Lead generation for roofers: which channels book jobs

The week after a big blow, you are a genius. The phone rings on its own. The bought leads close. The ad you forgot was running books three roofs before lunch. Then it is February, the same money buys nothing, and you wonder what you did wrong. Nothing. Lead generation for roofers is two different jobs, one for the storm week and one for the other forty-eight, and the channels that book roofs in February are the ones you built before it: photos of your work on the map, pages on your own site, and a few neighbourhoods that already know your truck.

A storm makes everyone look good

When there is water coming through ceilings across the whole city, every channel works. The lead company's leads close because the homeowner is calling four roofers and taking the first one who shows up. The ads look cheap because everyone is searching. You renew everything in November, feeling great.

Then the quiet months. The same lead company sends you names who wanted a quote in October and hired someone in November. The same ads bring people pricing a roof for "sometime next summer." Nothing changed but the weather, and you are paying storm-week prices for February leads.

Judge every channel by what it books in a quiet month. The storm weeks take care of themselves.

The lead company sold the same homeowner to three of you

A lead company runs the ads, collects a homeowner's name and number, and sells that one inquiry to you and two or three other roofers at the same time. You pay whether or not you get the roof. The roofer who calls back first usually gets it. You bought a spot in a line. In a storm week the line is short enough that it feels like it worked.

The money went to run ads that could have had your name on them. If you buy leads at all, spend only what you would be fine losing for a month while you measure it, and measure it in February.

A homeowner buys a roof with his eyes

He is not reading your website. He searched "roof repair" and the town, the map came up, and he is looking at three listings on his phone. Yours has a logo and a phone number. The one below it has forty photos of finished roofs, taken from the street, with the sky behind them. He taps that one. He has not read a single word.

If your company does not show on the map at all, this is usually why. Photograph every finished roof from the curb before the crew pulls out. Then make asking for a review the last thing you do in the driveway, while the homeowner is standing there looking up at it. Two habits, every job. That is what February runs on.

Nobody with a leak types "roofer"

The homeowner with a stain spreading across the ceiling types "roof leak repair" and the town. The one whose roof is twenty-two years old types "roof replacement cost." The one who heard something flap all night types "missing shingles after storm." A page on your own website for each of those searches, in those words, with your photos and your number at the top, catches them without a click fee and keeps catching them every year.

The same rule runs your Google Ads. Pay for the specific job, "roof leak repair" or "shingle replacement" plus the town, not the word roofer, which is expensive and brings everyone including the guy looking for a roofing job. Where Google offers Local Services Ads for roofing in your area, the ones with the green checkmark above the map, turn them on; you pay per lead and Google only shows you for your trade. What a click runs, and what a booked roof should be worth against it, is in how much a Google Ads click costs in Halifax. Try it small first; ten dollars a day is enough to learn whether a search books roofs.

The streets where they already know your truck

Most of the roofs you will do next year belong to people who are not searching yet. The roof is old. They know it. They are putting it off and scrolling.

Facebook and Instagram ads put you in that feed for pennies at a time, a few neighbourhoods at a time. Start with the streets where you just finished a roof, because the neighbours have been watching your truck for a week. You on video on the finished roof. The before and after from the curb. The rotten plywood you found under the old shingles. Over the winter the people on those streets come to know your name, and in spring they call you instead of searching. When the next storm hits, those streets already trust you, and the ad you have been running for pennies suddenly books roofs.

It is the cheapest thing on this page and the one that fills February. The catch is that someone has to get on camera and someone has to keep it current. Not every day.

You are on a roof. The phone is in the truck.

Every one of those channels ends with a homeowner calling, and you are forty feet up with a nail gun. By the time you climb down, he has called two other roofers and one of them picked up.

The fix is a text that goes back within a minute of every missed call, saying you are on a roof, when you will call, and how to book a look. That is work nobody can do from a ladder, and an AI employee does it without being asked, every call, including the Saturday ones. Then quote the same day you look at it.

Measure it in February

Pick the one channel most likely to book a roof this month. Run it for a month, a quiet one if you can, and write down what each booked roof cost you. Once it is working, add the next.

If you want someone to work out which one first, or to set up the text back and the ads so they run while you are up a ladder, book a call. Twenty minutes. Bring last year's jobs, month by month, and whatever you are paying for now. If it is already set up right I will tell you so.

Frequently asked questions

How do roofers get leads without buying them?

Roofers get leads without buying them from three places they own: a Google Maps listing with photos of finished roofs and recent reviews, pages on their own website for each kind of roofing job and each town, and Facebook and Instagram ads in the neighbourhoods where they have just finished work. Those book roofs in quiet months as well as storm weeks. Local Services Ads and Google Ads on specific searches like "roof leak repair" add to them when a homeowner has a problem today.

Are shared roofing leads worth the money?

Shared roofing leads are worth the money only if the roofer can call back within minutes and measures what each booked roof cost in a quiet month, not a storm week. A shared lead is one homeowner's inquiry sold to several roofers at once, so the fee buys a race to the callback. In a storm week the race is short and the leads look good. In February the same money usually produces quotes that go nowhere.

How much should a roofing company spend on ads each month?

A roofing company should spend enough for one channel to book roofs for a month, and nothing more until it knows what each booked roof cost. The number has to be judged against a quiet month, because a storm month makes any budget look right. Once one channel is measured, the company decides whether to add budget or add a second channel.

What do I do about leads while I am on a roof?

Set up a text that goes out within a minute of every missed call, saying you are on a roof, when you will call back, and how to book a look. An AI employee can send that text and follow up with anyone who does not reply. The homeowner who gets the text waits for you. The one who gets voicemail calls the next roofer.

Which is better for a roofer, Google Ads or the map listing?

The map listing comes first for a roofer, because every homeowner checks it before calling and it costs nothing but photos and reviews. Google Ads and Local Services Ads on specific jobs add to it, especially in storm weeks when everyone is searching. Ads pointed at a map listing with no photos pay to send homeowners to the next roofer.