Roofing leads are worth what each source costs per signed, installed and paid roof, and that figure settles weeks or months after the lead comes in. So price every source (search ads, Local Services Ads, lead sellers, storm canvassing, referrals, yard signs) on leads from a quarter that has had time to close, with insurance claim jobs kept in their own column.
Quick answer
- Store a first source on every lead the day it arrives, in a field of your CRM (the software that holds your leads and jobs) that nobody overwrites later.
- Track the same steps for each lead: inspection set, inspection done, estimate, signed, past any cancellation window, installed and paid. Flag claim jobs.
- Judge a source on one finished quarter of its leads, counted soon after the quarter ends and again months later, never on this month's cost per lead.
- Before paying a lead seller, get in writing how many other roofers receive each homeowner and which leads earn a credit.
- Report signed contracts from your Google Ads back to Google inside 90 days of the click (63 days for one variant, explained below).
What has to happen before a roofing lead turns into money?
A roofing lead is a homeowner's name, address and phone number plus some reason to think the roof needs work. It earns nothing until a roof is installed and paid for, and each step in between loses some homeowners. A claim job, where the homeowner's insurance company pays for the approved work less the deductible, adds steps you do not run.
| Step | Retail job | Insurance claim job | Who records it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead in | Contact details and first source | Same | Whoever answers, in the CRM |
| Inspection set | Date on the calendar | Same | Office |
| Inspection done | Photos and measurements on file | Same, plus the damage documented | Inspector or sales rep |
| Decision | Estimate delivered | Claim filed, adjuster visits, insurer approves or denies the scope | Sales rep |
| Signed | Contract signed | Contract signed for the approved scope | Sales rep, with the date |
| Installed and paid | Final payment received | Final payment received, from insurer and homeowner | Office, from accounting |
An adjuster is the person the insurer sends to inspect the damage; the scope is the list of work the insurer agrees to pay for. Keep claim jobs in their own column. A denied claim says something about the storm and the policy, not about the source, and a claim job runs on the insurer's calendar.
Why can't you judge a roofing lead in the month it arrives?
Cost per lead (spend divided by leads) is ready the day the invoice lands and sees none of those steps. A month's spend divided by that month's contracts is no better: June's contracts may come from April's leads, while June's leads still wait for an inspection.
Group leads by arrival instead. Take one quarter's leads and the spend that bought them, and count what those same leads became on two dates, one soon after the quarter closes and one a few months on.
Demand swings too. Keyword Planner estimated US searches for "roof repair near me" at 135,000 in September 2025 and February 2026, and at 60,500 in November 2025 and May 2026 (Google Ads Keyword Planner estimates for the US, October 2026). Your local weather sits on top of that national curve: one hailstorm can fill a month in your county, and its claim jobs sign long after the invoice.
Where do roofing leads come from, and how do you tag each one?
Each source needs a mark, stored at first contact, that travels with the lead to the final payment. Canvassing means knocking on doors to offer free inspections; storm canvassing does it where hail or wind just hit.
| Source | How you pay | Who else may reach the same homeowner | The mark to store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google search ads | Per click | Rival roofers bidding on the same searches | Click id from the form, or a phone number used only in the ads |
| Local Services Ads | Per lead | Other roofers listed on the same search | The lead's record in Google's lead list |
| Lead seller or marketplace | Per lead | Shared: other buyers, as many as the terms allow; exclusive: nobody, if the contract says so | The seller's lead ID |
| Storm canvassing | Canvasser pay and door hangers | Other crews on the same streets | Canvasser, address and date |
| Referrals | A thank-you, or nothing | Nobody | The referring customer's name |
| Yard signs and trucks | The sign or the wrap | Nobody | A phone number printed only there |
Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead format. Google lists Roofers among its US categories and says you "Pay only for leads related to your business and the services you offer" (Google, checked 2026-10-04). Google is moving them into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. The first phase, from August 2026, takes select US home and storefront service advertisers, roofing among the listed categories; service-area businesses without physical storefronts follow in late 2026. After the move, leads sit under Goals, then Conversions, then Leads, and can be downloaded for import into your CRM (Google, checked 2026-10-04).
Before buying shared leads, ask the seller: how many other roofers receive this same homeowner? Your rep may not be the first to call.
Search ads are bought per click. Keyword Planner put the average US cost per click at $39.02 for "roof repair near me", with top-of-page bids from $14.89 to $71.23, and at $30.63 for "roof replacement", with $15.00 to $73.29 (Google Ads Keyword Planner estimates for the US, October 2026). Treat them as national averages. Your ZIP codes may price differently, and none of it predicts your bill. Home service marketing sets these channels side by side across trades.
Which source gets the roof when a house reaches you twice?
The same house can arrive through two doors. A canvasser leaves a hanger, the homeowner later searches your company name and clicks an ad, and a week after that a seller sells you the address. Match records on the property address rather than a phone number or a name, since the roof belongs to the address. The earliest dated record keeps first source; later ones go into a touches note.
Write that rule down once, because every platform credits the house by its own rules. Google Ads counts by its conversion settings, and that is one reason the ad report shows more leads than the CRM.
For your own search ads, the signed contract can go back to Google as a conversion (Google's word for a result it counts) through offline conversion tracking. The CRM keeps the click id, a code Google adds to the ad's link, and a regular upload tells Google which clicks became signed roofs. Google will not import offline conversions uploaded more than 90 days after the last click, or 63 days for enhanced conversions for leads, the variant that matches on email or phone (Google, checked 2026-10-04). A roof paid for four months after the click lands too late. Send the earlier steps too, inspection done and signed, and upload each one while its click is still inside the window.
My own Google Ads and Meta Ads buying, October 2023 through September 2025 and nearly $700K in spend, left me with one rule: neither platform knows who signed until someone tells it.
What changes when the contract is signed at the kitchen table?
Canvassing sells at the homeowner's door, and the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429) governs many sales made away from the seller's place of business (FTC, checked 2026-10-04). What follows restates the rule's text and the FTC's consumer page; it is not legal advice, and I am no lawyer.
The rule covers consumer goods or services (bought mainly for personal, family or household use) sold in person and agreed to away from the seller's place of business, even when the buyer invited the seller: $25 or more at the buyer's home, $130 or more anywhere else. The buyer may cancel "at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction," and every day except Sunday and federal holidays counts as a business day (eCFR, checked 2026-10-04). The seller must tell the buyer about that right at the time of sale and hand over two copies of a cancellation form plus a copy of the contract or receipt, and some state laws give buyers more rights (FTC, checked 2026-10-04).
The rule excludes six kinds of transaction:
- one made under earlier negotiations during the buyer's visit to the seller's permanent store or office;
- one already cancelable under the federal right to rescind in 15 U.S.C. 1635, which reaches certain credit deals secured by the buyer's main home (LII, checked 2026-10-04);
- a genuine, immediate personal emergency where the buyer made the first contact and gives the seller a separate dated, signed statement in the buyer's own handwriting describing it and waiving the right to cancel;
- one done entirely by mail or phone, with no other contact before delivery or the work;
- a visit the buyer initiated and specifically requested to repair or maintain the buyer's personal property, though anything sold beyond that repair and its necessary parts is covered;
- a sale or rental of real property, a sale of insurance, or a sale of securities or commodities by a registered broker-dealer.
Which of your contracts the rule reaches, and what your state adds, is for your attorney. For the numbers, count a contract signed in the home as signed only once its cancellation period has passed, and log each cancellation against the lead's first source. A crew whose contracts cancel costs more per roof than its signed count shows.
How does one quarter of leads look on two counting dates?
Illustrative: the roofing company below is imaginary, and so is every figure in its quarter; no client's numbers are used. A three-crew residential roofer bought April-to-June leads from its own Google search ads ($18,000 including the management fee), a shared lead seller (150 leads kept after credits, at $70) and a canvassing crew that worked a hail-hit area in May ($14,400 in pay and door hangers). The owner counted those leads on July 15 and again on October 15.
| April to June leads | Search ads | Shared lead seller | Storm canvassing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spend after credits | $18,000 | $10,500 | $14,400 |
| Leads | 120 | 150 | 90 |
| Inspections done | 70 | 45 | 85 |
| Signed by July 15, net of cancellations | 14 | 10 | 4 |
| Signed by October 15, net of cancellations | 20 | 11 | 24 |
| Of those, insurance claim jobs | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| Installed and paid by October 15 | 18 | 10 | 19 |
| Cost per lead | $150.00 | $70.00 | $160.00 |
| Cost per signed roof, July 15 | $1,285.71 | $1,050.00 | $3,600.00 |
| Cost per signed roof, October 15 | $900.00 | $954.55 | $600.00 |
| Cost per paid roof, October 15 | $1,000.00 | $1,050.00 | $757.89 |
Three formulas to run on your own quarter:
- Cost per signed roof = spend on the quarter's leads ÷ contracts from those leads still standing after the cancellation window
- Cost per paid roof = the same spend ÷ roofs from those leads installed and paid
- Share signed early = signed roofs at the first count ÷ signed roofs at the second count
In July the shared seller looked cheapest and canvassing dearest: $10,500 ÷ 10 = $1,050 against $14,400 ÷ 4 = $3,600. By October the order had flipped. Canvassing came to $14,400 ÷ 24 = $600 per signed roof (26 signed, 2 canceled inside the window), search ads to $18,000 ÷ 20 = $900 and the shared seller to $10,500 ÷ 11 = $954.55. Cost per lead ranked the shared seller first, at $70, the whole time.
The third formula tells you how far to trust an early count next quarter. By July 15 the shared seller had 10 of its 11 contracts (91 percent), search ads 14 of 20 (70 percent) and canvassing 4 of 24 (17 percent), since 21 of those 24 were claim jobs. A mid-July figure was close to final for the seller and far off for canvassing. Inspections hint at the race for shared leads: 45 of 150 let a rep on the roof, against 85 of 90 canvassed homes.
Five canvassing roofs were signed but unpaid, so that paid count will still rise. If claim jobs run larger than retail jobs in your books, add revenue per paid roof before ranking. Counts this small swing with one storm, so the owner keeps a rolling four quarters before dropping any source.
What should a roofing lead seller tell you up front?
- How many roofing companies receive each homeowner, and will every lead show that number?
- Is the person on the form the property owner, and how do you check?
- Which ad, page or quiz produced the lead, and may I see it, including any line about insurance paying for a new roof?
- Which ZIP codes do my leads come from, and how fast can you add or drop an area after a storm?
- Which leads get a credit (renters, addresses outside my area, roofs replaced recently, the same address twice), and by what deadline?
- Will every lead carry an ID and a timestamp I can keep in my CRM?
- What did the homeowner agree to about calls and texts, and does that agreement name my company?
- What is the minimum spend, how long is the term, and how much notice ends it?
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Frequently asked questions
Are exclusive roofing leads worth paying more for?
Only your own counts can say. Put the exclusive and the shared source side by side on leads from the same quarter, divide each one's spend after credits by the signed roofs its leads produced, and recount once the slow claim jobs have closed. A shared lead goes to more than one roofer, so the race to the homeowner shows up in your inspection numbers, not on the invoice.
How long should I wait before judging a roofing lead source?
Long enough for the contracts it will produce to be mostly in. Count one quarter's leads soon after the quarter ends and again a few months later, then divide the first count of signed roofs by the second. A share close to 100 percent means the early count is enough for that source next time; a low share means waiting for the later count. Sources heavy in insurance claim jobs need the longer wait.
Does the three-day cancellation rule apply to roofing contracts?
The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule covers sales of consumer goods or services of $25 or more agreed to at the buyer's home, even when the buyer invited the seller, and lets the buyer cancel until midnight of the third business day after the sale. It excludes some sales, among them a buyer-initiated emergency backed by a handwritten waiver and a requested visit to repair the buyer's personal property, and the FTC notes that some state laws give buyers more rights. I am not a lawyer, so ask your attorney which of your contracts it reaches and what your state adds.
Can a roofing company get leads from Google Local Services Ads?
Yes. Google lists Roofers among the US business categories for Local Services Ads and says you pay only for leads related to your business and the services you offer. Treat them like any other source: tag each one at first contact and judge it on signed and paid roofs, not on the price per lead.
Should insurance claim jobs be tracked apart from retail roofing jobs?
Yes. A claim job waits on the adjuster's visit and the insurer's decision, steps that neither you nor the lead source controls, so it signs later and can be denied for reasons unrelated to the lead. Mixed with retail jobs, those delays make storm-driven sources look weak early and hide how long they take to pay.