Google Ads for roofers
LSA, Search ads and tracking to signed jobs.

This guide covers how Local Services Ads and Google Search ads work for roofers in 2026, what changed, where money gets wasted and how to tell whether ads are paying. The Google rules quoted here come from Google's own help pages, linked throughout. We don't publish ad budgets or prices for our clients, and we don't quote average lead costs, because they vary too much by market to be useful. We'll show you how to work out your own.

What's the difference between Local Services Ads and Google Search ads for roofers?

Local Services Ads charge per lead, show first on many local searches, and target by service type and area with no keywords. Search ads charge per click, show below LSA, and target by keyword, so you can choose exactly which searches and towns you pay for. They work best together.

Neither one improves your map ranking. Google says you can't pay for a better local rank. Ads are for calls now, while the map and SEO do the long-term work. See our guide to ranking on Google Maps.

How do Local Services Ads work for roofing companies?

A homeowner searches something like "roof repair near me." A row of LSA listings shows first, each with a company name, rating, review count, hours and the Google Verified badge. They tap one, see your services and reviews, then call or message you. You pay when that contact is a valid lead.

What is the Google Verified badge?

It's the badge LSA shows for businesses that passed Google's screening. Google replaced its older LSA badges with Google Verified in late 2025. If your trucks, website or estimates still show an older Google badge, update them to Google Verified.

What does Google check before a roofer can run LSA?

Google's screening and verification requirements vary by trade and state. For roofers they generally include a verified Google Business Profile, business and owner background checks for select users, proof of liability insurance, and contractor licenses where your state or city requires them. Google puts typical verification at three to four weeks from document submission, so start well before storm season.

The most common reason applications stall is a mismatch: the business name on your license, insurance certificate and Google profile don't match exactly. Fix that before you apply.

Which roofing jobs can you advertise in LSA?

LSA uses a fixed list of job types for each category. For roofers, it covers the core work, such as roof repair, roof installation and replacement, roof inspection and storm damage, plus related work like gutters and skylights. Check the current list in your account and turn on only the jobs you want. Each job type you leave on will bring calls for it.

What counts as a charged LSA lead?

Google's page on how leads work sets the rules:

Two lessons for roofers. Missed calls cost money and hurt your responsiveness, so answer live during your posted hours. And Google keeps reassessing charged leads for 30 days and may credit poor ones. If a lead is a solicitor, a job seeker or someone outside your area, mark it in the lead feedback.

What decides how many LSA leads a roofer gets?

Google's page on LSA ad rankings says ads are ordered by an auction that weighs your bid and how likely your ad is to produce a lead. The factors it names are your bid, your responsiveness, the search itself, relevance (your services and business bio), whether you accept messages and bookings, and profile quality: "your rating, number of reviews, average response time, use of high-quality images, the verification checks you have completed." Google adds that higher-quality profiles "may rank higher and may also pay lower costs per lead."

The factor most roofers can move fastest is reviews. Our best-performing clients get 25 new reviews/month, and every one helps both the map and LSA. Our review system for roofers shows how.

How to build a strong LSA profile

Your LSA profile is the page a homeowner sees after tapping your ad, and Google counts its quality when ranking you. Write a short, plain bio: who you are, how long you've been roofing, what you install and repair, where you work, and your license and insurance. Upload real photos of crews in uniform, trucks with your name and finished roofs. Google's migration page says you can add up to 100 business photos after the move into Google Ads, and choose structured callouts such as specialties, hours and payment methods. Keep hours accurate, because they decide when missed calls are charged.

How to handle bad LSA leads

Mark them. Every lead has a feedback option. Use it for calls that weren't real leads: solicitors, job seekers, wrong numbers, people outside your area or asking for work you don't list. Google says it reassesses charged leads for 30 days and may credit poor ones automatically. Do this weekly, in one sitting, so it actually happens. It also teaches you which job types and areas bring junk, so you can turn them off.

What is changing with Local Services Ads in 2026?

Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. According to Google's migration page, roofing is in the first group of US home and storefront service advertisers, starting in August 2026, with service-area businesses and custom setups following in late 2026 and the rest in 2027.

Google says the account admin gets an email 14 days before migration, and that performance can take up to two weeks to settle afterwards. Three things to do now:

• Download or screenshot your LSA reports before migration. Google says they won't move.
• Check your Google Business Profile. Name, address and hours will sync from it, and big changes to the name, address or primary category trigger a review that can pause the campaign for a day or two.
• Split campaigns if you want separate bids for roofing and other trades, such as gutters or siding, since a single campaign gets one target.

How should a roofing company structure Google Search campaigns for repair, replacement and storm jobs?

Build tight campaigns by job type and value, use exact and phrase match on searches that show real hiring intent, add a long negative keyword list, write ads that name the service and town, and send each ad group to a page about that exact job. Start narrow and expand only what produces signed jobs.

How to structure roofing ad campaigns

Repair and replacement should always be separate. A repair is worth less and is usually urgent. A replacement is worth much more and the homeowner shops around. They need different ads, different pages and, often, different bids.

Which negative keywords should roofers use?

Start with these groups and add more from your search terms report every week:

• Jobs: jobs, hiring, salary, careers, apprentice, training, license exam.
• DIY: how to, DIY, tutorial, YouTube, kit.
• Retail shopping: Home Depot, Lowe's, shingles for sale, supply, wholesale.
• Research only: pictures, types of, definition, lifespan (unless you have a page for it).
• Work you don't do: commercial, if you're residential only; car roof, RV roof, roof racks.
• Places you don't serve.

What should a roofing ad say?

The service, the town, a reason to trust you and a reason to call now. Headlines like "Roof Repair in Chandler, AZ," "Licensed & Insured Since [Year]," "Free Roof Inspections" or "Financing Available," if they're true. Add call assets with a tracked number, sitelinks to repair, replacement, financing and reviews, and location assets linked to your Google profile.

Google stopped allowing new call-only ads in February 2026, and existing ones stop showing in February 2027, according to Google's call ads notice. Use responsive search ads with call assets instead.

Roofing ad copy examples

Here's how we'd write headlines and descriptions for three ad groups. Swap in your own town, years and offers, and only claim what's true.

Notice what's missing from the storm ad: any promise about insurance. That's deliberate, for the legal reasons covered below.

How should roofers set locations and schedules?

Target the towns you really serve, set location options to "presence" (people in or regularly in your area) rather than people merely interested in it, and run ads when someone can answer the phone. If calls go to voicemail after 6 p.m., either staff the phone or cut evening spend.

How should roofers use ads after a storm?

Turn up spend in the hit area fast, point ads at a storm damage and inspection page, and turn it back down when demand falls. Search ads are the best tool for this, because you can target specific towns and searches within hours. LSA will pick up some of the surge on its own if your budget allows.

Keep the copy legal. Several states restrict how contractors advertise roof damage insurance claims. Florida's Statute 489.147, for example, covers any electronic communication that encourages a homeowner to contact a contractor to make a roof damage claim, which can include ads, and requires specific disclaimers about deductibles and insurance fraud in a minimum font size. It also bans offering anything of value for an inspection or a claim. Before you run any "we'll handle your insurance claim" ad, check your state's rules.

What landing page should roofing ads go to?

A page about the exact job in the ad, with the phone number and an estimate button at the top, your license and reviews visible, real photos, and a short form. Sending every ad to the homepage is the most common way roofers waste ad spend. The homeowner has to hunt for what they searched for, and most won't.

The Neal Roofing & Waterproofing page Bodhi shows in his audit is a good model: a sticky header with the license number and an estimate button, a short quiz to qualify the lead and video testimonials. Our roofing website design guide covers the full layout.

How do roofers know if Google Ads are working?

Track every lead from the click or call through to inspection, estimate and signed job, by campaign. Cost per click and cost per lead only tell you whether ads bring contacts. Cost per signed job tells you whether they pay.

1. Tracked phone numbers on ads, the website and LSA, with call recording.
2. Form tracking as conversions in Google Ads.
3. Every lead in your CRM with its source and campaign.
4. Offline conversions: import signed jobs back into Google Ads, so its bidding learns which searches turn into roofs.
5. Monthly review: spend, leads, inspections, signed jobs and revenue by campaign.

Vish Mazumder at Mighty Dog Roofing says it plainly: when an owner can't say where jobs came from, that's "a you problem." He's talking about owners who don't set up tracking and then blame the marketing. Set it up before you spend.

Why are roofing clicks so expensive?

Because a single roofing job is worth a lot, so many companies are willing to pay for the same searches. Bought-lead companies and national brands bid on them too. The price of a click is set by that auction, which is why the same search can cost very different amounts in a small town and a big metro, and why it rises in storm season.

You can't control the auction, but you can control three things that decide whether expensive clicks pay off:

1. Which clicks you buy. Exact and phrase match on hiring searches, with strong negatives, wastes far less than broad match.
2. How many clicks become leads. A focused landing page with a visible phone number and short form can double your conversion rate compared with a homepage.
3. How many leads become signed jobs. Fast answers, a booked inspection on the first call and a clear estimate.

Improve all three and the same click price produces far more roofs. That's also why Google ads and LSA work better for roofers with strong reviews and profiles: Google rewards them in the auction, and homeowners call them more often.

If you run more than one location, note one LSA rule from Google: when several of your locations serve the same area, only the highest-ranking one shows for a search. Set each location's service area to the towns it really serves, so they don't compete with each other.

How much should a roofer spend on Google Ads?

Work backwards from the jobs you want. Take your target number of signed jobs, divide by your close rate to get inspections, divide by your lead-to-inspection rate to get leads, and multiply by the cost per lead in your own account. That's the budget. Then put more behind the campaigns with the lowest cost per signed job.

Two practical notes. A budget too small to get a steady flow of leads won't teach you or Google's bidding anything, so concentrate a small budget on your best campaign rather than spreading it thin. And plan for seasons and storms: more in peak months and after events, less in the slow ones, while SEO keeps running all year.

Should roofers use standard Performance Max campaigns?

Be careful. Standard Performance Max, which is different from the pay-per-lead version replacing LSA, shows across Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and Google's display network, and charges per click. It can find leads, but it also spends on placements that rarely produce roofing jobs, and you get less control. Get Search ads and tracking right first. If you test standard Performance Max, give it its own budget and judge it on signed jobs in your CRM.

Should a roofer start with LSA or Search ads?

It depends on your reviews, your phones and your market. LSA rewards strong reviews and fast answers, and costs nothing until leads come in. Search ads give you control and speed, and suit replacement work, materials and new towns. Here's how we'd decide.

How should roofers handle calls from ads?

Answer live, get the address and the problem, and book an inspection on that call. Ad leads are the most expensive you get, so the phone process matters more here than anywhere. A booked inspection on the first call is worth far more than a promise to call back.

Paid clicks add to the calls your Google profile already brings in, so the phones have to cope with both. Gikas Roofing in Pearl River, New York got 166 calls from its Google Business Profile alone from April to August 2026, up 84.4% on the same months in 2025, and Real Roofing in Chandler, Arizona got 199, up 116.3%. Calls at that level, plus ad calls on top, can't go to voicemail.

• Answer by the third ring during posted hours, with a person, not a phone menu.
• Ask three things first: the address, what's going on (leak, storm, age of roof, selling the house), and how soon they need someone.
• Offer two inspection times instead of asking when they're free.
• Confirm by text with the inspector's name and photo.
• Return a missed call while the homeowner is still looking at the leak, and text if you can't reach them.
• Listen to recorded calls weekly. Most lost jobs are lost on the phone.

Tony Munoz at Martin Home Exteriors promises customers a callback within the hour and says "the quickness in responding" is what sets his company apart. That habit makes every lead source cheaper.

Which bidding strategy should roofing Search ads use?

Start with Maximize Conversions or Maximize Clicks with a bid cap while you collect data, then move to Target CPA once you have steady conversions and, ideally, signed jobs imported as offline conversions. Smart bidding learns from what you tell it is a conversion. If you count every short call as a conversion, it will chase short calls. If you import signed jobs, it learns which searches turn into roofs.

• Count only real conversions: calls over a minimum length, form submissions and booked inspections.
• Give replacement conversions more value than repair conversions if you can.
• Don't change bid strategies every week. Give each change a few weeks to settle.

What about Facebook, YouTube and other ads for roofers?

They can help, but they're a different job. Search ads catch people already looking for a roofer. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube ads reach people who aren't searching yet, so they work best for staying in front of past site visitors, promoting financing, showing project videos and reaching neighborhoods after a storm. Judge them the same way, by signed jobs, and expect them to cost more per lead than search.

Video testimonials from real customers are the strongest creative we see for these channels. The Neal page Bodhi shows in his audit uses them on the landing page too.

Should roofers use remarketing or bid on competitors' names?

Remarketing, yes. Bidding on competitors' names, usually not. Homeowners shopping for a replacement visit several sites and take weeks to decide, so reminding past visitors with display or video ads can pay off. Competitor name bidding tends to get poor click-through rates and expensive clicks, and it invites the same back. Bid on your own brand, though, so a competitor can't take that top spot.

• Remarketing audiences: visitors to your replacement and financing pages, for 30 to 90 days.
• Exclude converters: anyone who already booked or signed shouldn't keep seeing ads.
• Use real projects in the creative, with the town named.
• Brand campaign: cheap clicks, protects your name, sends people to the homepage.

Which keywords and negative keywords should roofing ads use?

Group keywords by the job the searcher needs, give each group its own ad and landing page, and block the searches that aren't customers. Roofing has a lot of those: job seekers, DIYers and people shopping for materials all type "roofing."

Start the negative keyword list before launch and add to it every week from the search terms report:

• Jobs: jobs, hiring, salary, apprentice, careers.
• DIY: how to, DIY, YouTube, tutorial.
• Materials and stores: shingles for sale, roofing nails, Home Depot, Lowe's, wholesale, supply.
• Not your trade: roof rack, car roof, RV roof, if you don't do them; and any service you don't offer, such as gutters or solar.
• Outside your area: towns you don't serve, if the location settings let them through.

Use phrase and exact match for the expensive replacement and storm terms until you see which searches turn into inspections, then loosen carefully. Broad match without a strong negative list and good conversion data is how roofing budgets disappear in the first month. If someone else runs your ads, our guide on choosing a roofing marketing agency lists the questions that expose wasted spend.

Where do roofers waste the most money in Google Ads?

Sending clicks to the homepage, running broad match without negative keywords, counting form fills instead of signed jobs, and letting calls go to voicemail. Each one wastes money even when the ads themselves are fine.

How to launch Google Ads for a roofing company

1. Fix call handling and hours. A person picks up every call during the hours you list, and messages get fast replies.
2. Build up the roofing profile and its reviews. LSA ranks on them, and Search ads show them.
3. Apply for Local Services Ads. License, insurance and business name matching, then three to four weeks for verification.
4. Set up tracking. Call tracking, form conversions and CRM sources before spending.
5. Build landing pages. Repair, replacement and storm, each with a call button and form.
6. Launch Search campaigns. Repair and replacement separate, exact and phrase match, full negative list.
7. Review weekly. Search terms, lead feedback and calls. Cut what doesn't book.
8. Judge monthly on signed jobs. Shift budget to the campaigns with the lowest cost per signed job.

Ads work best alongside the rest of the system: see our roofing marketing guide, the roofing lead generation guide, and our HVAC guide comparing Local Services Ads and Google Ads, which applies to roofers too.

FAQ