How to get more asbestos removal jobs: seven sources of work, ranked by cost per job won.
Every asbestos contractor director asks the same question when the diary thins: where does the next job come from? There are seven real answers. Most firms rely on two of them and pay for a third without knowing what it costs. This article ranks all seven by what a won job actually costs, including the time spent quoting, and sets out which to build first.
- Cost per job won, not cost per lead, is the number that decides whether a source pays.
- Word of mouth and repeat clients are cheapest but cannot be scaled on demand. Frameworks are the biggest prizes but take months to win.
- Shared lead platforms typically cost £250 to £330 per domestic job won before quoting time, and the price rises as you grow.
- Your own website and Google Business Profile are the only source that gets cheaper every year, because the pages keep producing enquiries without a per-lead fee.
- Google Ads is the fastest lever and the most expensive per click; it pays when the landing page is built to convert.
The only number that matters
A lead is not a job. Between the enquiry and the invoice sit the contact rate, the quote rate and the win rate, and the hours spent pricing work that went elsewhere. Cost per job won includes all of that. When you rank sources by that number rather than by cost per lead, the order changes, and so does where you should spend the next six months.
The seven sources, ranked
1. Repeat clients and word of mouth
Cost per job: close to zero. The best source every contractor has and the one nobody can turn up on demand. It depends on jobs already done and people remembering you, which is why it dries up in a quiet period exactly when you need it. Worth protecting with a review ask on every completed job, and worth capturing on your site as case studies and reviews, because that is where a referral checks you before they ring.
2. Frameworks and panels
Cost per job: low once appointed, high to get there. A housing association or council framework delivers steady work for four years, but winning a place takes an organised compliance file, written case studies and a bid, and panels are small. We set out the route in how to win housing association and council asbestos frameworks. The right time to prepare is before the notice appears.
3. Main contractors and surveyors who recommend you
Cost per job: low, but you are dependent on their pipeline and their margin. Survey firms recommend removal contractors they trust and main contractors sub-contract licensed work. Both check your credentials and your website before putting their name behind you, and both are easier to win when you can show the kind of jobs they run. Sector pages and case studies do this work.
4. Your own website and Google Business Profile
Cost per job: falls every year. A site that is found for your services and towns, verifiable in a minute and quotable by AI assistants produces enquiries that arrive alone and already half-convinced. There is no per-lead fee and the page that produced this month's enquiry produces next month's too. The cost is building it properly, which is why it is the one source most firms have not got, and the one we exist to fix. The free check tells you how far yours is from working.
5. Google Ads
Cost per job: the highest per click, but the fastest to switch on. Survey clicks cost up to £18 and removal clicks up to £10 at the top of the page, and a self-run campaign buys compensation, training and test kit searches by mistake. Run properly, with exclusions and a landing page that converts, a £1,200 budget can produce around 18 enquiries and six jobs on conservative assumptions, which we work through on the Google Ads page. It pays when the diary is empty now and the website is not yet carrying its weight.
6. Shared lead platforms and directories
Cost per job: £250 to £330 for a domestic job before quoting time, on the arithmetic in what lead platforms really cost, and higher for commercial work. The enquiry goes to several firms at once, so you win on speed and price, and the platform raises the fee as your dependence grows. Useful as a bridge with a capped budget. Fatal as the strategy.
7. Cold outreach to buyers
Cost per job: high in time, variable in result. Introductions to facilities managers, housing officers and estates teams work when you have something specific to show them: a case study in their kind of building and a credentials page they can check in a minute. Without those, it is a cold call. With them, it is a follow-up to something they can verify.
Everything above except the website costs the same or more each year. The website is the one asset that compounds.
An Envirorank website is built to be found for your towns, verified by buyers and named by AI assistants, with the cost guide and area pages that take enquiries back from the guide sites and networks. £3,500, no hidden fees, live in four weeks, and it keeps producing after the platform budget stops.
Which to build first
| If your situation is | Do this first | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Diary empty this month | Google Ads on exact match, sent to a page that converts | Fix the website so the clicks stop being wasted |
| Reliant on one platform | Cap the platform spend and work out cost per job | Build the owned channel to replace it within a year |
| Want commercial and public sector work | Credentials page, three case studies, named supervisors | Tender alerts and the next framework in your region |
| Steady but want to grow | Area pages for the next towns and reviews that mention the job | The monthly plan to keep adding pages and checking AI mentions |
Measuring it
Give every source a number. Platform leads are easy: you are invoiced. Website enquiries need call tracking and a form that records the page; Google Business Profile reports its own calls and clicks; frameworks are visible in the order book. Review the four numbers quarterly and move money toward the sources whose cost per job is falling. Most contractors who do this for a year end up with the website and the profile producing the majority of enquiries and the platforms switched off. Google's guidance on helpful content and the HSE's asbestos pages are the two external references worth keeping to hand: one tells you what Google rewards, the other is where your buyers go to check you.
Related: what 22,021 ASB5 notifications say about who wins licensed work.
Every source of work now starts with a search.
Whether the enquiry comes from a framework evaluator, a referral or a homeowner, they check you online first, and more of them ask an AI assistant to shortlist for them. A new website that proves your licence, experience and reviews, kept current with monthly AI visibility work, makes every other source of work convert better. More in how AI search chooses asbestos companies.
Questions this raises
We have never measured cost per job. Where do we start?
With one month of enquiries. Note the source of every one, whether it was quoted, whether it was won and roughly how long quoting took. Divide what you spent on each source by the jobs it produced. The result is usually surprising, and it tells you where the next pound should go.
Is a new website really a source of work, or just a brochure?
Built the way most contractor sites are built, it is a brochure. Built around the searches people make, the credentials buyers check and the questions AI assistants answer, it is a source of enquiries that costs nothing per lead. The difference is structure, not design.
How long before the website produces jobs?
Verification fixes show in AI answers and local results within four to eight weeks. Steady organic enquiries build over three to six months as pages and reviews accumulate. Google Ads fills the gap in the meantime if you need work sooner.
Make your website your best source of work.
Find out in three minutes with the free Four Stage Clearance. Our team will then personally review your site within one working day and let you know what to improve first.
