Bark vs your own website: paying for leads or owning them
Bark is a lead marketplace: a customer posts what they need, and businesses pay to get in touch with them. Your own website works the other way round, bringing people to you who are already looking for your business or your trade in your area.
Both can win work. They suit different stages of a business, and they cost you in different ways.
How a lead platform works
The customer fills in a short form describing the job. The platform then offers that request to businesses, who pay to respond. Check Bark's current pricing and how it charges, because the model and the costs change and vary by service.
The important part is that you are usually paying for the chance to quote, not for a job. Several businesses can respond to the same request, so you are often one of a few quotes landing at once.
Where it helps
It can fill a quiet diary quickly, and it can bring enquiries from areas or job types you have not reached before. For a new business with no reviews and no website yet, that can be a useful start.
Where it costs you
Every lead is a cost whether it turns into work or not, and the customer is talking to your competitors at the same time, which pushes the conversation towards price.
When you stop paying, the leads stop. Nothing you spent builds up into something you keep.
What your own website does instead
People who find your site have chosen you, not a list of strangers, and they are not being sent to three other businesses at the same moment.
The site keeps working after the month is paid for, and every job, photo and review you add makes it more useful. Linked to your Google Business Profile, it is the base everything else points to: your van, your cards, your Facebook page and any platform you still use.
Common questions
- Is Bark worth it for tradespeople?
- It depends on how many leads turn into paid work. Track how many you pay for and how many you win for a couple of months, then work out what each job really cost you.
- Can I use Bark and have my own website?
- Yes, and many businesses do. Put your website on your profile where the platform allows it, so customers who want to know more can see your work.
- What does your website cost?
- £249.99 to build, then £49.99 a month for a sole trader, with no minimum term.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249.99 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built show on page one of Google for 103 searches between them, in Search Console.