Pay per lead vs Google Ads for fire, gas and electrical safety firms

If you run a fire risk assessment, gas, electrical or other compliance business, you have probably been offered both. Google Ads charges you for clicks. Pay per lead charges you for enquiries. They solve the same problem in different ways, and the right one depends on how much risk you want to carry and how much time you have to manage it.

The short version

How Google Ads works for a compliance firm

You bid on searches like "fire risk assessment" plus your town. When someone clicks your ad, you pay. A click is not an enquiry. Some visitors are landlords ready to book, some are students researching, some are competitors, and some are people who wanted a different service. To make ads work you need a landing page that converts, tracking that tells you which clicks became enquiries, and someone who keeps removing wasted search terms.

Cost per click varies by area and competition, so I won't quote figures. Work them out from your own account. The number that matters is the cost per customer: what you spent divided by the jobs you won.

How pay per lead works

A supplier builds and owns a local site that ranks for searches like yours, takes enquiries, and passes the qualified ones to you for an agreed price each. You do not pay for clicks, the site, or the ranking effort. If you want the detail, see how local lead generation websites work.

Do the maths on cost per customer

Whichever route you take, the comparison is the same: cost per customer equals what you pay for each lead divided by the share you win. As an illustration, if a lead costs £50 and you win one in four, each customer costs £200 in lead fees. If your job value comfortably covers that, the lead is worth buying. Your own win rate matters more than the headline price, which is why tracking lead quality pays off.

When Google Ads makes sense

• You need work quickly and cannot wait for a site to rank
• You have a good website, tracking set up and someone to manage the account
• Your jobs are valuable enough to absorb some wasted spend
• You want full control over where and when you appear

When pay per lead makes sense

• You want cost tied to enquiries rather than clicks
• You do not have time to manage campaigns
• You can wait for a new site to build up, and you want to take on only the leads that arrive
• You would rather add a channel than replace your own marketing

The downsides of pay per lead

It can be slow while a new site ranks. You have less control. Volume is never guaranteed, and the quality of leads depends on you and the supplier agreeing up front what counts as one. Before you sign anything, read questions to ask before buying leads.