Few trades buy leads as heavily as moving, and few have as much variation in what a lead turns out to be. The same enquiry may be sold to four companies, may be a person comparing prices six weeks ahead, may be outside your service radius, or may be someone who will not answer the phone again. The price per lead tells you almost nothing. What tells you something is your own cost per booked job by source, which most firms do not measure.
Read the billable-lead definition before the price
Marketplaces differ on whether a call under a certain length counts, whether an out-of-area enquiry counts, whether a duplicate counts, and how long you have to dispute one. Get those in writing, along with the credit process and whether credits expire. These clauses, not the headline rate, determine the cost of the jobs you actually book.
Speed of response is the whole game on shared leads
When four companies receive the same enquiry, the first credible quote usually wins. That means someone has to be able to call within minutes during your operating hours, and you need a plan for evenings and weekends when a lot of moving enquiries arrive. Without that, buying shared leads is subsidising the competitor with better cover.
Owned demand is slow, cheap and yours
A map profile with current photographs and a steady flow of reviews, pages for the cities and the move types you actually serve, and an honest explanation of how you quote will bring enquiries that cost nothing per call once established. It takes months and cannot be turned up when a week is quiet, which is precisely why it should be built during the quiet season.
Estimating practice is a marketing decision
Firms that give a binding or not-to-exceed estimate after a video or in-person survey convert differently from those quoting a rate over the phone, and customers increasingly search for the former. Whatever you do, describe it plainly on the site: the trade has a reputation problem around final prices, and being the clearest supplier in the results is a genuine advantage.
Questions people ask about moving leads for moving companies
Are exclusive moving leads worth more?
Usually yes on a cost-per-booked-job basis, because you are not racing three competitors and the customer has not already been called four times. Measure it rather than assuming it: run both for a season and compare booked jobs and average job value, not lead counts.
What should we track?
Source, contact attempts, whether you reached the customer, quoted value, booked value and final invoiced value. Cost per booked job by source is the number that decides where the budget goes, and it commonly differs from cost per lead by a large factor.
Do reviews matter in moving?
A great deal, because the customer is handing strangers everything they own. Recent, specific reviews and thoughtful replies to the bad ones influence both the map ranking and the choice. Ask at delivery while the crew is still there and the job is fresh.
Is paid search worth it in this trade?
It works for high-intent local queries and is expensive, so geography settings and negative keywords matter more than bidding. Watch for out-of-area clicks and for research queries about cost, and make sure someone answers the phone, because unanswered calls in this category are simply money spent.