The lead scorer is rewarding language that looks relevant but does not describe work a pro performs.
Fewer mismatched paid leads protects pro budgets, while preserving enough eligible matches protects homeowner choice.
Who you’d be doing this for
“I opened three leads this week that sounded electrical, then they were jobs my crew does not do.”
Rania Nasr · Electrical Business Owner
Runs a small residential electrical business and pays for homeowner leads in the services her crews can perform.
What is at stake
Eight percent of paid leads in affected categories are later marked Not what I do. You have to weigh tighter relevance against the matches homeowners and pros still need.
Why it isn’t already fixed
Every obvious fix costs something else. That’s the part you’d have to decide.
- lead relevance vs. accepted lead volume
- feature precision vs. serving latency
- automated labels vs. reviewed evidence
- category controls vs. model generalization
Why Thumbtack
Paid leads and pro targeting sit at the center of how local service businesses decide whether to keep buying homeowner projects.
Written with these in mind
Not your kind of problem? 72 more at Thumbtack, or browse every organization.
This is the setup. The work is inside.
Running it puts you in the room: the full situation and its constraints, stakeholders who push back in their own words, and the decisions that are yours to make. What you produce becomes a Day One Plan — work you can show someone instead of describing.