- A typical air source heat pump installation runs £8,000–£15,000 before the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant — so one wasted enquiry costs more margin than a month of most lead services.
- Shared heat pump leads punish slow responders hardest: homeowners research for weeks, contact several installers, and commit to whoever answers and follows up best.
- MyTradeBuddy generates exclusive heat pump enquiries for one installer per area, qualifies them on property, timing and grant eligibility signals, and charges per booked survey — not per shared lead.
The short answer
UK heat pump installers get leads from four places: shared-lead marketplaces and quote sites, trade directories, Google (search ads, Local Services Ads and organic), and exclusive pipelines that deliver booked surveys rather than contact details. The same models exist for boilers and bathrooms — our guide to lead generation for UK trade businesses covers them across trades — but heat pumps sharpen every trade-off, because the job value is so high and the sales cycle so long.
One number frames the whole decision: with installations commonly £8,000–£15,000 and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme contributing £7,500, a single won job carries more margin than most firms spend on lead generation in a quarter. That cuts both ways — almost any channel can pay for itself, and any channel that leaks enquiries is burning serious money.
Why heat pump leads behave differently from boiler leads
A broken boiler is a distress purchase — the homeowner wants someone today, and speed wins. A heat pump is a considered purchase: homeowners research for weeks or months, gather several opinions, and weigh grants, disruption and running costs before committing. The enquiry you receive today may not become a survey for a fortnight and a sale for two months.
That changes what a "good" lead source looks like. For boilers, being first on the phone is most of the battle — see our boiler installation leads guide. For heat pumps, persistence wins: the installer who follows up helpfully across the whole research window takes the job from the one who called once and moved on.
It also raises the bar on qualification. A £15,000 quote visit to an unsuitable property — no space for the unit, uninsulatable fabric, a tenant who can't authorise works — costs half a day. Qualifying on property type, ownership, timing and motivation before the diary entry matters more here than in any other domestic trade.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme changes the qualification question
The £7,500 BUS grant is the engine behind most 2026 heat pump demand — and a filter your lead source should understand. Eligibility runs through capacity limits, property requirements and an MCS-certified installation, so an enquiry that assumes "free heat pump" needs different handling from a homeowner who has already had an EPC done and knows the numbers.
Good lead generation for this market asks grant-relevant questions up front: owner-occupier or landlord, current heating system, rough property age and insulation, and whether they're aware the grant goes through the installer. Every one of those answers changes whether a survey is worth booking.
Be wary of any provider selling "grant leads" harvested from ads that promise free heating. Those campaigns generate volume, but the enquiries often evaporate on first contact with the real numbers — and you pay per contact either way on a shared-lead model.
The channels, compared honestly
Shared marketplaces and quote sites sell the same homeowner to several installers, priced per lead. They deliver volume quickly, but on a considered purchase the multi-quote dynamic is brutal: you fund the homeowner's comparison shopping, and the win rate reflects it. If you use them, track cost per booked survey ruthlessly — the maths is in our pay-per-lead vs pay-per-booked-survey breakdown.
Directories (Checkatrade, TrustATrader and the like) give credibility and a steady trickle, and reviews matter more on a £12,000 decision than on a £90 call-out — but heat pump-specific volume is modest, and enquiries are shared with every competitor on the page. Google search ads on heat pump and grant terms reach genuine intent, but the cost per click is climbing with the market, and clicks still need answering, qualifying and chasing.
The exclusive model prices the outcome instead: demand generated for one installer per area, enquiries qualified on the property and grant questions above, chased by phone, SMS and email across the whole research window, and billed per booked survey. That's the model MyTradeBuddy runs for heat pump installers — see the heat pumps page for how it works. The honest trade-off: fewer, better appointments rather than a firehose of contacts, and availability depends on your patch being open.
Whatever the source: the follow-up wins the job
Heat pump buyers go quiet — not because they've chosen a competitor, but because life intervenes in a two-month decision. The installer who follows up on day 3, day 10 and day 24 with something useful (a grant explainer, a running-cost comparison, a neighbour's install) is the one still in the room when the decision lands.
That cadence is exactly what most one-van and small firms can't sustain by hand, and it's why the follow-up system matters more than the lead source. Whether you build it yourself or use a system that automates it, the rule from every other trade holds: the survey visit is where the money is made — the follow-up just gets you there.
And count honestly. Leads bought, surveys booked, installs won, margin per install, per channel. On numbers this size, a spreadsheet with ten rows will tell you more than any provider's sales page.
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Frequently asked questions
Shared-lead marketplaces and quote sites sell heat pump enquiries per lead to several installers at once; directories provide shared enquiries via membership; Google ads generate your own; and exclusive systems like MyTradeBuddy deliver qualified, booked surveys for one installer per area, billed per appointment. Compare them on cost per booked survey, not cost per lead.
Shared leads are typically priced per contact and vary widely with area and campaign quality; exclusive booked surveys cost more per unit because qualification and follow-up are included. Against an £8,000–£15,000 installation with the £7,500 BUS grant behind it, the deciding number is what a booked survey — and ultimately a won install — costs you on each channel.
Only if the campaign behind them is honest. The £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme drives genuine demand, but leads generated by "free heat pump" advertising often collapse when homeowners hear the real numbers. Ask any provider how the grant is presented in their ads and what qualification happens before you're charged.
For grant-funded work, yes — the Boiler Upgrade Scheme requires an MCS-certified installation, so uncertified firms can't complete most of the market's jobs. If you're not yet certified, leads can still feed non-grant work, but expect a large share of enquiries to be grant-motivated.
Because the purchase is considered, not urgent — homeowners research for weeks and juggle several quotes. Enquiries that go quiet usually haven't chosen anyone yet. Structured follow-up across the whole window (not one call and done) is the single biggest difference between installers' conversion rates on identical lead sources.