Word-of-Mouth Won’t Save Your Moving Company. Here’s How to Actually Streamline Leads [Research & Industry Insider Tips]

Word-of-mouth has always been the secret sauce for moving companies — there’s nothing like a happy customer telling a pal about your reliable trucks and careful crews. It works… until it doesn’t. One month, your phone is ringing off the hook, the next, crickets. Referrals alone can’t guarantee steady growth, no matter how many five-star reviews you rack up.

As always, diversification is key, and marketing is how you make it happen. We’ve collected real client experiences and service expert insights, so you know exactly how to expand your lead sources with flying colors. 

TL; DR: No plug-and-play solution, just clear steps you can follow.

1. Who Are We Anyway to Talk About It?
2. Chasing the Oasis: The Moving Industry Lead Generation Reality
3. A Look Into the Future
4. A Multichannel Marketing Is Your Darling
5. Let’s Look Up to the Greats
6. Mover Marketing Playbook: Netpeak US Observations from the Field
7. How Our Clients Managed to Rise Against the Market Odds
8. Final Takeaway: There Is No One-Size-Fits-All
9. FAQ: Common Myths That Keep Movers Stuck

Who Are We Anyway to Talk About It? 

At Netpeak US, we help service‑oriented businesses scale predictably with digital marketing — not just get traffic spikes. We’re a full‑cycle, data‑driven marketing agency with 20+ years of real‑world experience, having completed over 8,500 projects across industries and business sizes. From small local teams to global brands, we’ve built strategies that actually drive leads and revenue rather than boost vanity metrics. To talk numbers:

• Our Chicago-based client H2H Movers saw a 135% rise in paid conversions and a 136% boost in site visits from Instagram thanks to a multichannel marketing strategy. 
• We helped Meest US boost their market share 0.5% to 1% in non-branded traffic.

Chasing the Oasis: The Moving Industry Lead Generation Reality

Finding leads in the moving industry is a bit like fishing in the ocean — some days the net comes up full, other days you’re staring at empty water wondering where all the fish went. One thing both you and I know: the moving business is a rat race like no other, where hands-on experience is key to avoiding rookie mistakes.

Moving Is Not Like Other Home Services At All 

Movers aren’t solving a daily inconvenience; they’re entrusted with someone’s entire household. Unlike HVAC repairs or plumbing jobs, a relocation is a high‑stakes, infrequent, life‑event decision that usually involves multiple quotes, deep research, and emotionally charged planning. 

About 95% of consumers research multiple moving companies before hiring, and 70% request at least three quotes. Hence, it’s a comparison‑driven purchase journey that requires a tailored marketing approach to win attention

Word-of-Mouth Gets the Ball to Roll 

For movers, word-of-mouth is gold. Relocating is stressful, and clients want proof you’re reliable. That’s why 20-40% of leads for service businesses still come from referrals.

A happy customer isn’t just a completed job — they’re a walking billboard for your business. Every positive review, every casual mention to a friend, and every social media shout-out can bring in a new lead without you spending a dime. That’s the magic of word-of-mouth: it’s authentic, trust-driven, and often converts better than any ad campaign.

Clients Don’t Move Often 

Unlike plumbers, roofers, or cleaners, your typical moving client only hires a moving company a few times in their life — if that. According to the US Census Bureau, the average American moves about 11.7 times over their lifetime. That may sound like a lot at first glance, but spread across decades, it means relocations are infrequent, high-stakes events, not routine service calls.

That changes everything about lead generation. Every inquiry carries higher value. Every missed call is a bigger loss. And every marketing touchpoint has to work harder. 

All Depends on Seasonal Dynamics 

Moving isn’t a year-round grind but rather a summer sport. Nearly half of all US relocations happen between May and August, with June consistently ranking as the busiest month of the year. To win, you need campaigns that ramp up when prospects are active, scale back during the slow months, and nurture leads long before they’re ready to book.

User Intent Types Are Varied & Mixed 

Not all leads are created equal, especially in moving. Some are all-in, Googling “full-service movers near me” with a credit card in hand, while others are just window-shopping, comparing prices, reading reviews, or daydreaming about that perfect move… six months from now.

The trick? You’ve got to catch the ready-to-book folks fast while also keeping the browsers warm with follow-ups, content, and smart remarketing.

Treating every lead the same is like packing boxes without labels — good luck finding what you need when it counts.

A Look Into the Future

The hard truth? Most small businesses don’t just sit around and grow — they fight to stay alive. Without a systematic way to attract and convert leads, companies risk fading out as soon as they hit their first slow season or a bump in competition. Numbers speak for themselves: 

• 20% of small businesses don’t survive their first year.

• About 45% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years.

• A formal marketing strategy increases your chance of success by about 30%.

• Up to 14% of small businesses fail specifically because of poor marketing or ignoring customers.

A Multichannel Marketing Is Your Darling 

Good news: there’s no need to panic — you can build a strategy that helps you thrive against the odds.

Most moving companies lean too heavily on word-of-mouth and seriously underestimate marketing as a way to build a stable, predictable flow of leads. Sure, referrals are great — but they’re sporadic, unpredictable, and not enough to keep your trucks full year-round.

Marketing, on the other hand, can move the needle, but only when it works as a system. Paid search, social campaigns, SEO, email nurturing, and even reviews all play together in different combinations depending on the unique circumstances of your business. Alone, each channel can help a little; together, they create a steady, scalable engine that keeps your pipeline humming no matter the season.

Let’s Look Up to the Greats 

The first step to beating the competition? Figure out how the top players secure their positions.

No stress — we did the heavy lifting for you. Netpeak US used Ahrefs to identify 10 competitors capturing the largest traffic share of high-volume moving industry keywords (analyzing data from October 2025 to January 2026). Then we audited their websites, dissected their social presence, reviewed their paid ads, and broke down their retention marketing tactics.

Turns out, every moving business uses its own mix of digital channels based on its audience, budget, and goals. However, one rule remains constant: effective advertising is always multi-channel. 

Our research shows that most companies' strategies are similar: a website, landing pages, local SEO, and social media marketing. In addition, companies choose other custom channels that work for them to stand out. 

Of course, every company has its own strong suit that helps to stand out in a crowded market:

• Two Men and a Truck and College HUNKS Hauling Junk dominate a Google Local Pack and have successful social media strategies 

• United Van Lines is often at the top of the Google search first page 

• Atlas Van Lines has a powerful Google Ads campaign and shows up for a bunch of queries 

• College HUNKS Hauling Junk and U-Haul’s Moving Help have affiliate programs, and WellKnow Moving has an influencer partnership program

Why Can't All Moving Strategies Be Built The Same?

While there are some common patterns, you won’t find a single formula shared by all the top players in the US moving industry. Why? Because different stages of business maturity demand different solutions.

First, when a business is just starting out and budgets are tight, most companies naturally go to the channels where they can capture “hot” demand. Usually, that’s search advertising. PPC is a great entry point into digital marketing — you launch search campaigns, capture high-intent users, convert them, and start generating orders.

There are clear pros and cons here. The upside? It gives you an initial boost and those first steady bookings. But there’s a cost ceiling. High-intent audiences are more expensive by default, and competition is fierce because everyone wants the same “ready-to-buy” customers. In the long run, if you rely only on hot leads, you have to be prepared to continuously invest more and more.

A company fighting for visibility won’t use the same mix as one protecting a dominant position. Early-stage movers often lean heavily on paid acquisition to generate quick demand. Mid-sized players start investing in SEO and brand-building to lower dependency on ads. Market leaders? They double down on retention, reputation, and omnichannel presence to defend their turf.

That’s the real takeaway: growth isn’t random. It’s structured. And the smartest companies adjust their marketing mix as they scale—shifting from chasing leads to owning the market.

Mover Marketing Playbook: Netpeak US Observations from the Field 

Theory is all good, but what about practice? We’ve worked with moving companies at different stages of maturity, each facing its own growth challenges. Let’s overview three of them:

Prime Stage = Full-Funnel Confidence

• Long-term PPC + ongoing SMM + a sustained SEO run.

• This client isn’t experimenting — they’re optimizing.

• Short-term demand (PPC) + brand visibility (SMM) + organic scalability (SEO).

• Mature businesses think in systems, not single channels.

Adolescence Stage = Visibility First

• Heavy focus on SEO and SMM. No PPC.

•  Building presence before aggressively buying demand.

• Investing in foundation: traffic, awareness, credibility.

• Still shaping predictable acquisition mechanics.

Courtship Stage = Testing Mode

• Short bursts across PPC, SMM, and minimal SEO.

• Trying everything. Committing to nothing (yet).

• Budget-sensitive. Learning what sticks.

• Searching for traction and repeatability.

AI Is An Elephant in the Room 

Multichannel marketing just got a whole lot more critical since AI rewrote the rules. Our clients — and everyone in the moving market — are feeling the squeeze: sustaining lead generation in the zero-click era is no walk in the park. 

Blog articles that once generated high CTRs and motivated inquiries now deliver fewer clicks because users increasingly get answers directly in the search results.

The takeaway? Best practice is no longer just “Google-first.” Movers need to optimize for LLMs, adapt existing strategies to the new reality, retire what’s no longer working, and rethink how content is created — focusing on formats and approaches that actually drive engagement and lead capture in the AI era.

For moving companies, AI has turned brand visibility into a make-or-break factor. When potential clients check for movers, AI-powered overviews, snippets, and review aggregators often appear before your website even does. If you’re not showing up there, all your PPC, SEO, and social efforts risk being invisible. That’s why savvy movers layer their funnels, combining ads, organic content, reviews, and retargeting, so that no matter how someone searches or browses, your brand stays front and center.

How Our Clients Managed to Rise Against the Market Odds

H2H Movers 

A Brief Description: A US-based moving company specializing in residential and commercial relocations, offering end-to-end moving solutions, packing services, and storage options.

Marketing Overhaul in Action

In spite of 13 years of experience on the market, H2H Movers' marketing was minimal till 2023. The budget was being poured into all sorts of lead sources — AngelList, Yelp, and a variety of US lead providers, and every day, one of them was pitching leads of questionable quality. You could buy a lead, but whether it converted depended entirely on chance. SEO, SMM, and Google campaigns existed, but nothing was systematic. Referral programs were small-scale and inconsistent.

• Analysis changed everything. Channel budgets were misallocated: underperforming sources drained funds while high-converting channels were underfunded. A full marketing overhaul became necessary.

• Growth came from service quality. Excellent execution turned clients into repeat customers and referrals. Today, H2H Movers maintains a 4.9 Google Review rating, with roughly 40% of clients returning or referring others — above the industry benchmark.

Systematic Marketing, Backed by Netpeak US

Working with Netpeak US, H2H Movers began running multiple channels more systematically and intensively. That brought its own challenges. 

Find a Sweet Spot

H2H Movers had to identify which channels actually delivered the highest revenue and conversions. They have tested different combinations, adjusting budgets based on performance correlations: when a channel showed positive ROI, we scaled it; when the correlation disappeared, we reallocated resources elsewhere.

Keep a Safety Net

The goal was always a diversified, multi-channel approach. Putting all your eggs in one basket — like relying solely on PPC — is risky. If that channel underperforms or fails, your lead pipeline collapses. Diversification is what keeps it stable.

It’s not just Google Ads. In the US moving market, a typical mix looks like 60–80% from Google (Ads, SEO, and Google Warranty), with the rest coming from Meta, Instagram, TikTok, and sometimes Reddit. Different channels perform differently depending on state, audience, or market segment, so continuous testing and adjustment are crucial. Even underperforming channels aren’t abandoned — a minimal budget (around $500) keeps them alive as a safety net for when they might rebound.

The Secret Sauce: Max Out Your Potential With Different Channels 

Meest US 

A Brief Description: The US wing of the Ukrainian logistics enterprise. Specializes in international parcel delivery, cross-border fulfillment, and tailored shipping solutions for both individuals and businesses.

A Peculiar Word-of-Mouth Approach 

Our client, Meest US, came to Netpeak US with a unique challenge: help a behemoth of Ukrainian delivery services to expand into the US market as a relatively small player.

Meest US is part of one of Ukraine’s Global Logistics Group/Meest Logistics Group, with decades of experience delivering parcels across Europe and beyond. While the brand is a household name both back home and within the Ukrainian diaspora in the US, it started from scratch with mainstream American customers — no recognition, no local reputation, and a fraction of the resources of established competitors. Their goal was ambitious: build visibility, attract new customers, and compete with entrenched players in a highly competitive market, all while scaling smartly and efficiently.

• Meest US have started building recognition on the ground with good ol’ word-of-mouth. A big part of the community they tapped into 30 years ago was the network of Ukrainian churches in the US. When the company launched, the founder and his partners went door-to-door — or rather, pew-to-pew — explaining their mission: “If you want to help your family or friends back home, we can deliver your packages.”

• These churches became collection hubs. People would drop off boxes, used clothing, food, and other supplies, which Meest US then picked up and shipped directly to Ukraine. It was a grassroots approach that built trust, awareness, and early traction in the community — long before any paid marketing campaigns were even launched.

Market Differences Crash Course

Once Meest USA decided to expand their services, the real marketing challenges began. Launching a Ukrainian enterprise into a completely unfamiliar and massive market brought several unique hurdles.

• Sheer Geography. The US is enormous, and reaching your audience across such vast territories takes serious resources. With budgets far smaller than global players like DHL or FedEx, Meest US had to get hyper-targeted — drilling down by ZIP code, state, and even specific neighborhoods — to reach the exact audience most likely to use their services.

• Competition Is Intense. For the same logistics routes, there are 5 major global brands, 10 other Ukrainian carriers, and dozens of ethnically focused delivery companies. And when they expand beyond the US–Ukraine corridor to over 170 countries, that pool multiplies: dozens of local carriers in Poland, Romania, and other European countries are already serving those clients.

• Audience Diversity. The immigrant population is large and segmented, with distinct languages, cultural norms, and preferences. Messaging had to be precise, localized, and culturally relevant to capture attention and convert leads.

• Trust Is a Barrier. Smaller or newer companies face skepticism, especially in a market flooded with scams. Unlike Ukraine, where a stable 30-year company naturally earns credibility, Meest US had to prove reliability from scratch. 

Pivoting With Digital Marketing  

Launching a Mobile App

Meest US went beyond traditional channels like social media, Google Ads, and YouTube Ads by launching a mobile application. Netpeak US helped the team set it up from scratch, optimize it, and promote it, turning the app into a lead-generation and engagement tool right from day one.

Engaging the Ukrainian Diaspora

Meest USA has also implemented various initiatives targeting the Ukrainian diaspora in the US, which have proven highly effective:

• Meta Ads reached local audiences with precision.

• Facebook groups acted as grassroots marketing hubs — active communities where posts spread like word-of-mouth.

• Local bloggers helped build credibility and reach.

Reaching New Audiences

For Americans unfamiliar with Meest US, SEO, Google Ads, and Meta Ads were crucial to build brand awareness and drive first-time conversions. These channels allowed Meest US to expand beyond its niche diaspora audience and reach broader US markets.

B2B Lead Generation

For their fulfillment services, lead-gen platforms acted as catalog-style directories, providing a steady stream of qualified leads. This approach supplemented traditional marketing and ensured consistent visibility in highly competitive segments.

The Secret Sauce: Tactical Scheduling 

Final Takeaway: There Is No One-Size-Fits-All 

In the moving industry, chasing a single magic channel is a dead end. Sustainable lead generation works as a system — a mix of performance marketing, retention tactics, brand visibility, and seasonal timing. The companies that thrive aren’t the ones hoping for a lucky break; they’re the ones building a repeatable, adaptable engine for leads that keeps them busy year-round.

Don’t Wait — Get Results

FAQ: Common Myths That Keep Movers Stuck

Marketing is too expensive for small movers

Smart, targeted campaigns can fit any budget and pay for themselves if executed correctly.

Google Ads is all you need 

Using a single channel is risky; diversification keeps your lead pipeline stable.

Aggregators will solve our lead problem

They can help, but relying solely on them leaves you vulnerable to rising costs and limited control.

Don’t invest in SEO, it’s too slow

SEO builds a cost-effective, long-term traffic engine that pays off for years.

All leads are built the same 

Different customers behave differently; your approach must match their intent.

A one-time marketing investment is enough 

Lead generation is ongoing — a single push won’t keep your calendar full.