Checkatrade vs Facebook Ads for Driveway Companies: Which Gets Better Leads?

Last updated: April 2026.

Driveways are possibly the worst trade to market through Checkatrade. Here is why: your biggest advantage is visual. A cracked, mossy concrete slab transformed into clean resin bound or pristine herringbone block paving. That image sells the job before you say a word. On Checkatrade, that image is a thumbnail in a list next to 8 other driveway companies. On Facebook, it is a full-screen before-and-after that stops someone mid-scroll while they are sitting in their car on their own cracked driveway.

The maths is also brutal for driveways on Checkatrade. Membership runs £90-140/month with a 12-month lock-in. That is up to £1,680 before you have won a single job - and every lead you get is shared with every other driveway company paying the same fee in your postcode. Real numbers below.

How Checkatrade works for driveway companies

Checkatrade lists over 50,000 tradespeople across the UK (source: Checkatrade). Driveway companies sit alongside plumbers, electricians, and handymen in the same directory. The homeowner searches, gets a list, and messages several at once.

Here is what you are actually paying for:

The monthly subscription

Checkatrade membership costs between £90 and £140 per month depending on your category and location. Driveway companies - especially those covering resin bound and block paving - tend to sit at the higher end because the work is classed as a specialist trade. That works out to roughly £1,080-1,680 per year before you have won a single job from it.

The 12-month lock-in

Checkatrade requires a 12-month minimum contract. You cannot try it for a month and cancel if the leads are rubbish. If it stops working after month three, you are still paying for the remaining nine months. For a driveway company testing a new marketing channel, that is a significant financial commitment with no exit.

Shared leads - the real problem

This is where the model falls apart for driveway companies. When a homeowner searches for driveway installers in your area, Checkatrade does not send that lead exclusively to you. It shows the homeowner every Checkatrade member in that area and category. The homeowner might contact five, eight, or even ten of you.

You are not buying leads. You are buying visibility on a platform where you compete with other paying members for the same homeowner. And in that competition, the cheapest quote usually wins - which is terrible for quality driveway companies doing premium work.

Limited visual selling

Driveways are one of the most visual trades. A cracked concrete drive transformed into a gleaming resin bound finish sells itself - if people can see it. Checkatrade gives you a basic profile page with a text description and some reviews. It is not built to showcase dramatic before-and-after photography, drone shots of completed work, or video walkthroughs. For a product that sells on visual impact, that is a fundamental mismatch.

The dilution problem

Here is something Checkatrade does not advertise: they keep adding more companies to your area. When you first joined, there might have been four driveway companies listed in your postcode. Now there might be twelve. Same number of homeowners searching, but the leads are split twelve ways instead of four. Your share shrinks every time a new company joins.

How Facebook ads work for driveway companies

Facebook and Instagram ads work in the opposite direction. Instead of waiting for a homeowner to search, you put your best driveway photography directly in front of homeowners who match your ideal customer profile - before they have even started getting quotes.

You show your work where people are already scrolling

Think about it. A homeowner is scrolling through Instagram and sees a stunning before-and-after of a driveway transformation - weedy cracked tarmac on the left, beautiful resin bound on the right. Their own driveway looks exactly like the "before." They tap, they enquire, they book a quote. That is how driveway ads work on Facebook and Instagram. Your work does the selling.

Every lead is exclusively yours

When someone fills in a form on your Facebook ad, that lead goes to you and only you. No list of competitors. No race to call back. That homeowner has seen your specific work, liked the look of it, and actively asked to hear from you. The intent is completely different from someone browsing a Checkatrade directory and contacting five companies at once.

You target the right homeowners

Facebook lets you target by location (down to specific postcodes), age, homeownership status, property type, and interests like home improvement, garden design, and property renovation. You can show your resin bound driveway ads to homeowners aged 35-65 in detached and semi-detached houses within 25 miles of your base. No wasted spend on renters or people outside your area.

You build your own brand

Every time your ad appears in someone's feed - even if they do not click - they see your company name, your logo, and your driveways. Over time, you become the driveway company people think of when theirs starts looking tired. That brand recognition compounds month after month. Checkatrade builds Checkatrade's brand. Facebook ads build yours.

No lock-in, no minimums

Diary full for the next two months? Pause the ads. Quiet spell coming? Increase the budget. You are in complete control. No 12-month contract. No cancellation fees. If something is not working, you change it tomorrow.

Side-by-side cost comparison

Here are the real numbers, side by side. These figures are based on typical UK driveway companies - resin bound, block paving, and tarmac specialists.

At first glance, Checkatrade looks far cheaper. £120 a month versus £1,500+. But the cost that matters is cost per actual job won, not cost per lead.

Let us run the numbers. Imagine both channels generate 20 leads in a month for your driveway company:

Checkatrade scenario: 20 shared leads. At a 7% close rate (because those leads went to eight other driveway companies too), you close 1.4 jobs. With an average driveway job of £4,000, that is £5,600 in revenue. But you spent hours quoting 18 jobs you did not win - driving to properties, measuring up, writing proposals. That time has a real cost.

Facebook ads scenario: 20 exclusive leads at £30 each = £600 in lead cost, plus £750 management = roughly £1,350 total. At a 20% close rate (because nobody else has those leads), you close 4 jobs. That is £16,000 in revenue. Nearly three times the sales, from the same number of leads - and far less time wasted on quotes you never win.

The Facebook leads cost more individually, but because they close at nearly triple the rate, the cost per job is lower and the revenue is dramatically higher.

What about Bark, MyBuilder, and Rated People?

Checkatrade is not the only lead platform out there. Here is how the others compare:

Bark

Bark uses a credit system where you pay per lead (typically £5-15 per lead for driveways). The leads are shared, same as Checkatrade. The advantage is no monthly subscription - you only pay when a lead comes in. The disadvantage is the same: shared leads, price competition, and low close rates. Some driveway companies find Bark leads lower quality than Checkatrade because Bark's qualification process is minimal.

MyBuilder

MyBuilder charges a percentage of the job value (typically 2-3%) rather than a fixed lead fee. This means you only pay when you win work, which sounds fair. But the leads are still shared, the platform is heavily price-driven, and that 2-3% adds up quickly on a £5,000 driveway job (£100-150 per job). For premium driveway companies, the price-shopping culture on MyBuilder is a poor fit.

Rated People

Rated People operates similarly to Bark with a pay-per-lead model. Leads cost between £5 and £25 depending on job size. Again: shared leads, multiple companies chasing the same homeowner. The close rate problem is identical to Checkatrade.

The pattern across all these platforms is the same: cheap leads that are shared with competitors, driving down close rates and creating a race to the bottom on price. If you do premium work and want to charge premium prices, these platforms work against you.

What driveway companies are saying about Checkatrade

You do not have to take our word for it. A quick look at Trustpilot tells the story. These are the kinds of complaints that come up again and again from tradespeople - including driveway installers:

"Twelve months of paying £130 a month and I got four leads total. Two of them wanted a driveway for half the price I quoted. Complete waste of money and you cannot even leave early."

"The leads are shared with every Tom, Dick and Harry in my area. By the time I call back, three other companies have already quoted. It is a race to the bottom on price."

"When I joined there were three driveway companies listed in my area. Now there are nine. They just keep adding more members. Same leads, split nine ways."

"I asked to cancel after six months of getting nowhere and they said I was locked in for the full year. That is another £780 down the drain."

The pattern is consistent: high fees, shared leads, low conversion, constant dilution as more companies join, and a 12-month contract that prevents you from leaving when it is not working.

When Checkatrade makes sense

We are not saying Checkatrade is useless for every driveway company. There are two specific situations where it can still be a reasonable choice:

You are a brand new driveway company with zero portfolio

If you have just started out and have no completed projects to photograph, no reviews, and no online presence at all, Checkatrade can be a way to get your first five or ten jobs. You need that initial work to build a portfolio and collect testimonials. Think of it as a short-term launchpad - not a long-term strategy.

As a supplementary channel alongside other marketing

Some established driveway companies keep a Checkatrade listing running as one of several lead sources, purely to catch the odd homeowner who searches there. That is fine - as long as it is not your primary strategy and you are tracking the actual ROI. If the numbers do not stack up after six months, cut it.

When Facebook ads make sense

For most established driveway companies, Facebook ads are the stronger option. Here is when they work best:

You have good photos of completed driveways

This is the single most important factor. If you have before-and-after photos of your finished driveways - even smartphone photos taken in good light - you have the raw material for ads that stop the scroll. A cracked concrete drive next to a gleaming resin bound finish is one of the most powerful ad formats in all of home improvement advertising.

You want exclusive leads, not shared ones

If you are tired of racing eight other companies to return a call, Facebook ads solve that problem permanently. Every lead that comes through your ads has seen your specific work and chosen to enquire with you. No competition. No price wars on day one.

You want to control your pipeline

With Facebook ads, you can turn the tap up when you need more work and dial it back when your diary is full. You choose the budget, the area, and the audience. With Checkatrade, you are entirely at the mercy of how many homeowners happen to search that month.

You want to build a brand, not just get leads

Every Facebook and Instagram ad impression builds your brand in your local area. After three months of running ads, people start recognising your company name. They search for you directly. They recommend you to friends. That compounding brand effect is worth far more than any directory listing - and it is something Checkatrade can never give you.

Curious whether other driveway companies in your area are already running Facebook ads? Use our free Competitor Spy Tool to check any company's Meta Ad Library presence in seconds.

The verdict

For most established driveway companies, Facebook ads win on ROI. The leads cost more individually, but they close at nearly triple the rate, they are exclusively yours, and they build your brand whilst generating enquiries.

Checkatrade was designed for trades where speed of response determines who wins the job. But for driveway companies - where the visual transformation is your strongest selling point - you need a channel that lets your work do the talking. Facebook and Instagram are built for exactly that kind of visual selling.

If you are currently spending £100+ per month on Checkatrade and wondering why the leads are not converting, the answer is almost always the same: shared leads with no visual showcase, competing on price instead of quality. Switch to a channel where your before-and-after photography does the selling, and the difference shows up in your close rates within weeks.