eBay used to pay for an ad every time someone searched "eBay" and clicked it. Then eBay's own economists switched those ads off on Yahoo and Microsoft's search engine to see what would happen. Almost nothing happened. 99.5% of the traffic the ads used to bring in still arrived, through the free result sitting right below the ad.
Next, they stopped all paid search ads in 30% of US markets for 60 days. For people who already bought on eBay often, the ads made almost no difference. For people who were new to eBay, they did. The study was run by Thomas Blake of eBay's research labs with Chris Nosko and Steven Tadelis, and published in Econometrica (Chicago Booth Review).
That's the whole lesson of Google Ads in one study. An ad pays when it reaches someone who needs you and wasn't going to find you anyway. Every other click is a leak. For a mover, leaks look like job seekers, people renting a U-Haul, people three states away, and calls at 9 pm that nobody picks up. Below are the ten we see most, where to find each one in your own account, and how to plug it.
average click on a home services ad (LocaliQ, 2026)
of eBay's brand ad traffic came anyway
of spend went unseen in search term reports after 2020
to ask Google to investigate suspicious clicks
Why this matters: in LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, a click on a home and home improvement search ad averages $8.33 (LocaliQ). At that price, 100 clicks a month from people who will never hire you is $833 gone. And that's one leak.
The 10 Leaks, Biggest First
Paying for searches you never wanted
Your ad shows for searches close to your keywords, and Google decides what close means. That's how "movers" turns into clicks from "mover jobs near me," "u haul rental" and "free moving boxes." Every one of those people clicked, and you paid.
Where to look: Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms (Google). Sort by cost. Anything that could never become a booked move goes on your negative list.
You won't see every search, though. When Google limited this report in September 2020 to terms that "a significant number of users searched for," one agency measured that the searches behind about 28% of its clients' spend disappeared from view (Seer Interactive). That's why a negative list built in advance matters. The builder below makes one for you.
Showing ads to people far outside your area
Google's default location setting is called Presence or interest. It shows your ads to people in your area and also to people who have shown interest in it, and Google calls it the "default and recommended option" (Google). For a local mover, someone in another state reading about your city is rarely a customer. Moves are usually booked with a mover where the move starts.
Where to look: Campaign settings, then Locations, then Location options. Choose Presence: people in or regularly in your included locations. Then check where your clicks actually came from in the locations report.
Ads running outside Google Search
When you create a Search campaign, Google search partners are included by default (Google). Search campaigns can also show on the Display Network, on websites and apps, if that box is ticked (Google). Neither is always bad. But both put your ad in front of people who weren't searching Google for a mover at that moment.
Where to look: Campaign settings, then Networks. Then split your campaign's results by network and compare cost per lead. Keep what books jobs. Turn off what doesn't.
Google changing your campaigns for you
An account can be opted in to apply Google's recommendations automatically, in two bundles called "Maintain your ads" and "Grow your business" (Google). That means changes can land in your campaigns without you clicking anything. Some recommendations are useful. Others raise your spend without raising your leads. You should be the one who decides which.
Where to look: Campaigns, then Recommendations, then Auto-apply settings. Untick anything you want to decide yourself, and open the History tab to see what was already changed.
Counting the wrong things as leads
Google's bidding learns from whatever you tell it a conversion is. If a 10 second wrong number counts as a call, or a thank you page counts twice for one form, Google learns to buy more of that. Google lets you set the minimum call length that counts as a conversion (Google). Set it to roughly how long a real quote call takes at your company, not a few seconds.
Where to look: Goals, then Conversions. Every action counted as a primary conversion should be a real lead: a quote form sent, or a call long enough to be a real conversation. Page views are not leads.
Ads running when nobody answers
A missed call from an ad is the most expensive lead there is. You paid for it and nobody heard it. Google lets you set your call asset to show only when your business can take calls (Google), and an ad schedule can do the same for a whole campaign.
Where to look: Your call asset's advanced options, and your campaign's ad schedule. Compare the hours your ads run with the hours someone actually picks up. If the phone goes to voicemail after 6 pm, let the quote form do the work in the evening and keep the call button for business hours.
Sending clicks to your homepage
The ad sells the click. The page sells the call. A homepage that talks about everything you do makes someone who searched "2 bedroom apartment movers" hunt for their answer, and most of them won't. Our landing page for Focus Movers in Baltimore turns 27.7% of its visitors into leads, against a 7.5% industry average, because it was built for the searches it receives (case study).
Where to look: Insights and reports, then Landing pages. Every ad group should point to a page that answers that search in the first screen, with a phone number you can tap and a short quote form.
Changing too much, too soon
New campaigns and new bid strategies go through a learning period. Google says it usually takes a few conversion cycles, and that changing a bid strategy's settings or adding and removing keywords can send it back into learning (Google). Owners who change something every day keep their campaign learning forever.
We check every campaign every morning, but we give a new setup about two weeks before judging it. The exception is a clear leak, like a junk search eating the budget. Those get fixed the same day.
Spreading a small budget too thin
$1,500 a month at $8.33 a click buys about 180 clicks. Split that across five cities and four services, and each ad group gets a handful of clicks a month. That's too few to learn anything, and the budget often runs out before lunch.
Where to look: If a campaign says "Limited by budget," your ads stop showing for part of the day. Start with your best city and your best service, give it enough to run all day, and add more once it books jobs.
Fake clicks and fake forms
Bots click ads too. Google automatically removes invalid clicks it catches before your billing cycle ends, and gives you a credit for invalid activity it finds after you were charged. You can also ask Google to investigate activity from the last 60 days through its click quality form (Google).
On your side, put a captcha on your quote forms, so bots can't fill your inbox and confuse your conversion data. We add a captcha and a click fraud tool to every site we run ads to.
The leak after the ad. Everything above protects the click. What happens after it is up to you. A lead that waits an hour for a callback has often already called the next mover. Read speed to lead wins moving jobs.
Build Your Negative Keyword List
Tick what you offer. The list updates and leaves out anything that could block a real customer. Then copy it into Google Ads under Account settings, then Negative keywords. An account level list applies to all eligible search inventory in your campaigns (Google).
Untick what you don't do, and those searches get blocked.
Words in quotes are phrase match, so they block that exact phrase inside a longer search. Single words block any search that contains them.
Two rules this list follows. First, plurals. Google says negative keywords don't match close variants, so you have to add singular and plural versions yourself (Google). That's why you'll see both "job" and "jobs." Second, it never blocks "free" on its own. "Free moving estimate" is one of the best searches a mover can get, so the list blocks "free boxes" and "free movers" instead. Same with "hiring": "movers hiring near me" is a job seeker, but "hiring movers" is a customer.
Treat it as a starting point. Your own search terms report will show you words that are unique to your city. Add them as you find them.
Should You Bid On Your Own Name?
For eBay, the answer was no. When someone searches "eBay," eBay is the first free result anyway. A small mover is in a different spot. Lead sellers, brokers and other movers can bid on your company name, and their ad sits above your free result.
So check before you decide. Search your company name on Google, or look at Auction insights if you already run ads on your name. If nobody else shows an ad on it, you probably don't need to pay for those clicks. If someone does, a small campaign on your own name is usually cheap, because nobody's ad is more relevant to that search than yours.
A 10 Minute Morning Check You Can Copy
We check every campaign we run every morning. This is the short version any owner can do with a coffee.
Yesterday's search terms
Anything that can't become a booked move goes on your negative list today.
Leads against spend
Calls and forms from yesterday, and cost per lead this week against last week. One bad day is noise. A bad week is a signal.
Budget status
Did any campaign run out of budget early, or show "Limited by budget"?
Missed calls
Did any call from an ad go unanswered, and did someone call back?
Once a week, be the customer
Click your own ad from your phone, fill in your own quote form and call your own number. Broken forms and dead numbers don't show up in any report.
If you want the full picture of how we run ads for movers, with our real numbers from two months of one campaign, read Google Ads for moving companies. To plan a budget before you start, use the calculator in how to advertise a moving company.
FAQ
How much should a moving company spend on Google Ads?
Enough for your ads to run all day in one city. At LocaliQ's 2026 home services average of $8.33 per click, $1,500 a month buys about 180 clicks. Start with your best city and service, and grow the budget once it books jobs. The calculator in our how to advertise a moving company guide shows what a budget can turn into with your own numbers.
Why are my Google Ads not getting calls?
The usual causes are searches that were never going to book, ads showing to people outside your area, ads running when nobody answers, clicks sent to a homepage instead of a page built for that search, and conversion tracking that counts the wrong things. Check your search terms report, location options and landing pages first.
What negative keywords should a moving company use?
Start with job searches (jobs, salary, hiring near me), truck rental and do it yourself searches (u haul, truck rental), freebies and how to searches (free boxes, moving checklist), and anything that isn't about moving house (lyrics, moving violation). Then block services you don't offer, like storage or junk removal. Add singular and plural versions, because Google does not match negative keywords to close variants.
Should movers use broad match keywords?
Broad match can work once you have reliable conversion tracking and a strong negative keyword list, because Google uses your conversions to decide which searches to buy. Without those, phrase and exact match keep your spend closer to the searches you meant.
Should a moving company use Performance Max?
Performance Max shows ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign. With a small budget and little conversion history, a Search campaign is easier to control. If you add Performance Max later, use brand exclusions and negative keywords so it does not just buy searches for your own name.
Are Local Services Ads better than Google Search Ads for movers?
Local Services Ads charge per lead instead of per click, so many of these leaks do not apply, but you can be charged for leads you miss and you control less of the message. Many movers run both. We compare the costs in our guide to the best moving lead providers.
Goran is co-founder of Move Accelerator, a marketing agency that works only with moving and junk removal companies. Before marketing, he spent 10 years in customer service, which is why every campaign starts with what the customer actually searched and what they need to see next. He writes about what's working for movers right now, including the parts most agencies keep quiet.
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