What You Should Know Before Advertising With Angie's List (2024)

Last updated: Sept 10, 2021

With millions of people visiting Angie’s List (aka Angi) each month to search for home-related services, it definitely deserves some attention. As one of the leading home repair review sites on the internet today, you’d be crazy to ignore it as a method for attracting customers.

But it’s not without controversy.

When I started my handyman business in 2011, I tested Angie’s List to see if it was worthy of my time and money. I hesitantly spent about $750 in my first year advertising with them and received less than $300 in business as a result. I’m no dummy, so I swiftly went on to greener pastures.

However, I’ve heard of several other businesses that have had success with Angie’s list, so why am I different?

In this post, I plan to discuss the ins and outs of Angie’s list and givesome first-hand insight into the lead generation giant.

What is Angie’s List (now known as Angi)?

Angie’s List, or to be more accurate, Angi is essentially a customer review-based search engine for homeowners looking to hire a handyman, contractor, or other home service pro.

Angie’s list used to charge homeowners to access the “list,” but they’ve since changed to a freemium model. Now, anyone can browse a list of handymen, contractors, house cleaners, and other home service pros free of charge.

Angi makes most of their money from home service pros who pay to advertise on Angi Ads or Angi Leads. However, homeowners also can pay a yearly membership for access to special discounts and coupons.

Interesting Stats

• HomeAdvisor merged with Angie’s List in 2017, forming Angi Homeservices Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI), the world’s largest digital marketplace for home services, including everything from maids to handymen to contractors.
• In 2020, over 240,000 businesses used Angi Homeservices to connect with customers, and over 32 million projects were requested in more than 500 categories.
• In 2020, Angi Homeservices generated $1.47 Billion in revenue, 10.5% more than in 2019.
• Angi Homeservices Inc. also owns Handy, another digital platform for connecting homeowners with service pros.

Sources: Wikipedia,ANGI 2020 annual report.

How to get your business on Angie’s List

Getting your business listed on Angi is free and easy. Simply go to the link below and follow the prompts.

pro.angi.com

At first glance, it may seem like Angi is a wonderful place created just to help you get customers, but Angi Homeservices Inc. is a big business designed to generate a profit for its shareholders.

There are a few things you’ll want to know before signing up.

Things you should know before signing up

#1 – Aggressive sales tactics and false promises

Once you sign up with a free account, you can expect to get several phone calls from Angie’s list salesmen trying to convince you to pay for an advertising contract.

When browsing complaints about Angi on BBB, you see a pattern emerge.

1. A pro is called multiple times by persistent salesmen who promise a high ROI.
2. The pro finally gives in and tries it out.
3. After a month or two of paying $300+ per month with little to no results, the pro calls to try to cancel.
4. The pro is then met with multiple barriers to cancel. First, the salesman is often on “vacation” and must be spoken to before canceling. Then, the pro is told there is a 35% early cancelation fee – something the salesman failed to mention.
5. The pro gets fed up with the run-around and goes to BBB to file a complaint. This seems to do the trick. Angi finally cancels the contract, and the early termination fee is often waived.

When one person makes a complaint like this, I just assume they are one of those people. When I see dozens of people complaining about the same thing as in this case, I can’t help but believe them.

#2 – Pay to Play

When I started my handyman business, you could see amazing results with free profiles on most online business directories (especially Yelp). But, over time, they have become more and more difficult to get results from unless you are paying for “premium” placement.

Angi is no different.

Sure, you can list your business for free, and it will show up, but they will bury your listing underneath the paid listings. I don’t see anything immoral about this, but it’s just the way it is.

As time goes on, this trend will likely continue, and even if you can get results with a free Angi listing right now, you can rest assured there are a whole bunch of brilliant people testing and tweaking things so that paying for ads is the only way to see reliable results.

#3 – 1-Year minimum contract with 35% early termination fee

This should be a big warning sign to anyone. The fact that they need a contract to get people to stick around says a lot about how reliable Angi is at generating quality leads.

Or, at least it tells me that Angi is not a magic pill that will work for everyone instantly. It will still require you to work hard to get great reviews and manage your profile well. It will also take a while to start working since it takes time to build up reviews, which are a major factor in who a customer chooses.

I’m not here just to rip on Angi. I can understand why Angi would put this contract in place. It keeps short-term thinking pros in the game long enough to start seeing results, so they stick around over the long term. Most would want to give up before they built up their reviews.

However, when other options are available that don’t have contracts with steep penalties for canceling, why sign a contract?

What do you get when you pay for Angi Ads?

If it’s free to sign up on the list, so why pay for ads?

Like I mentioned above, Angi does a good job at putting paid listings front and center while the free listings are harder to see and access.

Here’s a list of benefits you get when you pay for Angi Ads:

• Your listing gets placed above non-advertisers when someone searches for services in your categories.
• You also get placement on non-advertisers profile pages. So, even if a customer does click on a different business listing, Angi will still show your business at the top of that page, forcing the homeowner to scroll down to see the listing they originally clicked on.
• You get shown on other profiles outside of Angi, such as Handy and even their physical publication.
• You may also receive leads. These are similar to the leads you get from Angi Leads (formerly called HomeAdvisor), which is different than Angi Ads.
• You have the ability to offer deals. Well, assuming you spend at least $3,000 annually on advertising. These deals get featured on various pages to help promote your services.

There are clear benefits to paying to advertise. You will get more exposure, and as long as your profile isn’t terrible and you live in a city where nobody uses Angi, you will get more customers.

The pros and cons of Angi

What I Like

Angie’s list can be a great way to get new customers, and there are several reasons to like it.

• It’s free to get listed – A basic listing is free. If you are willing to put in the effort to get a bunch of reviews, it can be an effective way to get new clients at no cost to you.
• It’s an opportunity to build trust – By becoming Angi Certified, you give customers a reason to trust you. To get certified, just pass a background check, maintain a 3-star rating, and maintain all necessary licenses to offer your services.
• Solid technology – Angi has done a great job utilizing technology to add value to pros and customers. They have all kinds of tools to help collect payments, submit quotes, follow-up with customers, and quickly check metrics to see your ROI with the ads you pay for.

What I Don’t Like

Just like anything else, Angie’s list also has its cons.

• Constant sales phone calls
• 1-year contract and 35% early termination fee
• Free listings are unlikely to be effective over the long term. As I mentioned above, Angi is moving more toward a pay-to-play model. That means you could invest a lot of effort into building up reviews on a platform that then has you by the balls.
• You can’t control negative reviews – There are many irrational people out there who will give you a bad review simply because they hate their lives. I usually try to avoid these customers at all costs, but I have come across two of them. Unfortunately, if you get a terrible review, it can seriously hinder your ability to get customers from Angie’s list. This is especially true when you have less than 5 reviews because the one bad one will stand out. The bad review will hurt your chances of attracting customers, making it difficult to get more good reviews to cover it up.
• There is no option to add a link to your website from your Angi profile.
• You don’t own your reviews – You can’t publish your Angi reviews on your website or anywhere else, and if you do, get ready to fork out $10,000.

Is Angie’s List worth it?

Look, if Angi didn’t work, they wouldn’t have nearly a quarter of a million businesses listed on the platform, with many of them paying a premium to be featured.

Like I mentioned above, there were over 32 million home project requests in 2020 on Angi and its other platforms. Customers are clearly going to Angi to find pros.

The only question is, will it work for you?

That depends on the services you offer, how well you craft your profile, and how good you are at getting those precious reviews. The only way to really find out is to test it.

Unfortunately, they have a 1-year contract with a steep penalty for canceling early. That’s why I recommend testing other platforms first.

Start with something less risky like Google My Business, Thumbtack, or NextDoor, then consider signing up for a contract.

If you want to test Angi Ads, start with a free profile or sign up for Angi Leads (their service where you can just buy leads directly). That way, you can build up some reviews before you start putting your business profile in front of people whose sole purpose of using the platform is to read reviews.

Conclusion

Angi is a big company with the trust and attention of millions across the country. It’s a no-brainer to at least create a free account. Even if you don’t, Angi will likely find your business info and cold-call you anyway.

But I would be far more cautious about signing a contract to pay for Angi Ads.

And as always, never rely 100% on a platform like Angi for your leads because then they have you by the balls. Instead, diversify your lead generation efforts.

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