The Challenge
Winning the Most Urgent Search in Marketing
Water damage restoration is one of the most urgent and competitive categories in local Google advertising. When a homeowner has water flooding their basement at 2am, they search — and they call the first credible result they see. There is no browsing, no comparison shopping. First position wins the job. Second position doesn't get a call.
Water Fighters serves the entire Phoenix metro and Maricopa County market — competing against national restoration franchises like ServiceMaster, BELFOR, and Restoration 1, all of which have deep ad budgets and established brand recognition. The challenge was building a precision-targeted campaign architecture that could beat them on relevance, not budget.
- Highly competitive market with national franchise competitors dominating paid search
- Emergency demand is 24/7 — campaigns needed to perform evenings, weekends, and overnight
- Two physical locations in Maricopa County requiring separate GBP and geo-targeting strategies
- Multiple service lines (water damage, flood response, sewage cleanup, mold, leaks) each requiring distinct targeting
- Conversion tracking complexity — calls, forms, and direction requests needed to be captured as separate goals
The Strategy
20 Campaigns. One Goal: Be First When It Matters.
Rather than running one broad "water damage" campaign and hoping for the best, Internal Profits built a segmented multi-campaign architecture — each campaign targeting a specific emergency type, geography, or season — with individual ad copy, keywords, and conversion goals optimized per campaign.
Phase 1 — Foundation (Mar 2025)
Core emergency response campaigns launched
24/7 Emergency Response (Phoenix) and 24/7 Emergency Response (Maricopa County) launched as the primary campaigns. Responsive search ads with "Excellent" ad strength ratings. Sitelinks built around 24-7 Flood Response, Request Service, and Sewage Cleanup.
Phase 2 — Expansion (Spring–Summer 2025)
Specialized campaigns by service and geography
Separate campaigns built for Water Damage (General), Leaks Ad, and geographic expansion into Glendale, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Peoria, and Ahwatukee. Each geo campaign uses neighborhood-level targeting to maximize relevance for high-intent local searches.
Phase 3 — Seasonal (July 2025)
Monsoon Season campaign — 17.99% CTR peak
Arizona's monsoon season (July–September) creates a surge in water damage calls. A dedicated July 2025 monsoon campaign captured this seasonal spike — achieving 17.99% CTR, the highest of any campaign in the account, with 1,964 clicks and $5,243 spend. This campaign had the highest single-campaign return in the account.
Phase 4 — Optimization (Late 2025)
Flood & Leaks campaign + Drywall Campaign added
New campaign targeting combined flood and leak emergencies launched September 2025. Drywall repair campaign added to capture post-restoration upsell searches — expanding the service funnel beyond initial emergency response.
Campaign Performance — Full Account
All figures from verified Google Ads account data, Mar 2025 – May 2026. The account ran 20 campaigns total across emergency response, water damage, leaks, flood, sewage, mold, and geographic targeting.
7,160
Total clicks across all campaigns
318
Verified conversions (leads + calls + forms)
$107
Avg. cost per conversion
$3.82
Average CPC (all campaigns)
$27,300
Total ad spend (14 months)
20
Distinct campaigns managed
Top Campaigns by Performance
| Campaign |
Ad Spend |
Clicks |
CTR |
Conversions |
| July 2025 (Monsoon) |
$5,244 |
1,964 |
17.99% 🔥 |
— |
| Water Damage (General) |
$4,088 |
1,388 |
2.55% |
High volume |
| 24/7 Emergency Response (Phoenix) |
$3,940 |
1,019 |
4.23% |
31 direct conversions |
| Leaks Ad |
$3,266 |
328 |
1.96% |
Active |
| 9.19.25 New (Flood & Leaks) |
$2,618 |
50 |
2.05% |
Active |
| 24/7 Emergency (Maricopa Co.) |
$1,094 |
269 |
7.22% |
31 conversions · $35.29 CPL |
| 24/7 Emergency (Glendale) |
$113 |
231 |
15.62% |
16 conversions · $7.04 CPL |
💡
Glendale: $7.04 per conversion
The 24/7 Emergency Response (Glendale) campaign achieved a 15.62% CTR and just $7.04 cost per conversion — the most efficient campaign in the account. A single water damage job in the Phoenix metro typically runs $2,000–$10,000+, making this effectively a 300–1,400× return on ad spend per closed job.
Top Keywords — Search Intent & CTR
The keyword data confirms the targeting is reaching the right people at the right moment — high-urgency, high-intent searches that correlate directly with active emergencies.
restoration contractor
20.98% CTR
[water repair]
25.60% CTR
[water leak repairs near me]
20.10% CTR
"water damage companies near me"
18.40% CTR
"water damage repair"
13.75% CTR
[water damage restoration]
28.13% CTR
🎯
[water damage restoration] — 28.13% CTR
The exact match keyword [water damage restoration] achieved a 28.13% click-through rate — meaning more than 1 in 4 people who saw the ad clicked it. Industry benchmark for emergency services: 4–7%. This level of relevance signals the ad copy and keyword match quality are precisely aligned with active buyer intent.
Conversion Tracking — 3 Goal Groups
The account tracks conversions across three distinct goal groups — capturing every type of customer action that represents a real business opportunity.
143
Group 1: Contacts + directions + page views + phone calls
175
Group 2: Submit lead forms — highest-intent conversions
318
Total verified conversions across all goal groups
Full account
Group 1 includes: 77 contact actions, 31 direction requests, 27 page views, 18 phone call leads. These are real customers who took action — not just clicks.
Google Business Profile — 2 Locations
Alongside Google Ads, Internal Profits manages and optimizes both Water Fighters GBP listings — ensuring the business appears prominently across Google Search and Maps when homeowners are searching urgently, including on mobile while they're actively dealing with an emergency.
📍 Primary Location
2,973
People viewed this Business Profile
Google Search — desktop 1,242 (42%)
Google Search — mobile 1,098 (37%)
Google Maps — desktop 352 (12%)
Google Maps — mobile 281 (9%)
📍 Second Location (Peoria)
1,622
People viewed this Business Profile
Google Search — desktop 637 (39%)
Google Search — mobile 564 (35%)
Google Maps — desktop 247 (15%)
Google Maps — mobile 174 (11%)
4,595
Total GBP profile views across both locations — Dec 2025 – May 2026
Geographic Dominance — Maricopa County
The location targeting data shows Water Fighters is generating conversions across all major Phoenix metro sub-markets — with some neighborhood-level campaigns achieving 100% conversion rates at extremely low costs.
- Dear Valley, Canyon Trails, Estrella Mountain Ranch, Desert Ridge, Paradise Valley Oasis — all showing 100% conversion rates on geo campaigns
- Glendale campaign: 15.62% CTR, $7.04 cost per conversion — single most efficient campaign
- Maricopa County (broad): 31 conversions at $35.29 per conversion, 11.52% conversion rate
- 50-mile radius around Phoenix: 628 interactions, broad brand awareness layer
- Top converting zip codes identified for future budget concentration: 85020, 85065, 85027, 85029, 85032, 85033, 85042
Search Console — Organic Footprint
Alongside the paid campaigns, waterfighters.net has been building organic search authority. Google Search Console shows meaningful position improvements over time.
34,500
Total search impressions (recent period)
17.6
Avg. position (improved from 27.6)
↑ 10 positions gained
An improvement from position 27.6 to 17.6 means Water Fighters moved from the bottom of page 2 to mid-page 2 organically — with continued SEO work, breaking onto page 1 for key water damage terms is the next milestone.
The Competitive Picture
The top search terms in the account reveal who Water Fighters is competing against — and winning against. National brand searches like "superior restoration," "thic restoration," "american water resources," and "rocky mountain restoration" are appearing in the search term reports, meaning Water Fighters' ads are showing up when people search for competitors by name.
- "service master" — competitor search showing WF ads, capturing intent
- "superior restoration" — direct competitor whose searches trigger WF ads
- "water fighters restoration" — brand name searches confirming growing brand recognition
- "phoenix water services", "water damage restoration phoenix" — core geo-targeted terms performing strongly
- "1 800 boardup", "24 7 flood response" — emergency action keywords confirming campaign reach
