Google Ads for roofing contractors - intent split, storm-response budgeting, insurance-claim keywords, lead qualification and cost per contract. This guide is written for Roofing companies running paid search, and everything below comes from work we do on live accounts rather than recycled theory. Skim the sections, take the numbers as starting benchmarks for your own market, and treat the checklist items as a work plan you can hand to your team or your agency this week.
What it costs
Roofing CPCs are among the highest in home services: $15-$70, higher after storms. Media budgets of $4,000-$25,000 per month are common. Cost per lead of $80-$350 is normal, and still profitable at typical contract values if close rates are tracked.
Treat every range above as a starting benchmark, not a quote. Competition in your specific market, the current state of your website, how much production capacity you already have in-house, and how aggressive your growth target is will all move the number. The useful exercise is to work backwards from revenue: what is one additional customer worth, how many do you need per month to justify the spend, and does the plan on the table plausibly produce them?
How long it takes
Leads within days. Storm events compress everything - have campaigns, landing pages and negative lists pre-built so you can scale within hours rather than build during the spike.
Two things reliably compress timelines. The first is production volume: more genuinely useful pages and more consistent execution per month means faster results, which is why budget and speed are linked. The second is starting condition - a site with clean technical foundations and existing authority moves much faster than a new domain. Be honest about which one you are, then set expectations accordingly with whoever signs off on the budget.
What actually works
Separate repair, full replacement, inspection and insurance-claim intent. Insurance-claim traffic converts differently and needs its own messaging.
Pre-build a storm playbook: paused campaigns ready to activate, geo-targets by affected county, higher budget caps and creative referencing rapid inspection.
None of these are clever. They are the boring fundamentals executed at unusual quality and consistency, which is what separates programmes that compound from programmes that plateau after one quarter.
Qualify in the ad and on the page: property ownership, roof age, insurance status. Roofing paid traffic attracts renters and tyre-kickers otherwise.
Measure cost per signed contract using CRM data, not cost per lead. Roofing close rates vary enough that lead cost is misleading.
Mistakes that cost the most
Bidding on 'roof repair' broadly with no negatives, buying DIY, career and materials queries at $40 a click.
Not having landing pages ready when a storm hits, losing the highest-intent week of the year.
Judging performance on lead volume while the sales team drowns in unqualified enquiries.
Every one of these is common enough that we expect to find at least two of them in any audit. Fixing them costs almost nothing compared with the spend they waste, so they belong at the top of the work plan rather than in a backlog.
Your next 90 days
Weeks 1-2: instrument everything first. Tracking, call tracking where relevant, a conversion definition that finance would accept, and a baseline you can defend later. Skipping this step is the single most expensive shortcut available, because without a baseline you cannot prove anything worked.
Weeks 3-8: ship the highest-leverage items from the 'what actually works' list above, in priority order, one at a time so each change stays attributable. Resist the urge to rebuild everything at once - it feels productive and it destroys your ability to learn.
Weeks 9-12: build the compounding layer - content cadence, review velocity, link acquisition, experimentation - and set a monthly review with a fixed agenda. Roofing accounts with pre-built storm response campaigns capture disproportionate volume in the 72 hours after an event, when competitors are still writing ad copy.
If you would like a second opinion before you commit budget, we run free 30-minute strategy calls and will walk through your current setup using the same diagnostic we use with paying clients.
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Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll audit your setup and share a clear plan.