Thumbtack vs. Local Service Ads: Cost Per Booked Job Compared

Ask two contractors which is cheaper, Thumbtack or Google's Local Services Ads, and you'll get two confident answers based on the same number: cost per lead. It's the number both platforms show you, and it's the one that decides the least. A $40 lead you share with four other pros and a $40 lead nobody else received are not the same purchase.

The number that matters is cost per booked job — total spend divided by jobs actually won. Here's how the two compare on that basis, and what each does when a lead turns out to be junk.

Thumbtack doesn't publish a price sheet. Reported ranges for 2026 run from roughly $8 on a small cleaning job to $150 or more on a kitchen remodel, with most home-service trades sitting in the $25–$75 band. Price moves with job value, market density and how many pros compete in your category.

Local Services Ads land in a similar place. One 2026 analysis tracking $6.72M of LSA spend across 888 contractors and roughly 126,650 leads put the average home-services cost per lead at $53, with electrical near $39, HVAC near $51, plumbing near $57 and drain and sewer near $59. Roofing runs higher, around $55–$90, and storm-damage searches in an affected market can spike past $150 while the weather event is live.

So on the sticker, it's close to a wash. The divergence starts one step later.

A Thumbtack request typically goes to several pros — commonly four or five — and each of you pays. Your close rate is a share of a contested lead, and reported rates cluster in the 10–25% range. At a $50 lead and a 20% close, that's five leads and $250 of spend per booked job before you count the hour you spent quoting the four that went nowhere.

LSA leads come to you alone: a call or message from one customer to one business. The same 2026 dataset reports a 43.9% book rate and an average cost per paying customer of $233. Trade-level comparisons put LSA around $168 per booked HVAC job against roughly $250 on Thumbtack, and Thumbtack's effective cost per booked job is widely reported between $150 and $400 depending on trade and market.

Those are other people's averages, not a forecast for your business. But the shape holds: similar cost per lead, different cost per job, because one model makes you win a bidding contest first.

Every paid-lead channel sends junk. What differs is your recourse, and here the two platforms have moved in opposite directions.

Thumbtack still runs a human, case-by-case process. You file within 45 days of the charge and pick a reason: Location (not in your service area), Timing (outside your availability), Job type (not your line of work), Charged twice (duplicate job), Phone disconnected or out of service, or Reason not listed. Approved refunds post to your Thumbtack balance as credit by default — for money back on your card, you have to ask within 10 business days of approval. Denials can be appealed to refunddisputes@thumbtack.com, and the appeals that go anywhere attach evidence and argue a named reason.

Google removed the manual dispute button from Local Services Ads in July 2024. There is no reason to pick and no evidence to attach. An automated system assesses leads at first contact, reviews charged leads within 72 hours, and applies credits it decides are warranted — typically to your account balance within 30 days, with the original charge still showing on the invoice. Two of the old categories, "job type not serviced" and "geo not serviced," were dropped entirely. The credit system covers the US and Canada only, and excludes health care and tax verticals.

The one lever left on LSA is the lead rating in your Leads tab. Marking a lead "Very dissatisfied" with a reason is the signal that prompts a second look, so rate bad leads as they arrive rather than in a monthly batch. If nothing lands after 72 hours, Local Services support is on 1-833-272-1444 — and what you're asking for is a credit toward future leads, not money back.

Take one trade and 90 days. For each channel: total spend, leads received, jobs booked, revenue booked. Spend divided by jobs is your real cost per booked job; the per-lead price never appears in that calculation.

Two adjustments make it honest. Subtract refunds and credits from spend rather than from leads — on Thumbtack that depends entirely on whether you actually file. Then count quoting time: five contested leads per booked job is real labour, and it's the cost a per-lead price hides best.

The answer is rarely "leave one." It's a split with a reason behind it — LSA carrying the ready-to-hire calls it wins outright, Thumbtack carrying the categories where its lead price is genuinely low for your trade.

Similar cost per lead, different cost per job, and two very different answers when the lead is junk. On LSA, your recovery is automated, narrower than it used to be, and steered mainly by rating leads honestly and promptly. On Thumbtack, it still comes down to a request you write, against a named reason, inside 45 days.

That last part is where the money quietly goes. RefundMyLead takes the screenshots and message thread you already have, works out which of Thumbtack's reasons your facts support, and writes the request in the structure its reviewers read.