The true cost
of your leads.
They quote you a price per lead. That number is a magic trick. Here's what you're actuallypaying to land one customer — and what it'd cost to stop renting.
That's 42% of a $3,500 job — gone before you turn a wrench.
Owned-pipeline estimate assumes a blended cost-per-job of $140once your Google Business Profile, review flow, and a simple verified site are doing the work — a one-time setup, not a monthly toll. We'll show you exactly how to build it. Free.
Estimates use contractor-reported figures (shared-lead ghost rates, CPL ranges, close rates) for illustration — the platforms don't publish per-lead pricing. Your real numbers are your own; drag the sliders to them. PlumbSquare takes no money from any lead platform — that's the whole point.
Why a “$50 lead” isn't $50
A shared lead is sold to several contractors at once. So your real cost isn't the sticker price — it's the sticker price divided by your shot at the job, after you subtract the ghosts, the price-checkers, and the people who already hired someone. The calculator above does that math with your own numbers. It's usually ugly.
You don't have to take our word that the model is stacked. In 2023 the FTC finalized an order requiring HomeAdvisor — an Angi company — to pay up to $7.2 million for deceptively marketing its leads to contractors, including overstating how often those leads actually turned into jobs.
And the giant is shrinking. Angi's revenue fell year-over-year in every quarter of 2025 — down 19%, 12%, and 10% across Q1–Q3 — while it cut and consolidated its sales force. The lead-rental model is contracting. The contractors who get out first keep the most.
Sources: FTC order, Jan 2023 · Angi Inc. SEC 8-K earnings releases, 2025
Straight answers
Is Angi worth it for contractors?
It depends entirely on your close rate and average job value — which is exactly what the calculator shows you. For a lot of small shops the cost per booked jobruns 20–40% of the job itself. If that's you, it's not a marketing channel, it's a leak. Run your own numbers above.
Why is my real cost so much higher than the price per lead?
Because shared leads get sold to several contractors, a chunk never answer or were just price-checking, and you only close a fraction of the ones you can actually quote. Divide your total monthly spend by the jobs you actually win and you get the true cost per booked job.
HomeAdvisor vs Thumbtack — which is cheaper?
Neither has a published rate card, and the “cheaper” one is whichever converts better for your trade and metro — not whichever has the lower sticker price. Compare them on cost per booked job, not cost per lead. The calculator lets you test both.
What does it actually cost to own my pipeline?
Mostly time, not money: a fully optimized Google Business Profile, a steady review habit, and a simple site you control. Once those are working, your blended cost per job is typically a fraction of rented leads — and it's a one-time setup, not a monthly toll. The starter kit walks through it.