Almost every contractor we talk to has bought leads from Angi or HomeAdvisor at some point. Most still do. The question isn't whether marketplaces work — they do produce calls — it's whether buying leads should be the plan or the bridge.
Here is the comparison, including the parts that favor the marketplace.
First, what the FTC found
This is on the public record and it's worth knowing before you compare anything.
In March 2022 the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint alleging that since at least mid-2014, HomeAdvisor had made false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold to service providers. According to the FTC, HomeAdvisor told providers they would only get leads matching their services and preferred area when many did not, and claimed its leads turned into jobs at rates it could not substantiate.
The FTC's order required HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million, and the final order was approved in April 2023. It bars the company from misrepresenting its leads — including claiming they come from people ready to hire, or who asked HomeAdvisor directly.
How the two models actually differ
| Lead marketplace | Your own ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Who else gets the lead | Often several competing contractors | Only you |
| What you pay for | Each lead, whether or not you win it | Attention — impressions and clicks |
| Speed to first call | Days | One to three weeks to stabilize |
| Skill required | Almost none | Real, or an agency |
| What you own afterward | Nothing — the brand is theirs | Your pixel data, audiences, reviews |
| Control over who you reach | Minimal | Complete |
The row that decides most of it is the first one.
A shared lead isn't a customer you might win. It's a race you've paid to enter, against contractors who paid the same price.
The math, with your numbers
Here's an illustration — swap in your own figures, because yours are the only ones that matter.
Marketplace: say a lead costs $60, and because it goes to several contractors, you win one in five. That's $300 per job.
Your own ads: say a lead costs $45, and because it's exclusive and you called within five minutes, you close one in three. That's $135 per job.
The per-lead price is close. The per-job price isn't, and it's entirely the close rate — which is mostly about exclusivity and speed, not about which channel is cheaper.
We covered the full version of this arithmetic in what a lead should actually cost you.
When the marketplace is the right call
Honestly, sometimes:
- You're brand new with no reviews, no site and no ad history. A marketplace gets the phone ringing this week while you build the rest.
- You need to fill a gap in the schedule now, and you have the capacity to chase shared leads hard.
- You don't want to learn ads or hire anyone, and a higher cost per job is an acceptable price for that.
When it stops making sense
- Your close rate on shared leads is low and you're paying for races you lose.
- You're spending enough on leads to fund a real ad account — at that point you're renting someone else's brand with money that could build yours.
- You're getting leads for work you don't do, or in areas you don't serve. That's the exact pattern the FTC described. Track it.
The sensible sequence
Use the marketplace as a bridge. Keep it running while your own ads, your Google Business Profile and your reviews come up, then turn the marketplace down as your own channel's cost per job drops below it.
Two things decide how fast that happens: how quickly you call leads back — five minutes changes everything — and whether your license number and reviews are doing the trust work in your ads. In California and Florida the license number isn't optional anyway; the rules are compared on our state-by-state research page.
If you're spending real money on shared leads, bring your last three months of marketplace invoices and your close rate to a call. We'll tell you whether your own ads would beat it — including if they wouldn't.