Meta vs Google vs Local Services Ads vs Angi: Which Should You Use?
What is the real difference between these channels?
Where the demand comes from. Google and Local Services Ads intercept someone who has already decided they need help. Meta interrupts someone who has not thought about it today. Marketplaces like Angi generate the demand themselves and sell you access to it, usually alongside other contractors. That difference drives everything else.
| Channel | Demand | Intent | Volume ceiling | You own |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | Already exists | High | Capped by search volume | Account, data, keywords |
| Local Services Ads | Already exists | Highest | Capped, often tightly | Profile and reviews |
| Meta (Facebook/Instagram) | Created | Lower, needs nurture | Large — most of your area | Account, pixel, creative, audience |
| Marketplaces (Angi etc.) | Bought from a third party | Mixed, often shared | Set by the platform | Nothing — you rent access |
The last column is the one owners tend to weigh too lightly. On Meta and Google you accumulate an asset: conversion history, creative, audience data, and a channel that keeps working if you change agency. On a marketplace you are buying leads this month and start from zero the month you stop.
Should you use Google or Meta first?
If your work is urgent, start with search — someone with a burst pipe is typing, not scrolling. If your work is planned and visual, start with Meta, because the pool of people who could hire you vastly exceeds the pool searching today. Job value matters too: high-ticket work can absorb search's higher click costs more comfortably.
- Emergency plumbing, lockouts, no-heat calls — search first, every time.
- Roof replacement, remodels, landscaping, driveways — Meta usually reaches more of the market.
- Very small service areas where nobody searches — Meta, because search volume may not exist at all.
- Established businesses with budget for both — run search for intent and Meta for volume.
The published benchmarks line up with that reasoning. For the Home & Home Improvement category, WordStream reports a Facebook cost per lead of $41.26 against $90.92 on Google Ads, with Facebook clicks at $2.23 versus $8.33[2][3]. Google's click-through rate is more than three times higher, which is exactly what you would expect when one audience went looking and the other did not.
At trade level the search figures spread much further. LocaliQ's home services data puts roofing and gutters at $228.15 per lead and cleaning at $46.99, driven mostly by conversion rate — 3.70% against 17.65%[1]. Compare those to the Facebook figure with care: they are different reports, different periods, and the Facebook sample is very small.
The channels behave differently enough that most businesses past a certain size run both. The useful question is not which is better but which your next dollar should go into, and that depends on whether your current constraint is intent or volume.
Where do Local Services Ads fit?
Near the top for intent, and limited on volume. Local Services Ads sit above regular search results, are usually charged per lead rather than per click, and require Google's screening. That screening is itself a trust signal to homeowners. The catch is that volume is bounded by local search demand, so they rarely fill a calendar alone.
- 1Complete the screening and verification properly — it gates access and it reassures homeowners.
- 2Keep your review profile active, since it heavily influences how often you appear.
- 3Respond fast. Responsiveness affects both ranking and whether you win the job.
- 4Dispute leads that are genuinely out of area or out of scope, rather than absorbing them.
- 5Treat it as a high-intent supplement, not the whole strategy.
Are Angi and similar marketplaces worth it?
They can fill gaps, but understand what you are buying. Most marketplace leads are sold to several contractors at once, so you are competing on speed and price from the first second. That drags close rates down and turns the interaction into a race. Useful for filling a slow week; a poor foundation for a growth strategy.
The structural problem is not the price of the lead — it is that you never accumulate anything. Stop paying and the leads stop the same day, with no audience, no creative library, and no conversion history to show for the spend. Owned channels cost more to establish and leave you with something.
- Ask explicitly how many contractors receive each lead.
- Track your own close rate on marketplace leads separately from everything else — it is usually markedly lower.
- Compare on cost per booked job, not on the advertised price per lead.
- Use them tactically to fill capacity, not as the channel you build the business on.
Shared leads carry a hidden cost in your team's time. Ten shared leads that close at 8 percent consume far more labour per booked job than four exclusive leads that close at 35 percent, even if the invoice looks cheaper.
How should you decide where the next dollar goes?
Diagnose your constraint first. If you are not getting enough enquiries at all, you need volume, which points to Meta. If you get enquiries but they are the wrong kind, you need intent, which points to search or Local Services Ads. If you get good enquiries and lose them, the problem is not the channel — it is follow-up.
- 1
Count your current enquiries
If you are getting very few, the constraint is reach. Adding a higher-intent channel with limited volume will not solve a volume problem.
- 2
Check the quality of what arrives
If enquiries are frequent but out of area or out of scope, add qualification or shift budget toward intent-led channels.
- 3
Measure what happens after contact
If enquiries are good and still do not close, no channel change fixes that. Look at contact speed, follow-up count, and quote turnaround.
- 4
Then allocate
Put the next dollar into the channel that addresses the constraint you actually found, and give it long enough to produce a cost per booked job you can trust.
Not sure which channel your business needs?
Book a free 30-minute audit call. We will look at where your leads come from now and tell you honestly where the next dollar should go — including when that is not us.
Book a free audit callFrequently asked questions
Are Facebook ads cheaper than Google ads for contractors?
On published benchmarks, yes. WordStream reports a Home & Home Improvement cost per lead of $41.26 on Facebook against $90.92 on Google Ads, with clicks at $2.23 versus $8.33. Google leads generally convert better because intent is stronger, so compare the two on cost per booked job rather than cost per lead. Note the Facebook sample is small, so treat the direction as reliable and the exact figures as indicative.
Should a new contracting business start with Meta or Google?
It depends on the work. Urgent services should start on search, because those customers are actively looking and will call whoever appears. Planned, visual work usually does better starting on Meta, where the addressable audience is far larger than the number searching on any given day.
Can I stop using Angi once my own ads are working?
Yes, and many businesses do. The sensible sequence is to keep marketplace leads flowing while you build owned campaigns, then taper as your own cost per booked job becomes predictable. Cutting the marketplace before your own channel is stable creates an avoidable gap in lead flow.
Do I need to be on every channel?
No, and spreading a modest budget across four channels usually means none of them gets enough data to perform. It is better to fund one or two channels properly than to run all of them underfunded, where every campaign stays stuck in a learning phase.
Sources
Every figure above links back to where it was published. Dates show when we last confirmed the source was live and still said what we quote.
- [1]Home Services Search Advertising Benchmarks — LocaliQ / WordStream. Verified August 9, 2026.Based on 3,211 US home services search campaigns running April 2024 to March 2025, drawn from LocaliQ's own client base rather than an industry census. Google Ads only — these are not Meta figures.
- [2]Facebook Ads Benchmarks, 2025 — WordStream by LocaliQ. Verified August 9, 2026.Directional only. The leads dataset covers 726 campaigns across roughly 20 industries, with a stated minimum of just 2 active campaigns per subcategory — so the Home & Home Improvement row may rest on very few accounts.
- [3]Google Ads Benchmarks, 2026 — WordStream by LocaliQ. Verified August 9, 2026.13,474 campaigns, data period April 2025 to March 2026. Note the published Home & Home Improvement cost per lead is unchanged to the cent from the previous edition, so treat the cost-per-click trend as the more reliable signal.
About 9xBooked
9xBooked is a Meta ads agency for US home service businesses. We build and run Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for roofing, HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, cleaning, and remodeling companies, delivering exclusive leads that are never resold or shared with competitors. Every engagement carries a written revenue guarantee, sized to your business on a free audit call before you commit to anything.
We publish these guides because most marketing advice aimed at contractors is written to sell rather than to inform. Every statistic here links back to where it was published, and we say so plainly when the data does not exist.
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