Lead generation for a cleaning company means turning people who search Google for office, block or home cleaning into quote requests that reach you, not a lead platform, and knowing what each one costs. On 10 Italian searches run from a smartphone in 10 cities on 14 November 2026, 44 of the 45 organic results for "pulizie uffici" (office cleaning) were job adverts, and for "pulizie condominio" (block cleaning) the quote platform ProntoPro appeared in all 5 cities, while local cleaning firms had 4 results out of 45.
So a business looking for cleaners mostly finds two things: job adverts and lead platforms.
And a request left on a platform goes to several firms at once.
The mistakes we see most often are three:
- paying the same for every enquiry, whether it is a €100 move-out clean or a block of flats cleaned every week for years;
- letting job applications clog the quote form: plenty of people searching "office cleaning" want a job, not a contractor;
- not knowing where the contract came from: Google profile, platform, website and word of mouth all end up in the same contact list.
Two cases we start from.
With Contesini Consulenze we built enquiry generation on Google Ads from scratch: 299 enquiries in seven months at €7.20 each, and 68% became a sales opportunity (the full case). That 68% depends on what you ask people when they get in touch.
With Valore Solare the first full month brought 9 conversions at €212 each, and across all enquiries 83% came through the form and only 8% by phone (the case).
What does that have to do with cleaning?
A cleaning contract, like a solar installation, is decided after a site visit and a written quote: an enquiry is worth what the contract behind it is worth. In this guide you will find:
- who takes the enquiry today on 10 searches for offices and blocks of flats;
- what an enquiry costs on lead platforms and on Google Ads, in Italy and the UK;
- what to ask to tell a recurring contract from a one-off clean;
- how to count the cost of each client, channel by channel.
Let's start with Google's results.
Who takes the enquiry when a business looks for cleaners (10 Italian cities read on 14 November 2026)
On "office cleaning" the enquiry goes to the businesses in the map pack, because the organic results are almost all job adverts; on "block cleaning" it goes to quote platforms and to firms from other cities. That is the result of 10 Italian searches run from a smartphone with DataForSEO on 14 November 2026 between 16:36 and 16:37 UTC: "pulizie uffici" in Milan, Rome, Turin, Bologna and Florence, "pulizie condominio" in Naples, Genoa, Verona, Padua and Bari.
| Who appears in the organic results | Office cleaning (5 cities) | Block cleaning (5 cities) |
|---|---|---|
| Job adverts | 44 of 45 | 1 of 45 |
| Quote platforms (ProntoPro, ServiFacile) | 0 | 11 of 45 |
| Firms from other cities or with no stated base | 0 | 14 of 45 |
| Firms from the city searched | 1 of 45 | 4 of 45 |
| Directories (Europages, Pagine Gialle) | 0 | 5 of 45 |
| Cities with a map pack | 4 of 5 (19 listings) | 5 of 5 (20 listings) |
| Paid ads | 0 search ads, 2 Local Services ads (Florence) | 2, both at the bottom (Naples) |
Three things stand out.
On "office cleaning" the top three results were job adverts in all 5 cities. Jooble alone appeared 12 times. In Turin and Bologna the page opened with Google's jobs box. The only cleaning firm ranked ninth, in Rome.
On "block cleaning" ProntoPro was the first result in Genoa, Padua and Bari, and in those three cities no local firm made the organic results. In Naples ProntoPro was also buying an ad on the same search, with a "Compare 4 quotes" link.
The firms that rank outside the map are often not local: one domain appeared identically in 4 cities, a Bologna firm showed up in Verona, a Naples firm in Bari.
In the UK "cleaning jobs" gets 9,900 searches a month against 1,600 for "office cleaning" (Google Ads data via DataForSEO, 14 November 2026): the job seekers are there too.
Isn't the map enough?
For offices it is the only place a firm gets found without paying. First, though, let's see what a platform charges for a request.
What an enquiry costs from lead platforms (from about €10 a request, but the client compares)
On Cronoshare, an Italian platform, a cleaning enquiry costs a commission of 2% to 15% of the job, 6% on average, and for recurring services at most one hour of the average rate: in the platform's own example, €10 for a €100 one-off clean and €12 for a weekly 4-hour clean at €12 an hour (Cronoshare, help for professionals). ProntoPro does not publish a price per enquiry: it states 13,075 requests a year for cleaning companies in Italy and average earnings of €300 per request (ProntoPro, page for cleaning companies, read on 14 November 2026).
That €12 buys a contract which, on the same terms, brings in €2,496 a year (4 hours at €12 for 52 weeks).
On recurring contracts a platform costs little compared with what the client is worth.
So where is the catch?
Three points, all written by the platforms themselves:
- the price rises with the quality of the request: Cronoshare scores every request from 1 to 10 and multiplies the price by 1 to 3; in its example the same request goes from €8.25 to €24.75 (CS index);
- part of it never comes back: if the client does not pick you, Cronoshare refunds 60% of the credits; 40% is a handling fee;
- the client compares: on ProntoPro you send an offer on a request other firms can see, and ProntoPro buys ads on the same searches as the firms (in Naples, in our survey).
UK platforms such as Bark, Checkatrade, MyBuilder and Rated People work on the same two models, credits per lead or a monthly membership plus a fee per lead. We could not verify their price pages on the day, so we quote no figures: divide what you spend by contracts signed, not by leads.
The platform fills the diary, but the review and the second contract stay with the platform, because that is where the client goes back to search.
Do you know what each contract costs you, channel by channel?
Platform leads, $16 clicks and job applications in the form: lined up, your last twenty quotes show which channel brings contracts and which only brings calls. We go through them with you and tell you where to move the budget.
Book a strategy callWhat an enquiry costs on Google Ads (from about $31 to $340, depending on who searches)
On Google Ads an enquiry costs the price of a click divided by the share of clicks that turn into a request, and for cleaning it changes by a factor of 11 between communal area cleaning and an office in London. Click prices are Google Ads UK data measured with DataForSEO on 14 November 2026 (in US dollars, as the tool returns them); the conversion rate is an assumption taken from WordStream's 2026 benchmarks for the US market: 4.85% for business services, 8.05% for home services (WordStream, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026).
| Search (UK) | Monthly searches | Cost per click | Estimated cost per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| office cleaning london | 1,900 | $16.49 | about $340 |
| office cleaning | 1,600 | $11.92 | about $246 |
| commercial cleaning | 2,400 | $9.09 | about $187 |
| contract cleaning | 880 | $8.36 | about $172 |
| communal area cleaning | 110 | $1.49 | about $31 |
| end of tenancy cleaning | 12,100 | $8.29 | about $103 |
| cleaning company near me | 1,900 | $3.53 | about $44 |
| domestic cleaning | 2,900 | $2.85 | about $35 |
$340 for an enquiry? Too much.
It depends on what is behind it. An office cleaned three evenings a week for years is worth far more than an after-builders clean, and a click on "office cleaning london" costs 11 times one on "communal area cleaning" precisely because firms know what that client is worth.
The real issue is another: on Google Ads you also pay for the clicks of people looking for work. How to exclude those searches and split campaigns by type of client is in Google Ads for cleaning companies: here what counts is the final sum, what each signed quote costs you.
Your Google Business Profile and reviews (the channel that takes office enquiries today)
The Google Business Profile is the channel that takes the most business and block-of-flats enquiries without a middleman: in our Italian survey the map appeared in 9 cities out of 10, with 39 listings in total. Those listings had an average rating of 4.92 and a median of 30 reviews; 16 of 39 had fewer than 20, and one in Turin had a single review.
With ratings almost identical, the number of reviews makes the difference.
Ask at every new contract, with a direct link. How to do it within Google's rules is in how to get Google reviews; category, name and service area are covered in SEO for cleaning companies, and we will not repeat them.
One change from what we saw on the Google Ads searches the same day: in Florence, above the map, there were 2 Local Services ads ("home cleaning professionals"), one rated 2.6. It is the format where you pay per lead, not per click (what Local Services Ads are). Google lists cleaning services among the UK categories too (Local Services Ads, getting started). It showed up once in 10 searches: check whether you are eligible, but do not build your strategy on it.
The website and the "work for us" page (because many "office cleaning" searchers want a job)
The website collects the enquiries that the profile and the ads send, and separates clients from job seekers straight away. In Italy "offerte lavoro pulizie" (cleaning job offers) gets 880 searches a month against 480 for "pulizie uffici"; in the UK "cleaning jobs" gets 9,900 (DataForSEO, 14 November 2026).
A separate "work for us" page, clearly visible in the menu, takes the applications out of the quote form and gives Google the right page to show job seekers. Which fields to put in the form and which pages you need for offices, blocks and homes is in the guide to a cleaning company website.
What about city pages?
On "block cleaning" 14 of 45 results were firms from other cities with pages built on the city name. They get seen. But a managing agent in Verona who opens the page of a Bologna firm can tell from the address, and an enquiry from there is worth less than one from a firm based locally. If you really cover several towns, show your operating address and the blocks you already clean in each area.
If the site gets visits but no enquiries, see why your website is not generating leads.
How to qualify an enquiry (recurring contract or one-off clean)
Qualifying an enquiry means knowing, before the site visit, whether it is a recurring contract, a one-off clean or a job application: five questions are enough. The questions Google shows searchers tell you where to start: "What is the difference between routine and deep cleaning?" (in Italian) appeared in 9 searches out of 10. The client does not know what to call what they need.
So do not ask with a technical term. Ask:
- who you are: a business, a managing agent or a private client;
- how often: once, every week, every day;
- how many square metres, and how many floors or bathrooms;
- what hours: offices are almost always cleaned after closing;
- do you already have a contractor? If so, when does the contract end?
The last question is missing from almost every form.
A managing agent who writes in November with a contract ending in June is not a lost lead, it is a quote for the spring meeting. In Italy searches for "pulizie condomini" average 590 a month and rose to 1,000 in October 2026: firms that answer in autumn are in time.
And the €100 requests?
Answer them, but at the back of the queue.
How to measure the cost per contract (channel by channel)
The cost per contract is what you spent on a channel divided by the signed contracts that came from it, and for a cleaning company it is the only number that matters: enquiries alone reward the noisiest channel. You need a sheet with six columns:
- date of the enquiry;
- channel: Google profile, Google Ads, platform, website, word of mouth;
- type of client: business, block of flats, private, job applicant;
- estimated annual value of the contract;
- site visit: yes or no;
- signed: yes or no.
For phone calls, Google Ads can count calls from ads and from your website by itself with a forwarding number (call tracking, Google Ads Help). Everything else is written down by hand, at every call.
After 20 quotes you will know which channel brings blocks of flats and which only brings move-out cleans. To automate collection, the tools we use are compared in best lead generation tools.
What ChatGPT and AI Overviews say about finding cleaning clients
ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews answer "how to find clients for a cleaning company" with generic advice and figures that do not match measured data. On 14 November 2026 the Italian AI Overview cited Italiaonline, Serial Cleaner, Cronoshare, Reddit, a TikTok video and a few English-language Shorts, and recommended social media and flyers. ChatGPT, with web search on, gave a cost per click of €0.80-2.50: the same day DataForSEO returned $17.48 for "pulizie uffici milano". In the US, the AI Overview for "how to get cleaning clients" leaned on Reddit, Facebook and about ten YouTube videos.
It also works the other way, when a business asks ChatGPT which cleaning company to hire in Manchester or Leeds. AI answers favour firms that publish verifiable facts: service area, type of clients, buildings already cleaned, response times. How sources are picked in local AI answers is in local AI visibility; how AI breaks a question into sub-questions, in query fan-out.
A page that says, for example, "we clean 40 blocks of flats across Leeds and Bradford, site visit within 48 hours" is more likely to be quoted than "reliable and professional". More likely, not guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions about lead generation for cleaning companies
It depends on the job. On recurring contracts the Italian platform Cronoshare caps the cost at one hour of the average rate, for example €12 on a €48 weekly clean: little compared with what the client is worth. But the client compares several offers and goes back to the platform for the next quote: use it to fill the diary, not as your only channel.
It depends on the search. With UK CPCs from November 2026 and an assumed 4.85% conversion rate (WordStream 2026, US), an enquiry costs about $31 on "communal area cleaning" and about $340 on "office cleaning london". You will know your real rate after a month of counted enquiries.
Yes. The buyers search: "commercial cleaning" gets 2,400 searches a month in the UK and "office cleaning" 1,600. You need a Google profile with reviews, one page per type of client with your service area, and a form that asks when the current contract ends.
No. In the UK they are published on Contracts Finder, the GOV.UK service for finding public sector contracts (contractsfinder.service.gov.uk). It is a different channel from search: tenders reward accreditations and documents, not Google visibility.
Yes, and it is worth it: a separate "work for us" page visible in the menu, a quote form that asks "business, block of flats or private" first, and negative keywords for job seekers on Google Ads. On "office cleaning" 44 of 45 Italian results were job adverts: the problem is big.
Lead generation for cleaning companies, in short (and the question to add to your form)
On "office cleaning", 44 of 45 Italian results were job adverts.
On "block cleaning", ProntoPro in 5 cities out of 5.
Platform: €12 for a weekly contract, but the client compares.
Google Ads UK: from about $31 to $340 per enquiry, depending on who searches.
Google profile: a median of 30 reviews, so within reach.
The number that matters is cost per contract, not per lead.
Tomorrow, add one question to your form: "Do you already have a contractor? When does the contract end?". The answers will tell you how many blocks and offices are about to change supplier, and when. If you want to set up the rest together, our lead generation work starts there.
