How to get leads without Angi

Why build leads you own?

Lead marketplaces charge per lead. In its 2025 annual report, Angi describes its lead revenue as fees pros pay for consumer matches, owed even when the pro never provides the service, and lists full-priced leads sold within a monthly budget. When the spending stops, so do the matches. Everything below works differently. It costs time or money to build, then keeps working after you stop actively pushing it: a real review stays on your profile for years unless it is removed, and a customer on your list can be emailed every spring for nearly nothing.

To be fair to Angi, its model has changed. The same report says it implemented "homeowner choice" in January 2025, and that consumers can generally review the pros they are shown and select the one they want. The customer relationship still starts on the platform, though, and the fee is still owed whether or not you win the job.

None of these channels is magic, and none is instant. Together, worked steadily, they can replace much of what a marketplace provides. The order below is roughly the order we'd tackle them for a small company.

1. Get your Google Business Profile right

For most local trades, the Business Profile is where owned calls start. It is free, it shows in Google Maps and local results, and it is often the first thing a homeowner sees when they search for your type of work.

• Pick the most accurate primary category, then add secondary ones only for work you actually do. Google's guidelines ask for the fewest categories that describe your core business.
• Set a service area that matches where you will drive, not every town in the county. Google's guidance is to keep the whole area within about a two-hour drive of your base, though it allows larger areas for some businesses.
• Add real photos regularly: crew, trucks, before and after, the job in progress.
• List your services with short descriptions, and set your hours to your regular customer-facing hours, which is what Google asks for.
• Post updates when you have something real to say, such as a seasonal service opening up.

Our Business Profile guide covers the setup in detail.

2. Build a website that answers questions and books work

Many homeowners who find you on Maps tap through to your site before calling. If the site is a single page with a stock photo, you lose some of them right there. A site that does its job has:

• a page for each main service, explaining what's included, how you price it and what happens next;
• a page for each area you serve, with something true and specific about working there;
• your phone number and a short quote form on every page, both feeding one inbox;
• real photos and your Google rating;
• answers to the questions customers ask on the phone, written plainly.

Those pages give Google and AI assistants something specific to point people to when they search "gutter cleaning in [your town]" or ask a chatbot who to hire. They take time to show up: Google's SEO starter guide says some changes might take effect in a few hours and others could take several months. Start early. See what a contractor website needs, or our website service if you want it built for you.

3. Request a Google review after every job

Reviews often decide who gets the call when several profiles sit side by side, and Google says how many reviews you have is part of how it judges a business's prominence in local results. They also add up, because each real review stays on your profile. Make asking part of finishing the job. Send a text with your direct review link within a day of the work, while the job is fresh.

Two rules keep you safe: no rewards of any kind for reviewing, and the same request goes to every customer, happy or not. Google prohibits both incentives and selective asking. Our guide on getting more Google reviews has the request wording, timing and the rules in full.

4. Answer every call, or text back right away

The owned channels above only pay if someone picks up. A homeowner who reaches voicemail on a Saturday can simply call the next name on the list. You don't need a full-time receptionist to fix that.

• Forward the business line to whoever is on call, with a second phone as backup.
• Turn on a missed-call text back, so anyone who doesn't get through hears back by text from your company line almost immediately.
• Consider an AI receptionist for nights, weekends and busy hours, to answer in your company's name, capture the job details and book a slot.

Our missed-call text back guide explains how it works, including the carrier registration business texting requires.

5. Go back to customers you already have

Your customer list is usually the cheapest source of work you own. These people already trusted you once. Many need the same service again next year, or a related one you never told them about.

• Send a short seasonal reminder by email before your busy season: what's coming, when you're booking, how to get on the schedule.
• Offer recurring plans for work that repeats, so the customer is booked without having to remember.
• After each job, mention one other service you offer that suits their property.
• Reach out to customers you haven't seen in a year or two with a simple "we're booking spring work in your area" note.

Federal rules (47 CFR 64.1200) require prior express written consent for marketing texts sent with an autodialer, and state rules vary. The simple habit is to get written consent to text when you book the job and keep the record. Email has rules too, and the FTC spells them out in its CAN-SPAM guide for business, including a clear way to opt out and your valid physical postal address in every marketing email. None of this is legal advice; our texting rules guide goes deeper. For campaign ideas, read how to win back past customers.

6. Make referrals easy and worth it

Many service companies get some referrals without trying. A simple program can bring more. Give customers a reason (such as a credit on their next service) and a tool (a short link or a card the crew leaves behind), and thank every referrer, whether or not the referral books. Track it in your CRM so you know who sent whom. The details are in our referral program guide.

7. Partner with businesses that see your customers first

Some businesses meet your future customers before you do. A few examples:

• Real estate agents and home inspectors, whose clients need repairs and cleanups before or after a sale.
• Property managers and HOA boards, who need dependable vendors for many units.
• Trades that don't compete with yours: a painter and a power washer, a roofer and a gutter company, a landscaper and a snow contractor.
• Local suppliers and rental yards, whose counter staff get asked for recommendations.

Start by doing good work for one partner's client and asking whether you can be on their list. Keep it simple and reciprocal. If you plan to pay referral fees to anyone, read the legal note in our referral guide first, because some licensed professions restrict them.

8. Market the street around every job

When neighbors see your truck in a driveway, some of them wonder what it would cost for their house. Make it easy to find out.

• Yard signs with the customer's permission while the work is underway, or for a few days after. Check local and HOA sign rules first.
• Door hangers on nearby houses that say what you did on the street and how to book. Keep them off and out of mailboxes: USPS rules reserve every part of a mail receptacle for matter bearing postage, including items hung from or attached to it, and 18 U.S.C. 1725 makes it a federal offense to deposit unstamped mailable matter in a mailbox to avoid postage.
• Truck lettering with your name, service and phone number in letters someone can read from across the road.

Put a dedicated tracking number or a short web address on printed pieces so you can tell whether they worked.

A one-hour weekly routine

Owned channels fade when nobody tends them. Block one hour a week, same day, and work through a short list:

• Send review requests for every job finished that week, and reply to new reviews, critical ones first.
• Add three to five new job photos to the Business Profile.
• Check that every lead from the week has a source recorded and a next step.
• Call or text any quote that has gone quiet for more than three days.
• Once a month, send something useful to your customer list.

An hour a week is small next to a lead bill, and it is the habit that makes the rest of this list work.

9. Track every source, then adjust the budget

You can't tell what is replacing the marketplace unless you know where each job came from. Record a source on every new lead: Business Profile, website form, referral, past customer, sign, partner, or paid platform. Review it monthly. When owned sources carry most of the calendar, lower the lead budget and watch what happens. Our guide to tracking lead sources shows the setup, and the own your leads page explains how the pieces connect. If you want an outside view of where your jobs come from today, request a free system quote.

Frequently asked questions