Checkatrade vs Building Your Own Customer Base (Gas Engineers)

Checkatrade is the UK's most recognisable trades directory, with high brand recognition among homeowners. For gas engineers, it offers:

• Lead generation while your business is new: A newly set-up Checkatrade profile can generate enquiries within weeks, before you have Google reviews or organic rankings. This is its main value — especially for engineers who have recently gone self-employed
• Verification credibility: Checkatrade verifies businesses and checks Gas Safe registration, insurance, and ID. This "Checkatrade approved" status has genuine trust value with certain customer demographics (particularly homeowners 50+)
• Reviews with context: Checkatrade reviews include the type of job, which helps potential customers understand your specialisms

Checkatrade subscriptions for gas engineers typically cost £25–£50/month. At a conversion rate of 1 in 5 enquiries and an average job value of £150–£300 (service/certificate work), the maths can work — if you're getting 10+ enquiries per month.

Relying heavily on Checkatrade for lead generation creates business risks that many gas engineers don't consider until they've experienced them:

• You don't own the platform: If Checkatrade changes its algorithm, increases subscription fees, or changes review policies, your lead volume changes overnight. You have no control
• Race to the bottom on price: Checkatrade customers often compare multiple quotes from the platform. This creates price competition where the cheapest quote often wins — structurally suppressing your margins
• Lower-quality enquiries: Platform leads often come from customers who are price-shopping across 3–5 engineers simultaneously. They have lower intent and higher price sensitivity than organic leads or referrals
• Subscription cost regardless of results: You pay your monthly subscription whether enquiries come in or not. In quiet months, you're paying for nothing

The fundamental problem: Checkatrade-dependent businesses are renting their customer acquisition rather than owning it.

An owned customer base — people who found you via your Google listing, were referred by an existing customer, or booked through your website — is fundamentally more valuable than a rented Checkatrade customer base:

• Higher conversion rates: Organic Google leads and referrals convert at 40–60% versus 15–25% for platform leads, because there's no simultaneous comparison
• Better margins: Customers who found you directly are less likely to negotiate on price
• Compound growth: A Google Business Profile with 100 reviews generates enquiries indefinitely, at zero marginal cost. A Checkatrade subscription generates enquiries only while you're paying
• Customer database: A customer who booked through your own channel and gave you their details is yours to follow up, remind, and upsell. A Checkatrade lead is Checkatrade's data, not yours

The path to an owned customer base: Google reviews (consistent, ongoing), GBP optimisation, referral programme (active, with incentives), and a simple website that converts organic traffic. Takes 6–12 months to build meaningful organic volume; thereafter it compounds.

For a new or recently self-employed gas engineer, Checkatrade is a legitimate way to generate early income while building your organic presence. Don't dismiss it — the leads are real and the revenue is real.

But use that early income to invest in owned-channel growth:

1. Join Checkatrade (or MyBuilder) for initial leads and cash flow
2. Use every job to build your Google review count (direct review request to every customer)
3. Build and optimise your Google Business Profile
4. Create a simple website
5. Start a referral programme
6. As organic enquiries grow, assess whether Checkatrade subscription cost is justified by incremental leads you couldn't get otherwise

Many established gas engineers cancel their Checkatrade subscription after 18–24 months when their own channels are generating more than enough work. Some maintain it as an additional channel that pays for itself. Very few should be entirely dependent on it.

To evaluate whether Checkatrade is worth it, track the actual numbers:

• Number of enquiries received per month from Checkatrade
• Number of jobs won from those enquiries (conversion rate)
• Average job value of Checkatrade jobs
• Cost per acquired job: monthly subscription ÷ jobs won

If your subscription is £40/month and you win 4 jobs from Checkatrade leads, your cost per acquired job is £10 — excellent. If you win 1 job per month, the cost is £40 per job — much harder to justify unless those jobs are high-value installations.

Compare this against your organic channels: Google reviews, referrals, and direct enquiries are essentially free. The question isn't "is Checkatrade generating jobs?" — it's "are those jobs worth more than the same investment put into owned channels?"