Comparison
Angi vs Thumbtack vs Local Services Ads: the real cost
The short answer
On cost per booked job in 2026, Google Local Services Ads averages about $168, Thumbtack about $250 and Angi about $542. Roughly 75% of pay-per-lead contacts go silent after first contact, which is why per-lead prices mislead. If you can only run one, run Local Services Ads.
The only number that matters
Every lead platform advertises cost per lead, and cost per lead is close to meaningless. What you pay for is a phone number. What you need is a job.
The gap between those two is enormous. Roughly 75% of pay-per-lead contacts go silent after first contact: they never answer, they already hired someone, or they were price-shopping five contractors at once.
So the comparison that counts is cost per booked job. On that basis 2026 figures come out at about $168 on Google Local Services Ads, about $250 on Thumbtack and about $542 on Angi. Same trade, same work, and a threefold spread.
Google Local Services Ads
These are the ads with the green Google Guaranteed badge that sit above everything else on a local search. You pay per lead, and you can dispute leads that were clearly not real work.
Per-lead costs averaged $51 for HVAC and $57 for plumbing in February 2026, drawn from $6.72 million in tracked spend across 888 contractors and 126,650 leads. That is a large enough sample to trust.
Why it converts better is structural rather than clever: the customer searched for your service, in your area, right then, and picked you from a short list. On Angi and Thumbtack they filled in a form and got handed to whoever paid. Intent is higher and competition at the moment of contact is lower.
Thumbtack
Thumbtack sits in the middle at roughly $250 per booked job. It works better for some trades than others, and better in less saturated metros.
The direction of travel is worth noting. Lead floors for HVAC, plumbing and electrical rose to $35 to $55 in the top fifty metros, up from $22 to $38 a year earlier. That is a substantial increase in a single year, and it is not finished.
Thumbtack is most defensible as a fill-in: something to run when the schedule has gaps rather than as a primary channel, because the price is rising and you do not control it.
Angi
At around $542 per booked job, Angi is roughly three times Local Services Ads for the same outcome. That is the headline, and it is why contractor forums are full of people leaving.
The mechanics explain it. Shared leads go to several contractors at once, so you are paying to enter a race you often lose, and you pay whether you win or not. The ghost-lead rate hits hardest here.
There are cases where it works: a new business with no reviews and no search presence needs volume from somewhere, and Angi provides it. But treat it as a starter channel with a planned exit, not a permanent line on the budget.
You are paying to enter a race you often lose, and you pay whether you win or not.
When to quit shared leads
The trigger is not a feeling, it is a number. Work out your own cost per booked job on each channel for the last ninety days: total spend divided by jobs actually won, not leads received.
If a channel is costing more than your average job margin, it is not marketing, it is a subscription to being busy. Plenty of contractors run at a loss on lead platforms for years without ever doing this division.
The order to move in
- Set up Google Local Services Ads first, since it is the cheapest per booked job
- Fix the phone before spending more, because paid leads that ring out are the most expensive kind of waste
- Get review volume up, which lifts both LSA ranking and AI recommendations
- Cut the worst-performing shared-lead channel once your own channels cover the schedule
- Keep one lead platform running at low spend as insurance against a quiet month
What none of them tell you
All three platforms are middlemen between a customer searching and you answering. The reason they can charge what they charge is that the customer found them instead of you.
That is the thing worth working on underneath all of this. A business with strong reviews, a complete Google Business Profile and a real presence where customers look pays these platforms less every year rather than more, because a growing share of the work arrives directly.
It is slower than buying leads and it compounds instead of resetting monthly. Most contractors do both for a while, which is the right answer, as long as the ratio is moving in the right direction.
Common questions
- Which lead platform is cheapest per booked job?
- Google Local Services Ads, at roughly $168 per booked job in 2026, versus about $250 on Thumbtack and $542 on Angi. Per-lead pricing makes the platforms look closer than they are.
- Why is my cost per lead so different from cost per job?
- Because roughly 75% of pay-per-lead contacts go silent after first contact. They do not answer, they already hired someone, or they were collecting quotes. You pay for the number either way.
- Is Angi worth it in 2026?
- Mainly as a starter channel. At about $542 per booked job it is roughly three times Local Services Ads, so it makes sense when you have no reviews and no search presence and need volume, with a planned exit.
- How do I know when to quit a lead platform?
- Divide ninety days of spend by jobs actually won on that channel. If the result exceeds your average job margin, you are paying to be busy rather than to be profitable.
- What should I do instead of buying leads?
- Build the channels you own: Google Business Profile, review volume, and being findable where customers now search including AI assistants. It is slower, and unlike lead spend it compounds rather than resetting every month.