Should I buy leads from Angi or Thumbtack, or build my own marketing?
Bought leads are renting. Owned marketing is building. Lead platforms sell the same customer to several competitors and keep the relationship. Your own presence costs more up front, then compounds. The practical path for many trades: buy leads to keep trucks busy while you build the asset that replaces them.
Be fair about what lead platforms do well. They deliver volume fast, with no build time. For a new business, that can keep the lights on. The problems show up at scale: shared leads become price wars, fees climb, and the platform owns the customer.
Owned marketing inverts every one of those. The customer who finds you directly is not comparing five bids. Your rankings, reviews, and site keep working without a per-lead toll. And nobody can raise the rent on an asset you own.
The trap is staying on bought leads forever because they feel predictable. Run the math: total platform fees this year against what a real local presence costs to build once. For most established trades, the crossover point already passed.
Where to go next
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