A good roofing slogan says one true thing a homeowner can check, such as the town you work in or what you send after an inspection. Write it to fit 30 characters, the most a Google ad headline holds, and keep it out of your Google Business Profile name, where Google doesn’t allow taglines.
The table below gives lines you can adapt and the proof each one needs before it goes on a truck.
These slogans tell a homeowner something they can check
Swap in your own town, year and terms. Each line runs 30 characters or fewer with Arlington in it, so count again after you put in your own town name.
| Slogan | What it tells a homeowner | What you need before it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Arlington’s roofer since 2009 | You’re local and you’ve lasted | The year you started roofing there |
| Locally owned in Arlington | The owner lives and works nearby | An owner and an office in that town |
| Roof repairs and replacements | You take small jobs as well as full roofs | Repair jobs on your books |
| Storm repairs, start to finish | You handle the whole storm job | Every step done by you, or a plain answer on who does it |
| Flat roofs for Arlington shops | You do commercial low-slope work | Flat-roof jobs you can show |
| Photos of every inspection | You show the damage instead of describing it | Photos sent after every inspection |
| Written estimates in 48 hours | They get a number in writing fast | A process that hits 48 hours every time |
| The owner checks every roof | The owner has seen their roof in person | The owner on every job |
| 10-year workmanship warranty | You stand behind the labor | A written warranty with those terms |
A longer version belongs under your name on an estimate or the back of a business card, for example “Roof repair and replacement in Arlington since 2009, with photos of every inspection.” Keep any line from the table you can’t back today off the truck until you can.
A slogan that promises a result needs proof before it runs
The FTC says advertising must be truthful and not deceptive, and that the advertiser needs proof before the ad runs. It treats a claim made by inference the same as one stated outright. “Never a leak” reads as a promise that the roof won’t leak, and that is the promise you’d have to back. “Lowest price in town” and “Arlington’s #1 roofer” need proof too, because each one states something a homeowner could ask you to measure.
Lines a customer judges for themselves get less FTC attention; the FTC’s own example is “ABC Cola tastes great.” Less attention is still no exemption. “Quality you can trust” has a plainer problem as well: it tells a homeowner nothing about your company in particular.
Under the FTC’s substantiation policy, the proof you need depends on the type of claim, the harm if it turns out false, and what experts in the field would accept. Every state also has its own consumer protection law covering ads that run there. Before a line goes on a wrap or a billboard, write the record that backs it next to it, and if you can’t, rewrite the line.
Google bans taglines in your Business Profile name
Google’s rules don’t allow marketing taglines in a business name. Its own examples: “TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank” should read “TD Bank”, and “GNC Live Well” should read “GNC”. Google says it can suspend profiles that break these rules, and that the name should match the one you use on your storefront, website and stationery. A profile named “Arlington Roofing | Storm Repairs Start to Finish” puts the listing at risk.
The slogan can go in the profile description, which holds up to 750 characters. Google suggests the description cover what you offer, what makes you special, how long you’ve been in business and anything else helpful for customers to know. It asks you to keep out URLs and HTML and to write about the business instead of promotions, prices or sales. Google doesn’t mention slogans there, but a line about your town or your inspection photos fits those rules, and a line like “Roofs from $X” doesn’t. Open the description with the slogan and spend the rest on the jobs you take and the towns you cover.
A Google ad shows your slogan every time only if you pin it
A responsive search ad takes up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, and Google mixes them in different combinations and orders.
Headlines 2 and 3 aren’t guaranteed to appear at all. Only a pinned headline stays locked to its slot, and Google advises against pinning except for essentials like legal disclaimers.
Roofing Ad Examples From Google and Facebook, and Why Each Works shows how the other headlines around a slogan are written. Pin the slogan to Headline 1 only if it carries something every ad needs. Otherwise add it unpinned as one of your headlines, and put the longer version in a description, which holds up to 90 characters.
A common phrase is hard to register as a trademark
Slogans can be registered as US trademarks, but the USPTO is likely to refuse a phrase people use in everyday speech for an ordinary idea, because it doesn’t point to one company. “Quality you can trust” would likely be refused on those grounds. If you want to register a slogan, pick one only your company would say, and have a trademark attorney look at it before you pay for a wrap.
Write your own from what you can already prove
- List the facts a homeowner could check: the year you started, the towns you work, the jobs you take and turn down, what you send after an inspection, and what your written warranty covers.
- Pick the one homeowners ask about first when they call.
- Write it short enough for an ad headline, and count the characters, spaces included.
- Next to it, note the record that proves it. With no record, pick another fact.
- Search the line in quotes with your town name to see whether a roofer nearby already uses it.
- Use the same wording on the truck, the cards, the website and the profile description, so a homeowner who saw the truck recognizes the card.
Roofing Business Cards: Examples and What to Print on Them covers where the line sits on a card. If you haven’t settled the company name yet, do that first, because the slogan sits under it everywhere: How to Name a Roofing Company, and When to Rebrand.
Check these before the slogan goes on anything you pay to print
- It says one thing a homeowner can check.
- It fits a Google ad headline as written.
- You have proof on file for anything it promises, stated or implied.
- It sits in your profile description and nowhere in your business name.
- It reads the same on the truck, the cards, the site and the profile.
Homeowners only read your profile description when their search turns up your profile. To see where that happens, run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.