Should outdoor living contractors rely on pay-per-lead services like HomeAdvisor for their marketing?
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Corey Halstead
Owner, HALSTEAD.
Home improvement pay-per-lead services like HomeAdvisor, porch, thumbtack, and Angie’s List are not a necessary means of getting new business for landscape & hardscape contractors and pool builders.
There is no magic bullet to reaching true marketing ROI for landscape contractors, pool builders, design/build firms, and construction businesses. Companies who experience revolutionary results are those who invest, gradually building a marketing system of their own, over time. This distinction is important to understanding the long-term mindset needed from owners and leadership, as well as the differences between a pay-per-lead service like HomeAdvisor and the practice of actually investing in digital marketing. Let’s take a look at where pay-per-lead can fit into the system, if anywhere.
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HomeAdvisor for Contractor Marketing: The Overview.
The HomeAdvisor membership costs around $300 annually, plus the cost of each project lead averaging anywhere between $15 to $60 per lead. Essentially an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company, HomeAdvisor saw a major opportunity when it came to the remodeling industry; contractors were not properly investing in getting found by customers online. SEO, the practice of optimizing a website to rank well for important and relevant search terms such as kitchen remodel or patio installation, is complicated after all. So even today,
If you’re a landscaper who is just starting out, or a smaller operation whose bread-and-butter is primarily straightforward and set-price projects such as sod installation or building decks, then HomeAdvisor may be all that’s needed to attract the attention of customers and build a solid online presence.
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Better Landscape & Pool Construction Marketing Strategies
Depending on your company size, there may be way better ways to generate leads and build your business, such as SEO or targeted Facebook/Instagram Advertising. We dive into this more in just a bit down the page.
See, if you specialize in complex, custom and high-end design/build projects (or starting to transition into that direction) where homeowners need even more reassurance that you’re the right company for the job, HomeAdvisor may not be the wisest use of your marketing dollars. Along those same lines, if you are a concierge-style maintenance firm, only looking for the best residential customers and targeted commercial clients, investing in your own marketing is the best choice for sure.
Let more about this approach here ->
So then why do some contractors sing HomeAdvisor’s praises… while others call it a scam. Who’s right? What does the lead service do and not do and who is it best suited for? Let’s take a look.
● It works. Everyone is turning to the web to find service providers so you must have a strong online presence and you must be easily found. The question is - will they homeowner find you on the HomeAdvisor website or on yours? Keep in mind that having a profile on HomeAdvisor means that when someone searches your company name, the HomeAdvisor website is going to outrank your own site. So it will literally be stealing your own website ranking!
● It’s good for new businesses. Word of mouth is the ultimate, but you need to build a reputation first. You automatically have the trust of people who trust this review site (just because you’re on it). It also allows you to reach customers that would otherwise cost you a lot of money to find - and for a brand new landscape business, this can be a good start.
● Lots of complaints and bad leads. HomeAdvisor generates a lot of complaints with the Better Business Bureau. Most complaints center around low-quality leads (tire-kickers). HomeAdvisor rates an average of one star (out of five stars) on the Better Business Bureau. Out of the local 795 reviews we looked at, the average was one star. It is not possible to go lower than that. Given the fact that they’ve been around for a long time, and that most homeowners will visit home improvement review sites, some percentage of complaints should be expected, however we think the number of complaints is excessively high and that is due, in part, to expectations. Established design/builds expect better quality leads than what is typical on HomeAdvisor but HomeAdvisor is designed to fuel a less-established business hence the disappointment.
● Shady marketing practices. A big issue many contractors have with HomeAdvisor is their deceptive marketing practices. If you sign up with HomeAdvisor, you are giving them the rights to use your business name to promote their business! HomeAdvisor builds links back to their own site - links that are in your name, but with HomeAdvisor’s phone number - which means that your prospects can be lured away and presented with your competition’s contact information. Although this is clearly spelled out in their Terms of Service, most people don’t read the fine print.
Interested in learning more about our construction and landscape industry-proven approach to marketing? Let’s jump on a call!
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If You Must be on There, Improve Your Chances of Winning the Job on HomeAdvisor
1. Set yourself apart in the price wars. A homeowner who gets a similar bid range from seven landscape contractors needs incentive to choose one over the others. In your bid, be sure to include: your approach, your expertise, a breakdown of the price and anything that sets you apart, for example “25 year old family business” or “veteran-owned.” The truth is, however, that HomeAdvisor is full of pricewars and if you’re on this platform, you’re usually dealing with prospects that are looking for the lowest price.
2. Set expectations. Your prospects want know what they can expect before, during, and after the project. Does your landscape project require subcontractors? If so, provide information about the subs you use. What’s the timeline? What inconveniences will they have to deal with and how can you mitigate them? What are the challenges you anticipate, and how do you envision solving them? Give prospects as much information about the process as possible, to build trust. Don’t run from transparency.
3. Educate them. Most prospective customers don’t understand the technical side of landscaping. Demonstrate your expertise and educate them on the process (including the permit process), methods, materials, potential challenges and help them understand what they are paying for… and why.
4. Guarantee your work. People are afraid of hiring the wrong landscape contractor and losing their money. Make it a no-brainer for them to choose you by highlighting your guarantee or warranty in your bid. A guarantee shows you have integrity, that you take pride in your work, and that you have your customers’ best interests at heart.
5. Follow up, FAST. Call your leads immediately (within minutes) for the simple reason that many people are on the site for convenience, and many will choose the first responder!
When is it time to invest in your own, proper contractor marketing?
After you’ve started to grow a bit, most companies reach a point where it’s time to leave the marketing training wheels behind. The only way to truly build a local brand and scale a company is by investing in your own marketing equity—the kind that’s actually yours, not rented. For the client we work with at HALSTEAD—typically those with annual revenues above $1.5M annually—there are much ways to do marketing. The systems will design and implement provide actual long-term marketing return on investment, and the return scales over time.
What is involved in a proper digital marketing system for pool builders, landscapers, and hardscapers? An integrated system can only begin with a high-performance website as the foundation—that’s why website design is one of the only services we offer a-la-carte. With a website in place, its time to get it to rank at the top of Google searches with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Next, we look to layer on Google Ads for paid search, targeted Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Ads for social, Videography for content, and analytics dashboards complete with call and form tracking so you can Know What Works.
Interested in learning more about how it all works together? Check out this articles and videos to get the behind-the-scenes look.
