Transcription
It has never been more expensive to generate leads and get sales in a home service business than it is now in 2025. This is due to a ton of competition. This is due to all of the ad prices going up on every single platform and just a lot of people also economically not wanting to spend as much money as they used to.
And so what the most common thing business owners do is they rush to the lead generation and the lead selling sites to get more business. One of the most popular ones is Thumbtac. I used Thumbtac a lot my first and second year in business because I thought that it was just a really easy way to make money. But when you actually do the math behind Thumbtac, Angie, or any of these other lead generation sites, they're actually not as profitable for your business as you think. And there's better ways to showcase your business for a lot cheaper and be a lot more profitable with it.
Now, I could tell you all about that, or I could show you in person as a buyer how Thumbtac works and why it's a bad shake for the business. So, let me give you a little breakdown. I have this couch. I've had this couch for a lot of years. Stella, the idiot sitting right on that couch, pissed on the couch last night, and then Petey also went and grabbed one of these plants from out on my balcony and dragged it onto the couch and started eating the plant with the soil on my couch. So, now I have a piss, stained, and dirt covered couch. I've tried cleaning it as best as I can, but it's doomed. I can't sit on it anymore.
So, what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to go on Thumbtac and I'm going to grab quotes for a junk removal and couch removal and show you just how these lead generation sites that sell you leads are working from the consumer's perspective. And then that way you'll be able to see exactly why it's not super profitable for you as a business because of the way they're actually showing me as the buyer a bunch of different companies so that I can just dilute my spend and only one person and the other companies pay for the lead for no reason. So let's hop over to my computer and I'm going to show you exactly how we do it.
So now I'm at my desk. Let's go through the process as just like your customers would go through on their end. So I'm going to open the Thumbtac app and I'm going to look up junk removal. And then I'm going to go through the process just like your prospects would. And there's some flaws along the way, but regardless of what your trade is, this is going to be super applicable. So, I want furniture removed. It's going to fill about half a pickup truck. Uh I have an elevator and it's a large item and I need a pro right away. So, I'm going through the process here and then immediately Thumbtac's showing me, you know, three companies up top and then a bunch more down here.
Now, remember, Thumbtac is charging these companies every time I reach out. But the issue is your prospects are not business owners. So they don't understand that if they reach out for 10 quotes, all 10 of those companies are going to get charged. The customers don't know that. And if they do, they don't care. And so I'm going to submit here. I'm going to go through the process. And then it's going to ask me at the end to like upload a photo. I took a picture of the couch. I'm going to put that there. Now it's got a photo here. And I'm going to say just the couch, nothing else. And now here's where it gets a little bit of a problem if you're a business owner. So I submit here. It's going to send out to him. And this is where the problem comes in. This is where Thumbtac has their best interest in mind and not the company that's working for them's best interest in mind.
So, that guy just got charged probably $20 to $30 for that lead. And now Thumbtac is coming in here and saying, "Share your project with a few more pros, homeowner. Why won't you just get a few more quotes?" Because now, with just the click of a button, Thumbtac just made four times the amount of money as I submit to these. So, for you guys watching this, you're like, "Dang, Steve, I can't believe you're going to do that and charge all these companies money." I'm actually gonna reach out to these companies offline and ask them what the lead was charged and I'm gonna v I'm gonna Venmo or sell these companies for the lead just so that you guys watching are like, "Wow, you're a home service business and you're doing this just for a YouTube video. I'm going to give all of these companies back money for the lead." So, just keep that there.
So, I'm going to check availability for these guys. And now, Thumbtac just got four leads sold. So, Thumbtac just sold my identical lead to all four of these companies. And so now at best case, one of these companies is going to get the actual job and the other four are going to pay for the lead for no reason. Now watch how fast these companies are like sharks in the water to come get my business.
All right, so here's an interesting development. 5 minutes in, nobody has called or responded, which is really interesting because that used to not be the case at all. And so for anyone who's seen me talk in any other case, speed to lead is single-handedly the best thing you can do in your business because guess who's going to get the job? The first person who responds to my message because I just want to check it off the list. Like the majority of customers that are going to pay, they just want to check it off the list.
So while I'm waiting for these jobs to trickle in, one thing I want to note, too, is a lot of you guys know I used to own a junk removal company. We're actually in the middle of selling it. And uh the interesting thing about it is we used to run on thumbtack and we were doing like a little bit of leads on it even a year or two ago just to have another place on the internet where our where our name was and every single company on thumbtack now is a different company than there was a year ago and two years ago which means that like if it's an entire new crop of brands on here and I don't recognize any of the names it means that all the people we used to compete with on thumbtail aren't using Thumbtac anymore either. So, that should be pretty telling for you. If like the entire system is overhauling over a year period and no one is using it again, that should be pretty telling.
So, here's a crazy development. Since submitting that on Thumbtac, we reached out to four companies and like genuinely ready to get the couch removed and no one has responded for an hour. And like I think a big portion of that comes from the fact that all of the quality companies are off of Thumbtac now because it sucks. And so now all five all four of those companies have paid for my lead. It's been an hour and no one's responded to me. And so now as a consumer I want to get about my day. So I'm going to go and I'm going to look up chunk removal same day and I'm going to reach out to someone else because I want it done. So now these are all Google local service ads. If we call them, they're going to answer because they're paying, you would hope. And then all these are just like more Google uh Google business pages. So I'm going to call this top one happy hippo uh and just see uh if they can come out today. It's kind of funny because the intent of this video was to show how bad Thumbtac was for the companies and as I'm doing it live, I'm like, no, it's actually gotten bad for the consumer, too. like I I haven't gotten an answer for an hour from four different companies. So now I'm going to Google and I'm going that way. So let's call this top company and go from there.
Yeah, that's Yeah. Damn, that's fast. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, you bet, man. Talk to you soon.
So, this is what's wild. Like, the intent of this YouTube video has gone completely off the rails, but I actually think it's better this way. Because here's why. Like I'm showing you exactly what goes through a consumer's mind when they're reaching out for quotes. They don't care who they reached out to. Like I just want the couch gone. I have a busy day ahead of me. And this guy, I went straight I scrolled past the ads. I went straight to Google Maps, called the first person that was ranked high. He was ranked high and had like 30 or 40 reviews, something like that. And he was ranked high and close to me with a pin. Called him at 12:15 p.m. He's going to be here at between 12:45 and 115 to pick up the couch and he quoted me $175. Is that a little steep to a consumer? Yes. But I'm paying for convenience. He's going to show up same day and get rid of it. And so now he's going to be here in like 15 to 30 minutes or he's going to be here between like 30 minutes and an hour from when I called. So it's this is a perfect example.
And so also side note, I went into thumbtack and I cancelled the job. So those four people that got charged for the lead allegedly are getting refunded. Now if they don't get refunded, I will still reach out to them and and Venmo them for the cost of the lead because I am a home service business owner at heart. I know that sucks. But the truth of the matter is they didn't get back to me for an hour. And what happens with co with what happens with all of your prospects is the exact same thing. They are busy. They have stuff going on. They have families. They have jobs. They have school. They have whatever else. They got kids to take to soccer practice. No one wants to sit around and talk to 10 different companies to get an answer. So, the first guy that gave me the answer I wanted got the job. And that is the definition of speed to lead. Like that is why the companies who are fast that have systems set up to do it this way win because he's I guarantee you someone's going to come back to me on Thumbtac and be like, "Oh, I can do it for $85." And by then, the couch is going to be gone because the guy that valued speed and convenience will win over time. Stella, Petey, say goodbye to your piss and dirt couch cuz it's all over.
Now, this is a really good lesson of what started with a thumbtack video about like how how bad it is for the contractor. It's actually turned into thumbtacks also terrible for the consumer. And you know what actually ended up winning is the guy who ranks high on Google Maps. Imagine that. So, if you're not emphasizing your Google Maps listing, you have to do that now. Appreciate it. I'll uh I'll leave you a five star and throw the photo on there.
All right. So, we called uh Micah at Happy Hippo from his Google Maps listing at 1215 and at 130 the couch is already gone. I paid him 200 bucks. So, he quoted 175. We tipped him $25 for the speed and that's a wrap. So, if that isn't a perfect example of like how speed to lead is the most important thing, I am not an anomaly for wanting the job just done fast and out of my hair. That's a normal occurrence for people who are wanting to hire any home service business. And so, Micah won the job solely based on the fact that he was fast. So, this should be a lesson for everybody. And this is why I've built all these systems into my business that are all about speed. the systems that call our leads instantly when they submit and connect us automatically, send them automated texts when we if they don't answer the phone, like all of those things matter. Like all of those things add up and Micah's the way Micah got business is a perfect example. So if anything, get off Thumbtac, optimize your Google business page, and you can see why.
And if you want us to come into your business and help you set up your own Facebook ads, where we actually record the actual setup with you and your team, show you how to do it so you have that recording forever so you can do it yourself. We could teach you how to do proper creatives, optimize your Google business page, and coach you through the entire process of getting your home service business's marketing and sales scaled up. Feel free to click the link in the description, book a call with our team, and we can walk through a demo of specifically how we can help you implement the HSA cycle strategy into your home service or contracting business. It's worked for 250 plus other home service business owners as we've been recording this video, so it'll probably work for you, too. See you there.