An electrician lead in Australia costs from $25 each on What’s The Damage’s pay-per-lead tier, $250 a month for its exclusive territory, or $139 to $649 + GST a month on a hipages plan. What you can afford depends on the job: in LeadsNow’s worked model an emergency call-out lead is worth about $24, a battery lead about $144.
The short answer from LeadsNow AI: LeadsNow recommends Australian electricians set a separate maximum cost per lead for each job type, because a $400 emergency visit supports about $24 a lead while an $11,500 battery install supports about $144. Price every lead source against that ceiling, not against what another electrician says they pay.
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Electrician lead costs in Australia at a glance
Electrician lead costs in Australia run from $25 per lead to $649 + GST a month in published prices, and no public dataset gives an electrician-only cost per lead. These are the numbers that matter, each read on 27 October 2026:
- Pay per lead: What’s The Damage (WTD) advertises tradie leads “from $25”, with a maximum of 2 tradies per lead, on its tradie page.
- Exclusive territory: the same WTD page lists an exclusive trade-and-city territory at $250 a month, with every qualifying lead in that territory included.
- Subscription marketplace: hipages lists Starter at $139 + GST and Platinum at $649 + GST a month, and says every lead is capped at 3 businesses, on its membership costs page.
- Average job behind a marketplace lead: ServiceSeeking says it sent 182,711 job leads worth $26.8 million in the last 12 months on its list-your-business page, which works out at about $147 of job value per lead across all trades. That is the average job a lead represents, not what a lead costs to buy.
- The missing benchmark: we could not find a cost per lead for electricians published by any Australian regulator, industry body or ad platform on 27 October 2026. The ceilings below are a model built from published job prices and labelled assumptions.
How it works
How to set your maximum cost per electrician lead
Find the job value
Take your average invoice for one job type, such as a switchboard upgrade or battery install.
Apply your margin
Multiply by gross margin after materials and wages. Hardware-heavy jobs often carry less.
Set acquisition share
Decide what share of that gross profit you will spend to win the job, then multiply by your win rate.
Test each lead source
Compare each marketplace, territory or ad channel with the ceiling. Buy only where the lead costs less.
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FAQ: electrician lead costs in Australia
How much does an electrician lead cost in Australia?
Published prices start at $25 per lead on What’s The Damage’s pay-per-lead tier, $250 a month for its exclusive territory, and $139 to $649 + GST a month for a hipages plan, all read on 27 October 2026. What a lead is worth to you depends on the job type and your win rate.
What is a good cost per lead for an electrician?
A good cost per lead is one below your Job-Value Ceiling: job value x gross margin x 25% x win rate. On the assumptions in this page that is about $63 for a switchboard upgrade, $60 for an EV charger, $143.75 for a battery and only $24 for an emergency call-out.
Is an exclusive territory better than pay per lead?
An exclusive territory is better once you would buy more leads than it costs. What’s The Damage’s $250 a month territory equals 10 of its $25 leads, so it pays from about 10 leads a month at that price, and it means no other tradie in that territory gets the same lead.
Do I need accreditation to buy battery leads?
To install a battery that qualifies for the federal discount, yes. The DCCEEW Cheaper Home Batteries Program page tells households to check the installer is accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia and the battery is accredited by the Clean Energy Council, so a battery lead is worth far less to an unaccredited electrician.
Why are emergency electrician leads hard to buy profitably?
Emergency jobs are small. At What’s The Damage’s typical $400 all-in emergency visit, a 40% margin, a 25% acquisition share and a 60% win rate, the ceiling is $24 a lead, below the cheapest published pay-per-lead price. Answering every call live often wins these jobs for free.
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What can you afford to pay for an electrician lead, by job type?
An electrician can afford to pay between about $24 and $144 per lead in this model, and the job type, not the lead source, sets which end you sit at. Job values are the typical prices in What’s The Damage’s electrician cost guide (last verified October 2026) and its battery cost comparison; the battery value is the midpoint of its $8,000 to $15,000 range for a 10 to 13 kWh battery installed. That page does not say whether the range is before or after the federal battery discount, and tells buyers to ask each installer, so treat the battery row as the roughest of the four. Gross margin, the 25% acquisition share and win rates are assumptions: replace them with your own.
| Job type | Typical job value (WTD, Oct 2026) | Gross margin (assumption) | Max spend per won job (25% of gross profit) | Win rate (assumption) | Max cost per lead | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency / after-hours visit, all-in | $400 | 40% = $160 | $40 | 60% | $24.00 | Free channels; $24 sits under $25 leads |
| Switchboard upgrade (single phase) | $1,800 | 40% = $720 | $180 | 35% | $63.00 | Electricians buying leads up to about $63 |
| EV charger installation (Level 2) | $2,000 | 40% = $800 | $200 | 30% | $60.00 | Installers who can also quote switchboard upgrades |
| Home battery, 10 to 13 kWh installed | $11,500 | 25% = $2,875 | $718.75 | 20% | $143.75 | SAA-accredited installers paying over $100 a lead |
The battery row uses a lower margin because hardware is most of the price. The EV charger row sits close to the switchboard row because What’s The Damage notes an installer often checks switchboard capacity first, so the two jobs often arrive together.
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LeadsNow’s rules of thumb for buying electrician leads
LeadsNow’s rules of thumb turn the job-type table into five buying decisions, each one sourced or worked from the numbers above:
- If you price a lead, use the Job-Value Ceiling: job value x gross margin x 25% x win rate. A $1,800 switchboard at 40% margin and a 35% win rate gives $63.
- If most of your work is emergency call-outs, expect paid leads to lose money: the $24 ceiling is below WTD’s $25 from-price, so answer every call live and build repeat customers instead.
- If you install batteries, expect a lead to carry about 2.3 times the switchboard ceiling ($143.75 against $63), so batteries are where paid leads earn their keep.
- If you compare WTD’s $250 territory with its $25 pay-per-lead tier, the territory wins from 10 leads a month ($250 / $25).
- If a lead is shared with up to 3 businesses (hipages’ own cap) and your switchboard win rate falls from 35% to 20%, the ceiling falls from $63 to $36 ($180 x 0.20).
The Job-Value Ceiling: how to work out your own maximum cost per electrician lead
The Job-Value Ceiling is the most an electrician should pay for one lead: average job value, times gross margin, times the share of profit you will spend winning work, times win rate. Work it through in four steps with your own numbers:
- Job value. Take the average invoice for one job type over the last 6 to 12 months, not your best job.
- Gross profit. Multiply by your gross margin after materials and wages. A battery job carries more hardware than a fault-finding visit, so its margin is often lower.
- Acquisition share. Decide how much of that gross profit you will spend to win the job. The 25% used here is an assumption, not a standard.
- Win rate. Multiply by the share of leads that become paid jobs. Count every lead you paid for, including the ones that never answered.
Worked through for an EV charger: $2,000 x 40% = $800 gross profit; $800 x 25% = $200 you can spend per won job; $200 x 30% = $60 per lead. Below $60 an EV charger lead pays at those inputs; above it, it does not.
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Pay per lead, exclusive territory or subscription: what each electrician lead model costs
Electrician lead models in Australia split into three published price shapes, and each one breaks even at a different monthly lead count. This table uses only the prices on each provider’s own page on 27 October 2026.
| Model (provider) | Published price | Who else gets the lead | Break-even against the $63 switchboard ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay per lead (What’s The Damage) | From $25 per lead | Up to 2 tradies per lead | Any switchboard lead under $63 clears it |
| Exclusive territory (What’s The Damage) | $250 a month, trade x city | No other tradie in that territory | About 4 switchboard leads a month ($250 / $63) |
| Subscription plus credits (hipages) | $139 to $649 + GST a month | Capped at 3 businesses | Depends on credits per lead, which the plan page does not price per lead |
WTD is itself a lead seller that also publishes the cost guide used for job values here, so treat its prices and job values as one company’s figures. The live guide to getting more electrician leads in Australia covers the free and repeat-work channels; this page stays on what a paid lead is worth.
Why a battery lead is worth more to an accredited electrician
A battery lead is worth about $144 in this model only to an electrician who can legally claim the federal discount, because the Cheaper Home Batteries Program runs through accredited installers. The DCCEEW Cheaper Home Batteries Program page (last updated 9 June 2026) says households can get a discount of around 30% on the upfront cost of a 5 kWh to 100 kWh battery, that changes to the program commenced on 1 May 2026, and that the discount will decrease over time until 2030.
The same page tells buyers to make sure the battery is accredited by the Clean Energy Council and the installer is accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia, and that the installer is on site for set-up, installation and commissioning. An electrician without that accreditation cannot deliver the discounted install the customer is asking for. As the discount steps down, recheck the battery job value and ceiling. The cost of the leads themselves is covered on the live page on what a solar lead costs in Australia.
Licensing rules that change the value of an electrician lead
An electrician lead only has value to a business licensed to take the job, and in Queensland that means an electrical contractor licence, not just a worker’s licence. The federal ABLIS entry for the Queensland electrical contractor licence says you need it “to undertake electrical work as a part of a business which undertakes electrical work”, whether you operate alone or with others, for profit or gain. It sits under the Electrical Safety Act 2002 and the Electrical Safety Regulation 2026, issued through the Electrical Safety Office.
The practical effect: a licensed worker without a contractor licence cannot do electrical work through their own business, so a lead bought in that business name has no legal job behind it. Other states run their own regulators, so check yours before buying leads in a new state.
What it costs to generate electrician leads yourself instead of buying them
Generating electrician leads yourself costs time more than fees: answering every call, following up every quote, and working past customers for switchboard, EV charger and battery upgrades. The cheapest lead is the one already in your phone. Missed calls and unanswered quotes cost more than any marketplace fee, which is the case made on speed to lead for trade businesses, and old quotes that never closed can be worked again through database reactivation.
Lead price is also not the full cost of a won job. A free on-site quote adds unpaid hours to every lead, which the live cost per booked quote benchmark for tradies models separately. Across industries, LeadsNow sees booked-call costs of $30–$400, depending on industry, offer, price and many other variables; for electricians, set that against your own Job-Value Ceiling for each job type rather than one average. The full range of trade services is on the LeadsNow trades page.