Has anyone here bought advertising on Google? I see that quite a few of my competitors are using it. Curious what kind of an ROI you have seen from this?
Also what type of experience have any of you seen with Home advisor?
Thanks in advance for your input.
James Henderson
A True Value Inspection
Negative on both.
Google pay per click is expensive, I have tried it before but to many tire kickers, my experience is poor ROI.
Contractors Join Class Action Lawsuit Against HomeAdvisor
# Contractors sue HomeAdvisor, say site’s leads are ‘overwhelmingly bogus’
I have never used them. We have a company called Home Stars which is likely similar, waste of money!!! Get a good SEO for your website. I get a lot of my business thru my website.
I use Google Ad Words express. I usually get 5 + inspections a month from it…I
I would imagine it will depend on the area or market you are in. **BUT, My experience with any PAY PER CLICK is like a noose around your neck.
You will pay for each time a competitor clicks on it as well as those not really committed to needing a home inspection…also many clicks will be from agents just trying to price shop for their clients. And my experience with “Yelp” (and similar) was that you have no idea what the cost per click is going to be and or they put you in a cost bracket along with Real Estate Agents, figuring you are going to get 3-6% of the selling price of the home…just doing an inspection.
(I’m sorry, but most of these companies and the kids that call you are from the glut of college IT graduates that have been produced and have no idea what they are selling, nore do they have the knowledge or ability to actually set you up in a marketing program that works or gives you a reasonable return on your advertising investment).
It is my opinion, after using a Home Advisor for quite some time, is that I believe they are operating in criminal behavior. I was lucky if I got one out of being charged for 12 leads which most were phoney. In the end, the leads cost me almost as much as the home inspection fees. For any of these companiesI, I would suggest checking with the BBB, Justice Dept in their state, and also look under “scams and complaints” Add to that – Who are the principles owning these companies. Hold on to your wallet and credit cards Willey, Nothing should be open ended.
They aren’t any different. All you have to do to get a good rating is pay this “Not for profit” organization $69/mo…I don’t see how anyone finds them to be legitimate either.
General public is not aware the listings on BBB are paid for. I, myself, was not aware until they tried to get me listed. Talk about conflict of interest.
I haven’t tried Google yet but I signed up to learn about Home Advisor (just to see). Within 10 minutes I got a local number calling me and it was a salesperson from Home Advisor. She explained that, in my area, they have many leads and that each lead would cost $20 and then there was a $288 yearly subscription fee that would put me on their website. She explained that they do a background check but that two other inspections didn’t pass the background check and that they would like to work with me and give me a lot of business. I thought that was funny since inspectors are required to go through a background check in order to be licensed in my State. She then said these two inspectors were trying to do inspections under the radar to which I replied that it made no sense that an inspector would be unlicensed doing inspections “under the table” but would try to sign up with Home Advisor to advertise their services. She then tried to get me to sign up over the phone as they “needed a credit card on file” and that I “needed to sign up today to get several leads”. I replied that if they could send me their information to my email I would look it over and then decide and…I never heard from them again. Two days later, I had someone call me about advertising on Facebook. They also wanted me to “sign up right away to get started” over the phone. I wonder where they got my name as a lead? Since then, I have learned more about Home Advisor and I would suggest you research them as well. It appears that anyone at the company can sign you up but it’s quite the process to end your relationship with Home Advisor once it has begun. Not telling anyone what to do. Just sharing my experience.
Welcome to our forum, Sean!..Enjoy! 