This blog is meant to help contractors understand what HomeAdvisor can do for you. When it comes to home improvement and repair, many people turn to HomeAdvisor for help.
- Is it in your best interest on this website?
- What does it cost to list on HomeAdvisor?
- What are some alternatives?
What is HomeAdvisor?
HomeAdvisor is a website and app that helps builders have a bigger reach and improve their presence online. It does this by helping homeowners find local contractors and reading reviews about the builder or remodeler. Through this review process trust and credibility are built, easily connecting homeowners with service professionals who are willing to do the job. To be clear, HomeAdvisor does not directly hire these contractors, it’s a review site for contractors to get more leads and for homeowners to review the work done so that future homeowners can find good people who they can trust to do good work
HomeAdvisor works like this
A customer creates a project on the website or app. Then, HomeAdvisor uses its AI to match the customer with up to four contractors in the area who are available and qualified to do the job. The customer can then read reviews of the contractors, view their portfolios, and see how much they would charge for the project.
Once the customer chooses a contractor, they set up a time for the contractor to come to their home and do the job.
Screening Process
When a business applies to HomeAdvisor, an in-depth screening procedure is utilized to evaluate the business and personnel. If you are looking to get listed but can’t pass a background check, you may want to look into some alternatives. HomeAdvisor is committed to maintaining a network of trusted home service businesses, and those who don’t meet the criteria will be rejected or removed from the network.
Pricing For A Contractor
There is an annual fee contractors have to pay. It’s difficult to provide a set price, but it typically costs around $300 per year.
Find more information here.
HomeAdvisor Lead Types
HomeAdvisor has two types of services, Exact Match and Market Match, both allowing you to instantly connect with prospects that need your services.
Exact Match promotes Pros Online contractors where homeowners search most, thus giving you a better chance for good leads. The best part is you only pay after the customer has viewed your online business profile and picked you.
The Market Match lead service connects you with consumers looking for the best local business. You have the ability to target what type of work you want and where. You have more account flexibility and could start receiving leads within hours!
Cost Structure For Leads
HomeAdvisor Pros has a different feature. They can set a “spend target”. This isn’t a cap but more of a goal of monthly lead spend, and it will be split between Exact Match leads and Market Match leads. This can be very beneficial because your spending target can be raised or lowered depending on how slow or busy you are.
HomeAdvisor Benefits
- For a contractor looking for more work, HomeAdvisor is an easier, safer bet than many other lead generation sources.
- For example, if we compare HomeAdvisor to Google Ads. HomeAdvisor will likely have a lot lower maintenance cost than Google Ads, because with Google Ads your company will have to hire a Google Ads professional to maintain the account and hope that your money isn’t going to waste.
- Review and ratings are only allowed from consumers you’ve connected with. This gets rid of the gray area of deciphering ratings that can be from a real customer, a competitor, or simply the owner’s mom. Professionals have the option to respond to the reviews they receive but it’s not required.
- Once a contractor receives a lead from HomeAdvisor, they can qualify for the Seal of Approval. This accentuates your quality reputation online. Over 23 million homeowners have connected to Seal of Approval pros!
- For a contractor looking for more work, HomeAdvisor is an easier, safer bet than many other lead generation sources.
Alternatives to Consider
Social Media
In recent years, social media has had a major impact on the home services industry. Homeowners are increasingly turning to social media to find contractors for their home improvement projects. This is because social media makes it easy to find reviews and recommendations from people you know and trust.
More and more homeowners are using social media to find contractors, which means that if you’re not on social media, you’re missing out on a lot of potential leads. HomeAdvisor has taken notice of this trend and has started to invest more in social media marketing. In fact, HomeAdvisor recently launched a new social media campaign called #MyHomeAdvisor.
If you’re not on social media, now is the time to start. If you’re already on social media, make sure you’re active and engaging with your audience. Even better, when you have a happy client, have them post about your work and tag you. Homeowners are looking for contractors who are responsive and easy to communicate with and having a good social media presence makes people feel like you are accessible. If you can show them that you’re the contractor they’re looking for, you’ll be able to get more leads from home improvement projects.
HomeAdvisor would be a better fit for a contractor if they don’t have the time to post their work and engage with followers.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a straightforward and cost-effective method for getting your company’s name and brand in front of your target audience. You can also set a budget and never overpay your monthly cap.
The downside, you could spend your monthly budget on ads and not get one good lead. Like most things, it takes time to perfect.
Google My Business
Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses, brands, and organizations to manage their online presence across Google. By verifying and editing your business information, you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business. This is an easy way for contractors to provide a call back and get more new customers.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
Now that we’ve gone over alternatives and answered some of the most common questions about HomeAdvisor, it’s time to take a look at the pros and cons of using this service.
HomeAdvisor Pros:
- As a contractor, leads can be sent to you if you meet the qualifications.
- Could be easier than finding leads on your own, especially for odd jobs.
- Contractors can build their brand.
- The spend target can be raised or lowered depending on how slow or busy you are.
- Reviews and ratings are real.
- Lower maintenance cost.
- Low yearly fee.
HomeAdvisor Cons:
- There is no guarantee how many leads you will get, or if they are projects worth doing.
- Location is important. Living in a rural place might not get you any leads.
- The public might think they want a service, but they need a different one in reality.
- Example: Someone is looking for a plumber because there is a water leak but they don’t know where it’s at. If the leak isn’t in the house an excavation company would be a better fit than a plumber.Knowing what to advertise doesn’t always align in the public eye.
Now that we’ve looked at both the pros and cons of using HomeAdvisor, you can decide if this home improvement service will help you.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, HomeAdvisor could be a great place for contractors to get leads. The yearly fee comes to around $25 a month, this is a fair price and will be a much lower risk than something like Google Ads. Other options to get leads such as social media, Google Ads, and Google My Business are also great ways to get your brand to the public. Contractors are the backbone of the home improvement industry and we can’t thank you enough! Hopefully, this article aims you to a couple of different ways to get your name out to the public.
