Roofing Business Advertising Tips: How to Get Leads Fast

As a roofer, you not only face challenges while on the job, like safety and bad weather, but also with staying competitive and getting more jobs. With 112,592 roofing contractors in the U.S., according to IBISWorld, competition is steep.

But with a little help from advertising, you can beat the competition and win more customers. In years past, roofing companies spent thousands advertising in the yellow pages of their local phone book and paid double that figure for a newspaper ad.

Thankfully, marketing trends have changed. You no longer have to spend an arm and a leg on advertising, nor do you need years of experience to stay competitive. Learn how to advertise your roofing business and get new leads fast.

5 Advertising Channels to Consider for Your Roofing Business

Sometimes it’s difficult to know how to stand out and grab your share of the work. One way is through advertising on marketing channels like Angi that make sense without jeopardizing your bottom line. 

Using one or two roofing advertising tactics instead of spreading your budget too thin is much more beneficial when you have a plan with concrete goals in mind. 

We’ve broken the five advertising ideas below down by cost, experience level, and pros and cons, so you can decide what’s right for your business and budget.

1. Lead Generation Services

General cost: $$

Experience level: Beginner

Lead generation focuses on people who are already in the market for your services. Your roofing company can’t afford to market to everyone, so concentrating your efforts on those most interested in a roofing job is just good business. Also, lead generation can take indecisive prospects and turn them into customers.

Methods used for generating leads include:

Organic Results

• Search engine optimization (SEO)

• Word of mouth

• Referrals from customers

• Local builders recommending your business

• Like and share posts and tweets with local businesses on social media

Inorganic Results

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

• Google AdWords

• Bing AdWords

• Lead generation services

Learn the pros and cons of using lead generation services for your roofing business:

Pros

• Easy way to get more qualified leads

• Allows roofing contractors to focus on jobs and customers rather than sales

• Affordable: You set the budget and only spend what you can afford

Cons

• Can be hard to manage a lot of leads at once (unless you have access to software or tools)

• Might need to hire employees to take on more business

Using Angi for lead generation can help you grow your business and increase your exposure to millions of local homeowners looking for contractors just like you. 

You can showcase your work and show off your roofing projects, proving you are the best for the job. You can also request feedback for past projects and build credibility for your business.

2. Email Marketing

General Cost: $ to $$ (but outsourcing campaigns to an agency can add up to a lot more)Experience level: Beginner to intermediate

Email is a popular advertising channel, and rightfully so. According to OptinMonster, email marketing yields about $44 for each $1 spent or a 4,400 percent return on your investment. 

Nearly every kind of business uses email to communicate services and promotions and keep in touch with customers. For budget-friendly options (most services have a free plan up to a set amount of subscribers) try MailChimp, HubSpot, MailJet, and Sender.

It’s important to tailor your content to meet the needs and interests of your customers, so it doesn’t end up overlooked. 

When used as a part of your marketing efforts, email offers dozens of benefits to roofing companies:

Pros

• Gain trust with targeted and personal emails

• Build brand identity and credibility

• Strengthen customer relationships with email

• Boost sales and maximize your budget

• Increase traffic to your website

Cons

• Overcrowded inboxes

• Competition for your emails to be read

• Email formatting can be inconsistent

• Can be time-consuming to set up email campaigns

• Cold leads can end up in spam folders

3. Social Media

General Cost: $$ (paid advertising can add up)Experience level: Beginner to intermediate

Many businesses are hesitant to add social media into their marketing plans because of the time commitment. However, the fact that millions of people access social media every day means this type of marketing is invaluable for increasing brand awareness and staying competitive.

Advertising on social media can impact your business in a good way. You may choose to use one platform for a while and change it up and use another to see which works best. 

Try the paid advertising on the platforms below to see which ones resonate with your target market:

• Instagram

• Twitter

• YouTube

• Pinterest

• Facebook

Keep in mind that there is a difference between paid and organic posting.

• Paid social videos, photos, ads, and content can help you reach a larger audience, but be mindful not to go over your budget.

• Organic posts (photos and content you post yourself) are free.

Still on the fence about whether to add social media to your marketing strategy? Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros

• Reach a larger audience

• Build brand awareness for your roofing company

• Increase traffic to your site

• Boost conversions (more leads, more jobs)

Cons

• Can be costly depending what you pay per click

• Challenging to find the right audiences to target per ad

• May be time-consuming to set up ads

• Ads don’t always end up achieving the goals you set

4. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising

General Cost: $ to $$Experience level: Intermediate to advanced

PPC is an online advertising tool where you run ads on a platform such as 

Google (like Google Ads). You then pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. There are search ads, shopping ads, display ads, video ads, and Gmail ads.

Basically, with PPC, you buy visits to your website rather than earning visits organically/naturally when people do a general search for roofing companies.  

It works like this: You bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links. A potential customer looking for roofing services searches for a keyword that’s related to your business. For example, if you bid on the keyword “roofing,” your ad might show up on the very top of Google’s results page.

Pros

• Reach people who have already visited your website

• Easy to measure results with PPC

• PPC campaigns are easy to set up and monitor

• PPC provides an element of control over your advertising

Cons

• It’s expensive. Expect to pay $1 to $2 per click to advertise on Google

• PPC may not be as effective as other forms of advertising

• Conversions to your website depend on choosing the right keywords

5. Referrals and Partnerships

General Cost: $Experience level: Beginner 

Over time, you can grow your roofing business with referrals from previous customers. A recommendation from someone happy with the quality of your work can do wonders when marketing to new customers.

In the same way, business partnerships can connect you with the tools to help you grow your business. A partnership can be a smart way to tap into the other company’s reputation and succeed in a new market. This is especially true if you are new to an area or just starting out. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of referrals and partnerships for roofers.

Pros

• Word-of-mouth referrals are free

• It builds trust in your company

• Partnerships can promote your service and cast a wider net (you might pay a certain amount per lead, depending on the partnership)

Cons

• Might lead to more business than you can handle

• Could be challenging to raise prices

• Partnerships can complicate marketing decisions

Before You Advertise

Advertising promotes your business and gives your customers insight into your brand. It can be pricey or completely free. However, anything done well comes at a cost in terms of time and energy. 

When planning to advertise your roofing business, there are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Who will handle your marketing? Do you have the staff to manage your advertising efforts?

• Is your website up to date? It does little good for your business to have decade-old photos showing your work.

• Do you have a budget? Nail down a budget and stick to it.

• Have you set goals? What do you expect to get from advertising your roofing business? More customers, exposure, brand awareness, conversions, or all of the above?

• How will you measure results? If you’re running a promotion, it’s easy to measure success if you see positive results. If you’re building your brand, measuring results can be a bit harder.

Looking for a fresh way to advertise your roofing business? Save time and energy—and get more qualified leads—by signing up for Angi Ads today.