Evaluating Lead Vendors · September 30, 2026 · GrowthPros
What are some free lead generation websites for contractors?
Discover which free lead sites contractors should claim and why paid exclusive leads from GrowthPros deliver better ROI through speed and exclusivity.
Key Facts
- Angi/HomeAdvisor leads close at just 12% and cost $542 per booked job — the worst among measured channels according to industry benchmarks
- Google Local Services Ads book jobs at 31–43.9% for $168 per booked job — outperforming shared leads on both rate and cost per channel comparison data
- Responding to leads within five minutes yields a 32% close rate, dropping to 12% after 24 hours — a 2.6x difference from timing alone per response-time benchmarks
- 63.5% of companies never respond to inbound leads, meaning most lead value dies in the inbox regardless of cost per 2024 response-time data
- Shared leads from Angi/HomeAdvisor are sold to 3–5 contractors simultaneously, creating bidding wars that drive up acquisition costs per a former Angi employee
- Contractors spending $2,000–$5,000 monthly on Angi often close only one or two jobs, making shared leads economically unsustainable per insider contractor reports
- Free directory listings like Google Business Profile and Yelp take 5 minutes to create and double as SEO backlinks per directory roundup analysis
The Free Lead Sites Worth Claiming — and What They Actually Cost You
Yes, free contractor lead sites exist — but every one of them charges you in a currency other than money. Some bill in hours, some in bidding wars, and the ones that look cheapest up front often cost the most per booked job.
Start with the genuinely free sources. SAM.gov costs $0 to register and search, opening the door to federal work — if you can navigate the public solicitation process. BuildingConnected's free tier lets subcontractors maintain a profile and receive bid invitations from general contractors; I AM Builders confirms contractors can open an account for free and start receiving project invitations. PlanHub also offers a free tier for invitations and planroom access, though full functionality runs $1,999–$3,299 per year, per platform pricing research.
Then there's the directory layer — the listings every contractor should claim:
- Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Apple Maps — free visibility where local buyers actually search
- Nextdoor and Facebook — neighborhood-level demand, free to set up in minutes
- Angi, Houzz, Thumbtack, and BBB — free listings that double as SEO backlinks
- 100+ smaller directories that strengthen your local search footprint
Here's the catch. ContractingEmpire's analysis is blunt: free platforms "demand hours of your time in order to find a few good projects." And the "free" listings on shared marketplaces are a funnel — the moment a lead arrives, you're pushed into paying for it alongside three to five competitors. A former Angi employee puts it plainly: "The lead you just paid for? Three to five other contractors got it too."
The numbers back him up. Angi/HomeAdvisor posts a 12% close rate and a $542 cost per booked job — the worst of any measured channel, compared to $168 for Google Local Services Ads. One contractor reported spending $2,000–$5,000 monthly and closing just one or two jobs.
What the data really shows is that lead value comes from exclusivity and speed, not price. Close rates drop from 32% when you respond within five minutes to 12% after 24 hours — and 63.5% of companies never respond at all. Free sites give you neither exclusivity nor follow-up infrastructure. That's the gap GrowthPros was built to fill: exclusive or capped-shared leads (hard max of two buyers, never five), each qualified and followed up by AI voice, SMS, and email inside a five-minute window.
Claim the free listings — they're table stakes. Just measure what they actually deliver in booked work, not lead count.
Why the Most Popular 'Cheap' Option Performs Worst: The Shared Lead Trap
The cheapest lead on the market might be the most expensive job you ever book. Angi and HomeAdvisor dominate contractor advertising, yet the data shows their shared-lead model produces the worst economics of any measured channel — and a former insider explains exactly why.
The core problem is structural: according to a former Angi employee, every lead you pay for is simultaneously sold to three to five other contractors. As he put it, "You're not buying a customer. You're buying a starting position in a race you're already behind." The homeowner isn't waiting for your estimate — they're fielding five calls and watching bids undercut each other. Industry critics note the platform captures the demand, shares it repeatedly, and profits while contractors underbid each other to win it.
The performance data is unambiguous. Channel benchmarks show Angi/HomeAdvisor leads close at just 12% — the lowest among measured channels — while costing $542 per booked job, compared to $168 for Google Local Services Ads. Compare the close rates:
- Google Local Services Ads: 31%–43.9% close rate
- Referrals: 35%+
- Thumbtack: 18%
- Angi/HomeAdvisor: 12%
Run the numbers on a typical shared lead. At $80 per lead with a 20% conversion rate, your acquisition cost per booked job hits $400. On a $600 service call, that leaves $200 to cover labor, materials, truck time, and overhead — before profit. The same insider analysis documents contractors spending $2,000–$5,000 monthly on Angi and closing only one or two jobs. One contractor reported "zero sales" after nearly $20,000 in unmeasured spend, per vendor-tracking research.
The research points to two levers: exclusivity and speed. Close rates roughly 2.6x from 12% to 32% when response time drops from 24+ hours to under five minutes, per response-time benchmarks. Shared marketplaces deliver neither lever — you're one of five buyers, racing to dial a homeowner who's already getting quotes.
This is why vendor evaluation should focus on booked work, not lead count. GrowthPros caps shared leads at a hard maximum of two buyers and follows up every lead with AI voice, SMS, and email inside a five-minute window — addressing both failure modes the data identifies. Measure any vendor the same way: what does a booked job actually cost, and how fast does the lead get contacted?
The Real Conversion Lever: Speed and Exclusivity, Not Lead Price
Here's the uncomfortable truth most contractors learn the hard way: the price of a lead matters far less than what happens in the five minutes after it arrives. The research on response times tells a story that has nothing to do with lead cost — and everything to do with speed and exclusivity.
According to speed-to-lead benchmarks, close rates fall from 32% when you respond in under five minutes to just 12% when a lead sits for 24 hours or more. That's a 2.6x difference from timing alone — bigger than the gap between most paid and free channels. The same data shows the middle tiers: 24% for 5–30 minute responses, 18% for 30 minutes to an hour.
The bigger problem? Most companies never respond at all. The share of companies ignoring inbound leads entirely has climbed from 23% in 2011 to 63.5% in 2024 — meaning most lead value dies in the inbox, regardless of what the lead cost.
Speed is a systems problem, not a discipline problem. Companies using automated routing meet the 15-minute response standard 62.5% of the time versus 39.1% for manual-only operations — automated follow-up nearly doubles your odds of hitting the window that matters. As one analyst put it, elite responders win because of infrastructure, not effort.
Exclusivity is the second lever. Shared marketplaces like Angi and HomeAdvisor sell the same lead to 3–5 contractors, and the results show it: a 12% close rate and $542 cost per booked job — the worst of any measured channel. A former Angi insider put it bluntly: "You're not buying a customer. You're buying a starting position in a race you're already behind."
This is why GrowthPros built its model around both levers rather than lead price:
- Exclusive or capped-shared leads — capped means a hard maximum of two buyers, never five, so you're not racing four competitors on price.
- AI voice, SMS, and email follow-up inside five minutes — included with every lead, 24/7, not an upsell.
- Every lead is qualified, time-stamped, and consent-recorded before delivery — never dumped into a shared inbox.
- Leads land directly in your CRM — Salesforce, ServiceTitan, HubSpot, or a provisioned CRM ready the same day.
Free sites and shared marketplaces leave both levers untouched. A lead is only worth what a contractor can do with it — and the data says that value is decided in minutes, not by the price tag.
How to Evaluate Any Lead Vendor: Track Booked Work, Not Lead Count
One contractor spent nearly $20,000 on unmeasured marketing and ended up with "four views per month" and "zero sales" to show for it. That's what happens when you judge a lead vendor by lead count instead of booked work.
Phil Fisk of Core6 Marketing puts it bluntly: "A shared lead buys a contact record, not a booked job." His firm recommends tracking booked work, not lead count — because a vendor that delivers 50 contacts a month but closes nothing is more expensive than one delivering fewer, better-qualified leads.
Before signing with any lead source, run it through five diligence questions drawn from Core6's evaluation framework:
- Booked work or just contacts? Ask for cost per booked job, not cost per lead. The numbers matter: Angi/HomeAdvisor leads close at just 12% and cost $542 per booked job — the worst among measured channels — while Google Local Services Ads book at 31–43.9% for $168 per job.
- How are calls tracked to source? Without call tracking, you can't tell which vendor produced which job. This is exactly how the $20,000-with-zero-sales situation happens.
- Do they know your trade and area? A vendor selling generic contacts across dozens of industries rarely understands what makes a roofing lead different from a plumbing lead.
- What's the bad-lead policy? Ask how they handle wrong numbers, out-of-area requests, and duplicate submissions — and whether credit is automatic or a fight.
- What are the contract terms?
That last one deserves its own scrutiny: cancellation rights, auto-renewal clauses, and minimum commitments. Core6's advice is simple — "if a vendor gets cagey on any of the five, that is your answer."
These criteria also expose what separates a lead seller from a lead partner. GrowthPros, for example, delivers leads that are qualified, time-stamped, and consent-recorded, with the qualification process handled on a 15-minute call where pricing is set honestly — no self-serve checkout, no vague numbers. Every lead carries its consent trail attached, and follow-up happens inside a five-minute window via AI voice, SMS, and email — addressing the documented failure where close rates collapse from 32% (under 5 minutes) to 12% (24+ hours) by response time.
The lesson from the cautionary cases is consistent: measure what a vendor actually books for you, not what it promises to send. A 60-day head-to-head test with separate call tracking — shared leads on one side, a qualified source on the other — turns vendor selection from a gamble into a data decision.
Your 60-Day Action Plan: Free Listings Baseline Plus a Head-to-Head Test
Reading about lead sources is easy; knowing which one actually books jobs for your trade in your market takes a structured test. Here's a 60-day plan that gets you a data-driven answer without guesswork.
Weekend one: claim your free baseline. Set up SAM.gov ($0 registration), the free tiers of BuildingConnected and PlanHub, and your core directory listings — Google Business Profile, Yelp, Nextdoor, and the rest. Most accounts take about five minutes each, and they double as SEO backlinks, per this directory roundup. Treat this as your baseline floor, not your strategy — free platforms demand hours of time to surface a few good projects, as I AM Builders notes.
Days 1–60: run the head-to-head test. Keep your current lead source running, add a qualified exclusive source alongside it, and tag every inbound call by source. Core6 Marketing recommends running this comparison for at least 60 days with separate call tracking — measuring booked work, not lead count — before making any vendor decision. The stakes are real: shared Angi/HomeAdvisor leads carry a 12% close rate and $542 cost per booked job, the worst among measured channels, partly because leads go to 3–5 contractors at once, per a former Angi employee.
Your tracking sheet needs only four numbers per source:
- Leads delivered and cost per lead
- Contact rate and speed of first response
- Booked jobs and cost per booked job
- Cancelled or refunded leads
Speed matters more than most contractors realize. Response-time benchmarks show close rates of 32% under five minutes collapsing to 12% after 24 hours — so any source you test needs follow-up infrastructure, not just lead delivery.
Setting real numbers. GrowthPros' entry point is a free 15-minute qualification call that sets actual pricing for your niche and volume — no self-serve checkout, no invented figures. Directional bands for home services run $30–$150+ per lead, with exclusive leads costing 2–4x a shared lead but closing 15–30% higher. Every lead delivered is qualified, time-stamped, and consent-recorded, with AI voice, SMS, and email follow-up inside a five-minute window.
One more lever: if you have a dormant opted-in list from past campaigns, dead lead reactivation typically re-engages 8–15% of that database at 60–80% below new-lead cost — often the cheapest pipeline in the whole test. Either way, the call commits you to nothing and gives you the numbers to run your head-to-head properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What lead generation sites are actually free for contractors?
SAM.gov ($0 registration for federal work), BuildingConnected's free tier for bid invitations, PlanHub's free tier for invitations and planroom access, and free directory listings on Google Business Profile, Yelp, Nextdoor, Facebook, Angi, Houzz, Thumbtack, and BBB. Most directory accounts take about five minutes to set up and double as SEO backlinks, per this directory roundup.
Are free lead sites really free, or is there a catch?
They're free in dollars but costly in time and competition. Free platforms "demand hours of your time in order to find a few good projects," and "free" listings on shared marketplaces funnel you into paying for leads alongside competitors — a former Angi employee confirms every paid lead goes to three to five other contractors too. Also note PlanHub's full functionality costs $1,999–$3,299 per year.
Why do Angi and HomeAdvisor leads perform so badly for contractors?
Because each lead is sold to 3–5 contractors simultaneously, creating bidding wars that drive close rates down to 12% — the worst of any measured channel — at $542 per booked job, versus $168 for Google Local Services Ads. Some contractors spend $2,000–$5,000 monthly and close only one or two jobs, per channel benchmark research.
Does response time really matter more than what I pay for a lead?
Yes — close rates are 32% when you respond within five minutes but drop to 12% after 24 hours, a 2.6x difference from timing alone. Worse, 63.5% of companies never respond to inbound leads at all, and companies with automated follow-up hit the 15-minute standard 62.5% of the time versus 39.1% for manual operations, per speed-to-lead benchmarks.
How should I evaluate a lead vendor before signing up?
Track booked work, not lead count — ask for cost per booked job, how calls are tracked to source, whether they know your trade and area, their bad-lead policy, and contract terms including cancellation and auto-renewal. As Core6 Marketing's Phil Fisk puts it, "a shared lead buys a contact record, not a booked job," and "if a vendor gets cagey on any of the five, that is your answer" — advice detailed in Core's evaluation framework.
Is it worth running a head-to-head test between shared leads and exclusive leads?
Yes — run your current lead source alongside a qualified exclusive source for at least 60 days with separate call tracking, measuring booked jobs and cost per booked job rather than lead count. Exclusive leads cost 2–4x more than shared but close 15–30% higher, and GrowthPros caps shared leads at a hard maximum of two buyers — never five — with AI voice, SMS, and email follow-up inside five minutes, addressing the two failure modes documented in contractor lead research.
Stop Counting Leads. Start Booking Jobs.
Free lead sites are table stakes — claim them, but don't confuse activity with results. The data is unambiguous: shared marketplaces deliver a 12% close rate at $542 per booked job, while speed and exclusivity drive the real economics. Responding in under five minutes lifts close rates to 32%, yet 63.5% of companies never respond at all. That gap isn't a discipline problem; it's an infrastructure problem. GrowthPros was built to close it — exclusive or capped-shared leads (max two buyers), qualified and consent-recorded, with AI voice, SMS, and email follow-up inside a five-minute window, delivered straight to your CRM. The next move is simple: run a 60-day head-to-head test with separate call tracking. Measure cost per booked job, not cost per lead. A free 15-minute qualification call sets real pricing for your trade and volume — no self-serve checkout, no invented numbers. If you've got a dormant opted-in list, dead lead reactivation typically re-engages 8–15% at 60–80% below new-lead cost. Either way, the call commits you to nothing and gives you the numbers to decide.
This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. Benchmark figures are directional industry data, not guarantees of results.