What a boiler lead must tell you before the survey
Qualification is the whole game here. We capture and verify the detail that decides whether a survey is worth an engineer's afternoon, and pass it through with the enquiry.
- Property type, age and number of bathrooms
- Current boiler make, age and fault, and whether it is combi, system or back boiler
- Fuel type — mains gas, LPG, oil, or an electric or heat pump conversion
- Trigger: breakdown, planned upgrade, house move, or landlord compliance
- Whether finance is needed, and whether the homeowner owns the property
- Timescale — this week, this month, or planning for autumn
Seasonality decides the budget, not the other way round
Boiler demand is brutally seasonal. Searches for replacement and breakdown climb from late September, peak with the first sustained cold week, and fall away by March. Firms that build their visibility in July and August own the autumn; firms that start advertising in November pay double for the same click and land behind the national installers. We plan campaigns against that curve rather than a flat monthly spend.
Competing with the national installers
British Gas, Octopus and the boiler-in-a-box brands outspend every independent installer on paid search and dominate the finance-led comparison journey. Independents win on three things instead: a named local engineer with a verifiable Gas Safe number, a same-week survey when the nationals quote three weeks, and a transparent fixed price on the page rather than a form-gated estimate. Every campaign we run leans on those three, because they are the ones the nationals structurally cannot match.
Grants, heat pumps and where the market is moving
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has pushed a growing slice of enquiries toward heat pumps and hybrid systems, and that traffic behaves differently — longer research, more grant questions, higher install value. If you are MCS certified we treat it as a separate campaign with its own qualification, because mixing heat pump and gas replacement enquiries in one funnel wastes both.
Who we generate boiler leads for
Boiler campaigns work when the survey-to-install process is tight. We check that:
- Gas Safe registered, with the registration number displayed and verifiable
- Surveys booked within five working days of the enquiry, sooner in peak season
- Fixed written quotes issued within 48 hours of the survey
- Finance available, or a clear position on why not
- Capacity for at least eight to ten installations a month through the winter
If you only do repairs and services rather than replacements, the economics do not work — repair leads are cheap to generate but the job value will not carry a lead-generation budget. Pay-per-call is the better fit.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a boiler installation lead cost?
Typically £80–£180 for an exclusive, qualified boiler replacement enquiry. At a £3,000 average install value and a 30–40% close rate on properly qualified leads, that is a cost of sale most installers are comfortable with.
Are boiler leads shared with other installers?
Not ours. Every enquiry is exclusive. The comparison sites that dominate boiler search work the opposite way — they sell one homeowner's details to three or four installers.
When should I start a boiler campaign?
July or August. Search and Google Business Profile visibility take six to ten weeks to build, and you want that in place before the first cold week rather than bidding against the nationals in November.
Do you generate heat pump leads as well?
Yes, for MCS-certified installers, and we run it as a separate campaign. Heat pump buyers research longer, ask about the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, and need different qualification from a like-for-like gas replacement.
Can you generate boiler service plan customers?
Yes. Service plans are usually sold to your existing install base through email rather than bought as cold leads, which makes them the cheapest recurring revenue available to most heating firms.