Vetting a marketing agency for your moving company

Mid-March is the last quiet stretch before a moving company’s phone fills with survey requests for May and June. It is also when agencies call, because the owner finally has an hour and summer is close enough to worry about. Some of those agencies know the trade. Plenty are selling a home services package with the nouns swapped, and a mover tends to find out in June, when an ad missing a required number draws a complaint or a customer’s lookup turns up nothing to check.

These are the questions we would want a mover to put to any agency, including us.

Moving ads carry legal text most trades never print

For most home services, an agency mainly needs to know the ad platforms’ policies. Movers also answer to regulators who write rules about the advertisement itself.

• Interstate moves. Under 49 CFR 375.207, a mover must publish only “truthful, straightforward, and honest advertisements”, and every one must show the company name as it appears on its USDOT registration and the number in one fixed form: “U.S. DOT No.” followed by the assigned number.
• Interstate websites. Under 375.213(e), a mover with a website must prominently display either a link to the FMCSA’s “Ready to Move?” publication or a true and accurate copy of it.
• Texas. Under 43 TAC 218.52, print ads aimed at a local Texas market must show the business name, a Texas street address and the certificate number as “TxDMV No.”, and websites must show the name, the department’s toll-free consumer help line and the number. The name and number also go on both sides of each truck.
• California. Under 16 CCR 2972, a household mover must include its name and Bureau-issued permit number in all forms of advertising, solicitation or other presentments.
• Brokers. Under 49 CFR 371.107, a household goods broker must state in its ads and on its website that it will not transport the customer’s goods.

An agency that has written ads for movers should be able to name these without searching. One that has not will write an ad that reads well and breaks a rule.

Questions that show whether an agency knows movers

• “Where will my USDOT or state number appear?” A good answer covers every ad, the site footer, the Business Profile and the trucks in your photos, each in the exact form the rule sets. The ATA Moving & Storage Conference’s website checklist suggests putting the name and “U.S. DOT No.” in the footer.
• “Will my site read like a carrier’s or a broker’s?” If you own trucks and employ crews, the site should prove it: the yard, the trucks with your name on the doors, the people who do the lifting. A quote form with no address and no fleet looks like a broker, and since federal rules bar a broker from presenting itself as a carrier, the resemblance costs a real carrier trust.
• “Which towns will my Business Profile cover?” Google’s guidelines say a service-area business cannot list a virtual office unless it is staffed during business hours. An agency offering a profile in every suburb you would like to serve is offering you a suspension.
• “How will you get reviews, and how recent will they be?” BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, published last month, found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 47% will not use a business with fewer than 20, and 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months. For a mover with a slow winter, that last figure means asking every customer every month, January included.
• “What will you do with Local Services Ads?” Movers have a Moving services category, and since October 2025 the ads carry one badge, Google Verified. Google checks liability insurance and any state license the law requires, needs a verified Business Profile, and says screening averages three to four weeks once documents are submitted. An agency promising live ads next week has not been through it.

What the first ninety days should look like for a mover

In most trades we start with getting found. For movers we start with getting chosen. A customer who has read a scam warning checks you before calling, and an ad that sends them to a page with no numbers pays for a lookup that ends at a competitor. A plan we would put our name to runs like this:

• The first two weeks: the numbers. Every ad, page, listing and truck photo checked for the USDOT, TxDMV or California permit number your work requires, and the Ready to Move link added if you cross state lines.
• Through week six: the proof. A page that explains how you survey and which estimate types you offer, a review request after every move, a reply to every review, and photos of your own crews and trucks.
• Through week nine: getting found. A Business Profile on the base your crews leave from, a Local Services Ads application, and search campaigns for local and route terms, with the budget weighted toward the summer months.
• Through week thirteen: tracking and referrals. Calls tagged by source and followed through to booked moves, and a referral routine with real estate agents and property managers.

Started this week, the first two stages land before the May dates fill. Started in June, the same plan mostly helps next year.

What a monthly report should show a mover

A report worth reading follows each request from first call to booked move.

• Calls answered and missed, by time of day. CallRail’s analysis of 1.1 million leads, released in January 2025, put the missed-call rate for home services at 14%. Movers miss calls when the crew is out and the office is short.
• Surveys booked and estimates sent, by source. Leads alone flatter every channel.
• Booked moves by source, with local and interstate kept apart. They come from different searches, and only carriers with federal authority can take the second kind.
• Cost per booked move. No benchmark publisher reports a moving category. The nearest is Storage, where LocaliQ’s 2025 home services benchmarks, covering April 2024 to March 2025, put the median cost per search lead at $120.30, against $90.92 for home services overall. An agency that reports leads without booked moves is skipping the number that pays for diesel.

What to do this month

• Read every ad, flyer, profile and web page from last season for the numbers your authority requires, in the required form.
• If Local Services Ads are in the plan, apply now so screening is done before May.
• Ask each agency you meet for a sample report showing booked moves by source, not only leads.
• Write down the towns your crews can actually reach from your yard, and hold every proposal to that list.
• Ask this winter’s customers for reviews this week, while the move is fresh.

An agency worth a second meeting will talk about your numbers, your trucks and your surveys before it talks about clicks. Our page for moving companies shows the order we work in, our website work covers the pages and disclosures, and our Google Ads and Local Services Ads work covers the paid side.