How Much Does a Patio or Pergola Lead Cost in Australia?

A patio or pergola lead in Australia costs $25 to $60 + GST on What’s The Damage’s published pay-per-lead tiers, or a hipages credit charge that hipages does not publish for patios, at 75.5c to 89.7c a credit. On assumed conversion rates, a shared lead on a $20,000 patio breaks even at $600 and an exclusive one at $1,260.

• Published lead prices, November 2026: What’s The Damage charges $25 + GST a lead, $40 + GST for jobs of $5,000 or more and $60 + GST for jobs of $20,000 or more, shared with up to 2 tradies, or $250 + GST a month for an exclusive city territory.
• hipages: $139 to $649 + GST a month for 155 to 850 credits, with every lead capped at 3 businesses; credits per patio lead are not published.
• What the job is worth: What’s The Damage’s patio cost guide puts a typical 30 sqm patio at $20,000 (range $14,000 to $30,000); hipages puts a pergola at $2,000 to $12,000.

The Patio Lead Break-Even Calculator: what a patio or pergola lead is worth

The Patio Lead Break-Even Calculator says the most a builder can pay for one lead is job value x gross margin x lead-to-quote rate x quote-to-job rate. It is a ceiling, not a target.

Job values come from published homeowner cost guides and include GST. What’s The Damage does not say how it sizes a job for its lead tiers, so the tier column assumes the job value shown. The 30% margin and both conversion rates are assumptions to replace with yours: a shared lead is assumed to reach a measure-and-quote 50% of the time and win 20% of quotes (10 leads per job); an exclusive lead 70% and 30% (21%, or 4.8 leads per job).

The worked example, medium patio, end to end: $20,000 x 30% = $6,000 gross profit. A shared lead becomes a quote half the time and a quote becomes a job one time in five, so $6,000 x 0.50 x 0.20 = $600. What’s The Damage’s $60 + GST tier is 10% of that ceiling, and 10 leads per job puts lead cost at $600 per won patio, 3% of the job.

Rules of thumb

• If you sell medium patios, a $60 lead is cheap on these assumptions: it is 10% of the $600 shared break-even.
• If your quote-to-job rate halves from 20% to 10%, every ceiling in the table halves: the medium patio drops to $300.
• Pergola leads have the least room: a $40 lead is 19% of the $210 shared ceiling, so a weak close rate bites first there.
• Paying a third of break-even keeps two thirds of the gross profit; for a medium patio that is about $200 a shared lead.

Patio and pergola lead cost FAQ

Is $60 too much for a patio lead?

Not for a medium patio. On this page’s assumed rates a shared lead on a $20,000 patio breaks even at $600, so What’s The Damage’s $60 + GST tier for jobs of $20,000 or more is 10% of the ceiling. It only becomes dear if your quote-to-job rate falls below about 2%.

Do pergola leads cost less than patio leads?

Pergola leads are often priced in a lower tier because the jobs are smaller. hipages puts a pergola at $2,000 for a basic installation up to $12,000 for a large custom one, so most fall in What’s The Damage’s $25 or $40 + GST bands rather than the $60 band for $20,000+ jobs.

How many hipages credits does a patio lead take?

hipages does not publish a fixed figure. Its lead credits policy says credits depend on trade category, job location, supply and demand and the size of the job, and can change until the job is marked as hired. Multiply the credits shown on the lead by 75.5c to 89.7c + GST.

How many builders get the same patio lead?

On What’s The Damage’s pay-per-lead option each job goes to up to 2 tradies, or to 1 if a territory is locked. hipages caps every lead at 3 businesses. The more builders on a lead, the lower your quote-to-job rate is likely to be, which lowers the break-even price.

What close rate do patio and pergola builders get?

No Australian dataset publishes one. The nearest public figure is a vendor case study: SaleSqueze says Swiss pergola seller Spa Solutions converted 17.2% of inquiries after moving quoting behind a 3D configurator, double its previous rate. Treat that as one seller’s claim, not a benchmark.

Does a hipages plan lock me in?

hipages plans start on an introductory 6-month term and then renew on a 12-month term, according to its membership costs page, which says hipages will tell you before the automatic renewal. Plans run from $139 to $649 + GST a month. Read the business terms before signing.

Can I cancel a What’s The Damage patio territory?

Yes, according to its own page. The first month is free, then $250 + GST a month; cancelling before day 31 means you are never charged, and after that you keep the territory to the end of the month you have paid for. Rankings are not guaranteed, which the page states.

Why does speed matter more on shared patio leads?

A shared lead is a race. What’s The Damage shows pay-per-lead buyers each job 2 hours before it goes wider, and hipages lets up to 3 businesses accept the same lead. The first builder to call and book the measure often sets the price everyone else is compared against.

Are patio lead prices quoted with or without GST?

Both platforms quote tradie prices before GST: What’s The Damage’s $25 to $60 per lead and $250 territory are + GST, as are hipages’ $139 to $649 plans. What’s The Damage’s patio cost guide, written for homeowners, quotes job prices with GST included, so compare like with like.

What gross margin should I put in the calculator?

Use the margin from your last ten completed patios, after materials, labour and subcontractors. The 30% on this page is an assumption. Every 5 points of margin moves the shared break-even on a $20,000 patio by $100, because $20,000 x 5% x 10% of leads becoming jobs = $100.

What patio and pergola leads cost on Australian lead platforms in 2026

Patio and pergola leads in Australia are sold three ways: per lead by job size, as a flat-fee exclusive territory, or as marketplace credits whose price per lead is not published.

What’s The Damage (Focus Search Pty Ltd) sends leads from its own cost guides after an SMS check with the homeowner. Our guide to where Australian tradies can get leads covers the other channels; this page only prices them for patios.

Shared or exclusive: when does a $250 patio territory beat paying per lead?

A $250-a-month exclusive patio territory beats $60 shared leads once it sends about 2 medium-patio leads a month, if exclusive leads convert at the assumed 21% against 10% for shared.

Compare on cost per won job: shared $60 leads at 10 per job cost $600 a job; $40 leads cost $400.

The advantage rests on the assumed conversion gap. If exclusive leads close no better than shared ones, the territory has to send more than 4.2 leads a month to beat $60 leads ($250 / $60) and more than 6.25 to beat $40 leads. Track lead-to-job rate by source before committing.

How many hipages credits can a patio lead justify?

A hipages patio lead can justify up to about 669 credits on the Starter plan for a medium patio, because $600 break-even divided by 89.7c a credit is 669.

hipages credits cost 89.7c on Starter ($139 for 155), 80.3c on Advanced ($249 for 310), 75.5c on Premium ($449 for 595) and 76.4c on Platinum ($649 for 850), all + GST. Divide the break-even from the calculator by your plan’s credit price to get a credit ceiling: a pergola lead at $210 justifies 234 credits on Starter and 278 on Premium. A 3-business lead may deserve a lower quote-to-job rate, which lowers these ceilings.

What the patio lead price leaves out: the measure-and-quote visit

A patio lead price excludes the unpaid measure-and-quote visit, and at the assumed 50% lead-to-quote rate every two leads bring one site visit to pay for.

Driving out, measuring and writing the quote come out of the same gross profit the calculator spends. The full method is on our page on cost per booked quote for Australian tradies. Whether 20% of quotes becoming jobs is good or poor for your trade is covered in what a good quote conversion rate looks like. The same logic is worked for pool leads and landscaping leads.

How patio builders raise the break-even instead of hunting cheaper leads

Patio builders raise what a lead is worth by lifting the two conversion rates, since every extra point of quote-to-job rate adds $30 to a $20,000 shared lead’s ceiling.

That $30 is $6,000 x 0.50 x 1%. Three levers move the rates:

• Answer first. On a lead shared with 2 or 3 builders, the first call often books the measure. Our guide to speed to lead for trade businesses covers the response-time evidence.
• Price before the visit. SaleSqueze reports that Swiss pergola seller Spa Solutions converted 17.2% of inquiries, double its old rate, after buyers priced their own pergola online before contacting the team. That is a vendor’s case study, not an Australian benchmark.
• Work the quotes that stalled. Quotes sent but never accepted are leads you have already paid for; reactivating quoted-but-never-closed jobs lifts the quote-to-job rate without buying another lead.

Doing this in-house means answering every lead fast and chasing every open quote for weeks, which often slips in a busy season. LeadsNow sees booked-call costs of $30–$400, depending on industry, offer, price and many other variables; how that applies to builders is on our lead generation page for trades.

Sources

1. What’s The Damage: patio leads, Brisbane (pay-per-lead tiers and territory price), read 13 November 2026
2. What’s The Damage: patio cost in Australia, verified November 2026
3. hipages: membership costs, read 13 November 2026
4. hipages: job leads and credits policy, read 13 November 2026
5. hipages: what is the rough cost of a pergola, updated 21 January 2026
6. SaleSqueze: Spa Solutions customer story, read 13 November 2026