Angi vs Google Ads for Contractors
Angi and Google Ads sell two different things. Google Search charges for a click on your ad (Google Ads Help, read 9 November 2026). A marketplace like Angi sells you a request. Neither price is a job. To compare them, divide what you paid by the jobs you booked, for each, over the same months. And do not judge either on two months.
I could not load Angi's pro pages on 9 November 2026, so this post says nothing about what Angi charges. It is about how to compare, and why most comparisons are wrong.
Angi vs Google Ads: Why the Comparison Goes Wrong
Five causes, each with a check.
Cause One: Two Months Is Too Few Jobs
The usual story: two months on Google, then Angi, then boosting posts, then referrals, then "it is all a scam". The problem is the sample.
Made-up numbers. You spend $1,000 in two months and book 2 jobs. Cost per job: $500. One more job and it is $333. One canceled job and it is $1,000. The cost per job swung by two thirds on one phone call.
Check it: count the jobs in your last stretch on each source. If it is under ten, you have not tested it.
Cause Two: Counting Requests, Not Jobs
A source that sends more requests is not a source that sends more jobs. Divide by booked jobs. Check it: write both numbers per source, requests and jobs.
Cause Three: Different Months
If Google ran in the slow season and Angi in the busy one, Angi looks better for reasons that have nothing to do with Angi. Check it: compare the same months, or run both at once.
Cause Four: Credit Given to the Wrong Place
A repeat customer who called you after seeing an ad is not a new ad job. A referral who searched your name is not Google. Check it: look at your last ten booked jobs and ask the customer, or the call record, where they came from.
Cause Five: Not Counting What Is Left
A cheap job that pays nothing after the sub's cut is not cheap. Check it: work out job profit after the cut and parts for each source, not just the ticket. See How Do I Know If a Job Made Money?.
What to Do
- Pick the two sources. Run both at once for at least three months.
- Tag every job with its Job source from the day you start.
- After three months, divide spend by booked jobs for each.
- Take the job profit after the cut. Keep the source whose number is lower than the profit by the biggest margin.
In HeadHoncho the Job source is a column and a filter on Jobs, so the two counts come off one table. The map of every source is in Where Home-Service Jobs Actually Come From. If you want the ads side measured to the booked job, see Offline Conversion Tracking.