Google Ads for Roofing Contractors: Full Guide

How much does Google Ads cost a roofing company?

A roofing lead from Google search typically costs about $258 in Canadian dollars, the median of four sources that range from $173 to $369^1–4. It's the highest of any trade in our benchmarks⁵. A roofing click typically costs about $14.96, a third more than the contractor typical of $11.24^1,3–5.

Why so much? A roof is a big purchase, so homeowners click on several roofers before they call one. LocaliQ found 3.70% of roofing clicks turned into a lead, against 7.33% across all home services¹.

What is a roofing lead worth?

Work back from the job. A typical asphalt re-roof is about $13,000, roofers keep about 42% as gross profit, and if you'll spend 10% of that to win the job and 42 in 100 leads book, you can pay about $230 a lead. That's close to the $258 benchmark.

Debut Marketing calculation. Swap in your own job value, margin and booking rate.

If your re-roofs run $18,000 like Vancouver, the ceiling rises to about $318 a lead. If most of your calls are $2,500 repairs, it drops to about $44, and Google Ads only pays when repairs turn into replacements later.

How much should a roofing company spend on Google Ads?

Start at $1,500 to $3,000 a month in a small market, $3,000 to $7,000 in a mid-size one and $7,000 or more in a big city. Below about $1,500, a roofing account gets too few leads to learn from, so you can't tell a bad month from a bad setup.

Debut Marketing's starting budgets for roofing accounts, not a survey.

I'd rather see a roofer run one well-built campaign at $1,500 than three thin ones.

How does Google decide which roofer's ad shows first?

Not just by who bids the most. Google ranks ads by Ad Rank, which weighs your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, the searcher's location and device, and the expected effect of your assets. Google says a more relevant ad can win a higher spot at a lower price than a competitor with a bigger bid¹³.

For roofers, that means a "roof leak repair" ad landing on a roof leak page beats a generic "roofing services" ad landing on the home page, even with a smaller bid. To see what competitors are running, search their name in Google's Ads Transparency Center¹⁴¹⁴. It shows the ads any advertiser has run on Google, so you can check their offers and headlines before you write yours.

Which Google Ads campaigns should a roofer run?

Start with Search, split by what the person needs: repair, replacement, commercial if you do it, and your brand name. A leak repair wants a call today, a replacement wants a quote and reassurance, and a commercial buyer wants proof of flat roofs. Mixing them in one campaign hides which one is working.

• Roof repair: leak repair, storm damage and emergency repair, with call ads during the hours someone answers.
• Roof replacement: replacement, new roof, re-roof and shingle replacement. The biggest jobs, so the biggest share of the budget.
• Commercial roofing: flat roof, membrane and commercial roof repair, only if you actually do it.
• Brand: searches for your company name, so a competitor can't sit above you.

Leave Performance Max until your call and form tracking is reliable, because on a new account it spends on placements you can't see. Display and YouTube ads rarely make a roofer's phone ring on their own; use them later to retarget people who visited your site. Lead form assets put a short form inside the ad itself on Search and Performance Max¹⁵. They can add volume, but download the leads often (Google keeps them for 60 days) and call them fast.

Use phrase and exact match to start. Broad match on its own will spend your budget on searches that have nothing to do with hiring a roofer. Google lets you add negative keywords at the campaign or account level¹⁶.

How do you set up a roofing Google Ads campaign, step by step?

Tracking first, then a repair campaign and a replacement campaign, each with its own keywords, hours and page. Here's the order, using a made-up roofer in Burnaby, Harbourline Roofing, as the example.

Step 1: Set up tracking before the first click

In Google Ads, add conversion actions under Goals for calls from your ads, calls from your website and quote forms. Put call tracking on the website number too, so a homeowner who clicks, reads and then calls still counts.

Step 2: Choose Leads, then Search

Step 3: Split replacement into ad groups by roof type

Your replacement campaign holds the biggest jobs, so give each kind of roof its own ad group. A metal roof buyer should see a metal roof ad and land on a metal roof page.

Step 4: Use phrase and exact match, and read what they catch

Even phrase match lets in searches you didn't mean, which is why the negative list matters from day one.

Step 5: Set the area and the hours

Target the towns you roof in, switch Location options to Presence, and schedule the repair campaign and its call asset for the hours someone answers.

Step 6: Write the ads and build the pages

The next section shows what the ad and the page need, piece by piece.

Should roofers run Local Services Ads?

If you qualify, yes, next to Search, not instead of it. Local Services Ads sit above the search ads with a Google Verified badge, and you pay per lead instead of per click. "Roofers" is on Google's list of eligible categories in Canada⁷, and a roofing lead there typically costs about $148 CAD against $258 for a search lead¹⁷.

Four rules to know before you sign up:

• Screening. For roofing, Google lists business and owner checks, general and professional liability insurance, and licences where local law requires them¹⁸.
• Missed calls cost money now. Since October 1, 2026, a missed call during business hours can be charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds⁸.
• Credits are automatic. Google may credit low-quality leads, usually within 30 days, but no longer credits "job type not serviced" or "geo not serviced"¹⁹.
• It's moving into Google Ads. Local Services Ads are becoming Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. Canadian accounts move in 2027²⁰.

The catch for roofers is that a $400 flashing repair and a $13,000 re-roof can cost you the same lead. Our Local Services Ads post for roofers goes deeper.

What should a roofing ad and landing page say?

Put the city and the offer in the headline, like "Roof Replacement in Burnaby" or "Free Roof Inspection", and send each campaign to its own page. The page needs the phone number at the top, a short form, photos of your own roofs, your Google reviews, your warranty and the areas you serve.

Responsive search ads take several headlines and descriptions and test the combinations for you. Google recommends at least two per ad group and says adding a second one lifted conversions 6.6% on average²¹. Test one idea at a time: a price range against no price, or "Free Inspection" against "Same-Week Quotes". Add call, sitelink, callout and image assets so the ad takes up more of the screen.

Consider a price range. In Roofing Contractor's 2026 homeowner survey, 65% said they're more likely to call a roofer that shows transparent pricing²², and only 2% of the roofing sites we scored show any price⁶.

How do you track booked roofs from Google Ads?

Set up call tracking before you launch, count form fills as conversions, then mark which leads became jobs and send those back to Google. Only 40% of the roofing websites we tested had a Google Ads tag and 5% used call tracking⁶, so most roofing accounts are bidding blind.

Google can count calls from your ads and website as conversions²³, and offline conversion imports tell it which leads paid, so it bids for more people like them²⁴. Every week, check the search terms report, pause keywords that spend without leads, and listen to a few call recordings.

Speed matters more than any bid. In a study of 5.7 million leads, those called within five minutes converted eight times as often²⁵, and 84% of Canadian homeowners in our survey said in an emergency they'd hire the first contractor who answered²⁶. Use the ad schedule to run call ads only when someone picks up; by default, Google shows ads all day²⁷.

When should roofing ad spend rise and fall?

Roofing demand follows the weather, and Canada has very different weather. Put the most budget on replacements in summer everywhere, run leak and emergency campaigns through the BC coast's wet winter, and cut the Prairies to brand and emergency once the freeze sets in.

Debut Marketing's seasonal plan. Vancouver's wettest month is November (186 mm of rain) and Winnipeg has 29 January days below freezing all day²⁸. The August 2024 Calgary hailstorm caused nearly $2.8 billion in insured damage²⁹.

Keep brand and emergency campaigns on all winter, even in Winnipeg, because a leak doesn't care about the season. And have a hail ad group and a hail page ready to switch on the day a storm hits.

What are the drawbacks of Google Ads for roofing companies?

It's the most expensive lead in home services, the leads stop the day you stop paying, and an account left alone wastes money fast. You also pay for clicks from people who never call, which is why roofers without tracking often decide Google Ads "doesn't work" when the real problem is the setup.

The mistakes we see most:

• Broad match keywords with no negative keywords.
• Sending every click to the home page.
• No call tracking, so nobody knows which campaign made the phone ring.
• Targeting areas you don't actually serve.
• Saying "24/7" in the ad and letting night calls go to voicemail.
• Judging the account by cost per click instead of cost per booked job.

That's why I tell roofers to build their Google profile and reviews at the same time. Ads bring calls now; the map brings calls you don't pay for later.

Where to start

Start with two Search campaigns, repair and replacement, each with its own landing page and call tracking, at $1,500 a month or more. Give it 60 days, then move budget toward whichever campaign books more roofs. Add Facebook ads to stay in front of homeowners who clicked and didn't call.

If you'd rather have it run for you, see our marketing for roofing companies or roofing Google Ads management. The full roofing data is in our roofing website study.