WaterDamageRestorationMarketing

Two numbers to separate. The ad budget — what goes to Google and Meta — is usually $8,000–30,000/month for a healthy independent shop, scaled to truck count, average ticket, and large-loss capacity. Restoration has the most expensive clicks in home services, so smaller budgets dilute fast — under $5K/month is hard to make work on Google Ads alone. That budget goes straight to the platforms from your own accounts, in your name. Separately, we charge one flat monthly management fee to run it all — we never take a cut of your ad spend or mark it up. We'd rather start at a level that can actually compete and grow based on booked jobs than overspend before the tracking is clean.

It depends on channel and market, and any number here is a rough industry estimate, not a promise — call it $40–$150 per lead and a few hundred dollars in ad spend per acquired job. Emergency clicks on Google Search sit at the high end; LSA and organic pull the blended number down. We don't sell you a fixed cost-per-lead promise — lead volume in restoration is weather-driven and no honest agency can guarantee a number. We track cost per booked job weighted by job size, which is the number that actually tells you whether the marketing pays for itself against a job worth several thousand dollars.

When you can get approved, usually yes — restoration Local Service Ads are typically the cheapest exclusive emergency leads in the trade, and they're call-first by default, which matches how water damage buys. The friction is Google Screened / Google Guarantee (licensing, insurance, background checks) and the daily lead-dispute work to claw back money from junk leads. Most shops have LSA set up and ignored — that's where the money is left on the table.

Both, in sequence — they solve different problems. Google Ads and LSA are the only channels that capture a 2 AM emergency the same minute it happens, so paid usually carries the majority of spend early and can be ringing the phone inside 48 hours. Local SEO and Google Business Profile take 4–8 months to mature but build underneath and lower your blended cost per job. Running one without the other leaves money on the table: paid captures the emergencies happening today, organic lowers what those jobs cost you over time. We run them in parallel and show you the split.

The map pack rewards a real, active Google Business Profile: correct category, service areas, steady review velocity, fresh photos, and a page on your site for each city and service you cover. The catch in this category is spam — ghost listings and virtual offices flooding the local "water damage" results. Part of the work is reporting those and keeping your legitimate profile ahead of them. This is slower than paid, but it's the asset that keeps producing after you stop bidding.

Referrals and partnerships add volume, but they don't scale and they're not yours to control. An IICRC certification, a spot on a carrier or TPA referral list, and good adjuster and plumber relationships all bring work — until the carrier re-shuffles the list or the TPA changes terms. Paid and organic demand that rings your own phone is the part you actually control, so it's where we focus the money. We help you look credible to adjusters (reviews, GBP, a site that holds up under professional scrutiny) while building the demand that doesn't depend on anyone else's program.

A few questions cut through it fast. Ask whether the leads are exclusive or shared — shared marketplace leads put you back in the race-to-the-phone. Ask whether there's a lock-in contract (there shouldn't be) and who owns the accounts and data (you should). Ask how they handle the 2 AM call — if after-hours pickup isn't in the plan, the ad budget leaks. Ask what number they report: cost per booked job weighted by job size, not "leads." And be skeptical of anyone guaranteeing a lead count in a weather-driven trade.

Yes, locally. National franchise budgets don't outrank a well-run local Google Business Profile in the map pack, and they don't out-convert a faster phone answer. The shops that lose to franchises usually lose at the front door (slow response, weak reviews, ghost GBP), not in the auction.

No. Restoration lead volume is weather-driven — anyone guaranteeing a number is either pulling from a shared-lead marketplace or defining "lead" loosely. We build the system, run the ads, track booked jobs and revenue, and adjust during the events that matter.

Works tightest with Jobber, which we're partnered with — clients new to Jobber get a discount through us. For shops on restoration-specific platforms like DASH, Restoration Manager, or Encircle, we work with what you have. Depth varies by integration, but we'll tie what we can.