Key takeaways
- Search ads pay off for movers when there are open dates to fill and the leads come to you alone, not to every mover on a list.
- Run local, long-distance and storage as separate campaigns, each with its own landing page and its own negative keywords.
- Spend toward the dates you can serve. Full end-of-month Saturdays do not need more demand.
- Measure cost per booked move from your moving software. A cheap lead that rarely books is the expensive one.
Google Ads for a moving company pay off when you bid on the searches people make right after a home sale, a job offer or a lease notice, send each one to a page built for that kind of move, and judge every campaign by booked moves. Run that way, ads bring customers who chose to contact you, not names sold to several movers at once.
When Google Ads pay off for moving and storage companies
Google Ads pay off when you have dates to fill and the cost per booked move beats your other sources. They do not pay off when the calendar is already full or when nobody can tell which clicks became moves.
| Situation | Do ads pay off? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Open midweek and off-season dates | Usually | Ads can be switched on for the dates you need, which SEO cannot do |
| Long-distance moves | Often | A larger job can carry a higher cost per booked move |
| Summer Saturdays and month's end, already full | Rarely | You would be paying for demand you have to turn away |
| You buy shared leads from aggregators | Often, as a replacement | A search lead contacted you alone, so it books more often |
| Maps already brings you plenty of local calls | For gaps only | Spend on services or areas where organic does not reach |
| No call or booking tracking | Not yet | Fix tracking first, or you are buying clicks blind |
Local Services Ads may also be open to movers, depending on category and location, and they are being folded into Google Ads as pay-per-lead Performance Max campaigns. Compare them with search ads on the same measure: cost per booked move.
How a tracked Google Ads campaign connects
- A high-intent search Words that name a service you sell
- Your ad Matches the words they used
- Landing page One service, one action
- Call or form Tracked by campaign
- Booked move Recorded against the ad
Bookings guide the next round of bidding
Campaign setup we use
- Separate campaigns by service. Local moves, long-distance moves and storage each get their own budget, keywords and landing page, because they price differently and book differently.
- Tight keyword matching. Phrase and exact match on searches with clear intent to hire, widened only as the data supports it (keyword matching).
- A long negative keyword list from day one. Moving search traffic is full of people you cannot book: job seekers searching "mover jobs", people pricing a rental truck, people hunting for "free boxes" (negative keywords).
- Location targeting by where moves start. Target the areas you pick up from, and for long-distance, people searching about moving from your region.
- Ad schedules that match your office. Evening and weekend ads go to a booking form or an after-hours text reply, not a phone that rings out.
- Call assets and a tap-to-call button on mobile ads.
- One landing page per service, with an estimate form that posts into SmartMoving, Supermove or your own system.
- Conversions tracked to booked moves, not just form fills (conversion measurement).
Budget and tracking
Set the budget by the dates you need to fill, then judge it by cost per booked move. Because demand peaks in summer and around month's end, the same budget behaves very differently in June and in February. Left on autopilot, a flat budget spends the most when you need it least.
Tracking needs three links. Calls from ads are counted with call tracking (Google's call tracking). Forms post into your moving software with the campaign attached. Each lead is then marked booked or lost, so Google Ads learns from moves rather than inquiries.
Example, with made-up numbers. Say one month of spend brings 40 estimate requests from search and 10 of them book. Your cost per booked move is the spend divided by 10, not by 40. Now say an aggregator sells you leads for a fraction of the price, but because four other movers got the same names, one in twenty books. Work it through and the cheap lead is usually the more expensive move.
How it works
- Assess. We audit your Google Ads account, or your lead sources if you have none, and pull booked moves by source from your moving software.
- Prioritize. We decide which services and dates to fund first. That is usually long-distance and off-peak local, then storage.
- Execute. We build the campaigns, negative lists and landing pages inside your own Google Ads account, with tracking tested before launch.
- Measure. We report calls, estimate requests and booked moves by campaign each month, then move budget toward the lowest cost per booked move.
The pages behind the ads are covered in Google Ads landing pages for movers. How pay-per-lead compares is in Local Services Ads for moving companies.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
Our campaigns for movers are planned around your crews and calendar, built in a Google Ads account you own, and run on a dated plan with no long-term contract. You see booked moves and cost per move, not click-through rates. Book a growth consultation and we will audit your account, or your current lead sources if you have never run ads.
Sources
- About negative keywords, Google Ads Help
- About keyword matching options, Google Ads Help
- About conversion measurement, Google Ads Help
- Set up tracking calls to a phone number on a website, Google Ads Help