Sick of chasing plumbing leads that go nowhere, anyone else?

Man, been grinding on lead gen for my plumbing side hustle and it's a crapshoot every time. I throw some ads on NextDoor for water heater installs and repipe jobs, but half the time it's cheapskates wanting DIY advice or ghosts who never call back. Switched to Angi last month thinking it'd be better for emergency drain clears, but their leads are hit or miss, mostly misses. Even tried posting before/after pics of PEX-A installs on my Google Business Profile, but the clicks ain't turning into jobs. Someone in the Plumbers United group mentioned using Housecall Pro for booking, but I'm not sold on dropping cash for software when I'm barely getting calls. Watched a Tommy Mello video on YouTube about scaling leads, dude swears by Facebook groups, but I'm over here refreshing my phone like an idiot. TBH, feels like I'm just burning time instead of wrenching pipes.

those angi leads are straight garbage, wasted two weeks chasing tire kickers for a simple faucet swap and got nada. FML, had to eat the ad spend.

yeah man, it's brutal out there. i've been hitting up local FB groups for plumbers but same BS, folks just wanna free quotes.

totally get it, leads drying up is killing my schedule.

try targeting google ads for 'emergency plumber near me', i get better quality calls that way, skip the broad stuff.

housecall pro actually helped me filter out the BS inquiries, worth testing the free trial at least.

ugh, the ghosting is the worst part, like they vanish after you show up for the estimate.

every damn time, makes you wanna quit cold calling altogether.

set up a simple landing page with your services like PEX repipes and collect emails first, weeds out the flakes quick.

screw angi and thumbtack, they're just lead mills preying on us small guys trying to make a living.

big agree, it's like they're designed to keep us broke and chasing shadows.

i started offering a free drain camera inspection with the first call, turns window shoppers into real jobs every time lol.

sharkbite everything and charge premium, screw the purists, it works fine for most residential gigs and saves time on leads.

nah, stick to pro fittings like viega, sharkbites leak too much in my experience, don't risk your rep on that junk.

been there, the dry spells suck but hang in, something always pipes up eventually.