Every trade business pays for enquiries somehow — in cash, in time, or in jobs lost to whoever the homeowner found first. The question is whether you’re paying for something that resets every year, or something that builds.
Here’s a worked example. The numbers are illustrative — swap in your own.
Year one: the directory route
Say you spend £1,800 a year on directory membership and lead fees. You get 40 enquiries. Because each homeowner is comparing several firms, you win 6 of them.
- Cost per enquiry: £45
- Cost per job won: £300
- What you own at the end of the year: nothing that keeps working if you stop
Year two: the directory route again
Same spend, similar results. The cost per job won stays roughly flat — because nothing you paid for in year one is still working for you. Every January, the meter resets.
Year one: the owned route
Now say the same kind of budget goes into things you keep: your Google Business Profile kept active, and your best jobs written up properly on your own site — two a month.
Early on, it produces less. Search visibility takes months to build, and the first quarter can feel quiet. Be honest with yourself about that.
But by the end of the year you have:
- 24 finished jobs written up, each with a before and after
- A Google profile with a year of recent work and replied-to reviews
- Pages that answer “bathroom fitter in Cheltenham” with your work
Year two: the owned route
This is where it changes. Everything from year one is still there, still ranking, still being sent to homeowners who ask for examples. Year two adds to it. The enquiries that come in go to you alone — no comparison list, no shared lead.
The real difference
Directory spend is an operating cost: useful, but it buys this month and nothing after. Owned marketing behaves more like equipment: it costs up front, then keeps earning.
Most established firms don’t need to pick one overnight. A sensible path is to keep the directory while the owned side builds, then decide at renewal whether you still need it.
See it side by side
We’ve put the directory route and our monthly Engine next to each other, line by line, on the pricing page. Or email info@torqpoint.com with your own numbers and we’ll run them with you.