By Luis Johnson, founder of Lunere Digital. Published
The difference between shared vs exclusive leads is how many shops get the same homeowner's phone number. A shared lead goes to several contractors at once, so you're in a race the second it lands. An exclusive lead goes to you and nobody else, so the homeowner isn't comparing you to three other trucks before you've said a word. Shared costs less per lead and more per signed job, nearly every time, because you win a fraction of what you pay for.
The sticker price on a lead is the wrong number to argue about. The number that decides whether this works for you is what it costs to sign one job, and that depends on how many of the ones you buy you actually close.
The short version
- Shared means the same homeowner is sold to several shops, and you're all calling the same afternoon.
- Exclusive means one buyer, so your close rate is about your pitch and not about your speed dial.
- A cheap shared lead at a 5 percent close rate costs more per job than a dear exclusive one at 25 percent.
- Thumbtack publishes a cap of five pros in the first four hours of a customer's search, per its own help center.
- Exclusivity is a promise about resale, not about your territory, so make the vendor put the resale part in writing.
What shared actually means on the phone
When a marketplace sells one homeowner to several shops, that homeowner's phone starts ringing within a minute and doesn't stop. He gets four voicemails before dinner. By the time your estimator drives out, two other companies have already stood in that basement and left a number on the back of a card. You can do everything right and still lose, because the job got decided on who called first and who happened to be cheapest.
The Federal Trade Commission went after this market directly. In April 2023 it approved a final consent order against HomeAdvisor, Inc., which also trades as Angi Leads, settling allegations about how the company marketed its leads to home service providers, and the order required it to pay up to $7.2 million in redress. The March 2022 complaint behind that order alleged HomeAdvisor had told providers they would only get leads matching the services they offer and their preferred area, and that many of them didn't.
That case is about one company, so don't read it as a verdict on every marketplace. Read it as the reason to ask hard questions before you hand anybody a card.
Is exclusive worth the higher price?
Only if your close rate moves far enough to cover the gap, and the way I see it, in foundation work it usually does. A homeowner with a cracked block wall is scared and wants one person to tell him the truth. If you're the only company in the house, you're the expert. If you're the third, you're a quote.
Run it on your own numbers instead of mine. Take what a lead costs, divide by the share of leads you sign, and that's your cost per job. Then put that next to the job value. Angi's own cost guide, updated 26 October 2026, puts the national average for foundation repair between $2,225 and $8,133. At that ticket, a $150 difference in cost per lead matters a lot less than a ten point difference in close rate.
The trap is comparing the two prices in isolation, because a shared lead looks like a bargain right up until you count the ones that never called you back.
Put the three options side by side
| Shared lead | Exclusive lead | Booked qualified inspection | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who else gets this homeowner | Several shops at once | Only you, if the contract says so | Only you, and he picked the time himself |
| What triggers the charge | The contact details arriving | The contact details arriving | A dated slot on your calendar |
| Who does the chasing | You, against the clock | You, at your own pace | The vendor, before you hear about it |
| What you are buying | A chance to be first | A phone number nobody else has | An address, a time and a named symptom |
| Where a bad one goes | A credit or refund request | A credit or refund request | A refund on a no-show or an unqualified booking |
| Who owns the ad account | The marketplace | Usually the vendor, so ask | You, when the vendor builds inside your account |
Which one to buy, based on your own close rate
- Your close rate on a lead you call cold is under 10 percent
- Stop buying shared and buy fewer exclusive leads, or buy booked inspections, because volume is not your problem and conversion is.
- Your close rate is 10 to 20 percent and somebody answers inside five minutes all day
- Shared can still pay, so keep it running and test exclusive next to it for 30 days on the same spend.
- Your close rate is over 20 percent but your estimator has open days
- Buy exclusive, because every extra at-bat converts and you are losing money on volume, not on price.
- Nobody picks up the phone until the end of the day
- Do not buy either one yet. Fix who answers first, because a shared lead is worthless to you and an exclusive one is only slightly better.
When Shared lead marketplaces is the better buy
- You need at-bats this week and you have somebody who calls fast, every time, without being reminded.
- You are brand new in a market and you want reps on the phone more than you want margin.
- Your crew is small enough that a handful of wins out of forty calls still fills the week.
- You want to turn the spend off on a Friday and have it gone, with nothing built and nothing to unwind.
- You want a price you can see before you commit, which most marketplaces publish and most agencies do not.
How many contractors usually get the same shared lead?
It depends on the marketplace, and most do not publish a number. Thumbtack is the clearest I found: its help center says it limits a customer to contacting five pros in the first four hours of a search, and that the customer can contact more after that. Treat a vendor who will not answer this question as having answered it.
Does exclusive mean I am the only foundation company in my county?
No, and be careful with anybody who says it does. Exclusive is a promise that your lead is not resold to another shop. It is not a territory. A contractor down the road can be buying his own exclusive leads from the same vendor on the same day.
What do I ask a vendor to prove a lead is exclusive?
Ask three things in writing. Is this contact ever sold or passed to another contractor, including an affiliate or a partner. Whose company name is on the ad the homeowner saw. And who owns the ad account the campaign runs in, because that tells you who keeps the audience when you walk.
If you want the calendar filled instead of the inbox, book a 30-minute call and I will show you how it runs.
Book My Strategy CallSources
- The FTC approved a final consent order against HomeAdvisor, Inc., which also does business as Angi Leads, requiring it to pay up to $7.2 million over how it marketed its leads. Federal Trade Commission.
- The FTC complaint alleged HomeAdvisor represented that providers would only receive leads matching the services they provide and their preferred geographic area, and that many did not. Federal Trade Commission.
- Thumbtack limits the number of pros a customer can contact to five in the first four hours of their search. Thumbtack Help.
- Foundation repair costs average $2,225 to $8,133 nationally. Angi.
Read next
- Shared Lead Services: What You Are Really BuyingShared lead services sell the same homeowner to three or four shops, and say so on their own pages. Here's the published proof and what the alternative is.
- What This Costs, and How the Math WorksHow the money works: a one time setup, then a flat fee per qualified inspection that happens, no retainer, and ad spend that goes to the platform on your own card.
- Break-Even Calculator for a Booked InspectionThe most you can pay for one booked inspection before the job stops paying, worked out from your job value, margin, show rate and close rate.
- How These Comparisons Are ResearchedWhere the numbers on the comparison pages come from, how vendors are picked and ranked, how often it's rechecked, and the conflict of interest in all of it.