Are you using HomeAdvisor to locally market your appliance repair company? You’re joined by hundreds of other nearby appliance services, many of which are at a huge disadvantage. You’ve probably gotten this feeling already—that the game is rigged in favor of larger companies with greater resources—and we’re here to confirm your suspicions. HomeAdvisor is bad for small businesses like yours.
Let’s start off with the most obvious pain point: the speed at which you’re forced to respond to leads. By now, you’ve realized that the only way to be successful on HomeAdvisor is to respond immediately to any and all leads that come your way. However, as a small, one- or two-man operation, that means you have to balance your work with answering the phone and hunting down leads. As you know firsthand, it’s awfully difficult to answer the phone when you’re already on another job with your hands inside a dishwasher or squeezed behind a refrigerator. Frankly, it’s unrealistic for a small appliance repair outfit like yours to land these jobs unless you happen to be free at the moment the call comes in. This is where big businesses get a huge leg up on you.
While this unrealistic demand for immediacy is enough of an obstacle, there’s another major problem with HomeAdvisor: the cost. At the start of your program, you agree to pay a certain amount per lead. But based on the feedback we’ve heard from many of our clients (who are small business owners like you and former HomeAdvisor customers), leads are often shared with as many as five to ten other businesses. You probably already had a feeling that the odds were stacked against you, but let’s do the math: If leads are shared with five different businesses, then that means you have a one-in-five chance of closing each lead. So, if you think about it, you’re actually paying five times as much for every lead you finally do close. On top of that, we’ve heard reports from our clients that HomeAdvisor would occasionally charge them far more than what they were told they’d be charged per lead. Has that ever happened to you? Clearly, HomeAdvisor is rigged in favor of big businesses with big budgets, because most small companies like yours are hurt by such an expensive, unpredictable investment.
But that’s not even the most frustrating part, is it? You know that even when you do respond to a lead in time, there’s a significant chance that the prospect on the other end is looking for a service that you don’t even provide! That’s because HomeAdvisor is fundamentally incentivized to send you as many leads as possible, even if they’re barely relevant to your company. The reason for that is simple: The more leads HomeAdvisor sends you, the more money it makes. Since HomeAdvisor will still charge you for a bad lead, you’ll not only be taking time away from work to track it down, but you’ll actually be losing money on it, too. Again, big companies might not have a problem with this, as they have plenty of room in their budgets. You, on the other hand, really feel the consequences of HomeAdvisor’s poorly designed services.
It’s no wonder HomeAdvisor has a one-star rating on ConsumerAffairs.com.
Prospect Genius took all of the above pain points into account when we created our lead generation program. We take great care to ensure that our goals are the same as your goals, that our success is dependent on your success. Unlike HomeAdvisor, our Core package uses SEO (search engine optimization) to generate leads and only requires a flat, monthly fee. We provide you with your own fully functional website and metered phone number. This way, when a prospective customer discovers your website or Google listing and dials that phone number, they will be calling you directly. You won’t have to go on a wild goose chase for leads that four or five other businesses are also hunting down. You can respond at your earliest convenience (although promptness should always be a priority) without worrying that you’ve automatically lost a job. Best of all, it doesn’t favor big businesses over small ones. Everyone has an equal shot at success.
You don’t need an “advisor,” you need a partner! Prospect Genius champions small businesses like yours. We offer a wide variety of online marketing tools that will match any budget. Go ahead and browse our advertising services—or better yet, give us a call for a pressure-free chat with one of our representatives! It’ll only take five minutes to figure out if we have products that make sense for your particular situation.
Stop working harder than you have to—and stop lining the pockets of a company that’s only helping your larger competitors get a leg up on you!
Call now at (800-689-1273).
HomeAdvisor: Helping Large Companies Crush Small Ones
Last Updated: December 22, 2014
As we’ve said before, you can compare online advertising to the slow ascent up a mountain, with the top-ranked position on Google acting as the peak. But, just like climbing a mountain, you have to start at the foothills—which, in this analogy, are local directories and Google Maps. Then, as you climb higher, you’ll reach optimized website content, social media, and PPC. The higher you climb, the more competitors you will outrank.
