Checkatrade Sponsored Listing

No, you're paying for visibility and clicks. When a homeowner clicks your Sponsored Listing, you're charged for that click. The homeowner can click to visit your profile, click to reveal your phone number or click to send you a direct message. If the homeowner proceeds to contact you, you will also be charged for that lead separately under your pay-as-you-go plan or it will count towards your fixed plan budget (depending on the type of campaign you have signed up for). A charge for a Sponsored Listing click and a charge for a lead are separate and you could pay for both the Sponsored Listing click charge and the lead charge without that turning into a booked job.

Sponsored Listings are a placement on the search results page that gives you boosted visibility or increases your chances of inclusion in 'request-a-quote' results. Sponsored Listings increase visibility, they do not guarantee profile views, enquiries, jobs or revenue.

Sponsored Listings is in addition to your normal listing. Your standard Checkatrade ranking stays exactly the same. If you rank well normally, you could appear on the same page twice. Standard listings are separate from Sponsored Listings and you will not be charged if the homeowner clicks on your standard listing, unless that results in the homeowner contacting you, in which case you would be charged for that lead.

Premium Sponsored Listings give you an enhanced, visually distinct ad that sits in slot 4 of the search results. Instead of just text, it showcases a carousel of recent job photos and highlights the latest customer review.

It's a real-time auction run automatically by our systems. When a homeowner searches for the services and area you have selected to run a Sponsored Listing campaign in, the system looks at the chosen bid strategy, remaining budget and profile quality of all eligible campaigns and selects the successful Sponsored Listing to surface. You don't have to set the bids manually, you just set your strategy and let the system run the auction for you. If you're not selected you don't have to pay anything.

You get to pick the exact postcodes and subcategories you want to target. You also set your maximum monthly budget for Sponsored Listings (starting from £100) and choose a bidding strategy that fits your appetite: "Player" for a conservative approach, "Competitor" for balanced visibility, or "Leader" if you want a chance at maximum exposure. The budget you set for Sponsored Listings is separate to any other budgets you have set up for your fixed or pay-as-you-go plan, and any other add on products you have (meaning a budget of £100 for your fixed plan, and a budget for £100 on your Sponsored Listings plan, could result in a monthly charge of £200).

Any leads resulting from your Sponsored Listing campaign will be counted directly toward your Fixed Plan or PAYG plan. These are charged separately, once for the Sponsored Listing click and once for the lead if the homeowner decides to contact you. If your Fixed Plan or PAYG Plan leads quota is reached, you would need to upgrade your plan to continue to receive leads from your standard listing or Sponsored Listings. Our team is available to advise you on the pacing of your standard plan leads and how it is affected by the Sponsored Listing.

You're charged on a cost-per-click basis, meaning you only pay when a homeowner clicks on your Sponsored Listing. You will never be charged more than the monthly budget you set for Sponsored Listing clicks. We tally up your performance throughout the month and add the final charge for Sponsored Listing clicks to your invoice the following month.

Yes you can. Any budgets you set will be against a single Sponsored Listing only (meaning a budget of £100 for two separate Sponsored Listings, could result in a monthly charge of £200).

You have full control right at your fingertips. Just head over to the "Grow My Business" section in your Members Area and tap the 'Sponsored Listings' tab either on the web or on the Checkatrade Trade App. This is your personal dashboard. From here, you can set up new Sponsored Listings campaigns and dive into your performance reporting. You'll be able to see the list of your Sponsored Listings campaigns, their budget and in-month spend. You can also track total "Sponsored Listings" spend, total impressions, the number of clicks you've received, and your average Cost Per Click (CPC). For further information please reach out to our support team.

If you want to update, pause or cancel your Sponsored Listings please reach out to our support teams and they'd be able to assist you. You also have the freedom to monitor your campaigns and pause them at any time using our self-serve portal under "Grow My Business" within the "Sponsored Listings" tab in the Members Area on the web and trade app.

We use systems designed to detect and filter invalid clicks, including suspected bot activity and duplicate activity. If we identify invalid click activity, we may filter it before billing or apply an adjustment.

Yes. Sponsored Listings are selected through an automated auction. The system looks at factors including your chosen bid strategy, remaining budget and profile quality.

Your campaign will simply pause until your next billing cycle. You won't overspend. If your campaign's working well and you want to keep the momentum, you can increase your monthly cap. Just give us a shout and we'll sort it for you!