HomeAdvisor vs Building Your Own Leads

HomeAdvisor merged with Angi in 2021 but the same frustrations persist. Shared leads. Rising costs. Declining quality. Contractors paying $300-500 per month for leads that go to four other companies at the same time.

A growing number of contractors are walking away entirely. They’re building their own lead generation instead of renting someone else’s.

The HomeAdvisor trap

The platform charges $15-100+ per lead depending on trade, geography, and project size. HVAC leads in major metros push $80+. Roofing and remodeling leads cost even more.

Every lead goes to multiple contractors. HomeAdvisor’s model depends on competition. They collect payment from 4-5 pros for the same homeowner, which means their revenue per lead is $200-400 even when you’re only paying $50.

For you, this creates an instant bidding war. You and four competitors race to call the homeowner first. 78% of customers choose the first responder. At best, you have a 20-25% chance of even getting the conversation started.

Win 20% of your leads, close 30% of those conversations, and your true cost per booked job is often 8-10x your stated lead cost. That $60 lead becomes a $600 customer acquisition cost before you factor in time spent quoting and following up.

Why contractors stay

The platform delivers predictable volume. When you need work next week, HomeAdvisor produces leads. No waiting for SEO to kick in. No hoping content gets indexed. Cash goes out, leads come in.

For new contractors without reputation or reviews, platforms like HomeAdvisor provide initial customers. The first 20-30 reviews have to come from somewhere, and paid leads fill that gap.

The addiction is real. Turning off HomeAdvisor creates an immediate revenue dip. Even if the math doesn’t work long-term, the short-term pain of leaving feels worse than the slow bleed of staying.

The economics of owned leads

Building your own lead generation costs money upfront with uncertain returns. That’s why most contractors never do it.

Here’s what the investment looks like over 12-24 months:

Website optimization: $3,000-8,000 upfront for a conversion-focused site with service pages, location pages, and proper technical SEO. Monthly maintenance of $500-1,000 for content and updates.

Google Business Profile: Free to create, but building 200+ reviews requires systems. Automated review requests, follow-up sequences, and response management run $100-300/month through various tools.

Content marketing: Blog posts targeting local search terms. Either you write them ($0 but time-intensive) or hire writers ($200-500 per post). One post per week for a year is $10,000-25,000.

Local SEO: Citations, directory listings, link building from local sources. Agencies charge $500-1,500/month. DIY takes 10+ hours monthly.

Lead capture: Identifying the 96% of website visitors who leave without converting. Solutions range from $100-500/month depending on volume.

The total investment for year one might be $20,000-40,000 depending on how much you outsource versus DIY.

That’s real money. But compare it to spending $500/month on HomeAdvisor for the same period. You’ve spent $6,000 and the moment you stop paying, leads stop too. No asset. No compounding benefit. Just a transaction repeated monthly.

When the lines cross

Owned lead generation costs more per lead in months 1-6. Often significantly more. You’re investing in infrastructure that hasn’t started paying off yet.

Months 7-12, the economics shift. Content starts ranking. Reviews accumulate. Website traffic grows. Cost per lead drops as volume increases on fixed marketing spend.

Year two is where it gets interesting. That blog post you wrote in month three is still generating leads. The review profile you built is attracting more clicks in the Local Pack. The website converts better because you’ve optimized based on data.

One HVAC contractor in Colorado tracked both channels for 18 months. HomeAdvisor cost per booked job averaged $580. After month 12, his organic cost per job dropped to $180 and kept falling. By month 18, organic delivered 3x the volume of HomeAdvisor at 1/4 the cost per job.

He still uses HomeAdvisor for overflow during slow weeks. But it’s supplemental, not foundational.

The 96% problem

Here’s what most contractors miss: their website already gets traffic.

Google Analytics might show 500 visitors per month. At a 4% conversion rate, that’s 20 leads. Decent. But 480 people visited, looked around, and left without calling or filling out a form.

Those 480 visitors aren’t random. They searched for services in your area. They found your website. They were interested enough to click. Something happened between landing on your site and leaving.

Maybe they weren’t ready to buy yet. Maybe they’re comparing three options. Maybe they got distracted and meant to call later. Maybe they called your competitor instead.

Visitor identification captures those 480 people. When you can see that someone in your service area spent 3 minutes on your water heater replacement page, you can reach out before they call someone else.

This isn’t about driving more traffic. You already have traffic. The issue is capturing more of what’s already there.

What actually works

Contractors successfully building owned lead generation share common approaches.

They start with Google Business Profile because it’s free and high-impact. Posting weekly, responding to every review, adding photos, completing every profile field. The contractors ranking in the Local Pack have 200+ reviews and active profiles. You get there by starting.

They build service-specific pages. Not one generic “our services” page. Individual pages for water heater installation, AC repair, emergency plumbing, bathroom remodels. Each page targets specific search terms. Each page has unique content addressing the specific service.

They write content that answers questions. Blog posts targeting “how much does X cost in [city]” or “signs you need to replace your [equipment]” capture homeowners researching before buying. These people become leads 2-6 weeks later when they’re ready.

They implement speed-to-lead systems. Responding in 5 minutes versus 5 hours dramatically changes close rates. Auto-texts confirming form submissions, call routing to mobile phones, alerts for new leads.

They capture demand they’re already generating. Visitor identification, remarketing, email capture. Every visitor who engages with content is an opportunity to follow up.

The patience problem

Building lead generation takes 6-12 months before it compounds. Most contractors quit at month 4 when results are still underwhelming.

HomeAdvisor delivers instant gratification. Write a check, get leads. The feedback loop is immediate even if the economics are poor.

Owned channels require faith in delayed gratification. Content written today might rank in 3 months. Reviews generated now accumulate value over years. Technical SEO improvements take weeks to propagate through Google’s index.

The contractors who succeed set expectations correctly. Month 1-3: invest and wait. Month 4-6: early signs of traction. Month 7-12: meaningful volume at improving cost. Year 2+: sustainable competitive advantage.

They also don’t go cold turkey on platforms. Running HomeAdvisor at reduced budget while building organic creates a transition period that maintains cash flow.

The HomeAdvisor alternative isn’t one thing

There’s no single replacement for HomeAdvisor. The alternative is a system of owned channels that together produce better results.

Google Business Profile captures local search intent. Your website converts that traffic into leads. Content marketing brings in people researching before buying. Review automation builds the social proof that drives clicks. Lead capture identifies visitors who engage but don’t convert.

Each piece reinforces the others. More reviews improve GBP ranking. Better GBP ranking drives website traffic. Website traffic generates leads that become reviews. The flywheel accelerates over time.

HomeAdvisor is a transaction. Send money, receive leads, repeat forever. No compounding. No asset building. No competitive advantage.

Owned lead generation is an investment. Costs money upfront, builds something valuable, delivers increasing returns over time.

Making the switch

Start with math. Track your true HomeAdvisor cost per booked job. Factor in shared leads, low close rates, and time spent chasing. Most contractors discover it’s worse than they assumed.

Set a transition timeline. Maybe 12 months to shift from 80% platform leads to 80% owned leads. That’s aggressive but achievable with consistent effort.

Invest the difference. If you’re spending $500/month on HomeAdvisor, cutting to $250/month frees up $3,000/year for owned channels. Put it into content, reviews, or lead capture systems.

Track both channels separately. After 6 months, you’ll have real data comparing cost per lead, close rate, and customer quality from each source.

The contractors making this transition report that owned leads close at higher rates because there’s no competition and the intent is clearer. A homeowner who found your website by searching “emergency plumber [city]” is more motivated than one who clicked a HomeAdvisor ad.

The real alternative

HomeAdvisor isn’t going away. Plenty of contractors will keep using it and some will continue to profit.

But the contractors building genuine competitive advantages are the ones investing in assets they own. Their websites get better every month. Their review profiles compound. Their content ranks higher. Their cost per lead drops while HomeAdvisor costs keep rising.

The choice isn’t really HomeAdvisor versus alternatives. The choice is renting attention forever or building something you own.

One keeps you dependent on a platform that profits from your competition. The other builds a business asset that increases in value over time.

The math eventually makes the decision obvious. The question is whether you start now or after wasting another year on shared leads.