Getting paid
What we pay per lead,
and when it lands.
AceLeads pays a fixed fee for every lead we accept. The fee is set per brief and confirmed to you in writing before you send anything, at one of two tiers: a raw accepted lead, and a qualified lead carrying the extra detail the brief names. Payment runs every Friday for everything accepted up to the previous Sunday, by bank transfer, on an invoice we raise for you. We do not publish one public rate, because the rate moves with the vertical, the postcode and the volume.
This page is the whole payment position: how a fee is set, what moves it, what a decision costs you either way, and the calendar the money actually arrives on. Everything on it is the same wording that goes into the affiliate agreement.
- Fee agreed in writing first
- Paid every Friday
- No invoice to raise
- Accepted is final
The payment calendar
Dates, not adjectives
- Decision
- Within 48 hours of submission
- First payment
- Within 14 days of your first accepted lead
- After that
- Every Friday, for everything accepted up to the previous Sunday
- Payment method
- Bank transfer (BACS). We raise the self-billed invoice, so there is nothing to chase.
- Clawback
- Once we accept a lead it is ours. We never claw back an accepted lead because a buyer did not convert it. We reverse a payment only for proven fraud, a proven duplicate, or a consent failure.
The same calendar applies to every affiliate on every brief. It is not tiered by how much you send, and it does not change once you are on it.
How a fee is set
Agreed in writing before you send anything.
You never send a lead not knowing what it pays. The fee for each tier on your brief is confirmed to you in writing when the brief is opened to you, along with the area and the volume it covers, and it holds for everything you send under it.
The brief sets the fee
Every vertical we buy has a written brief, and the brief carries its own tiers. Nothing is priced by category name or negotiated lead by lead.
You get it in writing
Before you send anything, the fee for each tier on your brief is confirmed to you in writing, along with the area and the volume it applies to.
It holds for what you send
The confirmed fee applies to every lead you send under it. A rate can be reviewed going forward, never retrospectively against leads already accepted.
It is reviewed on request
Ask for a review when your volume, your area or your lead quality changes, and whenever buyer demand on the brief moves. Any change is confirmed in writing.
Read the brief first. Each brief carries its own tiers, its own qualifying fields and its own closed list of rejection reasons. The lead types we are buying against is the index, and the lead quality standards page carries the rules that apply across all of them.
The tiers
Two tiers today, and a third being built.
Every brief pays at a tier rather than a single flat fee, because the gap between a lead a buyer has to work from scratch and one they can act on immediately is the whole difference in what it is worth. The tier is decided by what arrives with the lead, not by how the call goes afterwards.
Raw accepted lead
Live on every brief
A real person who made the enquiry themselves, with contactable details, inside the area the brief is buying for, and with the consent evidence attached. This is the floor, and it is the same standard on every brief in the programme.
What clears it is written on the brief before you send anything.
Qualified lead
Live on every brief
Everything in the tier above, plus the qualifying detail the brief names: usually timing, budget band, tenure, or the specification of the job. It pays materially more than a raw lead because the business receiving it can act on it straight away.
The fields that lift a lead a tier are listed on the brief, not judged after the fact.
Booked appointment
Not open yet
Some briefs will carry an appointment tier once booking is live, and it will pay more than either tier above because it removes the buyer’s hardest step. Until a brief actually carries it, nothing here advertises it as available.
A fee you cannot yet earn is not a fee, so we do not publish one.
Moving a lead up a tier is usually a form change. On most briefs the qualifying detail is three or four fields you are already close to asking for. Adding them costs you nothing per lead and changes which tier every lead from that source is paid at, which is the single highest-return change most affiliates make in their first month.
Straight answer
Why we do not publish a public rate card.
Because we would rather give you the real figure than a headline one. Rates differ by brief, by area and by the volume behind them, so a number pinned to a page is accurate for a handful of people and misleading for everyone else. Here is the reasoning in full, and then the fastest way to get the actual figures for your brief.
One number would be wrong for most people
The fees across our briefs sit a long way apart, because the jobs behind them do. Publishing a single figure would flatter one vertical and insult another, and anyone reading it would have to discount it anyway. A range wide enough to be true is too wide to be useful.
Volume and area move it further
The same enquiry is worth a different amount in a postcode a brief is short in than in one already well covered, and a steady weekly volume is worth more than the same total arriving at random. A public number cannot carry those, so it is read as the number, and then it has to be walked back.
So ask, and you get the real one
Tell us the vertical you generate in, roughly where, and roughly how much. You get the tiers for that brief in writing, usually the same working day, before you commit anything. That is a better answer than a headline figure, and it is the same figure we put in the agreement.
Ask for the brief you generate in.
Name the vertical, roughly where you generate and roughly how much, and you get the tiers for that brief in writing, usually the same working day. Nothing commits you, and the figures you are quoted are the figures that go into the agreement.
What moves a rate
Six things, and you control four of them.
A fee is not a mood. It is set from a short list of things, and most of that list is in your hands: what you generate, how complete it arrives, whether you offer it to anyone else, and how steadily it comes. The other two are the market you are generating in.
The vertical
The single largest factor. A commercial solar enquiry and a domestic cleaning enquiry are both good leads, and they are worth very different amounts to the business that receives them. Fees are set per brief for exactly this reason.
What the job is worth
Within a vertical, the fee tracks the value of the work behind the enquiry. A high-ticket installation and a one-off domestic visit sit at different ends of the same brief, which is why several briefs split their tiers by job type rather than by category.
Exclusivity
A lead sent to us and to nobody else is worth more than the same enquiry circulating around three other networks. Exclusivity on a brief is optional, and offering it is one of the clearest ways to lift a fee.
Volume and consistency
Steady volume at a stable acceptance rate is worth more to a buyer than an unpredictable trickle, because it is something they can staff for. Both halves matter: volume with a falling acceptance rate moves a rate the other way.
How complete the lead is
The difference between the tiers is usually three or four fields on a form. A lead that arrives with timing, budget band and tenure already captured needs no chasing, and it is paid at the qualified tier rather than the raw one.
Where the lead is
Buyer demand is not spread evenly across the country. A postcode a brief is short in can carry a different fee from one where three buyers are already covered, and the areas a brief is actively buying in are named on it.
Every brief names its own tiers.
The briefs open right now sit a long way apart on value, which is the clearest argument against a single published fee. Open the one you generate in and the tier structure, the qualifying fields and the reject list are all on it.
Decision and finality
A decision in 48 hours, and then it is settled.
The two questions that actually decide whether a programme is worth your traffic are how long you wait for a decision and whether that decision can be undone later. Both answers are fixed, and both are in the agreement.
Read the quality standardsEvery lead gets an accept or a reject within 48 hours of submission. Nothing sits in a pending state while you keep spending on a source you cannot yet judge, and the verification that would otherwise happen weeks later happens inside that window instead. That is what makes the second half affordable.
Every rejection names which standard the lead missed, drawn from the closed list published on the brief before you sent anything. Nothing is rejected for a general sense of quality, because a rejection you cannot act on is worth nothing to you and teaches us nothing either. You can appeal any of them, and your rolling acceptance rate and rejection reason mix sit in your portal broken down by source.
Once a lead is accepted it is ours, and the fee is yours. We do not reach back into a payment because a buyer failed to convert, could not reach the person, or changed their mind about the vertical. There are exactly three reasons a payment is ever reversed, and the list is closed.
-
Proven fraud
A lead shown to be fabricated, submitted through a compromised source, or generated by anything other than a real person making a real enquiry.
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A proven duplicate
The same enquiry from the same person inside the duplicate window on that brief, whether it reached us twice from you or arrived from two sources.
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A consent failure
Consent evidence that cannot be produced on request, or that does not support the contact the buyer is making. The compliance page sets out what has to travel with a lead.
Nothing outside those three is a reason to reverse a payment. What has to travel with a lead for the consent evidence to stand up is on the compliance page.
Self-billing
You raise no invoice.
Most of the admin in a per-lead arrangement is reconciliation: working out what was accepted, raising a document for it, and then chasing the document. We take all three off you.
We operate a self-billing arrangement. Your accepted leads are totalled from your account, we raise the invoice on your behalf, and it is paid on the published run by bank transfer. You submit nothing and you chase nothing. Your statement itemises every lead behind the payment, so you can tie a payment back to a source rather than taking a total on trust.
Two things you do need to tell us. Your bank details, once, at the point you are approved. And any change in your VAT registration status, whenever it happens, because a self-billed invoice has to reflect it correctly. If you are not VAT registered, that is entirely normal on this programme and it is handled on a separate flow.
Draft pending review. The self-billing wording, the reversal grounds and the agreement clauses described on this page are a draft commercial position. They are confirmed by our solicitor before any affiliate agreement is signed, and the signed agreement is what governs. If anything here and the agreement ever disagree, tell us and the agreement wins.
Non-negotiable
Two things every lead has to clear.
These apply to every brief on this page and every brief we run. They are not preferences, and a lead that misses either is rejected whatever else is right about it.
Your capture pages meet the standard
Every page you generate from has to be built to UK GDPR and PECR standards, not close to them. That means a real privacy notice, consent that is specific, informed and freely given, no pre-ticked boxes or bundled permissions, and AceLeads or a clearly described category of recipient named at the point of capture.
Consent evidence travels with the lead: the timestamp, the IP, the page URL and the exact wording the person was shown. Consent you cannot produce is consent you do not have.
What we require, in fullEvery lead is verified before it counts
Leads are verified on the way in, by you before you send and by us on receipt. Contact details are checked, duplicates are caught across every affiliate rather than just your own, and known junk patterns are filtered automatically.
This protects your earnings as much as our buyers. A verified stream gets a higher acceptance rate, and a clean sender gets the briefs with the best rates first.
How a lead is judgedWe audit capture pages, and we will ask to see one before your first lead is accepted. This is not box-ticking: under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 the maximum PECR penalty is a matter of public record, and a lead sourced from a bought list puts both of us in front of it.
FAQ
Payment, answered plainly.
The questions a lead generator asks before pointing a source at a new buyer, answered the way we would answer them on a call. Still unsure? Read how the programme works.
How much do you pay per lead?
It depends on the brief, and you are told the exact fee in writing before you send a single lead. Two things move it most: what the underlying job is worth to the business that receives the lead, and how complete the lead is when it reaches us. A commercial solar enquiry and a domestic cleaning enquiry sit a long way apart, and no single sentence covers both honestly. Tell us what you generate and where, and you get the figures for that brief the same working day.
Why is there no rate card on this page?
Because a published number would be wrong for most of the people reading it. Fees differ by vertical, by region, by exclusivity and by the volume you can hold, so a figure that is honest for one affiliate is misleading for the next, and a number pinned to a page ages badly the moment buyer demand shifts. We would rather give you the real fee for your brief, in writing, than a headline that has to be walked back on a call. Ask for the brief you are interested in and you get the figures for it.
What is the difference between a raw lead and a qualified lead?
A raw accepted lead meets the acceptance standard on the brief: a real person, contactable details, inside the area we are buying for, with the consent evidence attached. A qualified lead carries the extra detail the brief names on top of that, which is usually timing, budget band, tenure or the specification of the job. The qualified tier pays materially more, because a buyer can act on it immediately. Both tiers are published on the brief, and the fields that lift a lead from one to the other are listed there rather than judged after the fact.
Is there a booked-appointment tier?
Not yet. Some briefs will carry one once appointment booking is live, and it will pay more than either current tier because it removes the buyer’s hardest step. Nothing on this site advertises an appointment fee until the tier actually exists on a brief, which is deliberate: a fee you cannot yet earn is not a fee.
When do I get paid?
Your first payment lands within 14 days of your first accepted lead. After that, payment runs every Friday and covers everything accepted up to the previous Sunday, so a lead accepted on a Monday is paid on the Friday of the following week at the latest. Payment is by bank transfer. The calendar is the same for every affiliate on every brief, and it is the same wording that goes into the agreement.
Do I have to send you an invoice?
No. We operate a self-billing arrangement, which means we raise the invoice on your behalf from the accepted leads on your account and pay it on the published run. There is nothing to submit and nothing to chase. You do need to tell us if your VAT registration status changes, because a self-billed invoice has to reflect it. The arrangement is set out in the affiliate agreement and is signed before your first payment.
Can a payment be taken back after a lead is accepted?
Only for proven fraud, a proven duplicate or a consent failure. That list is closed and it does not grow. We never reverse an accepted lead because the business that received it failed to convert it, could not reach the person on the third attempt, or changed its mind about the vertical. Verification happens inside the decision window precisely so that acceptance can be final, and an open-ended right to hand leads back is functionally a decision not to pay.
What happens to a lead you reject?
You are told within 48 hours which standard it missed, named from the closed list published on that brief, and you can appeal it. A rejected lead is not paid for and it is not passed on to a buyer. Almost every reason on the list is fixable at the point of capture, usually by adding one field to a form, so the reason matters more than the rejection: it is the part you can act on.
Does the fee go up if I send more volume?
It can, and volume is one of the things we look at when a rate is reviewed. Consistent volume at a steady acceptance rate is worth more to a buyer than an unpredictable trickle, and exclusivity on a brief is worth more again. Rates are reviewed on request and whenever buyer demand on a brief changes, and any change is confirmed in writing and applies to leads sent after it, never to leads you have already been paid for.
Do I have to sell only to you to get the better rate?
No. There is no exclusivity requirement and no minimum volume, and you can keep every other buyer you already work with. Exclusivity on a brief is one of the things that lifts a fee if you want to offer it, but it is an option rather than a condition of joining. The one thing that costs you either way is duplication: an enquiry already placed elsewhere tends to come back as a duplicate, and duplicates are not paid.
Get the figures
Tell us what you generate and we will tell you what it pays.
Apply, name the brief you are interested in, and the tiers for it come back to you in writing, usually the same working day. Nothing commits you to a volume, an exclusivity or a first lead until you have seen them.