why ppl (pay-per-lead) is a scam

PPL (Angie, Thumbtack, etc) is a scam for the small contractor, unfair advantage for the large contractor, and a crappy service for the homeowner.

Small roofers who have tried PPL know the script:

1) Pay to get client info

2) Contact them

3) Set Up Appointment

4) Meet

5) Bid the job

6) Close

The issue is, after step 1, steps 2 through 6 may never occur for various reasons, yet your in the hole for the cost of obtaining the lead. Small roofers who are looking to scale invariably fall into this trap and get burned. While I don’t know first-hand at what percent do large contractors use PPL to gain business, I do know that they have the capital to absorb the ‘dead’ leads and capitalize on the ‘good’ ones. Combine this with large budgets for SEO services, Google ads and other marketing, and big roofers have isolated the competition to other big roofers. PPL also is a bad service for the customer. Today’s sales process is ‘discovery and education’. The software that spits out ‘here’s some roofers we picked for you’ is the opposite of what builds trust and educates homeowners. Because the PPL reduces choosing roofers into a ‘ pick from a list of these names’ it greatly dulls the ‘discovery’. To be fair, a HO is probably better off just taking the first name that appears on Google than to have Thumbtack or Angie decide for them.

Solution: If you are a small roofer looking to scale, a return to old school marketing is the answer:

1) Networking with your inner circle

2) Flyers via direct mail

3) Doing niche services for cheap to leverage ‘foot in the door’ opportunities

4) Meeting new people, gaining trust through good conversation, and closing by just mentioning you’re a roofer (preferably in that order!)

If your stuck, these will be your friends and the effects of them compound the longer your in the game. If your thinking about prematurely closing up shop after experiencing some struggle, you need to 1) Keep it simple and 2) Stick it out. These methods don’t require lots of money, aren’t sexy and therefore quite under the radar.