SEO alongside.
How do I calculate my maximum cost per lead?
Take your margin per job, decide what share you will spend to win it, and divide by the leads you need per customer.
What is the minimum monthly budget for paid channels?
Around EUR 1,000 for most home-improvement paid channels. Below that there is not enough conversion data for an account to optimise.
Should I run several channels at once?
Not at the start. Splitting a budget that would have been adequate for one channel across three is the most common expensive mistake.
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