Tweeking for higher quality leads

HSConstruct

Hello, residential custom carpenter here. We are fully licensed, insured, our team is on payroll with workers comp, wrapped vans the full nine yards.

I'm trying to figure out how to optimize our company profile for higher dollar leads. I keep getting chared 40-50 bucks for people who want a single room of baseboards installed and those are not our ideal customers as we will simple be substantially higher than a local unlicensed uninsured handy guy. We are looking to figure out how to get leads for entire homes worth of trim, not the 40-80 feet jobs.

I have our max lead price to the point where it shows as most competitive yet 99% of the leads we get are looking for the quick and dirty small job. How can we optimize around that type of lead?

I'm willing to spend the money but not to the point where I'm competing against handymen.

DustiO

Hi @HSConstruct and thank you for posting! You are definitely on the right track! But, have you tried removing the smaller parameters from your trim/molding installation preferences? Would unchecking that first option help you avoid those smaller jobs? Might be worth a try! Otherwise, I might also recommend playing with those Max Lead Prices and trying lowering those to see the impact it has on lead volume. That is a great lever to use as you are not locked in to that for any time period. I would recommend playing around with that and with your preferences (give changes a day or two to really show a difference). Hope this helps and tagging in @JWC to see if he might have any advice specific to finish carpentry leads!

JWC

@HSConstruct as @DustiO adjusting your targeting leads to suit your company is definitely worth doing. To add a little more detail to what Dusti has pointed out, I'd recommend playing around in that section a bit more. Everyone has a Services section—[Top bar when using desktop, and lower bar when using the App]. You will see all of the services you've selected to acquire those types of leads. What is great is that each of "Your Services" that have been selected has their own Max Lead Price, Travel Area, and Job Types—among other options. Here are some things I do with those three selection that seem to be working right for me:

First, I toggle my lead prices to suit my company and job type to either be more competitive or less competitive with other companies. I can only assume, not know for sure, that larger projects have a higher bid on them. I adjust under that presumption, but I don't bank on it. This is something to clarify with @DustiO or Customer Support for a further understanding of how the App functions. Second, I select travel areas based on zip codes where I have either found my most valuable clients and toggle off those areas (based on zip code) where my company hasn't found profitable business. Third, being purposeful about the types of projects I am toggling on and off for my business has helped me as well. Importantly, I look at this with the understanding that just because I have toggled it on or off, doesn't mean clients are looking for that particular project on Thumbtack, in my selected areas, or in that moment in time. And so, I revisit these areas of the platform every 6 months to a year to fine tune those selections.

I fully understand how frustrating it is to receive leads that I have a sense I may not get or be able to compete with, or want to compete with the companies jumping on certain types of leads. I think this is somewhat inevitable. The thing that I continuously practice is fine tuning my Thumbtack account to suit my needs and looking at the larger picture of leads I did land from working with Thumbtack.

Lastly, if you are looking to utilize Thumbtack for just a few specific types of projects, it might be worth setting that Max Lead Price higher once you've honed your targeting area and job types. That way, you will be most competitive in those projects you really want to be in the running for. You may receive fewer leads based on what people are searching to have done in that time and travel area. But is that a bad thing if you're upping your conversion rate?

I hope this was helpful.

DustiO

Thank you so much for all of this insight, @JWC!