Let’s be honest — capturing leads is no walk in the park. It takes a lot of time, money, and strategic planning to generate the right leads. And don’t even get us STARTED on turning those leads into customers. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

The key to capturing high-quality leads that convert is investing in the right lead generation tactics. So, do you use a lead generation tool like Angi Leads, or take a full-funnel approach?

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of both.

You may have heard of Angie’s List, but are you familiar with Angi Leads? While we’re going to zoom in on this particular lead generation solution, keep in mind that there are lots of similar services out there, such as Thumbtack, Bark, Yelp, and Porch.

Angi Leads is a lead generation service from Angi (formerly Angie’s List), which allows small businesses to purchase leads from consumers looking for local service professionals. Once a user submits a service request, Angi notifies the business that they have a new lead. When the business transaction is complete, Angi follows up with the customer to gauge their satisfaction based on the provider’s work, prices, and professionalism.

Angi Leads presents a few core benefits:

• Receive leads directly: With Angi, local leads get sent to business owners directly — no strategizing or campaign planning needed.
• Gain full cost visibility: When you buy a lead through Angi, you know exactly how much you’ll pay for that lead before you buy.
• Easily turn off campaigns: Running low on budget? Going out of town for the week? Ads not driving results? No worries. Angi Leads allows you to immediately pause ads and stop leads with no hassle.

If getting leads is so much work, then why not just take the easy route and buy them from Angi? It’s a mindless, painless, and simple way to find prospects. So, what’s the catch?

There are a few significant drawbacks to Angi Leads you should be aware of before investing in this service.

Acquiring leads from Angi is easy. The hard part comes after that.

Leads require careful and persistent nurturing to convert into customers. And many of these leads will have questions to ask before committing to your brand. That’s why you’ll need someone available to follow up with these leads and guide them toward a purchase. Unfortunately, Angi doesn’t provide nurture support, meaning you’ll have to figure out a system for nurturing these leads yourself.

Angi Leads makes lead opportunities readily available — but not just to you. Angi takes a roster of pre-qualified vendors and directs them all to the same leads, creating incredibly high competition for these opportunities. So, any time you get a lead, you can be certain your competitors are also communicating with these prospects.

When you get leads from Angi, you’re limited exclusively to Angi users. As a result, you can expect a pretty limited pool of prospects, especially if you’re in a smaller market or more niche industry.

Okay, so you may not get as many leads on Angi Leads, but the leads you do get are good, right?

Well, not necessarily.

While the cost of each lead is known, the quality is not.

Angi receives many bids from small, local operators who charge low prices for subpar or even low-quality work. While no consumer wants to invest in a bad job, they do want a cheap one. That’s why many customers come to Angi in search of a low price, making these leads unsuitable for businesses offering higher-quality or premium products and services.

Now that you know what to expect when using Angi Leads as a lead generation tactic, it’s time to get to know your alternate option: full-funnel marketing.

Full-funnel marketing is a strategy that addresses prospective buyers across all stages of the sales funnel, including:

• Top-of-funnel: The consumer becomes aware of your brand and its products or services. Your job is to better educate them on your offerings and build interest.
• Middle-of-funnel: The customer is looking more into your products or services. It’s here that you want to highlight your unique selling points and show how you can solve their problems.
• Bottom-of-funnel: The consumer is ready to make a purchasing decision. It’s time to close the deal by positioning your product as the best choice.

By considering the entire customer journey, full-funnel marketing offers a holistic approach to marketing, enabling businesses to target consumers who are most likely to convert and nurture them toward a purchase.

Since this approach requires a more in-depth strategy, you might want to partner with an experienced marketing agency that can plan and execute accordingly.

Full-funnel marketing tactics offer many advantages to local businesses. Let’s dig into the main three.

Unlike Angi Leads, a full-funnel strategy spans more than just one platform. This tactic targets users through various channels, such as search engines, social media, and web pages. That means consumers can find your brand whether they’re searching for answers on Google, scrolling on Instagram, or visiting your website.

Instead of intercepting consumers in the middle of their buyer’s journey, full-funnel marketing allows you to reach prospects earlier on, enabling you to nurture them into qualified leads who are more likely to convert.

In addition to fostering qualified leads, a full-funnel approach also generates lower-competition leads. Rather than competing for leads being delivered to numerous competitors, you can relax knowing your leads are coming straight from your own lead gen form. That means the probability of the lead being pursued by competitors is significantly lower.

With full-funnel marketing services, you have a team of subject matter experts in your corner who are invested in your brand’s success. These specialists have the knowledge and expertise needed to capture and convert qualified leads so you don’t have to.

Like all good things, full-funnel marketing also has its shortcomings, including:

• Time to set up: Because a full-funnel approach reaches across multiple channels, this strategy is far more involved than using a lead generation tool. That means getting this strategy off the ground may be more time-consuming.
• Delayed ad cancellation: If you decide to pause or cancel an ad, the action may not go through until the following business day. It’s only a slight delay, but one worth noting if you’re not planning on launching always-on campaigns.
• Initial lack of cost visibility: Through this strategy, your paid media ads capture leads, not a lead generation service. As a result, you won’t know how many leads to expect or the cost per lead upfront. However, this is something you’ll be able to optimize over time.

When it comes to lead generation services and full-funnel strategies, the question isn’t which is better. Both tactics are effective in some capacity — the real question is which makes the most sense for you.

Here’s the low-down:

Angi Leads is your best option if you offer inexpensive products or services. These lower-cost offerings tend to beat out the competition and win more leads. However, it’s important to note that you’ll need to respond to leads quickly to see results.

A full-funnel marketing agency is the best approach if you offer higher-quality products or services, have a premium brand, or want to add customer nurturing to your lead-driving efforts.

While both lead generation methods have their strengths and weaknesses, we highly recommend considering a full-funnel approach. Rather than mass-collecting questionable, high-competition leads, full-funnel marketing enables you to capture and nurture the best-quality leads with a higher likeliness of conversion.

Capture and convert high-quality leads with Ansira. With experience helping brands across 10+ industries amplify their marketing locally, we’re the experts you can trust.

Speak with one of our experts to learn more.