Is Thumbtack worth it for contractors?

Thumbtack can bring in work, especially for a new business or a trade with a lot of small jobs. Whether it's worth it for you depends on what your leads cost, how many of them turn into jobs, and whether you're also building marketing that you own. This post explains how Thumbtack charges contractors, where it tends to work, where it falls short, and how to decide.

How Thumbtack charges pros

Signing up is free, and there's no monthly membership. You pay for leads. Thumbtack sends you requests that match the services and area you set up, and you can also choose to respond to other requests. The price of a lead depends on the type of job, the location and how much competition there is for it, and you can set a weekly budget to limit what you spend. You pay for a lead whether or not it turns into a job, so check Thumbtack's current terms for your trade before you set your budget.

Where Thumbtack can work

• New businesses that don't have reviews, a Google profile with any history, or a website yet. Thumbtack can put you in front of customers from the first week.
• Trades with many small jobs, such as handyman work, cleaning or small repairs, where the cost of a lead is small compared with the job.
• Filling a slow stretch. You can raise or lower your budget as your schedule changes.

Where it often falls short

• Other pros are often contacting the same customer. When several businesses respond to one request, the fastest reply and the lowest price tend to win.
• Leads cost money even when nobody hires you. Some customers are only collecting quotes, and some never reply.
• The reviews stay on Thumbtack. Good Thumbtack reviews help you win more Thumbtack jobs, but they don't appear on your Google profile, which is where most homeowners look you up.
• The leads stop when the spending stops. Your own Google profile and website keep bringing in calls after the work to build them is done.

How to tell if it's paying off

Track three numbers for a month or two: what you spent on leads, how many jobs you booked from them, and the profit on those jobs. Divide the spend by the number of booked jobs to get your cost per booked job. If that number is comfortably below the profit on an average job, Thumbtack is paying for itself. If it isn't, try lowering your budget, narrowing the job types you accept, or replying faster, since speed matters when several pros are competing for the same customer.

Common questions about Thumbtack

Is Thumbtack legit?

Yes. Thumbtack is a real company and one of the better known ways homeowners in the United States find local service pros. Whether it's a good deal for your business is a separate question that depends on your trade, your area and how quickly you reply to leads.

Does Thumbtack charge customers?

Customers can request quotes on Thumbtack for free. Thumbtack makes its money by charging the pros who receive and respond to those requests, which is why the cost of each lead matters so much to you.

How much does a Thumbtack lead cost?

It depends on the trade, the size of the job and the area. Pros commonly report paying anywhere from about $10 to more than $100 for a single lead. Setting a weekly budget keeps your spending from running past what you planned.

Do you pay if the customer doesn't hire you?

Usually, yes. You pay for the lead and not for the job, so a customer who hires someone else or stops replying still costs you the lead fee. Some requests only charge you if the customer responds to your message, so check how a lead is priced before you contact the customer.

What are some sites like Thumbtack?

The best known alternatives are Angi and HomeAdvisor, which are owned by the same company, along with Yelp, Nextdoor, Porch and Bark. Most of them work the same way, with a free profile and paid leads or ads.

What to build alongside it

Even when Thumbtack is working, it's worth building the channels you own at the same time. A complete Google Business Profile, a website with a page for each service, and a steady flow of Google reviews bring in calls that aren't shared with other contractors. Many contractors use lead sites while those are getting started and cut back once their own calls pick up.

We compared Thumbtack, Angi and HomeAdvisor with running your own site in SiteHike vs lead generation sites, and our guide to marketing for contractors covers the order we'd set things up in.