Google Ads for Roofers: Stop Wasting Money and Start Getting Calls

Most Roofing Companies Are Wasting Half Their Google Ads Budget

We manage over 40 Google Ads accounts for contractors. When new clients come to us, the first thing we do is audit their existing campaigns. The pattern is always the same:

• Bidding on broad keywords that attract tire-kickers, not buyers
• No negative keywords — paying for clicks from people searching "roofing jobs" or "DIY roof repair"
• Landing pages that say "Contact us" instead of giving the visitor what they want
• No conversion tracking — literally no idea which ads generate actual calls
• Running the same campaigns for 6+ months with zero optimization

The result? They're spending $2,000-5,000/month and can't tell you how many jobs it generated. That's not marketing — that's gambling.

This guide covers what actually works — based on real data from 40+ contractor accounts we manage daily.

The 3 Campaign Types That Work for Roofers

1. Search Campaigns (Your Bread and Butter)

Search ads appear when someone types a specific query into Google. For roofers, the money keywords are:

High-intent keywords (bid aggressively):

• "roof repair near me"
• "roofing company [city]"
• "roof replacement cost"
• "emergency roof repair"
• "roof inspection [city]"

Avoid these (waste of money):

• "roofing" (too broad)
• "roof" (too broad)
• "roofing jobs" (job seekers, not customers)
• "DIY roof repair" (they're not hiring you)
• "roofing materials" (shopping, not hiring)

2. Local Services Ads (LSAs)

LSAs appear at the very top of Google — above regular search ads. They show your business name, reviews, and a "Google Guaranteed" badge.

Why they work for roofers:

• You pay per lead, not per click
• Cost is typically $25-50 per lead (vs $15-40 per click for search ads)
• The "Google Guaranteed" badge builds instant trust
• They dominate mobile search results

Our data: Across our roofing clients, LSAs consistently produce the lowest cost per lead — often 40-60% cheaper than search campaigns.

3. Performance Max (Use With Caution)

Performance Max campaigns run across Google Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps simultaneously. Google's AI decides where to show your ads.

The truth about PMax for roofers:

• Works well when you have strong creative assets (photos, videos)
• Can waste budget on Display and YouTube if not monitored
• Best used as a supplement to Search and LSAs, not a replacement
• Requires at least $1,000/month budget to generate meaningful data

The Negative Keyword List Every Roofer Needs

This is the single biggest money-saver in roofing Google Ads. Without negative keywords, you're paying for clicks from people who will never hire you.

Category	Negative Keywords
Job seekers	jobs, hiring, salary, career, employment, apprentice
DIY	diy, how to, tutorial, youtube, video
Materials shopping	home depot, lowes, buy shingles, wholesale
Other industries	car roof, roof rack, roof tent, rooftop bar
Price shoppers	free, cheap, cheapest, discount, coupon

We typically add 50-100 negative keywords in the first week of managing a new roofing account. One client was spending $800/month on clicks from people searching "roofing jobs near me." That's gone now.

Landing Pages: Where Most Roofers Lose the Sale

Getting the click is only half the battle. If your landing page doesn't convert, you're paying for traffic that bounces.

What a roofing landing page needs:

• Headline that matches the search query — if they searched "roof repair in Dallas," the page should say "Roof Repair in Dallas"
• Phone number visible — click-to-call, top of page, impossible to miss
• Social proof above the fold — review count, star rating, years in business
• 3-5 form fields max — name, phone, address, service needed
• Real photos — your crew, your trucks, your completed jobs (not stock photos)
• Clear CTA — "Get Your Free Estimate" not "Submit" or "Contact Us"

Budget: How Much Should a Roofer Spend on Google Ads?

Market Size	Monthly Budget	Expected Leads
Small city (<100K pop)	$1,000-2,000	15-30 leads
Medium city (100-500K)	$2,000-4,000	25-50 leads
Large metro (500K+)	$4,000-8,000+	40-80+ leads

Cost per lead benchmarks for roofing (2026):

• LSAs: $25-50 per lead
• Search campaigns: $40-80 per lead
• Performance Max: $50-100 per lead

At an average job value of $8,500, a $50 cost per lead means you're paying roughly 0.6% of the job value to acquire the customer. That's excellent ROI if your close rate is even 20%.

Conversion Tracking: The Non-Negotiable

If you can't track which ads generate actual phone calls and form submissions, you're flying blind. We see this constantly — roofing companies spending thousands per month with zero conversion tracking set up.

What to track:

• Phone calls from ads (use call tracking numbers)
• Form submissions on landing pages
• Click-to-call actions
• Chat widget interactions

5 Mistakes We Fix in Every New Roofing Account

1. No negative keywords — bleeding budget on irrelevant clicks
2. Sending traffic to the homepage — generic page = low conversion
3. No conversion tracking — can't optimize what you can't measure
4. Too many broad match keywords — attracting the wrong searches
5. Not running LSAs — missing the cheapest lead source available

We typically improve lead volume by 40-60% within the first 30 days just by fixing these five things — often without increasing budget.

Frequently Asked Questions