

Eighty dollars a click buys no room for waste.
no room for waste
Water damage restoration PPC is a unit-economics problem before it is a campaign problem. Emergency terms run $80.41 a click and about $500 a lead, so we build restoration campaigns around answered calls and booked losses instead of impressions. We already run marketing for restoration companies and we report in cost per booked job.
Tell us a little about your brand and we'll be in touch within 24 hours to lock in a time.

FOUR LEVERS
Four levers decide what a restoration lead costs.
what a restoration lead costs
Which searches you buy, where the truck can actually go, what the caller reaches in the first ten seconds, and whether the money is measured against booked losses or form fills. Get those four right and the cost per lead falls without touching the bid.
Emergency keyword strategy
Service area and scheduling
Landing pages and call handling
Measurement and channel mix
Buy the emergency, skip the reading.
Restoration search splits cleanly into people with water on the floor and people reading about mold. The first group converts within the hour; the second drains the budget. Near-me water damage keywords run $60 to $85 a click and the most competitive metro terms reach $250, so the negative list matters as much as the keyword list.
We buy emergency and commercial intent first, segment by loss type because the economics differ sharply, and cut informational traffic hard. Sewage, leak detection and storm damage each get their own treatment rather than sharing one ad group.
- Emergency and near-me intent bought first
- Loss types separated - water, mold, fire, sewage, storm
- Aggressive negatives against research and DIY traffic
- Commercial and large-loss terms on their own track
$60-85
typical cost per click on near-me water damage terms
$250
cost per click on the most competitive metro terms
Only bid where a truck can actually arrive.
The fastest saving in most restoration accounts is geographic. Bidding across a whole metro when your crews realistically cover six suburbs buys calls you cannot serve, and a call you turn down still cost you eighty dollars.
We rebuild targeting around genuine drive times, weight bids by where your close rate is strongest, and keep spend running at the hours losses actually happen. Overnight and storm periods are when this category pays, which means the campaign has to be trusted to run when nobody is watching it.
- Targeting drawn from real drive times, not a radius
- Bid weighting by suburb close rate
- Overnight and weekend coverage kept live
- Storm-period budget rules agreed in advance
72%
of restoration leads arrive from mobile mid-emergency
The click is bought. The call is won on the page.
A restoration click is expensive enough that a two-point conversion difference changes the whole account. Across 200 audited contractor sites restoration pages converted at 8-14% and direct insurance billing messaging converted 28% higher.
So we build the page around the three things a soaked property owner needs in ten seconds: you answer now, you come today, you deal with the carrier. Then we look at what happens after the tap, because 69% of restoration customers go with the first company they reach and a missed night call is a lost job.
- Tap-to-call above the fold on every emergency page
- Response time and direct insurance billing stated plainly
- A page per loss type, matched to the ad that was clicked
- Landing pages built for one bar of signal
8-14%
conversion rate on audited restoration pages
28%
lift from direct insurance billing messaging
Count booked losses, not form fills.
The conversion in this trade is a phone call from a wet basement, so an account measured on form submissions is measuring the wrong thing. We track calls, qualify them, and feed booked-job data back into bidding so the platform optimises toward revenue rather than noise.
Channel mix is part of the same decision. Local Services Ads costs have climbed 40% since 2023 across $127,000 of tracked restoration spend, so we keep search, LSAs and organic honest against each other every month rather than defending whichever one we happen to run.
- Call tracking with qualification, not raw call counts
- Booked-job values fed back for smart bidding
- Search, LSA and organic compared on cost per booked loss
- Conversion tracking verified before spend scales
40%
rise in Local Services Ads cost since 2023
$300-400
reported blended cost per restoration lead
market cost per click on emergency restoration terms
reported blended cost per restoration lead today
Tracked, recorded and qualified before it counts
Account, tracking and landing pages in your own name
We made the difference for those brands
01 — The challenge
The category got expensive faster than close rates improved.
Restoration paid search is now one of the costliest auctions in local marketing. Emergency and 24-hour terms sit at $80.41 a click and roughly $500 a lead, metro terms reach $250 a click with blended cost per lead around $300 to $400, and LSA costs are up 40% since 2023.
At those prices the old approach - broad match, a metro-wide radius and a contact form - stops working quietly and expensively. The accounts we take over are rarely badly built. They are usually built for a cheaper auction than the one they are competing in now.
“We were spending eight thousand a month and could not tell you which jobs came from it.”
The measurement gap is the expensive part. When the conversion is a phone call and the account counts form fills, nobody can see that the sewage campaign pays and the mold campaign does not - so the budget stays split evenly across both for another quarter.
02 — Our approach
Fix the measurement, then narrow the buy.
We start with tracking, because at eighty dollars a click every later decision depends on it. Call tracking with qualification, booked-job values flowing back into the platform, and a clear read on which loss types and which suburbs pay. That usually takes two weeks and it changes the conversation immediately.
Then we narrow. Targeting redrawn around real drive times, loss types split into their own campaigns because sewage, leak detection and emergency water have very different economics, and a negative list that keeps the research traffic out. Most accounts get cheaper before they get bigger.
In parallel we rebuild what the click lands on. One page per loss type, tap-to-call above the fold, response time and direct insurance billing stated in the first screen, and the page built to load on one bar of signal from a flooded basement.
Then we scale what is proven and keep the channels honest against each other. Search, Local Services Ads and organic get compared on cost per booked loss every month, and we say plainly when the money should move - including when it should move away from the campaigns we run.
03 — What we did
From spend you cannot explain to cost per booked loss.
The same sequence whether you run two trucks or a multi-branch operation.
01
Where the money is leaking
Search terms, geography, hours, devices and call recordings reviewed against your booked jobs, with the wasted spend named in writing before we change a single bid.

02
Tracking that counts calls
Call tracking, qualification and booked-job values wired back into the platform, so bidding optimises toward revenue instead of whichever form happens to get filled in.

03
The pages the clicks land on
A page per loss type with tap-to-call above the fold, response time and direct insurance billing stated first, built to load fast on a phone at the damage site.

04
Scaled and kept honest
Budget moved toward the loss types and suburbs that book, storm periods planned in advance, and search, LSA and organic compared on cost per booked loss every month.

WHAT YOU GET
Deliverables you keep, whatever happens next.
you keep
The account, the tracking, the landing pages and the reporting live in your own name from the first week.
Account and waste audit
Search terms, geography, hours and call recordings measured against your booked jobs, with every pound of wasted spend named in writing rather than implied.
Campaign and keyword build
Loss types split into their own campaigns with emergency intent bought first, a negative list that keeps research traffic out, and targeting drawn from real drive times.
Call tracking and qualification
Every call tracked, recorded and qualified, with booked-job values fed back into bidding so the platform learns which conversations were actually worth having.
Landing pages per loss type
Pages for emergency water, mold, fire and sewage with tap-to-call first, response time and insurance billing stated plainly, and speed treated as a conversion feature.
Channel mix review
Search, Local Services Ads and organic compared on cost per booked loss, with a plain recommendation on where next month's money should sit.
Monthly read on booked work
A written monthly report on losses booked by campaign and suburb, with next month's priorities named, delivered by the person actually running the account.
HOW WE WORK
Operating standards, not promises.
Operating standards

Emergency water damage
The overnight and storm-period buy, built to answer the call within the hour.
ExploreCommercial and large loss
Longer decisions, bigger values, and a buy aimed at facility managers rather than owners.
ExploreMold, fire and sewage
Separate campaigns because the click price and the close rate are nothing alike.
ExploreBuilt on trust. Proven by results.
We partner with SMBs and Fortune 500 companies to deliver more than reach — we bring clarity, execution, and measurable outcomes. Every successful partnership starts with a strong culture fit and a shared drive to grow.








CASE STUDIES
Case studies
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FAQ
Questions restoration owners ask us
What does a water damage restoration lead actually cost?
It varies more by loss type than by anything else. Emergency and 24-hour terms run $80.41 a click at a 16.0% conversion rate and about $500 a lead, while leak detection sits at $47.96 a click and $330 a lead, and blended cost per lead across the category lands around $300 to $400. We model your own numbers against your close rate and average job value before quoting, so the target is yours rather than an industry average.
Is PPC worth it at those prices?
It is, when the job value carries it and the calls get answered. A single mitigation and reconstruction job dwarfs a $500 lead cost, which is why the auction is expensive in the first place. The risk is never the click price; it is paying that price for calls outside your service area, outside your hours, or into a voicemail. That is the part we fix.
How quickly does a restoration PPC campaign produce calls?
Calls usually start within days, because the intent is immediate - nobody researches a flooded basement for a fortnight. The first month is about proving which loss types and suburbs convert; month two is where the cost per booked loss starts falling as the waste comes out and the bidding gets real conversion data to learn from.
Should we run Local Services Ads or Google Ads?
Usually both, weighted by what your own account shows. LSAs sit above search results and are priced per lead, which suits emergency demand, but LSA costs have climbed 40% since 2023 so they are no longer automatically the cheap option. We compare them on cost per booked loss each month and move the money accordingly.
Why split campaigns by loss type?
Because the economics are nothing alike. Sewage cleanup runs $61.23 a click at an 11.7% conversion rate while leak detection converts at 14.5% for $47.96. Left in one campaign, the strong performers subsidise the weak ones invisibly and the budget never finds the work you actually want.
Do you write and build the landing pages?
Yes, and we would rather not take the account without them. Audited restoration pages convert between 8% and 14% - that spread is worth more than any bidding change available to us. If your site can carry the traffic we improve it in place; if it cannot, we scope restoration web design separately and say so upfront.
How do you handle storm surges?
With rules agreed before the weather, not during it. We set budget ceilings and release conditions in advance, keep the overnight coverage live, and watch capacity with you so we are not buying calls your crews cannot reach. A storm week can produce a quarter's work, and it can also burn a quarter's budget on jobs you have to decline.
What geography should we bid on?
The area a truck can genuinely reach in the response time you promise. The most common waste we find is a metro-wide radius on an account whose crews cover six suburbs well. We redraw targeting around real drive times and weight bids toward the areas where your close rate is highest, which usually lowers spend and raises booked jobs in the same month.
How do you measure success?
Cost per booked loss, by campaign and by suburb. Calls are tracked, recorded and qualified, and booked-job values are fed back into the platform through conversion tracking so bidding optimises toward revenue. Clicks and impressions are in the report as diagnostics, never as the score.
Does our answer rate really affect the campaign?
More than any bid adjustment. 69% of restoration customers choose the first company they contact, so an unanswered 3am call is a job that went to a competitor at your expense. We report the missed-call rate alongside the media numbers, and where it is the constraint we say so before recommending more budget.
What should we mention in the ad and on the page?
Response time, coverage area, and whether you bill the carrier directly. Direct insurance billing messaging converted 28% higher across 200 audited contractor sites, because it answers the question underneath the panic - who pays for this. Awards and years in business belong further down the page.
Can PPC and SEO run together, or do we choose?
Together, and they subsidise each other. Paid search tells us within weeks which terms convert, which is the fastest research available for restoration SEO; the organic pages then lower what the paid traffic costs to convert. Owners who run only one usually end up paying the full market rate for every lead forever.
How do we choose between restoration PPC agencies?
Ask three questions. What is their target cost per booked job for your market, and how did they work it out? Do they track and qualify phone calls, or count form fills? And who runs the account day to day?
An agency that talks in cost per booked loss, names the buyer doing the work, and asks about your close rate and crew capacity before quoting is doing the job properly. Ask to see a live monthly report before you sign anything.
What does it cost, and what is the commitment?
Management is priced on scope - how many markets, how many loss types, and whether we are building landing pages and tracking from scratch. We quote after the audit so the number reflects your account rather than an average, and media spend stays on your own card.
Work is monthly with no long lock-in. Most of the fee is people - strategy, buying, call review and page work - not software, and we do not mark tools up or bill them separately.
What budget do we need to start?
Enough to buy a readable number of clicks in your metro, which at these prices means we would rather start narrow and deep than wide and thin. A tight campaign on two loss types across the suburbs you serve best will teach us more in a month than a metro-wide build at the same spend, and it protects you while the tracking is being proven.
Do you work with more than one restoration company per area?
No. Two clients bidding against each other in the same auction raises both their costs, so exclusivity in your service area is part of the agreement. We confirm it before quoting rather than discovering the conflict later.
Who actually runs the account?
A named senior buyer who learns your close rates, your crew capacity and the carriers you bill, supported by our analytics team. You have their direct line, and the person writing your monthly read is the person making the bid changes.


























































































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