Short answer: Lead platforms such as Thumbtack and Angi can bring jobs quickly, but you rent that attention. Your own website is slower to pay off, but the customers it brings are yours. Most contractors do best with both, and a good site makes platform leads convert better.
What lead platforms are good at
- Speed. You can be in front of people who are searching right now, often within days.
- No setup. A profile is easier than a website.
- Good for a new business that has no reviews and no search ranking yet.
Where they fall short
- You compete on price. Customers often contact several contractors at once.
- You pay for the attention as long as you want it. Stop paying and the leads stop.
- The platform owns the relationship. The customer's first impression of you is their layout, not your brand.
What your own site is good at
- It keeps working. A page that ranks on Google or shows up on Maps brings calls without a per-lead fee.
- It builds trust. People check your site after finding you anywhere, including on a platform. A dead or outdated site loses the job.
- You own it. The customer list, the reviews you collect and the domain are yours.
A simple way to use both
- Keep a platform profile if the leads pay for themselves.
- Put the same business name, phone number and area on your own site, so people who look you up find the same details.
- Ask happy customers for a review and a photo, and put both on your site.
- Track where each call came from, so you know which one is worth paying for.
What Owoop offers
We build a preview of your site first, so you see it before you pay. $490 one time, then an optional $39 a month for hosting and updates. You can leave any time and keep the site.
This guide describes how lead platforms work in general. Fees, lead rules and results differ by trade and area, so check each platform's current terms.
Get a free preview of your site