Leads/hired & Income/advertisement RATIOS

DeNoise_Studios

Hello everybody,

I am a Thumbtack Top Pro since 2012, but a new community website user, I run a video and photo production studio in the bay area CA. I would really love to know if a few others pro would share 2 ratios. It is not something I can get from Thumbtack or online. (average numbers are enough)

RATIO #1 How many paying leads do you buy to get hired once (me I get hired 1 time out of 10 leads) My lead/hired ratio = 10%

RATIO # 2 How much is your ROI, return on investment, how much income do you get from Thumbtack compared to the money you spend on Thumbtack. (me, to make $100K I must spend $50K, 8 years ago to make $100K I spent $20K) My income/advertisement ratio is now 50%, and 8 years ago it was 20%)

What are your ratios? I am just curious and I am sure people would like to know where they stand compared to the Thumbtack community. Thanks for sharing.

ArvinC

Hi @DeNoise_Studios , welcome to the Community. This is a great question and I know a lot of pros are curious about these kinds of numbers, especially as things change over time.

I am going to tag some of the top pros who may be open to sharing how they think about lead conversion and ROI:

@amccarthy @busyb @AR2i @soonerkimmy @SarzozaPhoto@Bretdouglas @Chuva @Cliff @CodyRisner @TechExpert @AntilleanRestoration @adonayflooring @callargo @Jack_Marquardt @JWC @Juliano_50 @_Nura101 @ShaquealThomas @Trevorbelk

It will be really helpful to see a range of perspectives here since results can vary quite a bit by industry and approach.

_Nura101

Hey @denoise_studios! Your Ratio #2 looks normal for Thumbtack - but the Ratio #1 can improve. When ratio 1 increases, ratio 2 increases too. Since Ratio #1 is dependent on your profile, it would be worth your time to brainstorm ways to market your service even better on your profile. Do things that stand out like get a drone and give the customers a video tour of your production studio. Or post friendly pictures of your studio/team/results etc. You probably already know this but put yourself in the shoes of your clients and think about what would make them say "wow, this looks legit, I would hire this service" and pretend you're looking for the same service, what do you wanna see to feel sold?

Hope that helps!

AR2i

Hey @DeNoise_Studios — fellow Bay Area Pro here 👋

I think this is a really interesting question because the answers probably vary a lot by industry, lead price, and average job size. In Tax Preparation and Bookkeeping, my ratios would probably look very different from those of someone in photography/video production.

Looking back over my last 6 months across Accounting, Individual Taxes, and Business Taxes, I received 81 messages and converted 5 into clients. So, overall, I’m averaging about 1 client per 16 leads during that period, with a close rate of around 6%. That said, January–April is a very different season in the tax world because a large percentage of leads are price-shopping or mass-messaging multiple pros at once. During my slower season (roughly May–August), my conversion rate jumps significantly — usually landing 1 client for about every 5 messages once someone actually engages in conversation with me.

As for ROI, my Thumbtack spend during that period accounted for roughly 45% of the revenue generated by those clients. That said, I personally look at Thumbtack a little differently because many of my clients become recurring yearly tax clients, ongoing bookkeeping clients, or referral sources. In fact, about 98% of the clients I landed through Thumbtack in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 are still clients today — which I think changes the ROI conversation quite a bit. The long-term value tends to be much higher than the initial project revenue alone.

One thing I have noticed over the years is exactly what you mentioned — costs have definitely increased. I think it’s more important than ever to have a very clear profile, respond quickly while still sounding human and personal, and move people into a quick call/consultation early, rather than staying in messages too long.

Really appreciate you bringing this up — I think a lot of Pros quietly wonder the same thing.

Laura

DeNoise_Studios

Thanks to pros for replying, honestly I thought my message would be deleted because having to spend 50% of an income on thumbtack (plus production cost) doesn't make Thumbtack look good, and it makes me feel a stupid business manager.

Even Booking.com who is considered the worst in its domain charges its commission only when the hotel gets a guess, they absolutely don't care about the pros, their fees are high, but the host pays only when he gets hired, no gambling.

On Thumbtack it is different, it is a gamble because 4 out of 5 pros pay for nothing, sometimes even 5 out of 5, you can only see some relevant numbers after a few months or a year, and know how much you spent over how much you made. And 50% plus the admin and production cost is just insane.

The worst example I have is "headshot photography", I charge $150 for one person, Thumbtack charges me $50 for the lead, since I get hired 1/10 times, I pay $500 to make $150, and when I asked Thumbtack about how it made sense, their answer was maybe the customer will come you next year. Really!

I know something is wrong with such business models for the society, for the pros, even for the customers, they don't know how it works, they just click on as many vendors as they can, sometimes they don't even have a job in mind, they just check prices and who is around. I even doubt the legality of the business plan.

At least thanks Thumbtack to let the discussion develop, if we don't say anything it will get worse.