How Much Is Angi Costing You?

Angi (formerly HomeAdvisor) built its business on a simple premise: pay us, and we send you leads. Sounds fair. Until you realize those leads go to 3 to 4 other contractors in your market at the same time. You are not buying customers. You are renting a chance to compete for them.

The Real Cost of Angi Leads

The average Angi lead costs $80 to $120 depending on your trade. But the real cost is higher because of how shared leads work. When 4 contractors receive the same lead, close rates drop to 15% to 20%, compared to 28% to 35% on channels where you are the only company the homeowner contacted. That means your true cost per job on Angi is 2x to 3x what it would be on owned channels. Factor in junk leads, wrong numbers, and the time your office spends chasing refunds, and the ROI averages 1.8x. Compare that to 4.8x for Google Local Services Ads and 6x+ for organic SEO.

How Angi Compares to Google Ads, LSA, and SEO

Here is a direct comparison for an HVAC contractor spending $1,500/mo. On Angi, that budget generates roughly 19 leads, 3 to 4 jobs, and about $2,100 in revenue. The same $1,500 on Google Ads generates 33 leads and 10+ jobs because the leads are exclusive and close rates are nearly double. LSA performs even better with the Google Guaranteed badge driving trust. And SEO, while it takes 3 to 6 months to ramp, delivers leads at half the cost per lead of any paid channel once rankings are established. The math is not close.

What Owned Channels Mean for Your Business

When a homeowner searches "HVAC repair near me" and finds your Google Ads listing, your LSA profile, or your website in organic results, that lead is yours. Nobody else gets the call. You are not racing 3 other contractors to return a call within 5 minutes. You own the relationship from the first click. Beyond lead exclusivity, owned channels build assets that stay with your business. Your Google reviews, your search rankings, your website authority: Angi owns none of that for you. When you stop paying Angi, you walk away with nothing. When you build owned channels, the leads keep coming even if you pause ad spend for a week.

How to Make the Switch Without Losing Leads

Do not cancel Angi cold turkey. That is the fastest way to create a gap in your pipeline. Instead, reduce your Angi budget by 25% to 50% and redirect that spend to Google Ads and LSA. These channels start generating leads within the first week. Run both systems in parallel for 30 to 60 days while your owned channels ramp up. Once Google is matching your Angi lead volume (most contractors hit this in 60 to 90 days), cut Angi entirely. Meanwhile, invest in SEO from day one. It takes longer to produce but delivers the cheapest leads over time. By month 6, your owned channel mix will outperform Angi on every metric: lead volume, close rate, cost per job, and total revenue.