This guide is for a roofing company that wants a steadier flow of replacement and repair inquiries without buying every lead on offer. A replacement runs $9k to $25k, so one closed job pays for a month of marketing. That is why roofing agencies price higher than general home services shops and sell paid social and storm response. Cheap lead volume is a poor fit for this trade.
Expect a typical retainer of $2,000 to $6,000 a month, with ad spend on top. Marketplaces charge per lead whether or not you win the job. The steps below run in the order that usually pays back fastest.
Run storm-season paid social before you invest in SEO
Storm season sets the roofing calendar: hail in spring, hurricanes in late summer, then a rush before winter. Facebook and Instagram ads can be switched on the week a storm hits and switched off when the phones go quiet, which is why many roofing shops lean on them ahead of Google. SEO takes months to show results and ignores the weather. Contractor Dynamics in Asbury Park trains roofers to run Facebook and Instagram ads themselves, priced on quote. The drawback is that paid social leads are softer than search leads. A homeowner who tapped an ad after a hailstorm needs more follow-up calls than one who typed “roof replacement near me”. Budget for the extra phone time.
Turn on Local Services Ads and pass the insurance check
Local Services Ads cover roofers in the US. You pay per lead and the listing appears above the regular search results. Google checks background and insurance before it shows the Guaranteed badge. Roofing licensing varies by state and several states need only registration, so the insurance check is what keeps unverified storm chasers from appearing beside you. Hook Agency in Minneapolis manages LSA alongside PPC and SEO, with PPC from about $2,000 a month and SEO quoted at $2,000 to $4,800 a month; it targets roofers at roughly $1M to $10M in revenue. One drawback: Hook publishes listicles that rank itself, so read its comparisons as marketing. LSA leads also thin out when competitors raise bids in peak season.
Test one lead marketplace at a time and track cost per sold job
Angi, Thumbtack and Modernize sell roofing leads per lead. Angi charges per lead whether or not you win, with ads as an extra. Thumbtack offers a free listing with lead fees that vary by location and job. Modernize sells exclusive and shared home improvement leads. BuildZoom takes a 2.5% referral fee on hired jobs only, which is the lowest-risk model on the list for a company that closes well. Run one marketplace for 60 days, log every lead against the job it became, and work out cost per sold job before adding a second. The drawback of marketplaces is shared leads: the same homeowner is often sold to several roofers, and the first to call usually wins.
Hire an agency on a month-to-month contract with lead attribution
Once paid social and LSA are producing, an agency can take over SEO, the website and paid search. Blue Corona in Gaithersburg starts around $2,500 a month, focuses on analytics and lead attribution, integrates with ServiceTitan, and is reported by clients to have no long-term contracts. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency in Arlington is a generalist with home services verticals and works month to month, priced on quote. Scorpion starts around $5,000 a month with a 12-month commitment, which suits a larger shop. Ask every agency how it will prove which leads it generated. The drawback of a retainer is that $2,000 to $6,000 a month is a fixed cost in a seasonal trade. Negotiate a lower winter rate or a pause clause before you sign.
Put call tracking on every channel before you spend more
A roofing lead is almost always a phone call. Without call tracking you cannot tell whether the call came from the LSA listing, the Facebook ad or the yard sign. CallRail is the market leader in home services call tracking, runs on a monthly subscription, and integrates with ServiceTitan and HubSpot. Assign a tracking number to each channel, record calls, and review a sample each week for missed calls and slow answers. The drawback is that tracking numbers can damage your Google Business Profile if they are set up wrong. Use the number swap script on the website and keep your main number on the profile.
The full list of agencies and tools for this is at roofers: get more leads.