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Exclusive vs. shared leads: which should roofers buy?

An exclusive lead is sold to one company. A shared lead is sold to several companies, often up to four, who all get the same homeowner's name and number at about the same moment. Shared leads cost less each, but you compete on the first call and the homeowner hears from several roofers at once. Exclusive leads cost more each, but you are the only company calling. Which one is cheaper for you depends on how many of each you turn into signed jobs, not on the price of the lead.

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What exclusive and shared mean

A lead is a homeowner who asked about a project and agreed to be contacted. The seller passes that homeowner's details to one or more contractors and charges for each one.

  • Exclusive lead. The seller sends it to one company. No other contractor gets that request from that seller.
  • Shared lead. The seller sends the same request to more than one company. Each company pays for it, and each one calls.

Marketplaces publish how many companies can get one request. Here is what a few of them say on their own pages:

  • eLocal says its shared form leads go to at most 4 businesses in a service area, and its exclusive leads go to one business and cost more. It says its phone calls always go to one business.
  • Angi (which runs HomeAdvisor) tells homeowners on its how-it-works page that they will get information for up to four local pros. HomeAdvisor's consumer terms say it will try to match a request with up to four service professionals, and that the homeowner agrees to calls from up to four of them.
  • Networx says on its contractor page that it matches each buyer with at most four professionals in the area.

"Up to four" is a ceiling, not a count. A given request may reach fewer companies. Ask the seller how many companies received each lead you paid for, on average, and whether their reports show it.

Exclusive vs. shared leads side by side

Shared lead Exclusive lead
Price per lead Lower. The seller splits the homeowner across several buyers. Higher. One buyer pays for the whole request.
Competition on the first call Several companies are dialing the same number at once. You are the only company this seller sent it to.
Homeowner experience Several companies call and text about the same request, close together. One company calls about the request.
Speed pressure Very high. The first company to reach the homeowner often sets the appointment. Still high. The homeowner can go elsewhere, but you are not racing three rivals for the same call.
Who each fits Teams with someone ready to call within minutes, all day, and room to price against competitors. Teams that want fewer, steadier conversations, sell on inspection and trust, and cannot staff a phone race.

For the dollar side of this table, see what roofing leads cost.

Why the first call matters so much

Two studies from the same research group get cited on this more than any others. Both looked at web leads across many industries, not roofing alone, so read them as a general pattern.

  • The Lead Response Management study (2007). InsideSales.com worked with James Oldroyd, then at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and presented the results in October 2007. They studied three years of data from six companies: more than 15,000 leads and more than 100,000 call attempts. They reported that the odds of reaching a lead fell 100 times when the first call came at 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes. The odds of qualifying the lead fell 21 times over the same gap.
  • "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads," Harvard Business Review, March 2011. Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington sent test web leads to 2,241 U.S. companies. 37% answered within an hour. 23% never answered. Among those that did answer within 30 days, the average wait was 42 hours. In a second data set of 1.25 million leads, companies that tried to reach a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as companies that tried an hour later. They were more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or more.

What this means for you: every lead cools fast, and a shared lead cools faster because other roofers are calling too. If you buy shared leads, the lead's value rests on how quickly your office picks up the phone. If you buy exclusive leads, speed still matters, but a slow first call costs you less.

A worked example: cost per signed job

This is a made-up example with round numbers. It is not data from HomeAnvil or any seller. Put your own numbers in its place.

Say you are choosing between two offers for replacement roof leads:

  • Shared lead: $60 each. It goes to four companies. Say you sign 1 job out of every 15.
  • Exclusive lead: $180 each. It goes only to you. Say you sign 1 job out of every 5.

Cost per signed job is the lead price times the number of leads it takes to sign one job:

  • Shared: $60 x 15 = $900 per signed job.
  • Exclusive: $180 x 5 = $900 per signed job.

In this example they come out the same. Now change one number. If your team calls faster and signs 1 in 12 shared leads, that is $60 x 12 = $720. If your close rate on exclusive leads is 1 in 4, that is $180 x 4 = $720. Small changes in your close rate swing the answer either way.

Two costs the example leaves out:

  • Time. Fifteen shared leads mean fifteen call attempts, more voicemails and more inspections that end with the homeowner picking someone else. Price your sales staff's hours per signed job too.
  • Price pressure. A homeowner holding four bids can push the price down. A lower margin on each job changes what you can afford per lead.

Track your own close rate for each source for a few months before you decide. The lead price alone does not tell you which is cheaper.

How the homeowner agreed to be contacted matters for every lead. It matters more when one form sends the homeowner to several companies, because each of those companies is calling on the strength of that one agreement.

This section is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about your own calls and texts.

The FCC's one-to-one consent rule. In December 2023 the Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule aimed at what it called the lead generator loophole. It said a homeowner's written agreement to get marketing robocalls and robotexts had to name one seller at a time. It also said the calls had to relate to the site where the homeowner gave consent. A single checkbox could no longer cover a long list of companies.

What happened to it. On January 24, 2025, a federal appeals court decided Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC, No. 24-10277. It held that the FCC had gone beyond its authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It vacated that part of the 2023 order and sent it back to the FCC. The court's mandate issued on April 30, 2025. On July 14, 2025 the FCC issued an order that took the one-to-one language out of its rules and put back the earlier wording.

So the one-to-one rule is not in force. The underlying federal rules on consent for autodialed and prerecorded marketing calls still apply. Before you call or text a lead, you should be able to answer three questions: what did the homeowner see, what did they agree to, and does that agreement cover your company?

The FTC's HomeAdvisor order. In April 2023 the Federal Trade Commission approved a final order against HomeAdvisor. The FTC had charged that since at least mid-2014 the company made false, misleading or unsupported claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold to service providers. That included how often its leads turned into jobs. The order bars the company from false or misleading claims about its leads, including claims that the homeowners are ready to hire, or that they sent a request to HomeAdvisor directly. It also required payment of up to $7.2 million. The lesson for any buyer is simple: ask where a lead came from and what the homeowner actually did, and get the answer in writing.

Questions to ask any lead seller

Ask these before you sign anything. Write down the answers.

  1. How many companies get each lead? Exactly how many, not "a few." If it varies, ask for the average and whether your reports will show it for each lead.
  2. Can the lead be sold again later, and when? A lead sold to you alone today may be offered to other companies next week. Ask whether that can happen and after how long.
  3. Where do the leads come from? The seller's own ads and forms, or leads bought from other companies and passed on? If they buy some, ask which share.
  4. What did the homeowner answer? Ask to see the form. You want the project type, whether they own the home, the timeline and anything else they were asked.
  5. How did the homeowner agree to be contacted? Ask for the exact wording, whether your company is covered, and whether the seller keeps a record of when the homeowner agreed.
  6. What do you credit back, and within what window? Wrong numbers, renters, duplicates, work you do not do, areas you do not serve. Ask how long you have to report a bad lead and how the seller decides.
  7. How long is the contract, and how do you stop? Ask whether you can pause, and whether stopping costs anything.

How HomeAnvil sells leads

Here is how HomeAnvil works, in plain terms:

  • One contractor per new lead. Each new lead goes to one contractor only during your exclusivity window, at the fixed per-lead price in your agreement. After the window, a lead may be offered again, under the terms the homeowner saw.
  • Our own ads, our own form. Leads come from our own ads and our own quote form. We do not buy leads from other companies and pass them on.
  • You see the answers. Before giving contact details, the homeowner answers questions about the project, the home, whether they own it and their timeline. You get every answer with the lead.
  • Consent on the record. The homeowner agrees to be contacted on the last step of the quote form, and we record when they agreed.
  • No lock-in. No contract term, no cancellation fee. You can pause or stop any time.

We start with roofing. You can read more about how our roofing leads work.

Our terms, in brief

Exclusive leads
Each new lead goes to one contractor only during your exclusivity window; after it, a lead may be offered again, under the terms the homeowner saw.
No contract term
A prepaid balance your card tops up when it runs low. No cancellation fee. Pause or stop any time.
Credits for bad leads
Report a wrong number or out-of-area lead within 14 days, unless your agreement says otherwise. Accepted returns are credited back.
Your ZIPs, your cap
Choose the ZIP codes you serve and how many leads you want each week.

Our full pricing and terms

Frequently asked questions

Are exclusive leads always better than shared leads?

No. They cost more each, so they are only better if they bring your cost per signed job down. Some teams with a fast phone operation do well on shared leads. Track both by close rate and cost per signed job before you choose.

Does "exclusive" mean the homeowner will not talk to other roofers?

No. It means the seller sent that request only to you. The homeowner can still ask other roofers for bids on their own. Exclusive means you are not racing other buyers of the same lead.

How fast should I call a new lead?

As fast as you can manage, ideally within minutes. The 2007 study found the odds of reaching a lead fell sharply between 5 and 30 minutes, and the 2011 study found a steep drop after the first hour. On shared leads, minutes decide who books the inspection.

Is the FCC's one-to-one consent rule in effect?

No. A federal appeals court vacated it in January 2025 in Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC, and in July 2025 the FCC removed it from its rules. The earlier consent rules still apply. This is general information, so ask your own lawyer about your calls and texts.

What should a lead include besides a name and number?

At least the type of work, whether the person owns the home, their timeline and when they agreed to be contacted. Without those, you spend your first call finding out whether the lead is worth a visit.

Where this information comes from

Each fact on this page comes from the source named beside it. All were read on September 28, 2026.

We will update this page when these sources change, and the date above will say when.

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