A shared lead can go to five companies. Price it per sold job before you buy more.
Angi matches one homeowner with up to five companies and Thumbtack allows five in the first four hours, pay-per-call vendors bill calls nobody answered, and none of the credit rules we read pays you back for a homeowner who shopped around or hired someone else.
TL;DR
- HVAC pay-per-lead vendors differ in how many companies get the same homeowner, from one to five or more, so compare them on cost per sold job, not price per lead. Angi matches each request with "no more than five pros". Thumbtack lets a customer contact five pros in the first four hours of a search. eLocal sends a shared form lead to four or five businesses. eLocal and Service Direct send each call to one company.
- A lead at price P that goes to N companies costs you, per sold job, what an exclusive lead at P × N × your close rate on exclusive leads would, if you win only your fair share. At $40, five companies and a 75% close rate, that is an exclusive lead at $150. The worked illustration is below.
- To beat a fair share, Angi's help center points to how fast you respond; Thumbtack's pages add your reviews and your profile.
- "Exclusive" describes where the vendor sends the call, not what the homeowner does next. Service Direct still bills a call when the caller "books service with a competitor after reaching you", and eLocal bills an unanswered call that rang for 10 seconds.
- Losing the job is not grounds for a credit at Angi, Thumbtack, eLocal or Service Direct: each lists a shopping homeowner, a lost quote or a hired competitor among the leads it won't credit. Google has also stopped crediting leads for work you don't do or towns you don't serve, which Angi's credit page still lists.
What is an HVAC pay-per-lead vendor actually charging you for?
Each model bills a different event. From each vendor's own pages, as read on September 24, 2026:
| Model | You're charged when | Who else can get the same homeowner |
|---|---|---|
| Angi leads | You and the homeowner have both shown interest, or automatically for leads inside your monthly budget. "You are charged for leads whether or not you open or respond to them" | "No more than five pros" per project request |
| Thumbtack leads | A customer who found you in search results contacts you and the job fits your preferences. You pay the price you set. Leads that smart matching sends outside your preferences are charged too, and refunded automatically if you decline one as not a fit | Up to five pros in the first four hours, more after that. The count shows on the lead |
| Thumbtack Opportunities | Only if the customer answers your quote | Customers who have "reached out to other pros but haven't hired anyone yet" |
| Thumbtack preset jobs | Nothing up front. Thumbtack keeps a percentage of the job price | You claim a job the customer has already scheduled |
| eLocal calls | A call from a potential new customer in your area and category. An unanswered call that rang for 10 seconds or more counts | Calls are "always exclusive" |
| eLocal form leads | Each lead | Shared: "a maximum of 4 businesses", or you plus "as many as 4 other businesses", in the same FAQ. Exclusive costs more |
| Service Direct calls | A new potential customer calls for a service your category covers, or any call books an appointment. Answered calls under 20 seconds aren't billable; every missed call is | One company: "when your bid price wins a call, it's all yours" |
| Peak Marketing Service appointments | An appointment is set: $110–$150 each, depending on industry and market | The homeowner may meet up to four contractors for quotes |
| Google Local Services Ads | A valid lead: a call you answer, a message, a voicemail, a booking request | No cap published |
HomeAdvisor's pro site now carries the Angi Leads name, and its FAQ page says only that customers are connected "with multiple" professionals. Angi's own help center, in an article dated April 20, 2026, says no more than five, for leads and Opportunities alike.
How the price is set. Of the vendor pages we read, only the pay-per-appointment page prints a price. Angi says lead fees "change based on task, homeowner location, and demand for the work", and the Angi Leads FAQ says "Different sized jobs have different Lead Fees." Thumbtack has you set an exact price per service and says your price is "one of several factors that determine how many leads you get", so, in our reading, it works like a bid; prices at or near the minimum can rise automatically when Thumbtack changes the minimums. Service Direct has you bid per call. eLocal's account executive sets a call price "based on your business needs and the competition in your area". Google says that when "similar local businesses bid on the same lead, those bids determine how much the lead is worth."
The budget isn't always a ceiling. Angi's billing FAQ shows a $500 monthly budget ending at $520, when one more $40 lead arrives after $480 of leads, and Opportunities you accept are billed on top of the budget.
What does a shared lead cost per sold job?
Cost per sold job is what you paid the vendor, minus credits, divided by the jobs you sold from its leads. Cost per lead is the wrong number covers the general version. Sharing changes one part of it: of the homeowners who hire somebody, how many hire you.
The numbers below are an illustration, not market data. Every row uses the same assumption, so only the price and the sharing change: of 100 homeowners, 60 hire somebody for the job. When the homeowner contacted only you, you get 45 of those 60, a 75% close. When the homeowner contacted five companies and you are no faster or better than the other four, you get a fair share: 12 of the 60.
| 100 leads, 60 homeowners hire somebody (illustration) | Price each | You pay | Jobs you sell | Cost per sold job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive call, every call answered | $100 | $10,000 | 45 | $222 |
| Exclusive call, 1 in 5 missed and never returned | $100 | $10,000 | 36 | $278 |
| Shared with five, fair share | $40 | $4,000 | 12 | $333 |
| Shared with five, you're first and win 2 in 5 | $40 | $4,000 | 24 | $167 |
| Shared with five, you're slow and win 1 in 10 | $40 | $4,000 | 6 | $667 |
| Appointment, homeowner meets only you | $130 | $13,000 | 45 | $289 |
| Appointment, homeowner meets four, fair share | $130 | $13,000 | 15 | $867 |
The $130 appointment is the middle of the $110–$150 range on the pay-per-appointment page. That page also says partners close "roughly 20%" of appointments, with no sample or period; at that rate a $130 appointment costs $650 per sold job. The same 60-in-100 hire rate in every row is a simplification. Our reading is that a homeowner who sat through an appointment is more likely to hire somebody than one who filled in a form; none of these vendors publishes that rate.
The rows reduce to a formula you can use on any quote. A lead at price P that goes to N companies, bought by a shop that wins only its fair share, costs per sold job what an exclusive lead at P × N × your close rate would cost, where the close rate is the share of homeowners who hire somebody that hire you when you're the only company they contacted. Here that is $40 × 5 × 0.75 = $150. At these rates the $40 shared lead beats the $100 exclusive call only if you win more than 18 of the 60 jobs, half as many again as a fair share.
The three shared rows differ only in how many jobs you win. The vendors' own pages tie that to your reviews, your profile and your speed. On speed, Angi's FAQ says "The faster you respond, the better your chance of winning the job." Thumbtack's refund page says "Many customers end up hiring the quickest and most helpful pro." A shop where a CSR calls every lead within minutes, all day, can land in the fourth row. A shop where leads wait for the office manager after lunch is more likely to land in the fifth.
The appointment rows show that paying per appointment instead of per lead doesn't remove the sharing. Peak Marketing Service's appointment definition lets the homeowner meet up to four contractors, so the price per appointment gets the same multiplication.
What does "exclusive" mean on a pay-per-call invoice?
It means the vendor sends that caller to you alone. It doesn't stop the homeowner calling two more companies afterwards, and the billing terms still charge for it. Service Direct's billing page lists calls that stay billable without a booked appointment:
- Missed calls, "since we cannot investigate them due to the fact that there's no Call Recording to listen to"
- Price shoppers
- Call drops and hang-ups
- "Caller books service with a competitor after reaching you"
- The caller cancels the appointment
Answered calls under 20 seconds, from previous customers or from outside your area aren't billable. The same calls are billable if you miss them. A disputed call is reviewed only if it was answered, recorded and is under 7 days old; campaigns billed on call duration get no review.
eLocal bills an unanswered call once it has rung for 10 seconds, even if the caller hangs up before anyone picks up. A price shopper or a request for an estimate in your category isn't eligible for credit, and a past customer calling about a new job is billable. Its HVAC page gives you 4 days to request a credit on a call.
So your answer rate is part of the price of an exclusive call: in the illustration, missing one call in five takes cost per sold job from $222 to $278 at the same $100.
Google's Local Services Ads rules turn on the same point. Its "How leads work" page, as read on September 24, counts a missed call without a voicemail only after you call, text or email back and reach the customer or leave a voicemail. Search Engine Roundtable reported Google's email to some advertisers that from October 1, a missed call during business hours is charged, with a few exceptions, when the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds (what that changes).
What won't the vendor credit?
| Not credited | Deadline and what you get back | |
|---|---|---|
| Angi | Homeowner doesn't answer or call back; hired another pro before you reached them; decided not to go ahead; gathering quotes; you quoted and lost | Request within 45 days, having tried to call within 24 hours. Credit toward future leads, expiring after six months. No credits on an annual subscription |
| Thumbtack | Customer hired a different pro | Request within 45 days, decided case by case "at our sole discretion". Goes to your Thumbtack balance, or to your card if you ask within 10 business days of approval |
| eLocal | Price shoppers, estimate requests, callers unwilling to pay your price, a date you can't meet | Request within 4 days of the call |
| Service Direct | The billable calls listed above | Review within 7 days, answered and recorded calls only |
| Google Local Services Ads | Customer researching projects or prices; didn't respond to your return call; cancelled a booking; lead outside your business hours; job types or areas you don't serve | Automatic, plus occasional credits for leads you report as poor quality in the Feedback Survey. "In most cases" credited to your balance within 30 days; the charge stays on the invoice |
Peak Marketing Service's page doesn't describe credits, so it isn't in the table. Two differences matter to an HVAC shop.
Wrong area and wrong trade. Angi's credit page lists "Wrong location" (outside the ZIP codes in your profile) and "Service mismatch" as reasons for a credit. Google "no longer supports credits" for either. A no-heat call from a town your trucks don't drive to is a credit request on Angi and a settings change on Google (what Google still credits).
Short deadlines on calls. A credit you file on Friday for Monday's calls may already be late at eLocal. The Lead Credit Guidelines page on the HomeAdvisor pro site says 30 days, not 45; if you signed an Angi Leads agreement through that site, check which one it points to.
How do Google Local Services Ads compare?
Local Services Ads are also pay per lead. Our reading is that they sit closer to the exclusive-call rows than to the shared rows. Three details from Google's own pages:
- The lead is a contact with your business: a call you answer, a voicemail, a missed call you return, a message or a booking request. None of the Google pages we read describes matching one customer to a set number of advertisers the way Angi and Thumbtack do, and none sets a cap.
- A customer can still contact several advertisers. Among the factors Google lists for a message lead's price is "Whether the customer has contacted other Local Services advertisers". Our reading is that Google prices in the sharing Angi and Thumbtack show you as a count; it doesn't say which way that factor moves the price. Google also says message leads are "typically priced lower than the corresponding phone lead price, although that's not always the case."
- The price comes from an auction, with three bid modes: Maximize leads, Target cost per lead and Max per lead.
The formula doesn't change: charged leads minus credits, divided by sold jobs. What a Local Services Ads lead costs covers pulling the first half of it from your lead report.
What this doesn't cover
- Market prices. The $40 and $100 in the table are illustrations, as are all the booking and close rates.
- Lead quality by vendor. We haven't bought leads from these vendors and have no data on how their leads book or sell. Service Direct's HVAC article publishes averages from client reporting and its own call reviews; we left them out because it doesn't state the sample size or the period.
- The contract you sign. We read help centers and published terms, not the agreement a sales rep sends. eLocal's credit page says its Terms & Conditions govern "in case of any confusion". Read the signed version for term, cancellation and minimums.
- Who wrote this. Lonta AI is paid to run Google and Meta ads, not to sell leads, so it isn't neutral in this comparison.
Do this with your last 90 days of lead invoices
- Download the charges. Angi: the statement on the Billing and payments page. Thumbtack: Payments, then the Receipts tab, then Download for a date range. Pay-per-call: the call list in the vendor's dashboard.
- Match every charged lead to your CRM. Give each vendor its own lead source and mark each lead booked, sold or neither.
- Work out cost per sold job per vendor. Charges minus credits, divided by sold jobs. Do the same for Local Services Ads.
- Write down N for each source. Up to five for Angi: Angi publishes the cap but not the count per lead, so use five as the worst case. Use the count shown on each Thumbtack lead, and one for calls. For eLocal shared leads its FAQ reads as four in one answer and five in the next; ask your rep which applies to you.
- Time your first response to shared leads for a week. If the first call goes out hours after the lead arrives, assume you're in the fair-share row or below it.
- Put the credit deadlines on the calendar. eLocal 4 days, Service Direct 7 (answered, recorded calls only), Angi 45 with a call attempt within 24 hours, Thumbtack 45.
- Set a ceiling before the next renewal. The most you'll pay per sold job × sold jobs per charged lead from step 2 = the most you should pay per lead. As an illustration, $300 × 0.12 = $36.
FAQ
Are Angi leads worth it for HVAC contractors? Only if your cost per sold job from Angi is one you'd accept, and your statements and CRM give you that number. What counts is the lead fee divided by the sold jobs you get per charged lead: $40 ÷ 0.12 is $333 per sold job in the illustration above.
How many contractors get the same Angi lead? No more than five per project request, according to Angi's help center article dated April 20, 2026, which says the number depends on the type of lead and the pros' service location. The same cap applies to Opportunities.
Are exclusive HVAC leads better than shared leads? Not automatically. An exclusive lead is cheaper per sold job when its price is below the shared price × the number of companies sharing × your close rate, assuming you'd win only a fair share of the shared ones.
How much do HomeAdvisor leads cost? There is no published price list. HomeAdvisor's pro site now runs under the Angi Leads name, and none of its pages or Angi's that we read lists prices. Angi says fees change with the task, the homeowner's location and demand for the work, and Opportunities show the lead fee before you accept them.
Do I pay for Angi leads I never answer? Yes. Angi's help center says you are charged "whether or not you open or respond to them", and a homeowner who doesn't answer your calls is not a reason for a credit.
Sources
All read in full on September 24, 2026. Every quotation above is from these pages.
- Angi Help Center, "Opportunities and Leads: Frequently Asked Questions", https://intercom.help/angi/en/articles/6221483-opportunities-and-leads-frequently-asked-questions
- Angi Help Center, "How to Request a Lead Credit", https://intercom.help/angi/en/articles/11403440-how-to-request-a-lead-credit
- Angi Help Center, "Billing: Frequently Asked Questions", https://intercom.help/angi/en/articles/11024858-billing-frequently-asked-questions
- Angi Leads Pro, "Service Professional FAQ's", https://pro.homeadvisor.com/help/faqs/
- Angi Leads Pro, "Lead Credit Guidelines", https://pro.homeadvisor.com/terms/lead-credit-guidelines/
- Thumbtack Help, "How much do I pay for leads and opportunities?", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/pay-for-leads
- Thumbtack Help, "How to set my lead prices", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/set-lead-prices
- Thumbtack Help, "What are leads, preset jobs, and opportunities?", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/types-of-leads
- Thumbtack Help, "What is Thumbtack's Quality Commitment?", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/quality-commitment
- Thumbtack Help, "Thumbtack's Quality Commitment Terms", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/quality-commitment-terms
- Thumbtack Help, "Refund policy for pros", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/refund-policy
- Thumbtack Help, "Here's a guide to spending on Thumbtack.", https://help.thumbtack.com/article/spending-guide
- eLocal Help Center, "eLocal Program FAQ", https://help.elocal.com/faq/
- eLocal Help Center, "What is a Valid Call or Lead?", https://help.elocal.com/features/valid-invalid-calls-leads/
- eLocal, "Pay Per Call Lead Generation that Works for Heating and Cooling Professionals", https://www.elocal.com/hvac-leads/
- Service Direct Help Center, "Understanding Billable and Non-Billable Phone Call Leads", https://support.servicedirect.com/billable-and-non-billable-leads
- Service Direct, "What to Expect When Buying HVAC Calls from Service Direct", https://blog.servicedirect.com/what-to-expect-when-buying-hvac-leads-from-service-direct
- Peak Marketing Service, "Contractor Appointments | We Set, You Sell", https://peakmarketingservice.com/pay-per-appointment/
- Local Services Help, "How leads work", https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/7195435
- Local Services Help, "How bidding works for Local Services Ads", https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/10125017
- Local Services Help, "About Automated Local Services Ads lead credits", https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/15100654
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google To Charge For Missed & Subsequent Calls On LSAs", https://www.seroundtable.com/google-lsa-missed-subsequent-calls-41940.html (trade press, reporting Google's email to advertisers)
Every figure not attributed to one of these pages is arithmetic on the illustrative inputs stated in the text.