What Happens After You Get a Matched Lead?

You picked your keywords, chose your towns, and your plan is live. Then what? A lot of lead services go quiet at exactly that point — you pay, and the rest is a mystery until an invoice or a complaint shows up. Here is exactly what happens at Nail the Match after a homeowner's ask matches your plan, step by step, so you know what to expect and what your part of the job is.

Step 1: A neighbor asks, in public

It starts the way most local hiring starts now: a homeowner posts in a local Facebook group or on Nextdoor — "need a plumber, who's good?" or "looking for someone to fix a roof leak this week." Those posts are public hiring decisions, usually answered by neighbors within hours. Your plan watches the groups and platforms in your coverage for posts like these, around the clock, so you don't have to be scrolling when one lands.

Step 2: Whole-word matching decides if it's yours

A post becomes your matched lead when it contains one of your keywords as a whole word. That detail matters more than it sounds: plumber and plumbing are different keywords, and roof inside another word doesn't count. It's why we push pros to build their keyword list the way neighbors actually type — the approach in our guide to choosing keywords that match real jobs. No match, no lead in your inbox — you only hear about asks that use your words, in your area.

Step 3: Your matches are emailed twice a day

Matched leads are not dripped out one alert at a time or sold in a live auction. They are collected and emailed to you twice a day, so you can work them in two focused passes instead of living on your phone. Each email is your list of matching asks from local Facebook groups and Nextdoor — and on Pro, Reddit and Craigslist as well. Plans are flat monthly, with no per-lead charges: Starter $49 a month (5 keywords, 10 Facebook groups), Plus $99 a month (10 keywords, 15 groups), Pro $149 a month (25 keywords, 25 groups). The full comparison is on the plans page.

Step 4: Your move — and speed is the whole game

A matched lead is an open conversation, not a closed sale. The homeowner is reading neighbors' answers and deciding who to call, so the pros who win these jobs are the ones who respond while the post is still active: a helpful reply in the thread, a direct message, a quick call if a number is shared. Our breakdown of the first five minutes covers why the early, useful response beats the tenth "message me" comment. Do good work on the jobs you win and the loop feeds itself — that homeowner becomes the neighbor recommending you in the next thread, the dynamic behind why reviews win jobs.

What if nothing matches?

Some weeks are quiet in some trades and towns — homeowner demand is real life, not a faucet. Two protections cover you. First, you can preview demand before you ever pay with the free lead report. Second, your first month carries the 30-Day Lead Guarantee: if we don't find you a single matching lead in your first 30 days, your plan and add-on fees for that period are refunded — the details are in our post on how the guarantee works. And every plan, every month, sends 10% of subscription revenue to the "Help Elijah Fight ETMR Brain Cancer" fund on GiveSendGo — our giveback page tells that story.

Questions & Answers

Stephen George writes for Nail the Match.