Scaling Pay-Per-Lead The Hard Way (Then The Smart Way)

I’ve been in the performance space for a while. We’ve built and run ad campaigns across a bunch of local service niches (electrical, lighting, automation, etc.), and recently started scaling a proper pay-per-lead model across a few cities.

Here’s what I’ve learned the hard way so far:

Tracking and client transparency kill most early PPL models. If the client doesn’t trust your numbers, they stop paying fast.
Lead quality is 90% about offer positioning, not ad targeting. Once we switched from “Free Quote” to “Free Home Safety Check,” our CPL dropped and close rate tripled.
Automation only matters if it fits the client. Fancy tech means nothing if their office still writes quotes on paper.

We’re now using AI to follow up with leads, score them based on response behavior, and feed real-time lead quality data back into the ads. It’s getting scary good.

Curious.. for those already deep into this model:

👉 What’s the biggest bottleneck you’re still running into when scaling pay-per-lead?

Let’s trade notes and see if we can shortcut each other’s learning curve.

1 comment