Moving Company Marketing: Rules, Leads and Booked Moves

A moving company should judge every marketing source by one number: cost per booked move that actually gets done. Interstate movers also work under federal rules on advertising and estimates, which change what you can say in an ad and how you should record a quote.

Quick answer

• Put your name and USDOT number in every ad if you move household goods across state lines, and check your state's rules for in-state moves.
• Learn which "lead" companies are brokers or lead sellers rather than carriers before you buy from them.
• Record each customer as a row: source, estimate type, estimate date, booked or not, canceled or not, final revenue.
• Compare sources on cost per booked move and cost per completed move, not cost per lead.
• Test one owned channel (your Google Business Profile, Google Ads or both) beside any bought leads for a month and read both from the same sheet.

What does a mover have to show in an ad?

This part is federal and applies to interstate household goods carriers. I am not a lawyer and none of this is legal advice, so confirm details with FMCSA or your attorney. The advertising rule is 49 CFR 375.207, titled "What items must be in my advertisements?" It requires your name or trade name as it appears on your USDOT assignment and your U.S. DOT number, in the form "U.S. DOT No." followed by the number (eCFR, checked 2026-10-14).

The same part defines an advertisement as any communication to the public offering interstate household goods service, and it names listings in online databases and on websites (eCFR, 49 CFR 375.103, checked 2026-10-14). So check your website, your Google Ads text and your directory profiles, and require the same of your agents; the rule I read does not mention a street address, so do not assume it asks for one. The part covers only interstate moves for individual shippers (eCFR, 49 CFR 375.101, checked 2026-10-14), so a move that stays inside one state follows that state's rules, which I do not cover here. It is also a US rule and does not reach a move that stays inside Canada.

Who is actually moving the customer: you, a broker or a lead seller?

A customer who searches for moving quotes can land on a site that does not own a truck. Federal rules define a broker as a person who, for compensation, arranges, or offers to arrange, the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier (eCFR, 49 CFR 371.2, checked 2026-10-14); for household moves, anyone other than a carrier or its agent who sells, offers or advertises a move by a motor carrier for pay counts as a household goods broker (eCFR, 49 CFR 371.103, checked 2026-10-14). The carrier is the one that does the moving: 49 CFR 375.103 defines a household goods motor carrier as one that moves household goods and offers services such as estimates, inventorying, packing and loading at the home (eCFR, checked 2026-10-14).

This matters for your marketing in two ways. First, a customer who filled in a form at a broker's site may not know your company exists until you call, and may have sent the same form to others. Second, a broker's dashboard may count a lead you cannot dispute. Ask any seller in writing whether leads are shared, what counts as a return and how they are billed.

What happens between the first call and the signed estimate?

A move takes longer to get from a form to a moving day than most home services do, so a lead can hide in the middle for weeks. A tracking sheet should follow this sequence.

Inquiry

Call, form or message

Survey

On-site or video

Written estimate

Binding or non-binding

Booked move

Booked or not

Completed move

Final invoice

Inquiry

Call, form or message

Survey

On-site or video

Written estimate

Binding or non-binding

Booked move

Booked or not

Completed move

Final invoice

For an interstate move, the estimate rule asks for a physical survey of the goods, on-site or by video, before the written estimate, unless the customer waives it in writing (eCFR, 49 CFR 375.401, checked 2026-10-14). When you give the written estimate to an individual shipper, you must also give two DOT publications, "Ready to Move? Tips for a Successful Interstate Move" and the contents of "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move", as a copy or a link to the FMCSA page (eCFR, 49 CFR 375.213, checked 2026-10-14). If the customer takes the link, the same rule asks for a signed, dated receipt kept for one year. Put "booklets sent" and the receipt date in the same row so you can prove it later.

Is the estimate binding, and why does your sheet need to know?

The rule says a binding estimate "guarantees the total cost of the move based upon the quantities and services shown on your estimate", while a non-binding estimate is not binding on you (eCFR, 49 CFR 375.401, checked 2026-10-14). In plain words: one is a fixed price, the other your estimate of the total, with final charges based on actual weight and the tariff.

For marketing, that means two sources with the same estimate count can produce very different revenue. Mark the type on every row, and compare final invoice against estimate by source. A source whose final invoices drift far from the estimates can look cheap now and cost you in disputes later.

What do customers search for, and what do those clicks cost?

The figures are Google Ads Keyword Planner estimates for the US, October 2026, averaged across the country; your metro can price a click well above or below them, and no figure here is a quote for your account. They do show that a long-distance click is priced about three times a local one, so the same click budget buys about a third as many long-distance clicks.

Which sources can you own, and how does each one tag the move?

Local Services Ads, Google's pay-per-lead ads that can carry a Google Verified badge, list Moving services among their US business categories (Google, checked 2026-10-14). They charge for each valid lead, which Google describes as a contact related to your business, not a booked job (Google, checked 2026-10-14). My separate guide on how Local Services Ads compare with regular Google Ads covers that choice; here the point is that each source needs a tag on the job.

The cheapest way to tag a phone inquiry is to ask one question on every call, "What did you search or click to find us?", and write the answer in the sheet that day. For setup details on the free listing, see the Business Profile guide for contractors.

Illustrative: which source earned more in a month?

Illustrative: the six-truck local mover below is imaginary, every figure in this section is made up, and none comes from a client. Each completed move leaves $700 after crew pay, fuel and truck costs.

Formulas: cost per booked move is spend divided by booked moves ($2,400 divided by 5 is $480); profit after spend is completed moves times $700, minus spend (4 times $700 is $2,800, less $2,400 leaves $400; 7 times $700 is $4,900, less $3,000 leaves $1,900).

Ranked by cost per inquiry, the bought leads win at $40 against $100. Ranked by cost per completed move, the owned channel wins. The bought leads came in as shared inquiries, a smaller share reached an estimate (24 of 60 against 18 of 30) and one booked move canceled. What matters is that the ranking flips, not the exact figures. A single month of data is thin, so read each source again after the next month closes.

What should you ask a lead seller or agency?

• Is each lead sold to me alone or to other movers too, and in what time window?
• Is the company a registered carrier, or a broker or lead seller?
• What makes a lead returnable, and how many days do I have to ask?
• Can I get a monthly list with date, lead ID and amount for each lead?
• For an agency running my ads: is the Google Ads account in my name, and will I see the call and form source for each booked move?

Between October 2023 and September 2025 I managed nearly $700K of Google Ads and Meta Ads spend as a media buyer, none of it for a mover. The question I would put to any mover's source is what happened to the person after the form: the estimate, the booking and the cancellation, in that order.