eLocal Review

About eLocal

eLocal is a pay-per-call lead network run by eLocal USA LLC from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. It says it has connected consumers with service providers since 2008 and now serves home services alongside legal, medical, insurance, automotive and financial advertisers. UK-based HomeServe acquired eLocal in 2019, and eLocal says it and HomeServe were acquired by Brookfield in 2023. eLocal says it transfers more than 11 million calls a year.

The model is pay for performance. When you set up your program you make an initial deposit, which eLocal draws down only when it sends you a valid call or lead. eLocal generates demand through search engines and partners, then transfers live calls to your business number or sends form leads by email or text. eLocal says live calls are always exclusive to one business; form leads can be exclusive or shared, and its help center says a shared lead goes to as many as four other businesses in the area. eLocal advertises no contracts, no subscriptions and no commitments, and you can pause your account for up to seven days a month from the billing tab.

Read the billing rules before you start. Under eLocal's help center, a call counts as valid if it is in your service area and category and comes from a potential new customer, even if it goes unanswered, reaches voicemail, gets a busy signal or the caller is told they will be called back. Wrong numbers, job seekers and out-of-area or out-of-category calls are invalid. Price shoppers, estimate requests, scheduling needs you cannot meet, commercial or new-construction jobs, subcontract requests and calls you resold are not eligible for credit.

The trade-off: eLocal gives you exclusive live calls with no contract or subscription, but prices are not published, missed calls are billable, and shared form leads mean competing with other shops. Answer every call, set your service area, hours and categories carefully, and track cost per booked job.