Blog > How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?

How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?

Vadym Ovcharenko • 2024-07-05

GigRadar gained many new partners and investors, which means more features and clients. For web development on Upwork, a good pipeline can turn 270 leads into 3 large contracts worth $20k-$30k each. Upwork introduced a new $4.99 fee for first-time direct offers from clients, but it doesn't apply to invitations or proposals.

Hey all! 👋 Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸

This week, web developers will discover their performance on Upwork. I will also be sharing insights on a typical Upwork pipeline, some weird updates from the platform, exciting new offers, and more.

🤝 Welcome, new GigRadar Partners!

Last week, I invited you to become our partners.

I was pretty surprised at how many applications we got. I was looking for marketing & development partners but it came as a surprise how many of you decided to invest in GigRadar 🤯

What does this mean for you?

More features for GigRadar, more clients for GigRadar.

I'm fully booked with investor meetings, but our partner team still has some spots for resellers & affiliates.

Can you help us sell GigRadar?

Can you help us build or integrate GigRadar?

Become a GigRadar Partner

🌪️ How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?

Our community already knows that Upwork lead generation isn’t just about writing good proposals. It’s a lot more work for SDRs, appointment setters, and sales teams. (You would know if you followed our events & huddles too.)

Today, we're diving into the most sought-after category on Upwork: Web Development 🌐

Here’s a snapshot of a typical pipeline with real numbers, achieved with blood, sweat, KPIs, and tears:

Niche: Web Development
Upwork Agency: Top Rated Plus
Lead Generation Budget: $5k/mo (connects + GigRadar + appointment setting team)

If your Upwork profile is decent and your GigRadar setup works well, you should achieve an LRR of about 18%.

Also, let’s include invitations and direct chats: which total roughly 270 leads (replies).
Then, your SDR should act quickly and schedule a lot of calls, aiming for around 80 booked ones.
Without forgetting to follow up with your booked prospects, you might end up with 60 actual calls.
Out of those 60 calls, you may expect roughly 3 contracts in the deal cycle of <30 days (and +15% more developing from a long tail of open deals of 30-90 days old).

Yeah, it’s web development, so the deal size isn’t $1,500; we're looking at around $20k–$30k contracts. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long term on the investment of $5k. So you just need to manage to close 5% of those calls, and everything will be peachy 🍑🍑🍑

💲4.99 Upwork Fee Explained

Upwork has a new update, and we're here to break it down for you. Spoiler: it's not as scary as it sounds! 😱

🗝 Key Points:

Nothing to be afraid of: This fee only applies to direct offers.
Invitations and proposals are not affected. No need to worry, your usual activities remain fee-free.

What's the Instant Connection Fee? If a client sends you an offer through direct messages, and it’s your first direct offer from that client, you’ll need to pay a one-time Instant Connection Fee of $4.99 USD to accept it. This fee will be deducted from the payment you receive from the client.

For agency freelancers:

If you’re an agency freelancer, the fee STILL (🙁) applies even if someone else in your agency has worked with the client before.
If the agency owner accepts the offer, the agency will be charged :(
If you’re not an exclusive agency member and accept the offer on your own, you’ll pay the fee.

This fee does not apply to Upwork Payroll or Enterprise contracts. Small mercies.