I attended The Huge Convention this past week and sat in on Jim Dubois’ session. He says, In order to increase lead flow I should have a marketing arsenal which includes HomeAdvisor/Angi, Yelp, Thumbtack, Porch .com, etc. as an external lead source.
I started my business in 2010 and used ServiceMagic (bought out by HomeAdvisor then bought out by Angi) for leads. It really helped me at the time since I had no business. Eventually I started noticing the leads were more “tire kickers” and a waste of money. Several years later I’m intrigued to start using a lead source again to expand my reach (especially since we’re slow right now). I did a search on this forum to read other window cleaner’s experiences but most of the posts were from 7-8 yrs ago. I’m hopeful things have changed with the times because most of the comments were negative. Anyone using any of these, and what is your experience?
We are currently doing SEO, door hangers, have GMB with 200+ reviews, have a Yelp page with 25 reviews + 55 “not recommended reviews” (it’s a racket), tried an ad on Nextdoor (0 calls), tried FB ads last year and had mediocre success, signed up with realty offices as a preferred vendor which provided few referrals. We reach out to our database on a weekly basis. I’m about to try out a Google LSA. The one thing I have refused to do is residential D2D sales. The thought of that makes me cringe.
What has been working for you in your business?
I also started in 2010… Did a little bit of D2D and hated it so I went to EDDM via post office. That worked great. Tried a bit of Angies lIst and Yelp and got some response but feel like Yelpers are looking for the lowest and Angies wanted too much money. NextDoor has been very good, though not with ads, just customers commenting. I did a little bit of EDDM back in Feb/March, which I hadnt done in 10 years and it worked well.
I’ve been seeing the leads that are coming in thru thumbtack and don’t look to bad . I have just been to busy to buy them , but you only buy the ones you like and they let you preview them and it not expensive.
Also most my new call come in thru GMB at the moment
For me (started in business more recently) EDDM has worked great. Actually provided like 70-80% of my business first year. I tried Craigslist ads and got nothing, I had a friend who tried Angie leads (he’s not a window cleaner though) and he had an awful experience. Anybody tried Google local service ads? I’m wary of online marketing but willing to give it a try.
They’re hit or miss. Half of the leads are good, the other half needs it done right away. Next year I’m only going to enable them when it gets slower.
I imagine it depends on your area? I have had great results with door hangers, but it is done on days that I have no jobs scheduled, and on streets that I haven’t hung hangers in while I drop 10 up and 10 down both sides of the street from that days job. I have done Realmailers and got 1 job; Craigslist I got 1 job; Door Hangers I have gotten the better part of most neighborhoods. Walking for hours dropping door hangers suck, but if it works?
I had someone from Angi call me today wanting to know if i would want some residential leads. He said 40% of the leads don’t get responded to and they charge $15 per lead that converts to a sale. No sale, no lead acquisition cost.
We have had good results with door hangers as well. We typically get 1 job for every 100 we put out, so it’s definitely a numbers game.
That sounds like a pretty good deal to me. $15 per lead seems very reasonable. Did you sign up with Angis? If not, why? No judgement just curious.
No I didn’t. I’m currently not doing residential. I might once I get water fed.
Yeah, $15 per lead does sound like a solid deal! I haven’t signed up with Angi yet, mainly because I’ve been relying on other channels for now. But I’m definitely curious about it. Have you had good results with them?
I used Angi during Sep - Nov 2024. Here is my experience and feedback.
To start you have to deposit money into your Angi account. They will then deduct from your balance for each lead. They withdraw that fee on a weekly basis. I started with $1,125. I think they had some kind of promotion on matching your balance or something. In September I logged $800 in business. October was $2,526. November $0. I think I got busy with my regular customers, and other lead sources during November, so I paused my leads. I guess overall it was ok. I tripled my investment. BUT..here’s the catch. The lead is sent to 3-4 different window cleaning companies. When the lead is sent out you have to drop everything and reach out to the customer. I’m just too busy at times that I can’t follow-up immediately. I never ever spoke to a customer. Right when I got the lead (most times) I would first call. The call always went to voicemail. I would then email them because you don’t have their real phone number. Angi just gives you a toll free number with an extension. When you call, Angi forwards the call to the customer. I would email the customer and rarely got a response. You can also message them through Angi’s site, but the customer rarely responds. Then, of course, you’re competing against 3 other companies and the customer is usually wanting the lowest price. It’s super frustrating.
In December, I called to cancel, but the customer service rep offered me $395 in free leads. Since then I’ve gone through about $250 of that and have gotten no business. I’ve paused my leads now since it’s Spring and we have more work than we can handle already. It’s very inconsistent and hard to be available right when you get the lead.
