How Much Do Service Direct Water Damage Leads Cost?

Lead generation is an essential part of any service business's marketing strategy, and water damage restoration companies are no exception. A steady stream of leads is necessary to maintain and grow your customer base. However, generating leads can be a challenging and time-consuming process, particularly in today's competitive online marketplace.

For over 15 years, Service Direct has been providing water damage leads to local, regional, and even national restoration companies of all sizes. Our services are designed to help businesses like yours get high-quality leads while minimizing the cost and effort required to do so.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at the different types of leads we offer, how we enable clients to set and adjust their own cost per lead, and what factors impact the average cost per lead in a given area. 

Whether you're just getting started with lead generation or looking to improve your existing strategies, this article will provide valuable insights into how Service Direct’s lead pricing works and how you can use it to optimize your experience with our platform.

Water Damage Phone Calls Versus Form Leads

When buying water damage leads, there are several types worth considering. Service Direct offers two primary types of water damage restoration leads: pay-per-call phone leads and digital form leads.

While both types of leads can be effective, they each have unique advantages and disadvantages to consider when deciding which type of lead is right for your business.

Pay Per Call

Our primary service is our pay per call phone leads platform. These leads are generated through targeted advertising campaigns that encourage potential customers to call a designated phone number, which is routed directly to your business’s phone.

Service Direct’s pay per call leads are exclusive, meaning you never have to compete with other water damage restoration businesses for calls you’ve purchased. Our system gathers calls from a wide range of sources, and bids on them based on your zip code and the price you’re willing to pay for each billable lead you receive, or you cost per lead (CPL).

The main advantage of pay per call phone leads is that they offer a high level of customer engagement and can result in higher conversion rates. However, a potential drawback is that the quality of the leads may not be as high since not all calls will result in a successful sale.

Form Leads

On the other hand, digital form leads are generated through online forms, where potential customers enter some basic information about themselves and their needs on a website, social media page, or other digital platforms.

With this lead type, your water damage business would receive that information from interested customers, allowing you to follow up with them later. The main advantage of digital form leads is that they provide a way to capture leads from customers who may not be ready to call or who prefer to communicate online. However, conversion rates for form leads may be a little lower, since customers may not be as engaged as they would be with a phone call.

Overall, both pay-per-call phone leads and digital form leads have their advantages and disadvantages, and the best option for a service business will depend on their specific needs and goals.

How to Choose the Right Cost Per Lead

How much do water damage leads cost with Service Direct? It’s really up to you. Our platform gives water damage restoration clients the ability to set their own cost per lead (CPL) to a price they think is fair and competitive. That’s because we realized that the value of a given water damage restoration lead depends entirely on how well the company can convert the lead into a paying job.

Imagine a set of 10 quality leads was sent to Company A, and they were able to convert those 10 leads into 8 paid gigs. In this scenario, those leads are pretty valuable, since they’re so likely to result in revenue for the company. Now, imagine those same leads were instead delivered to Company B, which turns them into just 4 jobs. Suddenly those leads aren’t as valuable, and all that changed was the company’s ability to convert on them.  

So, if the actual value of our leads is based on how well you can convert them, we simply took it one step further and let you set the cost you’ll pay per lead. In the end, you have to ask yourself how much value you believe you’ll be able to get out of an incoming lead.

The other important factor to consider when setting your CPL is how well your competition can extract the value of a lead. They’ll also be basing their CPL on how valuable they consider our leads to be. So, you could technically set your CPL to the minimum,  but your competitors probably value their leads more highly and have set a higher CPL based on that valuation. What’s that mean for you? The lower the CPL, the fewer leads coming to your business. 

Finding the right balance between aggressively outbidding your competition and paying a fair and affordable price is key to choosing the right CPL for your business. This is something you’ll be able to fine-tune and adjust as you go. You set your CPL for each of your campaigns, and you can change your CPL at any time.You set your CPL for each of your campaigns, and you can change your CPL at any time.

Changing your CPL is one way we enable you to control the flow of your incoming leads to best suit your current business needs. Simply put, the more you’re willing to pay – or the higher you set your CPL – the more leads you’ll get. If you set your CPL at above average for your area, you’ll get more leads. Set it lower than average, and you’ll still get leads, just not as many.

So, ultimately, the price you pay for water damage leads with Service Direct is up to you. However, the CPL that’s going to get you the flow of leads you’re looking for depends on the average CPL for your service area. That average is influenced by a number of factors, including overall lead volume for your service area and the local competition. 

How Location Impacts Water Damage Cost Per Lead

Over the first three months of 2023, the average CPL of Billable Water Damage Repair Leads in the United States was $542. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. 

For example, in Texas, the average CPL during the same time period was $680. If we zoom in even further on just the Dallas metropolitan area, that number rises to $775, while in Houston, the average was $553.

So, if you’re a water damage restoration company located in Dallas, setting your CPL at $700 will get you some of the available leads in your area. But for companies in Houston, that $700 CPL would buy a much bigger piece of the pie. 

Clearly, location plays a major role in average CPL!

What’s the Average CPL in Your Area?

Together with the average lead volume for your service area, the average cost per lead can give you a pretty good idea of whether Service Direct is right for your water damage restoration business. 

Curious about what the average CPL is in your business’s service area? Schedule time with a Service Direct account executive to get a better sense of a competitive CPL for water damage leads in your area.