Guides · Get found on Google

How to Get Roofing Leads: Buy Them or Build Your Own?

Where roofers get their work, what bought leads really cost per job, and a 12-month plan to bring in your own roofing enquiries without paying for each one.

By Sachin Shah · 17 October 2026 · 7 min read

Quick answer: Roofers can buy leads from lead sellers and directories, or build their own through Google Maps, reviews, a website and referrals. Bought leads are fast but often shared with other roofers, so judge them on cost per job won, not cost per lead. Your own leads take longer to build but cost far less over time. Most roofers do best using both, then relying less on bought leads each year.

Roofing work tends to come in waves. A storm hits and the phone won’t stop. Then it goes quiet. The roofers who stay busy all year usually have more than one source of work, and they know what each one costs them.

Where roofing leads come from

Source	Cost	Speed	Shared with other roofers?
Lead sellers (pay per lead)	A fee per lead	Fast	Often
Lead sellers (monthly packages)	Monthly fee, often including ad spend	Fast	Sometimes exclusive
Directories (Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and others)	Membership or per-lead fees	Fast to medium	Often
Google Business Profile	Free	Medium	No
Your own website	One-off build plus hosting	Slower to start	No
Referrals and past customers	Free	Varies	No
Your own Google Ads	What you choose to spend	Fast	No

Bought leads: what to ask before you pay

Lead sellers run adverts, collect enquiries and sell them on. Some sell each lead to several roofers. Others sell exclusive leads by area, usually on a monthly package. Before you sign up, ask:

1. How many other roofers get the same lead?
2. How is each lead checked? Is the phone number real? Is it in your area?
3. What happens with a bad lead? Do you get a credit?
4. Is there a contract? How do you cancel?

Cost per lead is the wrong number

A £20 lead sounds cheap. But if it’s shared with three other roofers and you win one in ten, each job has cost you £200. A £60 exclusive lead you win one in three times costs £180 per job. The cheaper lead turned out dearer.

Work it out every month:

1. Total spent on bought leads
2. Number of jobs won from them
3. Spend divided by jobs won

Building your own leads

These take longer, but once they’re working, nobody else gets the call.

• Google Business Profile. Set up your services (“roof repairs”, “flat roofs”, “chimney repairs”, “guttering”), your areas and plenty of photos. Our Google Business Profile guide shows you how.
• Reviews. Ask every happy customer, on the day the job finishes. A roofer with 80 recent reviews gets the call over one with five. See how to get more Google reviews.
• A website with a page for each service and town. Someone searching “flat roof repair Bromley” should land on a page about exactly that. See service area pages for tradespeople.
• Trust signals. Show memberships such as the NFRC or a manufacturer’s approved installer scheme, your insurance and any guarantees you offer.

Referrals and repeat work

• Other trades. Builders, plasterers, scaffolders and loft converters all come across roofs that need work. Swap numbers.
• Past customers. Send a text before winter offering a gutter clean or roof check.
• Letting agents and property managers. They need reliable roofers year round.

Be ready for storms

When a named storm is coming, demand jumps overnight. The roofers who win are already easy to find, answer the phone, and reply to every enquiry quickly. If you can’t answer on a roof, set up a missed-call text so nobody rings the next name instead.

A 12-month plan

Month	What to do
1	Set up your Google Business Profile fully. Start asking every customer for a review
2	Get a website with a page for each main service
3	Start tracking where every job comes from
4 to 6	Add pages for your main towns. Keep one bought lead source running
7 to 9	Text past customers before autumn. Build links with other trades
10 to 12	Compare cost per job for every source. Cut the ones that don’t pay

By the end of the year, most roofers following a plan like this need far fewer bought leads.

Want help with it?

We build websites for roofers and other trades, set up your Google profile, and help you follow up quotes so you win more of the work you already get. Websites start at £99, and a site of up to 10 pages is £249. See our prices or get a free website check.

Sachin Shah, founder of SS Consultancy Group. Sachin started his career making cold calls and has spent more than ten years helping businesses grow their sales. He now builds websites and sales systems for small businesses in London and across the UK.