Roofing is one of the highest-value trades for Google Ads. A new roof or major repair can be worth £3,000–£15,000+, meaning even £50 per lead is outstanding ROI. But it’s also competitive. Here’s how to do it properly.

Why Google Ads Works So Well for Roofers

Roofing work is almost always urgent. A leak, a missing tile after a storm, a cracked flat roof — these need fixing now. Customers searching “roofer Leeds” or “emergency roof repair Bradford” are ready to book. That high buying intent makes Google Ads very effective.

The Keywords That Convert for Roofers

  • “emergency roofer [your city]”
  • “roof repair [your city]”
  • “flat roof repair [your city]”
  • “new roof installation [your city]”
  • “roof leak repair [your city]”

Use Exact Match and Phrase Match. Avoid broad terms like “roofing” — too much wasted spend on irrelevant searches.

Negative Keywords Are Critical

Build an extensive negative list: “DIY”, “how to”, “jobs”, “salary”, “courses”, “apprenticeship”, “materials”. Review your search terms report weekly. Poorly managed negatives can burn 40% of your budget on useless clicks.

Your Roofing Landing Page Must Convert

Your landing page needs: phone number at top (clickable), before/after photos of real roofing jobs, accreditations (NFRC), Google review count, a simple quote request form, and clear service area. Match the landing page content exactly to the ad keyword.

Track Calls, Not Just Forms

Most roofing jobs are booked by phone. Set up call tracking as a conversion. If you only track form submissions, you’re optimising to the wrong signal and your campaigns will underperform.

Realistic Budget Expectations

Roofing keywords cost £5–£25 per click in competitive markets. A £1,000/month budget generates roughly 50–200 clicks. Target a 10–15% conversion rate = 5–30 leads per month. At an average job value of £2,000+, that’s an excellent return.

Emergency vs Planned Work: Split Your Campaigns

The single biggest structural mistake we see in roofing accounts is one campaign trying to serve two completely different customers. The homeowner searching “emergency roof repair” with water coming through the ceiling behaves nothing like the one searching “new roof cost” who will take three quotes over six weeks. They need different ads, different landing pages and different bids.

Split them. An emergency campaign runs on urgent terms, points at a page with a phone number front and centre, promises fast attendance, and bids aggressively because the searcher hires the first roofer who answers. A planned-work campaign runs on research terms, points at a page with photos, reviews and a quote form, and can afford lower bids because the decision takes weeks. Once split, you can see what each type of work actually costs you and put budget where the margin is, rather than letting storm-week clicks eat the budget that was meant to win re-roofs.

Seasonality: Budget Like a Roofer, Not a Robot

Roofing demand is not flat, and your budget should not be either. High winds and heavy rain spike emergency searches within hours; long dry spells favour planned work enquiries. A fixed daily budget means you are capped out during the exact weeks the phone would ring most, and quietly overspending on thin weeks.

The practical version: check the account weekly, lift budgets when weather is turning, and let the emergency campaign breathe during storm periods rather than rationing it. If a bad-weather week doubles your enquiries at the same cost per lead, that is not overspend; that is harvest. Keep notes on what each season did this year and next year’s budgeting is already half done.

The Negative Keyword List to Start With

Roofing has an expensive amount of search traffic that will never become a paying customer. Before the campaign spends a pound, load negatives for: “jobs”, “salary”, “apprenticeship”, “course”, “training”, “DIY”, “how to”, “materials”, “supplies”, “felt”, “kit”, “calculator”, “grants”, and “free”. Add your own as search terms come in; the search terms report is a weekly five-minute read that pays for itself more reliably than any bid tweak. Every pound not spent on a student researching flat roof materials is a pound available for the homeowner with a leak.

See our Google Ads service for trades or book a free campaign audit.

About the author

Jamie Laird is the founder of Grwthhub, a marketing agency for trade businesses in Leeds and Yorkshire. Before marketing he spent a decade on the trade side as a quantity surveyor, pricing and running jobs for builders and contractors, which is why the advice here leans practical rather than theoretical. Read more about Jamie and Grwthhub or get in touch.