This is regarding OVERNIGHT PAID LEADS with PROMOTE.   I am trying out Promote for 30 days to see the numbers and if this platform can be a viable investment as it once was.  I learned something every day about this Promote that was confusing before so I want to make this clear to all.  I have my business hours listed as 7am - 10pm - with the belief that I would not get any Paid Promote leads overnight.  Because those are the hours listed as my availability.  When I walk through the steps of setting up my promote page with a customer service person - this is what they informed me - or what I was led to belive would happen.  I woke up this morning to see that 2 paid promote leads came in while I was sleeping.  I automatically was charged for these two.  Of course I contacted support only to find out that is not how it works.  So I could get 3, 4 or 8 leads at 3am or 4am and be charged if I am on promote.  Unless I PAUSE promote every single night to stop this from happening.  Then turn it back on every morning.  This is a lot of work staying on top of this new system.  Fix my calendar, fix my budget, turn promote on and off . . .     So this is something that I think should be known to everyone.  I made it a rule (with the old system) to never respond to requests that were from midnight to 6 am.   And I beleive it was a good choice and a good way to measure my dollars when we had the choice to pick and choose who we responded to.  Rightfully.  Now . . . . it doesn't work that way.  So - keep in mind that promote will still send you leads 24/7 regardless of what you have put in for your business hours.  Being aware of this will help with wasted advertising dollars.  Unfortunalty, you will have to monitor your promote ON and OFF diligently.  Your odds of being booked with the fierce competion means you have to respond quickly - or don't bother.  So use Promote when you have the ability to respond quickly.  Good luck everyone!  I am in my 3rd week of my trial and week 3 was not good.  I got 2 leads so far this week, both while I was sleeping, 11pm and 3am . . . .    not looking good TT.  Fingers crossed for my final 4th week assesment period.  I recommend that we have a little more control of hours.  A weekly set time that we don't want any leads overnight should be something we click on and not have to Pause and re-activate every day.  It makes me worry that when I Pause it wont quickly re-activate immediatly.  ... View more

Pricing.  What can I say that has not already been posted all over the community board.   Many seasoned Top Pros very unhappy.  Thumbtack changed my life 4 years ago.  Now.  I am a TT top pro for over 4 years - highly successful, and I know exactly what I was paying for leads way back.  When things changed about 8-9 months ago my business dropped off 100%.  I could no longer be successful with the way I responded to leads.  The triple price - instant match - etc.  I had to stop engaging with the site because as a sole proprietor, cost to advertise is crutial and must be compared with return of investment.  It did not work for me at all.  Two weeks ago I came back to try out the promote and I am giving it 30 days to see what my results will be so I can make a judgement call.  I followed all the advice and got all the settings correctly implemented and I have to say my first week I did great!  Very happy so far.  But two more weeks to go for a true assesment.  Yes, the cost of leads are significantly higher than before but I am going to push through the 30 days.  Just so you know - I will never, never pay for a lead that is over $20 - but last week on promote I was forced to pay $26. two times - that ended my weekly budget for that particular service.  Fortunatly,  I booked one of them.  Turst me, No one on this platform should ever, ever pay more than $20 a lead regardless!  In any field.  In any service.  When I read that some pros are being charged $85?  What?  I did see one partial match come to me and the rate was $50.  Seriously, TT, we don't want to see leads that cost that much regardless.  Especially when TT allows for 8-9-10 other pros to be contacted by the customer - it reduces our odds of being booked.  That is a mathematical certainty.  My odds are better if only 3 or 4 are contacted and maybe a $50 take a chance might be worth it - well - no it wouldn't.  So the justification for higher prices because we have better chance of being hired can not be true when the odds are decreased by the amount of Pros that a customer can contact.   I am just hoping at some point TT will bring the pendulum back to the middle with prices and be fair and balanced on both sides.  Being a Videographer and Photographer - parties, events, corporate, personal, etc.  I see a lot of leads.  I believe more attention should be looked at customer budget when cost per lead is considered.  I did a corporate video last week for $350 and a birthday party for $350.  Same time at each event, same amont of editing.  But the cost of the lead was a difference of $10.  Just because its corporate doesnt mean the budgets better or the job is different.  It's still video and editing.  And corporate wants cheap too!   I would say right now - my biggest concern is that TT allows the customer to contact as many leads as they want.  TT can not say that being up against 9 others being contacted makes the lead more valuable when they contact me.  It's not.  Customers should only be allowed to contact 3-4 pros for free.  That's it.  Anything else they can go do their own search on google.  Nothing upsets me more than seeing I paid $26 for a lead - oh and that is a discount price because I am on promote - and then only to see that the customer contacted a total of 7 pros.  A year an half ago that lead would have been $11-12 and only 5 of us would directly respond because they wanted that lead and read the details.  That was a fair deal.   Anyway, I am looking forward to the next two weeks to see how my 30 days goes.   Remember TT - pros on this site are mostly sole individuals, small businesses.   And most of the customers I see come to this site don't have high end budgets.    ... View more

Yes I agree. The “in process” doesn’t make sense. You’re either hired or your not. Once my client signs the agreement and pays deposit I marked them as .... well, my only choice is “in progress” - when it should be “hired”. Job “completed” is when you send a review to review the work you finished and your were hired for. It’s simple. Why does the system need to know if the job is done or not. Hired. Period. Next. Why make it complicated. And both parties should be required to confirm. A job is available until hired. Progress? At what point does one mark themselves as in progress? Doesn’t make sense. ... View more

Just yesterday a customer , who contacted me - I paid for it because of promote, also contact 6 other pro at the cost of $26 to each of us. I felt confident he would hire me after our phone conversation. He needed to check with boss first. I waited to hear back then decided to follow up. My messaging feed with the customer said Hired Another Pro. I was shocked. I waited a few hours then said screw this. I’m calling the customer. I was very polite and professional and asked if he made any decision yet - he said no and that he was still waiting for his boss. I told him that TT posted in my feed that you hired someone else and he said no. Later in the day he got back to me and we are moving forward with them hiring me. This error can not happen again. What if I believed the the message he hired another pro and never follow up? Please TT - support us. I keep reading the same problems over and over. Also - help us increase our odds of being booked and feel satisfied with the increase in cost by solving a lot of these issues. My biggest concern this week is that TT should cap off the amount of pros a customer can contact. Help us by doing that. Show your support by capping it off to 3 or 4 free pros they can contact. They shows us that you care about our odds of being hired rather that TT profit. You have to know that we pros are upset when we see 7-8-9 other pros contacted and they all responded. ... View more

I am a still photographer AND a videographer. I do everything from children’s parties taking simple photos - to working with corporate customers creating promotional videos. So I see a variety of leads. I’ve seen the triple increase in cost to us and it’s not justified from my viewpoint. However, I do belive that the leads are legit people now - much more confident in that than I was about two years ago. I do belive ONE of the reasons the ghosting people are experiencing is because the customer has way too many pros in front of them so they contact as many as they want. They want quick responses so if you don’t answer quick enough they will move on to another pros profile. They are not going to respond back to you to tell you that either. So pros must see that as a fact. Since we can’t see anymore if they customer ever actually hired someone anymore. I’ve seen 7, 8 and 9 pros being contacted on a job. You think the customer has time to reply back to all those? And if your information is not clear in your profile they will ask a simple question and you’ll get charged - then spend the time trying to get a refund. In addition, Being that I cover video and photos I will agree that wedding photographer wedding videographer are completely different from corporate and completely different from events and must be separated. Weddings need to stand alone. I’ve seen this request many many times. Also, not fair that I can not put a weekly budget on some of the video services. Pros should have the ability to regulate their budget in every single category that is available. ... View more

There are many, many questions on here - many similar - and you didn’t even answer. What keeps you up at night? Really? And only 30 minutes for this webinar? There are over 200 questions on the feed alone. Very disappointed. I wanted to hear tough questions and answers. Address the overwhelming theme of questions here. I appreciate Marcos willingness to get up front and speak. However, this was a waste of time. Let me come and ask the questions and run it like a real seminar. Like - will you be putting a cap on the amount of pros a customer can contact. Because allowing a customer to contact 7-9-12 other pros is unnecessary and only benefits Thumbtack. It decreases our odds of getting booked. Thumbtacks willingness to let a cap on this will show their support for us pros. That’s a real question, real concern. Wow. Really disappointed with this. Hopefully next one will be more productive. However, I do belive efforts are being done by Thumbtack to guide this ship. ... View more

Yes - I too have been invited but have received no information how to join this discussion. Since it’s today - you going to let us know so us pros can arrange our plans. ... View more

Just so you know Tana, my excel sheet with TT for the last 5 years looks just like yours. Same success pattern same concerns now. If everyone is experiencing the same disappointment - how does that get changed back to a system where top pros have positive results? Allowing customers to respond to as many pros they want to - with no limitations - reduces our chance of being booked. A fact. And the increased price doest allow for us to maintain profitability. 250 views and 1 contact? Sure I may book that 1 contact but that is not the point now. I don’t believe this platform will change. TT is happy and how it works for their bottom line so unfortunately, if changes are not made so our numbers go back to where we experienced great success, this will be the numbers we will continue to see. So let’s hope there is real change coming and I don’t continue to see that 11 pros were contacted by one customer for one simple job and never k owing that any pro was ever even hired. ... View more