Nobody will give you a straight answer on this, so here is one.
When we listened to 386 Australian trade operators, the money they spend trying to win work came up again and again, in their own words, with the actual figures attached. Not brochure prices. What they paid, and what they got.
Here is the honest map of where the money goes, what each thing costs, and what the operators who paid it said about the return. Every figure below is a number a real tradie put on the record.
Coaching: $750 a month at the floor, and the trust is gone
Coaching is the one with the deepest eye-roll in the data. Thirty-five quotes, and almost all of them carry the same arc: paid good money, got buzzwords.
“Lowest subscription was $750 per month lol. Absolutely dreaming.” Owner
“Know a guy whose paid 6k for 3 months of coaching. Unbelievable.” Owner
So the entry point reported in the research sits around $750 a month, and the programs run up to $6,000 for a twelve-week block and beyond. That is a real range, from operators who paid it.
The problem is not the price by itself. It is the price against the delivery.
“I was with [a well-known tradie coaching program] for a while. What a load of shite. Some good elements but mostly the coaches just pumping you up with buzz words and numbers.” Owner
“If they’re so good at making money by being a tradie, why aren’t they doing it?” Owner
The read. Coaching is not worthless. Help priced like a luxury car and delivered as motivation has burned the trust of a whole trade. The operators who got value pointed to specific, practical systems they could run, never to the hype.
Job software: a $25k-a-year tax that does not always work
Tradies are not anti-tech. That is the lazy read. They are already running five or six apps a day. The complaint is the cost, the apps not talking to each other, and tools built by people who have never invoiced from a roof.
“We currently use [a major job-management app] with its digital forms. Its costing us $25k a year. Wanting to see whats out there and what may be better for us/a bit cheaper.” Owner
$25,000 a year for the system that runs the business, and the same operators report the support falling over when it matters:
“Major system failure after update. Support tickets stalled for 5 months with no resolution.” Owner
“Waited 6 months for a critical feature. No phone support available, chat only, and chat support can rarely solve problems in real time.” Owner
The bar tradies actually set is brutal and fair: fast, no learning curve, syncs on its own. Anything you have to study dies in the van. If a tool needs a manual on site, it never comes out of the box.
Pay-per-lead: up to $200 for a phone number that rings out
This is the angriest section in the whole research, and the anger is earned. Twenty-eight quotes, and the language is the sharpest in the dataset, because when a bloke gets charged $200 for a dead lead he does not write a measured review. He writes a warning to the next bloke.
“Their system is designed to take money from tradies for leads that are often not genuine. They charge up to $200 per lead, and many of these leads turn out to be fake, already completed, or from people who never respond.” Owner, on [a major lead-gen platform]
Up to $200 per lead, often on a contract you cannot exit, with no control over whether the lead is real. That is the model. It is renting attention by the click, and the meter runs whether or not anyone is home.
“Platform locks tradies into long contracts while many leads are fake, dead or already completed.” Owner
We wrote a full guide comparing this model against the alternative. If leads are where your money is going, read pay-per-lead platforms vs building your own visibility before you sign anything.
The quiet retreat: word of mouth, because at least it is honest
Here is what tradies do after they get burned. They retreat to the stuff that does not bill them for fake phone numbers.
“I realised I was better off putting that time and money into local papers, sponsoring sports clubs etc or handing out flyers and talking to people.” Owner
It is a fair instinct. Word of mouth does not charge you $200 for nothing. The problem is it does not scale, and it leaves you invisible to every customer who is not already two degrees away from a past job. A new buyer at 9pm with a problem does not know your mate’s mate. They open Google.
So what is the actual spend, and what is worth it
Put the reported figures in one place:
- Coaching: from $750 a month, up to $6,000 a quarter. Worth it only when it hands you a system you can run, not a pep talk.
- Job software: up to $25,000 a year. Necessary, but the value collapses if it does not fit in the working day.
- Pay-per-lead: up to $200 per lead, often locked in. Renting attention. The meter never stops.
- Word of mouth: cheap and honest, but it cannot reach a stranger searching tonight.
Notice the pattern. Every option on that list is something you rent. You pay, and the moment you stop paying, it is gone. The coaching ends. The leads dry up. The ad stops.
Before you sign anything
| Spend | Worth it when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Coaching | it hands you a system you run yourself | motivation dressed up as mechanics, lock-in contracts |
| Job software | it fits in the working day and syncs itself | $25k a year, six apps that don’t talk, no phone support |
| Pay-per-lead | you’re new and need work now, with a sunset date | long lock-in, shared or fake leads, no cost-per-won-job |
| Your own visibility | always: cheapest to start, and it compounds | nothing, it is yours |
And three questions to ask before you sign anything (call it the $10K test, because that is what the wrong answer costs):
- Do I own what this builds, or am I renting it?
- Can I see the cost per actual won job, in writing?
- What happens the day I stop paying?
If the honest answers come back “renting / no / it all vanishes,” keep your money.
What if you’re locked in, or skint
- Already locked into a contract. Do not panic-cancel mid-term; you may owe the balance. Find the end date and the notice period, set a reminder a month out, and track your cost per won job in the meantime so you know exactly what it is costing. Export anything that is yours, reviews and customer details, before you go.
- You have $0 to spend. Then you are in luck, because the highest-return marketing is free. Set up your Google profile, ask every job for a review, and list your services. A few hours, no dollars, and you have started where it compounds.
There is one kind of marketing spend that does the opposite, and it is the cheapest of the lot to start: the proof of your own worth, built once and left where buyers look. Your reviews, your prices explained on video, your work shown, your face before the knock. That is the whole point of getting found on Google, and you build it on a quiet week so it keeps working on a busy one.
You don’t need a funnel. You need a foundation.
The fastest first step costs nothing. Get the plain-English cards that turn each of those moves into one job, and start with the one that pays back quickest in your trade.