Are Angi, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack worth it for foundation and waterproofing companies?

Every foundation and waterproofing owner has an opinion on lead platforms, and most of those opinions come from one bad month. Here’s a more useful way to decide.

Pricing models and terms on these platforms change often, so check your current agreement. This post is about how to judge them, not what they charge this week.

How the platforms make money

Angi, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack all rank well for home-service searches and collect requests from homeowners. They make money by charging contractors for those requests, as leads, per contact or through a membership, depending on the platform and your plan. On many of these platforms, the same request can go to more than one pro.

That’s the model. It isn’t a scam. But it means the platform’s customer is the homeowner, and you’re the one paying for access to them.

When they’re worth it

• You’re new in a market and nobody knows your name yet.
• Your calendar has holes and an idle crew costs more than a lead.
• You answer in minutes and close well at the kitchen table. Speed wins on shared requests.
• Your numbers say so. If cost per sold job from the platform beats your other sources, keep it.

When they’re not

• You can’t answer fast. On a shared request, the first company to call usually gets the appointment.
• Your jobs are big and considered. A $15,000 pier job isn’t decided by whoever called first. The homeowner will research you anyway, and that research happens on Google.
• You’re paying for homeowners you’d get anyway. If your reviews and pages are strong, some platform leads are people who’d have found you directly.

How to decide, with your own numbers

Pull three months of data for each platform:

1. Total spend, including memberships and leads you didn’t get credited for
2. Appointments set
3. Jobs sold, and their total value

Cost per sold job and revenue per dollar spent tell you everything. A platform with expensive leads and a good close rate can beat a cheap one. And if you’ve never tracked these numbers, that’s the first thing to fix.

The longer game

On page one for “foundation repair near me” you’ll usually find Yelp, Thumbtack and Angi near the top. Every homeowner who clicks them is a homeowner you’re paying to reach. Every spot you win back with your own Google Business Profile and pages is one you don’t pay for per lead.

The owners who get off the treadmill don’t usually quit the platforms cold. They keep the one that performs, drop the rest, and put the difference into a channel they own.