THE SHORT ANSWER
Choose pay per lead when your capacity moves month to month, a retainer once monthly media spend passes roughly EUR 4,000 and you want the asset you build, and commission only when jobs are high value, low volume and easy to attribute. The models differ mainly in who carries the risk when a month goes badly.
What each model actually charges you for
Pay per lead: you pay for delivered, qualified enquiries. Cost scales exactly with volume, so a quiet month costs nothing. The supplier carries the auction risk.
Retainer: you pay for management and media regardless of outcome. Unit cost falls at scale, but a bad month is still fully paid for. You carry the auction risk and keep the account.
Commission on revenue: you pay only on closed work. Alignment looks perfect until attribution is disputed, which it always eventually is.
Where each one breaks
Pay per lead breaks if you cannot answer the volume you bought, because you have converted cash into unanswered calls. Retainers break when nobody on either side owns the account, which turns the fee into a subscription to hope. Commission breaks the moment a customer who called the office after seeing a van is claimed as an attributed lead, and it breaks again if your margins do not comfortably absorb the percentage.
The test that picks the model in two minutes
Does your installable capacity vary by more than 30 percent month to month? If yes, pay per lead.
Is your monthly media budget above EUR 4,000 with a named person accountable for it? If yes, a retainer earns its keep.
Is your average job above EUR 25,000 with fewer than ten jobs a year? Commission can work, with a written attribution rule.
If two answers conflict, pay per lead first and add a retainer once volume is stable. The reverse order is more expensive to unwind.
Hidden costs to price in before signing anything
Setup fees and minimum terms, which convert a flexible model into a fixed one
Whether media spend is inside or outside the retainer, a difference that routinely doubles the real figure
Who owns the ad account, the pixel data and the landing pages when the relationship ends
Whether leads are exclusive, in writing
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Is pay per lead more expensive?
Per unit usually yes. Per month it is often less, because you pay nothing in a quiet month and there is no management fee on top of media.
Can I switch models later?
Yes, and starting on pay per lead makes switching easier because there is no account, contract term or data ownership question to unwind.
What contract length is reasonable?
For pay per lead, none. For a retainer, three months to cover a learning period, then monthly. Twelve-month lock-ins protect the supplier, not you.
Which model does Flock use?
Pay per lead, in fixed packages with no retainer and no contract term.
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