Preparing your lead payout and coverage dashboard.
Keyword tools tell you how many people search for “roofing contractor Tulsa.” They can’t tell you whether a roofing lead from Tulsa is worth $12 or $120 — or whether anyone buys leads there at all. That’s what this data is for.
Ranked by median payout — the middle ZIP code, not the best one. Headline maximums make poor planning numbers because they usually exist in a handful of ZIPs; the median is what a typical market in that niche is actually worth.
| NICHE | PAYOUT MODEL | ZIPS COVERED | MEDIAN PAYOUT | RANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biohazard cleanup | Cost per lead | 10,304 | $224.50 | $179.00–$319.00 |
| Fire damage removal | Cost per lead | 17,566 | $199.00 | $171.00–$365.50 |
| Water damage restoration | Cost per lead | 22,883 | $192.50 | $120.50–$497.50 |
| Siding | Cost per lead | 7,453 | $120.00 | $32.50–$152.50 |
| Garage doors | Cost per lead | 4,557 | $81.50 | $13.00–$90.00 |
| Solar | Cost per lead | 512 | $73.50 | $73.50–$81.50 |
| Mold removal | Cost per lead | 14,101 | $66.00 | $15.00–$160.00 |
| Foundation repair | Cost per lead | 4,112 | $53.50 | $16.00–$96.00 |
| Waterproofing | Cost per lead | 4,014 | $50.00 | $16.00–$134.50 |
| Plumbing | Cost per lead | 7,500 | $48.00 | $18.00–$87.00 |
| Pest control | Pay per call | 35,283 | $42.50 | $32.50–$42.50 |
| Roofing | Pay per call | 27,164 | $42.00 | $4.54–$170.10 |
| Painting | Cost per lead | 2,732 | $38.50 | $16.50–$47.00 |
| HVAC | Pay per call | 23,258 | $36.75 | $2.68–$122.50 |
| Plumbing | Pay per call | 25,372 | $31.50 | $3.47–$122.50 |
| Electrical | Pay per call | 18,913 | $24.50 | $1.73–$74.03 |
| Bathroom remodeling | Pay per call | 35,360 | $11.42 | $4.95–$61.32 |
| Appliance repair | Pay per call | 24,898 | $8.25 | $0.28–$147.00 |
The network buys on two different models, and mixing them up will wreck your maths.
You’re paid when a submitted lead converts to a booked appointment. Payouts are much higher — restoration niches pay the most — because a lot of raw leads never make it that far.
You’re paid for a qualified inbound phone call that stays connected past a minimum duration. Payouts are lower per event, but a far larger share of your traffic qualifies.
A $224.50 biohazard cleanup CPL payout and a $42.50 pest control call payout are not comparable numbers. Judge each against the traffic cost and conversion rate of its own model, not against each other.
Buyers bid per ZIP based on how badly contractors in that area want work, so the same niche can pay several times more one county over. Plumbing spans $3.47 to $122.50 — a 35× spread. HVAC, Roofing and Electrical behave the same way.
But not every niche is priced geographically. Pest Control pays just 2 different rates across all 35,283 of its ZIP codes. In niches like this there is no high-payout ZIP to hunt for and ranking cities by payout is meaningless — your only lever is search volume and cost per click.
Distinct payout values per niche across the whole country.
Enter any city or ZIP code to see every niche bought there, payout ranges, ZIP coverage and which niches stack on a single ZIP.
Pick one niche and rank every city or state by payout, market size or coverage. The profit estimator subtracts your ad cost.
See which niches have the deepest coverage in a state, then drill into individual ZIPs and their payout tiers.
Find ZIP codes where several niches are bought at once, so one site or campaign can monetise more than one service.
A high payout on its own is not an opportunity. It has to clear your cost of acquisition — a $500 lead in a town nobody searches from is worth less than a $40 lead in a city with real demand. Use these figures as the revenue side of the equation and pair them with keyword volume and competition data before committing to a market.
Where the data comes from. Coverage and payout figures come from LeadSmart’s public affiliate bid feed and are resynchronised automatically when the feed changes. City, county, population and density are matched from the SimpleMaps US Cities dataset (CC BY 4.0); roughly 20% of ZIP codes in the feed are administrative or PO-box ZIPs with no matching city record, and those show no population figure.
Fair warning. Payouts shown are net payouts to the affiliate, before any traffic cost. This site is an independent research tool and is not operated by or affiliated with LeadSmart.