The numbers behind the pitch.
What leads actually cost. Whether the platform you're paying is worth it. Why you rank on Google and still don't get recommended. Every figure sourced and dated, every calculation shown so you can substitute your own numbers — written for contractors, not for other marketers.
What should a contractor read first?
Start with the lead cost post if you're deciding where to put money, the Angi one if you're currently buying shared leads, and the Google Maps one if you already know something is wrong and can't work out what. Each stands alone, so there's no reading order and no series to work through.
How much does a contractor lead actually cost in 2026?
Every published benchmark we could find, in one place, by trade and by channel — Local Services Ads at $53, Google Ads at $90.92, Meta at $34, and the trade-by-trade spread that runs from $39 for electrical up to $228 for roofing on paid search. More importantly, why cost per lead is the wrong number to manage and what to use instead. Includes the break-even calculation that tells you whether any of those figures are affordable for your business, which depends entirely on your average job value.
Is Angi worth it for contractors?
The honest answer depends on one number most contractors have never worked out: cost per booked job, not cost per lead. A $50 shared lead sold to four contractors, won 20% of the time and closed 30% of those, costs $833 per job. We run that arithmetic properly, cover the membership fees, the dispute process, what happens to reviews you earn on the platform, and the situations where buying shared leads is genuinely the right call — because there are some.
Local Services Ads vs Google Ads: which should a contractor run?
They sit on the same results page, charge on completely different models, and answer different questions. Local Services Ads charge per lead, carry the Google Verified badge and book at 43.9%; Google Ads charge per click, cost $90.92 per lead on average, and reach searches LSAs cannot. We cover eligibility, what the licence verification actually involves, when running both makes sense, and the dispute process almost nobody uses that quietly inflates their real cost per lead.
How do you get your contracting business recommended by ChatGPT?
Roughly 1.2% of local businesses currently surface in AI-generated answers, which makes this the least contested visibility available to a contractor right now. The work is unglamorous and mostly free: complete and consistent business information, structured data a machine can actually read, a robots.txt that doesn't block the crawlers by accident, and content that answers real questions with dated specifics. We go through each, plus how to check whether you currently appear at all.
Why is my contracting business not showing up on Google Maps?
Nine reasons, ordered by how often they turn out to be the cause. The most common is not a penalty or a technical fault — it's proximity, which no budget changes and which means you were never going to rank in a suburb eight miles away. We also cover suspension triggers including keyword stuffing in the business name, service area business setup, category selection, and how to check your real visibility from multiple points rather than from your own address.
Which post answers the question you actually have?
Each of the five exists for a different situation, and reading the wrong one first wastes your evening. Here's who each is written for — including who should skip it, because not every post is useful to every contractor.
You're deciding where to put money
You have a budget and several options and no reliable way to compare them. The lead cost post puts every published 2026 benchmark side by side so you can see that a $53 Local Services Ads lead and a $90.92 Google Ads lead are not actually comparable until you know the book rate behind each. Skip it if you already know your cost per booked job by channel — you're ahead of the post.
You're currently buying shared leads
You're on Angi, Thumbtack or similar and can't tell whether it's working. The post runs the arithmetic most contractors never do: a $50 shared lead won 20% of the time and closed 30% of those costs $833 per booked job, which changes the comparison entirely. Skip it if you've never used a lead marketplace and don't intend to.
You're about to start paid ads
Or you're running one and wondering about the other. Covers eligibility, what licence verification involves, the different charging models, and the honest answer on running both. Skip it if your break-even cost per lead is under about $40 — the transfer test will tell you that in thirty seconds, and paid search probably isn't your route.
You want the least contested visibility available
AI assistants are recommending contractors right now and roughly 1.2% of local businesses appear in those answers, which means the barrier is attention rather than budget. Most of the work is free. Skip it if your Google Business Profile is still incomplete — do that first, since it feeds this anyway.
Something is wrong and you can't tell what
You know you're not appearing where you should be. The post orders the nine causes by likelihood rather than alphabetically, which matters because the most common one is proximity and no amount of work fixes it. Skip it if you rank well throughout your service area already — but check from more than one location before you conclude that.
All five are written to stand alone, so there's no order to follow and no series to work through. Where one references a figure explained properly in another, it links there rather than repeating the explanation badly.
How do we decide what to publish?
By whether we can put a number on it. If a question can be answered with sourced data and arithmetic you can redo against your own business, it's worth writing. If the honest answer is "it depends," we write about what it depends on rather than padding it out.
Every number is sourced and dated
If a figure appears, the source is named and so is when it was published. Marketing statistics rot fast, and an undated benchmark is a guess with a decimal point in it.
Ranges, not single numbers
Where two credible sources disagree we show both rather than picking the flattering one. Where a range is wide we say why — usually trade, market, season or execution.
No gated content
Nothing here requires an email address. No newsletter, no download form in front of a PDF, no "unlock the full guide". If it's written, it's readable.
We'll say when a channel isn't worth it
Including channels we're paid to run. The Angi post is the clearest example — it names the situations where buying shared leads is the correct decision, which isn't the answer an agency is supposed to give.
Written for contractors
Not for other marketers, and not for a search algorithm. If a term needs explaining it gets explained or linked to the glossary rather than assumed.
Corrections stay visible
When a figure turns out to be wrong or a source is superseded, the post is updated and the change is noted rather than quietly edited. The review date on each post is real.
Nothing here is gated and there's no newsletter. Every calculator on this site runs in your browser without sending anything anywhere, and every post is readable in full. If you'd rather skip to your own numbers, the free audit comes back in one business day.
There's a commercial argument for this as well as an editorial one, and it's worth stating plainly because it explains the whole approach. Search engines and AI assistants both reward depth and specificity over volume, and a site carrying five thoroughly sourced posts will generally outperform one carrying fifty thin ones — partly because thin pages compete with each other for the same terms, and partly because nobody cites a page that restates what three other pages already said. The posts here are written to be quoted: dated figures, named sources, one question answered properly per post. That's the same reason the glossary carries a benchmark on every definition and the expectations page shows ranges rather than a single promised number. It is also, incidentally, exactly what we'd tell you to do with your own site.
Where else can a contractor get the numbers?
Most of this site is calculators rather than articles, because a number worked out against your own figures is worth more than a benchmark read in a paragraph. All of them are free, none need an email, and they run entirely in your browser.
The Expectation Engine
Split a monthly budget across channels and watch the realistic twelve-month lead curve change. Shows why month three looks flat when you weight toward SEO.
The 12-Point Self-Audit
Twelve weighted checks and a score, with your three highest-value fixes ranked. Takes about two minutes and needs nothing from you.
Budget Backsolve
Work backwards from the revenue you want to the marketing budget that supports it, against the published percentage-of-revenue bands.
Marketing glossary
139 terms defined for contractors rather than marketers, with the real 2026 benchmark attached wherever one exists. Searchable.
Shared vs Exclusive
The calculator behind the Angi post. Compare what a shared lead really costs per booked job against an exclusive one.
The Transfer Test
Not a contractor? Work out your break-even cost per lead and see which channels can profitably reach you at all.
Questions about this blog
Who writes these and what qualifies them?
Do I need to give an email address to read anything?
Where do the benchmark figures come from?
Can I use these figures in my own marketing or reporting?
Will you write about my trade specifically?
Do you accept guest posts or link exchanges?
Why are the posts so long?
Reading is cheaper than testing. Both beat guessing.
If you'd rather skip to your own numbers, the free 24-point audit comes back in one business day and you keep the findings either way.