TL;DR
Roofing advertising in 2026 has one channel that is clearly worth the money, two that are worth it with a cap, and a long tail that roofers keep paying for out of habit. Google Local Services Ads charge $30 to $100 a lead for roofers, sit above every other result with a Google Verified badge, and bill only when a homeowner calls. Google Search runs $230 to $298 a lead in the campaigns we have audited, worth it on a $15,000 replacement if the campaign is built around replacement keywords and capped before storm season inflates the clicks. Facebook is the cheapest lead in the trade when a hail event has just happened and the worst one in a dry August; a storm inspection form with a radius on the storm path books estimates at $15 to $40 each. Yard signs at every tear-off and door hangers on the block cost under $20 and 7 cents respectively and produce the neighbor jobs that keep crews full. The channels to skip are billboards, radio and lead marketplaces as a primary source. The ad copy for each channel, the costs with sources, and a budget for a $3 million roofer are below.
Skill Mammoth manages Local Services Ads, Google Ads and Meta ads for roofers, so this is a vendor's guide and it says so where that matters. The Google figures are LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks and our own account data; the Roofr and vendor claims are quoted as theirs. This page is about the ads: what to say, where to run them, what they cost. The full channel ranking including the free ones is in roofing marketing ideas, and the Google Ads campaign structure in detail is in the roofing PPC guide.
Roofing advertising cost by channel, 2026
| Channel | Published or observed cost | Cost per lead | When it pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Local Services Ads | Pay per lead; budget set weekly | $30 to $100 for roofers | Year round; the first paid dollar |
| Google Search Ads | Roofing clicks $25 to $28 in our accounts; home improvement average $8.33 (LocaliQ 2026) | $230 to $298 observed; $90.92 home improvement average (LocaliQ) | Replacement keywords with a monthly cap; never uncapped in storm season |
| Facebook and Instagram | $2.18 a click, home improvement (WordStream 2025) | $42.95 home improvement average; $15 to $40 for a storm inspection form on a storm path | The week after a hail or wind event; financing offers in spring |
| Yard signs at the tear-off | About $20 a sign, stakes extra (signs.com) | A few dollars | Every job, day one |
| Door hangers on the block | From 7 cents each at 2,000 (Vistaprint) | Under $10 | Every job, the morning the dumpster lands |
| Canvassing after a storm | Labor | Varies; a canvasser's day is 2 to 6 inspections | Within 72 hours of the event |
| EDDM postcards | $0.26 a piece postage plus printing (USPS) | $40 to $80 on our math | Once, to a storm-hit ZIP, with photos from that ZIP |
| Lead marketplaces (Angi, Thumbtack, Networx) | Reported $50 to $150 a shared roofing lead | $400 to $750 per closed job after sharing | To fill a gap week, never as the plan |
| Verdict | LSAs first, then a capped Search campaign on replacement keywords, then Facebook only when weather gives you a reason. The physical campaign at every job is the cheapest lead on the list and the one most roofers skip. | ||
The roofing ad, in four lines
Every channel below carries the same four parts, and the roofers who get leads from ads are the ones who wrote these once and reused them everywhere.
- A photo of your own crew on your own roof. Not a stock shot of a man on a ladder. A drone photo of a finished roof with the house number blurred, or a crew photo on the tear-off, is what a homeowner trusts.
- One offer with a condition: "Free storm inspection, photos in 24 hours." "Financing from $149 a month on a full replacement." "Free gutter guards with any replacement booked by April 30." A list of nine services is a brochure.
- A number: "4.9 stars, 487 reviews." "Since 1998." "2,100 roofs in Hennepin County." Roofing is a trade with a trust problem, and a number answers it faster than "licensed and insured."
- A phone number and one verb. "Call or text for a free inspection."
Local Services Ads: the first roofing dollar
Roofing is an eligible Local Services Ads category, and a roofer who passes the background and license checks gets a Google Verified badge and a pay-per-lead listing above the search ads. The LSA cost guide puts roofers at $30 to $100 a lead, with the top of the range in metros and after storms, and leads can be disputed when they are not jobs. The ad is your profile: twenty roof photos with the city in each caption, the services you can do, the service area drawn tight enough that you are not paying for leads in the next county, and a review count that climbs every week. Rankings inside LSA follow responsiveness, so the number on the profile must be answered by a person, including Saturday.
Apply in winter. Screening takes three to four weeks after documents, and a roofer who wants LSAs running for the April hail season needs to start in February.
Google Search: replacement keywords with a cap
Search is where roofing advertising gets expensive. The home improvement average is $8.33 a click and $90.92 a lead per LocaliQ, but roofing clicks run $25 to $28 in the accounts we have audited and leads land at $230 to $298, because every roofer in the metro bids on "roofing company near me" in the same six weeks. That lead still pays: a $250 lead that closes at 25 percent is $1,000 of acquisition on a $15,000 job. It stops paying when the campaign is uncapped in storm season and the clicks double while the close rate falls, which the roofing PPC guide calls the storm season trap. The structure that keeps a lead under $200 is three campaigns:
- Replacement: "roof replacement cost," "new roof Minneapolis," "asphalt shingle roof installation." Highest ticket, worth the $28 click, sent to a replacement page with a price range on it.
- Repair and leak: "roof leak repair," "emergency roof repair." Cheaper clicks, smaller jobs, worth running if you want the relationship for the replacement in five years.
- Storm: "hail damage roof," "storm damage roof inspection," on only during and after an event, with a daily cap.
The ad is the four lines with the keyword in the headline: "Roof Replacement in Plymouth | 487 Five-Star Reviews | Free Inspection, Financing Available." Google is offering $500 to $4,500 in credit on new accounts that spend $500 to $3,000 in 60 days as of October 2026, which is worth claiming before the spring campaign.
Want the storm campaign built before the storm?
Fifteen minutes on your market, your average ticket and which channels should carry the spring. We will say what to turn on first, and what to cap.
Facebook: the storm channel
Roofr's own advertising guide claims 84 percent of roofers say Facebook brings in the most leads, which is Roofr's survey and their number, and it is believable for one reason: after a hail event, the whole ZIP code needs an inspection and nobody has searched for one yet. A "free storm inspection, photos in 24 hours" instant form, with the audience drawn as a radius on the storm path, books estimates at $15 to $40 each in the week after the event. That is the cheapest roofing lead that exists. The same ad in a dry August runs $60 to $100 a lead and closes at a fraction of the rate, because the homeowner with no damage has no reason to decide. The other Facebook offer that works year round is financing: "a new roof from $149 a month" reframes a $15,000 replacement as a car payment, and a before-and-after carousel of your own roofs carries it. Build it the way the Facebook ads for contractors guide describes, with a text inside sixty seconds of the form fill, or do not build it.
Signs, hangers and canvassing: the job is the ad
A tear-off is the loudest thing that happens on a residential street all year. A dumpster, a crew, a day of hammering, and every neighbor at their window. The yard sign goes in the morning the dumpster lands, about $20 for a 4mm sign at signs.com with stakes extra, phone number larger than the logo. The door hangers go on the twenty nearest doors the same morning, from 7 cents each at 2,000 from Vistaprint, with a photo of a finished roof, "we are replacing a roof on your street this week," the review count, and a neighbor offer: "free inspection for the block while our crew is here." After a storm, the hanger becomes a canvasser, and a canvasser working a storm-hit street with a tablet of photos from the roofs already inspected on that street will book two to six inspections a day. That is labor, not media, and it is the highest-return hour a roofing company has in the week after hail.
Postcards, if you must
Every Door Direct Mail costs $0.26 a piece in postage from USPS, 200 to 5,000 pieces per ZIP per day, plus printing. A 5,000-piece drop is about $2,050 and returns 25 to 50 inquiries on a good route, or $40 to $80 each, which is competitive with Google only when the route is a storm-hit ZIP and the card shows a roof on one of its streets. As a monthly program to the whole metro it is the most expensive lead on this page. The landscaping advertising guide has the full EDDM math; it does not change for roofing.
Lead marketplaces: the math before you sign
Angi, Thumbtack, Networx and Modernize sell roofing leads at a reported $50 to $150 each, shared with three to eight contractors, and close at 8 to 15 percent, which the roofing leads buyer's guide works out to $400 to $750 per closed job. That is worse than Google Search and far worse than LSAs. They have one legitimate use: a quiet week in October when the crews need a job. They are not a plan, and a roofer whose "advertising" is a marketplace membership is renting a lead source that sells the same homeowner to the competitor down the street.
A budget for a $3 million roofer
Roofr suggests 5 to 10 percent of revenue, which at $3 million is $150,000 to $300,000 and includes the website, the software and the salaries. Here is how we would spend the advertising share, assuming a Midwest market with a spring hail season.
| Month | Spend | What runs |
|---|---|---|
| December to January | $2,000 a month | LSAs on at a low budget. Site replacement page with a price range. Review push. Signs and hangers ordered. |
| February | $4,000 | LSA budget up. Facebook financing campaign starts, before-and-after carousel. |
| March to June | $9,000 a month | LSAs, capped Search on replacement keywords, Facebook financing. Storm campaign built and paused, switched on within 24 hours of an event with a daily cap. |
| July to August | $5,000 a month | LSAs and Search at reduced caps. Crews are booked; the ads fill September. |
| September to November | $6,000 a month | LSAs, Search on "roof replacement before winter," Facebook financing. Marketplace leads only in a gap week. |
| Total | About $76,000 in media, inside the 5 percent figure for a $3 million company before management. At a blended $120 a lead that is roughly 630 leads, and a 25 percent close on $14,000 average tickets is about $2.2 million in attributable work. The signs, hangers and canvassing add neighbor jobs on top at near-zero media cost. | |
Management, for benchmarking: we run Google Ads at $600 a month or 12 percent of spend, Google and Meta together at $1,000 a month, and Local Services Ads at $1,000 to set up and $300 to $800 a month, month to month. The roofing marketing companies list has what the other agencies publish.
Three to skip
Billboards, because the $3,000 a month buys impressions from everyone on the highway and a roofing buyer is one homeowner with one damaged roof. Radio, for the same reason. And any "roofing advertising" package from a vendor that will not show you the cost per lead by channel, because a roofer who cannot see the lead cost cannot cap it, and the uncapped storm campaign is the most expensive mistake in the trade.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to advertise a roofing company?
Google Local Services Ads first, at $30 to $100 a lead with a Google Verified badge above the results. Then a capped Google Search campaign on replacement keywords, then Facebook when a storm gives you a reason. A yard sign and door hangers at every tear-off cost under $20 and produce the neighbor jobs.
How much does roofing advertising cost?
Per lead in 2026: LSAs $30 to $100, Google Search $230 to $298 observed, Facebook $42.95 average and $15 to $40 for a storm inspection form after an event, EDDM $40 to $80 on our math, marketplaces $400 to $750 per closed job after sharing. A $3 million roofer can run a full year on about $76,000 in media.
Do Facebook ads work for roofers?
After a storm, better than anything else: a free inspection form on the storm path books estimates at $15 to $40. In a dry month they run $60 to $100 a lead and close slowly. Financing offers with before-and-after photos work year round if someone texts the lead within a minute.
How much should a roofing company spend on advertising?
Roofr suggests 5 to 10 percent of revenue for all marketing. Our budget for a $3 million roofer puts about $76,000 of that into media, weighted to March through June, with every channel capped and the storm campaign switched on only when there is a storm.
Are roofing lead services worth it?
As a gap filler, occasionally. A shared roofing lead at $50 to $150 that closes at 8 to 15 percent costs $400 to $750 per job, which is worse than Google Search and far worse than Local Services Ads. Never as the primary channel.
What should a roofing ad say?
A photo of your own crew or roof, one offer with a condition ("free storm inspection, photos in 24 hours" or "financing from $149 a month"), a proof number such as your review count, and a phone number with one verb. The same four lines work on a yard sign, a search ad and a Facebook form.
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