How to get leads without HiPages: AU tradie guide

If you've searched "HiPages alternative" or "how to get leads without HiPages," I want to stop you before you make the mistake almost every tradie makes at this point.

The mistake is switching to Oneflare. Or ServiceSeeking. Or Airtasker. Or any other platform that does the same thing under a different logo.

The frustration you have with HiPages isn't specific to HiPages. It's structural. You're paying to compete against other tradies for leads that belong to the platform — not to you. Switching platforms doesn't fix that. It just changes who you're renting from.

What "owning your leads" actually means

An owned lead system is one where:

• The landing page lives on your domain
• The ad account is in your business name — you hold the billing
• The leads go directly to you, unshared, not auctioned to three competitors
• If you stop working with whoever set it up, you keep everything

That last point is the one most agencies don't advertise. When you run HiPages, the leads are HiPages's. When you run your own Google or Meta campaigns into your own page, the leads are yours — and the data history is yours, which compounds over time.

The 90-day transition that works

Don't turn HiPages off on day one. Run the owned system in parallel for 4–6 weeks first. Here's the sequence:

Month 1: Build and launch the owned system

This means: a conversion-focused landing page on your domain, one Google Search campaign targeting your highest-intent keywords (emergency repairs, installs, your city), and a missed-call SMS so no enquiry goes cold. Takes 2–3 weeks to build properly.

Keep HiPages running. You're not replacing revenue yet — you're building a second channel.

Month 2: Run both in parallel, watch the CPL gap

By week 3–4, your owned system will be producing leads. Track the cost per lead on each channel. Owned Google Search for most trades in AU runs A$30–90/lead on a well-set-up campaign. HiPages effective CPL (counting the 1-in-3 win rate) often runs A$90–180+ for the same trade, same city.

The gap becomes obvious fast. And the floor matters: a recent r/PPC thread from a Sydney plumber running A$13–14k/month in Google Ads without a proper landing page was seeing CPLs of A$470. The campaign wasn't the problem. The system around it was. That's what the build fixes.

Month 3: Turn off HiPages

Once your owned system is hitting your volume target — or close to it — cancel HiPages. Redirect that spend into your own campaign budget. The money that was going to the platform goes back into your ads. Your CPL drops. Your margins improve.

One thing that surprises most tradies

When your owned system is running well, the problem isn't usually "not enough leads." It's the opposite.

One of our clients in New Zealand — construction business covering Auckland and Hamilton — had to reduce their ad budget after the first few months because the leads were arriving faster than their team could call back. That's a scaling problem. It's a much better problem to have than renting leads you share with three competitors.

What about SEO — do I need that too?

Eventually, yes. But SEO takes 6–12 months to compound. Paid search gets you results in week one. Start there. Build your GBP profile and collect reviews in the background. By month 6, the organic traffic starts supplementing the paid — and your cost per acquisition drops further.

The order matters. Most tradies who try to do everything at once end up doing nothing well. Paid first, then SEO, then content.

The short version

Stop looking for a HiPages alternative. There isn't one that doesn't have the same structural problem. The exit is to build an owned system, run it in parallel for 4–6 weeks, and then cancel the platform once your own pipeline is producing.

You'll spend more upfront (A$3,500 to build, A$1,500–3,000/mo in ad spend). You'll spend less per booked job within 60–90 days. And you'll own the asset instead of renting it.