The $60 Angi lead that costs you $542

You paid $60 for a lead today. By the time that job hits your books, it cost you significantly more.

The math that Angi doesn’t want you to do

Here’s what you see in your dashboard: you bought a lead for $60. You call the homeowner. Maybe they answer, maybe they don’t. You move on.

Here’s what you don’t see: that same lead was also sold to other electricians. The homeowner is getting calls from multiple pros in your area. Whoever calls back fastest and quotes lowest usually wins.

Angi leads have a wide price range, with some contractors reporting $30-$85 per lead S1. But the per-lead price is a distraction. The real number is cost per booked job.

One source calculated it directly: Angi’s cost per booked job comes to $542 S12. Compare that to Google LSA at $168 S14 or Thumbtack at $250 S13.

Run the math yourself. On an Angi lead, you could be spending hundreds to get a job. You lose money before you bought a single part.

Your close rate is the number they hide

Angi won’t tell you your close rate on their platform. But the data is public: Angi’s average close rate is 12% S15. Compare that to Google LSA at 31% S15.

That 12% means you pay for many leads to get one job. At $60 per lead, that’s hundreds in lead costs for a single booking, before you factor in the time you spent calling people who already hired someone else.

You’re not paying for the job. You’re paying for the conversation M1. And most of those conversations end with “we already went with someone else.”

The shared-lead model guarantees this. When a homeowner submits one request and it goes to multiple pros, the math works for the platform but it doesn’t work for you. They collect a fee from each pro. You’re subsidizing competitors’ chances at the same job.

The ‘high demand’ lie they sold you

Angi’s sales pitch sounds good: “We have homeowners in your area actively looking for an electrician. These are high-demand leads.”

One user decided to check Angi’s claims against public data C1. What they found raised questions about lead quality and demand.

Angi’s own financials tell a story. Their Q1 2026 services revenue was $279M, down 11% year-over-year S16.

Regulators have previously taken action against the company’s predecessor for deceptive marketing of leads to home improvement pros S11.

The real benchmark for a healthy electrical shop

Here’s where it gets personal. The industry benchmarks for healthy electrical contractors B5:

• Marketing spend: 5-8% of revenue
• Net profit margin: 20%+

If your marketing spend is high and your net profit is low, you have a math problem. The average net profit margin for electrical contractors is around 7.5% S21. Top performers run 20%+ S22.

The difference between those two numbers isn’t luck. It’s knowing what a lead actually costs and refusing to pay for bad ones.

When you spend hundreds to get a single job, you’re not just losing money on that transaction. You’re also training your business to operate at a loss on the front end, hoping to make it up on volume. That works until it doesn’t.

Pull up your Angi dashboard. Divide what you spent this month by the jobs you actually booked from those leads. If that number is higher than your average ticket, you’re losing money on every job you get from that platform.

What the top 50 contractors do differently

The top 50 electrical contractors in the U.S. reported $59.5 billion in revenue in 2025 S24. They didn’t get there by buying shared leads.

They own their online presence so homeowners find them first.

93% of customer experiences begin with a search engine S28. Not a lead gen platform. Not an app. A search. The homeowner types “electrician near me” or “emergency electrician [city]” and picks from what they see.

84% of homeowners use multiple platforms to find a contractor S29. They check Google, look at reviews, visit your website, compare you to two other shops, then call. If your online presence is weak on any of those fronts, you lose before the phone rings.

The top shops aren’t doing anything complicated. They’ve built a system where the homeowner comes to them directly, through Google, through referrals, through their website, through their reputation.

The math is simple. A direct lead, a homeowner who finds you on Google, calls you, and books, costs you nothing in lead fees. Your cost is whatever you spend on your online presence.

What to do about it Monday morning

You’ve got the math. Now you need the moves. Here’s what the contractors who aren’t paying hundreds per job do differently.

Step one: kill the leak you can measure today.

Pull last month’s Angi invoice. Divide total spend by jobs booked from those leads. If that number is higher than your average ticket, you’re not running marketing, you’re donating to Angi’s shareholders. Cancel the auto-renew. You can always turn it back on. You won’t.

Step two: fix the asset that 93% of your customers use first.

Your Google Business Profile is the front door of your business. 93% of customer experiences begin with a search engine S28. If your profile has old photos, wrong hours, or no reviews from this month, you’re handing customers to the guy who updates his.

Here’s the checklist the top 10% of electricians run monthly GBP checklist sources:

• Verify your categories are exact: “Electrician” plus “Electrical contractor” and “Emergency electrician”, not “Handyman” or “Home improvement.”
• Post one photo every week. Not stock photos. Your truck, your work, your crew. Google rewards fresh visual content.
• Answer every Q&A yourself. Homeowners ask “Do you do panel upgrades?” and the default answer is blank. Fill it in with your actual service area and pricing.
• Respond to every review within 48 hours. The algorithm tracks response rate. So do customers.
• Post a Google Post (that little update box) every Tuesday morning. A tip, a seasonal offer, a “we just finished this panel swap.” It keeps your profile active in the local pack.

Step three: make your website convert, not just exist.

Your website is not a brochure. It’s a lead machine that runs 24/7. The contractors who close 40-60% of direct leads have sites that do three things CRO checklist sources:

• Put the phone number in the top left corner of every page. Not hidden in a hamburger menu. Not in the footer. Top left, clickable on mobile, visible in under one second.
• Show your service area on the homepage. “Serving [city] and all of [county]”, not “we serve the greater metropolitan area.” Specificity builds trust.
• Have a “Call Now” button that’s sticky at the bottom of the screen on mobile. Homeowners on their phone should never have to scroll to find your number.

Step four: run the math on every lead source monthly.

Set a calendar reminder for the first of every month. Open your CRM. BirdEye, Podium, ServiceTitan, whatever you use, and pull invoice data by lead source CRM integration sources. Divide total ad spend by jobs invoiced. If a source costs more than 8% of revenue per job, cut it.

The healthy benchmark: marketing spend at 5-8% of revenue, net profit margin at 20%+ B5. If you’re spending much more and netting much less, you’re not in the marketing business. You’re in the lead-buying business, and it’s a terrible business to be in.

Step five: build the referral loop.

The cheapest lead is the one a past customer sends you. Every job should end with a text message: “Hey [name], thanks for the business. If you know anyone who needs an electrician, send them my number. I’ll take care of them.” No link, no form, no friction. Just a text.

Then track how many of those turn into calls. If it’s less than one per ten jobs, your work isn’t memorable enough. Fix that before you buy another Angi lead.

The bottom line

Angi’s business model depends on you not doing this math. They need you to believe that paying for a conversation is a good deal, that low close rates are normal, that sharing your leads with competitors is just how the game works.

It’s not how the game works. It’s how Angi works.

The top 50 electrical contractors in the U.S. generated $59.5 billion in revenue last year S24. They didn’t do it by buying shared leads. They did it by owning their online presence, building a reputation that brings homeowners to them, and running the math on every dollar they spend.

You can do the same. Start Monday morning. Pull the invoice. Run the numbers. Cancel what doesn’t work. Fix what does.

The phone will still ring. It’ll just be homeowners who found you, not leads that were sold to you.