Compare Lead Generation Proposals: 8 Checks

Compare lead generation proposals by rebuilding them into the same cost and delivery table. Use the same geography, customer, time period and definition of an accepted enquiry. A monthly agency fee, an advertising budget and a price per contact describe different things.

For a small service business, the decision is practical: what will arrive, who will answer it, what will it cost in total and what remains yours afterward? Our lead-company models guide explains the difference between a marketplace, a call supplier and an agency. This worksheet helps compare the actual proposals after you have chosen a shortlist.

The tables below are a buying framework. They are not industry benchmarks or a promise that a provider will produce a particular number of jobs.

1. Are the proposals promising the same outcome?

Write down the event each vendor counts before looking at the price. A contact record, a completed form, an accepted service enquiry, a booked estimate and a paid job are different outputs.

Google Ads distinguishes qualified and converted leads so advertisers can measure stages beyond the initial enquiry. Your comparison should be equally explicit, even if your business tracks the stages in a sheet rather than an advertising platform.

Agree how duplicates, existing customers, job seekers, wrong services and out-of-area requests are handled. Record the evidence needed to question a billed contact and the provider's actual response process. For marketplace terms, see disputing a bad lead; do not assume every vendor has the same policy.

2. What is the full cost over the same period?

Add every cost needed to run the proposal. Separate one-off setup from recurring charges so neither disappears from the comparison.

Ask each provider to fill these rows in writing:

Read the assumptions alongside agency budget decisions. The spend your business can support depends on the jobs and contribution it produces, not just a vendor's recommended monthly package.

3. Is cost per lead using the same denominator?

Use total relevant cost divided by accepted enquiries when you are comparing the cost of an accepted enquiry. Keep a separate cost per booked estimate and per won job. Do not replace the denominator with whichever count looks most impressive.

Fictional example, one month, USD: these are invented vendor quotes for illustrating the calculation, not Pavado prices or market averages. Setup and other costs are assumed to be zero only to keep the example small.

A appears cheaper if the comparison stops at the first form fill. B appears cheaper at the accepted-enquiry stage. Neither table tells you which one wins more profitable work: you still need bookings, jobs won, payment and the cost of doing the work.

If accepted enquiries are zero, there is no meaningful cost-per-accepted-enquiry figure. Report the spend and zero accepted enquiries rather than hiding the missing denominator.

4. Who qualifies and answers the enquiries?

Name the owner of each handoff. Managing ads does not automatically mean answering calls, checking service fit, confirming appointments or chasing estimates.

In a discussion on r/agency, an agency owner describes a client asking to add qualification and follow-up after advertising work had begun. That is an individual scope example, not proof about agency performance. It illustrates a useful question to settle before launch.

If the owner is your office, include that workload in the decision. If it is the agency, ask what coverage and escalation are included. Use the quote follow-up templates to inspect the messages as well as the schedule.

5. What access and assets do you retain?

Ask to see the account arrangement rather than accepting “you own everything” as a complete answer. Check the domain, website, advertising account, tracking number, creative and enquiry records separately.

Google's manager-linking documentation explains that linking an existing client account preserves its history and does not automatically give the manager administrative ownership. That is a platform access arrangement, not a substitute for agreeing ownership and handover of every other asset.

For each item, record the registered business, your direct access, the export format and what happens if the engagement ends. Your lead-source tracking should remain usable when someone changes the marketing setup.

6. What happens when the forecast is wrong?

Ask which assumptions can change and what action follows. Weather, seasonality, service availability, offer fit and sales handling can all alter the result. A forecast with assumptions is more useful than a guarantee nobody can verify.

Before launch, agree the review date, the evidence each party supplies and the decision rules for pausing or changing the work. Ask whether a lower volume, poor service fit and a tracking failure receive different responses.

Record how spending can change and who authorizes it. For long commitments, our lead-contract checklist covers the separate question of term and exit conditions. Compare what the actual agreement says; a proposal summary is not the full contract.

7. What should be in the reporting sample?

Request an anonymized sample that connects the billable event to the business outcome. You should be able to distinguish an enquiry received from one accepted, booked or won, and understand unresolved records.

A r/GeneralContractor discussion raises the buyer's concern that an agency and contractor may disagree about whether the problem is lead quality or closing. The comments are experiences and opinions, not measured benchmarks. Agreeing the stages makes that disagreement easier to investigate.

For an existing campaign, review the lead-to-customer gap before assuming more form submissions will solve it. Reports should show what is unknown as well as what succeeded.

8. Can you test the handoff before launch?

Run a sample enquiry through the proposed process. Confirm that the right person receives it, the qualification answers arrive, a reply has an owner and a booking or rejection changes the record.

Use invented test details with everyone involved aware it is a test. Check the status changes rather than relying on a notification screenshot. Do not count the test as a customer lead.

You can download the blank proposal worksheet and ask each provider to complete the same fields. Mark unanswered questions as unknown; do not score them as included.