HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, and Angi all promise leads. They deliver — but at a cost most contractors don't fully understand until they do the math.
A HomeAdvisor lead costs $15-$100 depending on your trade. That lead is shared with 3-4 other contractors. Your close rate on shared leads is 10-20% at best. So your real cost per job is $150-$1,000 in lead fees alone. And you're competing on price because the homeowner is getting 4 quotes.
The Organic SEO Alternative
When your website ranks on page 1 for "[your service] in [your city]," leads come directly to you. Nobody else. The homeowner chose to call you because Google showed them your site first. They're not shopping 4 quotes — they're calling the company Google recommended.
These leads close at 30-50% because there's no competition baked into the process. They're higher quality because the customer did their own research. And they cost you nothing per lead once your site is ranking.
The investment is upfront — building a website with proper SEO architecture. After that, the leads are essentially free. Compare that to HomeAdvisor where you're paying for every lead, every month, forever.
The 12-Month Comparison
Contractor A uses HomeAdvisor: $500/month in lead fees, gets 10 shared leads, closes 2 jobs. Cost per job: $250 in lead fees. Annual lead spend: $6,000.
Contractor B invests in SEO: $3,500 build + $299/month, gets 15-30 exclusive leads per month by month 4, closes 5-10 jobs. After year 1, the website generates leads with zero incremental cost. Annual investment: $7,088 — but the leads never stop, and they don't go to competitors.
By year 2, Contractor B is paying $3,588/year total and getting better leads than Contractor A who's still paying $6,000+/year for shared ones. The gap only widens from there.
