Angi, Thumbtack, or Google? Comparing Home Service Lead Sources by Cost Per Booked Job

By Dean Sander

Most home service owners have paid for leads from a marketplace at some point. Some love it. Others feel like they’re racing four competitors to call the same homeowner. Meanwhile, Google offers its own pay-per-lead option, and your Business Profile and website can bring in calls without paying per lead at all. So which is better: Angi vs Google Local Services Ads vs Thumbtack, or your own channels?

There’s no single right answer, because it depends on your trade, market, and how fast you follow up. But there is a right way to decide: compare every source by cost per booked job, not cost per lead. This post walks through how the options differ and gives you a simple worksheet. For the full picture on Google’s option, see our guide to Google Local Services Ads.

Shared leads vs. exclusive leads

This is the biggest difference between lead sources, and it changes everything downstream.

• Shared leads go to more than one business. The homeowner fills out one form, and several pros get the same contact. The first to call usually wins, and the price war starts before you’ve even talked.
• Exclusive leads come only to you. The customer chose your listing, your ad, or your website and contacted you directly.

Depending on the platform and the program, a marketplace lead may go to just you or to several pros at once. With Google Local Services Ads, the customer picks your profile and calls or messages you directly. Leads from your Business Profile and website are yours alone.

Shared leads aren’t automatically bad. They can be cheaper per lead. But they usually take faster follow-up and convert at a lower rate, so the cost per booked job can end up higher than it looks.

How each type of source bills

Billing models change often, so always read each platform’s current terms before you sign up or set a budget. In general:

For Local Services Ads specifically, Google’s page on how leads work says you’re charged for valid leads and that prices vary by location, job type, lead type, and bidding mode. Low-quality leads can be credited automatically under Google’s automated lead credits, though manual disputes are no longer available. Every marketplace has its own refund or credit rules too. Know them before you commit.

The worksheet: cost per booked job

Here’s the worksheet we use. Fill it in for each lead source for the last full month (or quarter, if volume is low):

1. Total cost: everything you paid the source, including subscriptions, lead fees, and ad spend. For SEO, include your monthly fee or a fair value for your time.
2. Leads: every call, message, or form from that source.
3. Booked jobs: leads that turned into scheduled, paid work.
4. Cost per lead: total cost ÷ leads.
5. Cost per booked job: total cost ÷ booked jobs.
6. Average job value: revenue from those booked jobs ÷ booked jobs.

Illustrative example (made-up numbers, not benchmarks):

In this made-up example, the marketplace has the cheapest leads but the most expensive booked jobs, because most of its leads went to someone else. Your numbers will be different. That’s the point of running them.

Our guide to Google Ads cost per lead shows how to work out the most you can afford per lead, and multi-channel attribution for small businesses covers tracking when one customer touches several sources.

Follow-up decides the winner

Two businesses can buy the exact same leads and get very different costs per booked job. The difference is almost always follow-up:

• How fast someone calls or texts back
• Whether missed calls get an instant text
• How many times you try before giving up
• Whether open estimates get follow-up over the next week or two

This matters most for shared leads, where the first responder often wins. But it matters for Local Services Ads too. Google’s ad ranking factors include responsiveness, and missed calls can hurt your placement. Our speed-to-lead guide has the playbook.

When marketplaces make sense

Lead marketplaces can be a smart choice when:

• You’re new. You don’t have reviews or rankings yet, and you need work now.
• You have capacity gaps. A slow month or a new crew to keep busy.
• You’re testing a new service or area before investing in pages and ads.
• Your trade isn’t eligible for Local Services Ads in your market.

They’re harder to justify when they become your main source of work, because you’re renting demand instead of building it. When you stop paying, the leads stop, and none of the reviews or rankings carry over to your own channels.

Build channels you own

Over time, the most profitable mix for most local businesses leans on channels you own or control:

• Google Business Profile: free, and often the biggest source of calls for local trades. Start with our Google Business Profile checklist.
• Your website and SEO: service pages that rank for the jobs you want.
• Local Services Ads and Search ads: paid, but the leads are yours. See Local Services Ads vs. Google Search Ads for how they compare.
• Follow-up and reviews: what makes every other channel cheaper.

Our Local Growth Engine is built around that mix, and SEO vs Google Ads for small business helps you decide which to start with.

A note on reviews: whichever platforms you use, follow the rules. The FTC’s consumer reviews and testimonials rule bans fake reviews and buying positive ones, and its Endorsement Guides Q&A covers disclosing incentives. The SBA’s guide to marketing and sales makes a simpler point that applies here: know where your customers come from and measure what works.

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