How to Set Realistic Restoration Goals for Your Business
A step-by-step guide to building achievable restoration goals for water, fire, and mold restoration contractors.
If you’re trying to grow your restoration business but aren’t sure what kind of revenue goal to set — or how to reverse-engineer that into a lead generation strategy — you’re not alone.
We hear it all the time:
“How many leads do I actually need to hit $1M?”
“Should I be aiming for 30 jobs a month or 300?”
“What should my marketing budget look like to hit those numbers?”
Short answer: You can’t build a profitable plan unless you know your math.
Setting a realistic revenue goal starts with understanding your job value, close rates, and lead sources. In this article, we’ll break down:
Step 1: Know Your Key Conversion Metrics
Before setting revenue targets or launching any ads, you need to understand your numbers. These are the four you can’t skip:
Lead-to-Estimate Rate:
Estimate-to-Close Rate
Average Job Value
Referral / Free Lead Volume
Once you have these numbers, you can calculate exactly how many leads you need to hit your revenue target.
Step 2: Reverse Engineer the Goal
Let’s say your annual revenue goal is $1.5 million.
Here’s how it breaks down with some average numbers:
That means to hit $1.5M, you’ll need:
If your close rates are better or your job values are higher, you’ll need fewer leads — but this is a realistic example for many small to midsize restoration businesses.
Step 3: Audit Where Your Current Leads Come From
Now that you know how many leads you need to hit your revenue goal, let’s break down what you’re currently generating and where the gaps are.
Example Monthly Lead Sources:
Total Leads per Year: 780
If your target is 1,333 leads, you’re still short 553 leads annually. That gap helps you determine how much more budget or effort you’ll need to close it — or where to scale.
Step 4: Price Out the Lead Gap
Once you’ve tallied up your current lead sources, you’ll still need 553 more leads to hit your revenue target.
Assuming an average cost of $300 per lead (from Google LSAs and PPC combined), here’s what that gap looks like in ad spend:
Keep in mind, this is in addition to your current marketing spend. It’s what it will take to fill the gap.
When you know your numbers, you can stop guessing and start planning with confidence. This is how you build a marketing strategy that actually supports your goals.
If that number feels steep, don’t panic. In the next section, we’ll show you how to bridge the gap through strategic tweaks—without having to blow your budget.
Step 5: How Improving Your Metrics Can Cut Your Lead Requirement
Let’s circle back to where this all started—your core conversion metrics. If your budget doesn’t support the number of leads needed to hit your revenue goal, you may not need more leads. You may just need better performance from the leads you already get.
Small Changes Make a Big Difference
Even modest improvements in your lead-to-estimate rate, estimate-to-close rate, or average job value can significantly lower the total number of leads you need each year.
For example, increasing your lead-to-estimate rate by just 10 percent brings your annual lead requirement down from 1,333 to 1,111. That’s over 220 fewer leads needed.
Now, increase your estimate-to-close rate by 10 percent as well. That drops your required leads even further, down to just 926 per year. You’ve eliminated the need for more than 400 leads—saving a significant amount in advertising costs.
Boost Average Job Value
Don’t overlook job size. Increasing your average job value from $4,500 to $5,500 means you can achieve the same revenue with fewer jobs. This also means you’ll need fewer leads overall.
What This Means for You
You reduce your reliance on paid ads and stretch your budget further. But if your conversion rates or job size can’t improve and your budget still falls short, it might be time to re-evaluate your revenue goal.
Setting a more realistic target based on your actual numbers isn’t a step backward—it’s smart planning that sets you up for stronger growth next year.
Step 6: Turn Revenue Goals Into a Marketing Plan
Once you’ve calculated how many leads you need—and how many you’re currently short—you’re ready to build a focused marketing plan.
With your data in place, you can now:
Want to see how to build a plan based on these numbers? Check out our Simple Marketing Plan for Restoration Companies.
Need Help Setting Realistic Restoration Goals?
We’ve helped restoration companies reverse-engineer their revenue targets, calculate the exact number of leads they need, and build marketing plans that actually work.
👉 Schedule a 15-minute discovery call to map out your lead gap and see what’s possible for your business.
No pressure. No fluff. Just real strategy backed by real numbers.
