If you're a roofing company owner trying to figure out what to spend on marketing, you've probably gotten wildly different answers. Some agency is telling you they can get leads for $15. Another one wants $10,000/month minimum.
Here's the reality — and the number that actually matters.
Stop Measuring Cost Per Lead
Cost per lead is a vanity metric. Full stop.
You can get $15 leads all day from Angi. They send them to 5 other roofers too. Your close rate is 5%. That's a $300 cost per sale on a $15 lead.
Now compare: our clients typically see $35-50/lead with a 25-35% close rate. That's a $140-$200 cost per sale — and the revenue per job varies by market, but the math almost always works in your favor.
The math is clear. Cheap leads are expensive. Expensive leads can be cheap. The only number that matters is cost per sale.
What You Should Actually Spend
| Monthly Ad Spend | Expected Leads | Expected Sales* | Typical Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | 50-100 | 12-25 | Varies by market |
| $10,000 | 150-250 | 37-62 | Varies by market |
| $20,000 | 300-500 | 75-125 | Varies by market |
| $30,000+ | 500+ | 125+ | Varies by market |
*Assumes 25% close rate on exclusive leads. Revenue depends on your market and average contract size.
On top of ad spend, management fees typically run 25-30% of spend.
What Drives the Cost
1. Your Market Dense metro areas cost more. Phoenix and Dallas are more competitive than Boise.
2. Your Platforms Google Search costs more per lead than Facebook, but converts higher. Google Demand Gen (which we pioneered for roofing) often delivers the best cost per sale across any platform.
3. Your Follow-Up The best campaigns in the world won't save you if your team takes 4 hours to call back. Speed to lead is everything.
4. Your Attribution If you don't know which ads drive actual sales, you're optimizing blind. Ad-level attribution to the sale is the single biggest unlock for most roofing companies.
What to Watch Out For
- Agencies that brag about low CPL — ask them what your cost per SALE is. If they can't answer, they're not tracking it.
- Long-term contracts — if the results are good, you'll stay. Contracts protect the agency, not you.
- Black box campaigns — if they run ads in their own accounts and won't give you access, run.
- Single-platform dependency — if your entire pipeline is one Facebook campaign, you're one algorithm change from zero leads.
The Bottom Line
Good roofing marketing isn't cheap. But when it's done right — tracked to the sale, diversified across platforms — the return on investment can be significant. Results vary by market, but the key is working with a partner who's as obsessed with your revenue as you are.