Restoration marketing is discussed almost entirely in anecdote. These are the figures worth planning against, with sources, so you can check them rather than take our word for it. Where sources disagree we have said so instead of picking the flattering number.
Lead economics
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Paid search cost per click, water damage | $40 to $85 typical; $100 to $200+ in competitive metros. "Water damage restoration Dallas" reported at $250.79 |
| Local Services Ads cost per lead | Average around $156, median around $176, typical range $83 to $390 |
| LSA cost per lead by metro | Cleveland around $78, Denver around $110, Los Angeles around $240 |
| Freeze-event surge | Cost per lead rises to $300 to $500 and above |
| Conversion rate, LSA against paid search | Around 31% against around 12% |
| Exclusive pay-per-lead | $400 to $750+, up to $2,250 for premium water damage calls |
| Shared pay-per-lead | $200 to $350 |
Job and claim values
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Water damage mitigation, residential | $3,000 to $12,000; commonly around $3,900 for mitigation only |
| Fire damage with reconstruction | Around $27,000; under $1,800 for soot and smoke cleanup only |
| Mold remediation | Around $2,250 to $2,400 typical; $10,000 to $30,000 whole-house |
| Average water and freezing insurance claim | $15,400 (2019 to 2023), up from $13,954 (2018 to 2022) |
| Average NFIP flood claim | Around $52,000 |
| Average fire claim | $88,000+ |
| Water and freezing share of all homeowners claims | 22.6% (2023), down from 27.6% (2022) |
An average water claim of $11,098 appears widely on marketing blogs, often misattributed to NAIC. It is out of date. The Insurance Information Institute reports $13,954 for 2018 to 2022 and $15,400 for 2019 to 2023. If a vendor's deck quotes $11,098, their benchmarks are several years old.
Budget
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Effective monthly digital budget, competitive metro | $15,000 minimum |
| Effective monthly digital budget, smaller markets | $5,000 to $10,000 |
| Industry guidance, marketing as share of revenue | 3% to 9% |
The threshold that governs channel choice
If cost per acquisition exceeds roughly 20 percent of average job value at a realistic close rate, paid acquisition is too expensive for that market, and the answer is local search, Business Profile work and capture rather than more spend.
Worked example: a $3,500 job at a 30 percent close rate with a $200 cost per lead produces a $667 cost per acquisition, about 19 percent. Right at the line.
Market size
| Measure | Figure | Source basis |
|---|---|---|
| US damage restoration businesses | 62,582 (2025), growing around 4.3% per year | IBISWorld business count |
| With a Google Business Profile | Around 29,100 across roughly 1,900 US cities | Business Profile census analysis |
| With an actual website | Around 16,000 | Same analysis |
| IICRC Certified Firms | Around 6,000 to 6,500 worldwide | IICRC |
| RIA member firms | Around 1,100 worldwide | Restoration Industry Association |
| Franchised US locations, all systems | Roughly 4,500 to 5,000 | FDD Item 20 filings |
Two things fall out of that. Franchised locations are only 8 to 10 percent of the businesses in this industry, so the independent operator is the typical case rather than the exception. And roughly half the companies in the market have no website at all, which tells you how low the real bar for visibility is in most territories.
Response speed
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Lead qualification odds, 5 minutes against 30 | Around 21 times more likely |
| US water damage emergencies per day | Around 14,000 |
Franchise systems: what is left for local marketing
If you are a franchisee, royalty and national ad fund contributions are committed before any local decision gets made. What remains is what an agency can actually be paid out of, and it varies more than most owners realise.
| System | Royalty | Ad fund | Local advertising mandate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restoration 1 | 7% | Currently $0, reservable to 2% | Currently $0, reservable to 2% |
| SERVPRO | 3 to 10% tiered plus fixed fee | Up to 3% | None stated |
| ServiceMaster Restore | Around 7 to 10% tiered | Around 1% of gross, minimum $20 | None stated |
| Rainbow Restoration | 3 to 8% tiered | 2% MAP | Local marketing groups up to 3% |
| PuroClean | 3 to 10% tiered, minimum $400 to $2,500/mo | 2% national | 2% local minimum |
| Paul Davis | 4% | 3% | None stated. Corporate manages SEO, website and social centrally |
National brand fund money is off-limits to an outside agency in every one of these systems. Local paid search, Local Services Ads and site work is normally the franchisee's own discretionary spend, subject to brand compliance. PuroClean's 2 percent local minimum is the outlier worth knowing about: it is budget that has to be spent locally either way.
How to use these
Benchmarks are for sanity-checking, not for target-setting. Your market, average job value and close rate move every figure here by more than the difference between two agencies. The 20 percent rule is the one to actually run, because it is the only calculation on this page that uses your numbers rather than somebody else's.
Business count: IBISWorld, 2025. Claim values: Insurance Information Institute. Certification and membership counts: IICRC and the Restoration Industry Association. Franchise royalty, ad fund and local advertising figures: system Franchise Disclosure Documents. Lead response odds: MIT / InsideSales.com Lead Response Management Study. Cost per lead, cost per click and budget ranges: industry benchmarks compiled from published agency and platform data. Figures are planning benchmarks, not a projection of results for any particular business.