Film inspections and tear-offs on your own jobs, then show that footage to homeowners at the sales meeting and post short clips on your Google Business Profile. No public figures show how many roofing calls or jobs video ads and YouTube bring in. YouTube charges for views and showings of an ad, so give any paid video ad its own tracking number before it runs.
Start with footage you can show a homeowner at the kitchen table
A roofing rep on r/RoofingSales brings an iPad to the sales meeting and shows homeowners videos of his crew doing a tear-off, using them as a pitch book. Another rep says drone footage lets the homeowner see the roof without him climbing up and possibly altering something for the photos. In his words, it “Kind of has a trust factor built in.”
Keep the footage sharp. A rep passed along a carrier adjuster’s explanation that drone images get rejected because many roofers use low-quality drones with heavy zoom, which causes motion blur.
Film every inspection and tear-off for the next month, holding the camera still on each piece of damage, and load the clearest clips on the tablet you bring to the sales meeting.
Cut each finished job into a short clip for your Google profile
As of October 2026, Google Business Profile accepts videos up to 30 seconds long and 75 MB in size. A walk around the finished roof or a few seconds of the crew at work fits those limits, and the same clip can go on the tablet.
Google says a new video can take 24 to 48 hours to show on the profile after upload, so wait that long before deciding the upload failed.
Post one clip from each job the week the crew finishes it.
YouTube bills for views and showings, so give each ad its own phone number
Skippable in-stream ads play before, during or after YouTube videos and on Google’s video partner sites and apps, and the viewer can skip after 5 seconds. With cost-per-view bidding you pay once someone watches 30 seconds of the ad (all of it, if it’s shorter) or clicks something on it, whichever comes first.
With Target CPM bidding you pay for every thousand times the ad is shown, and Google spreads it across as many different people as it can. Either way, Google bills for the ad being watched or shown, whether or not anyone calls.
Put your company name and the towns you serve on screen before the skip button appears, so a homeowner who skips still knows who you are.
Give every video ad its own tracking phone number before it runs, and have the office ask every caller where they saw you. How to Track Which Marketing Brings In Your Roofing Jobs walks through the setup.
One vertical clip fits Facebook Reels ads and YouTube Shorts
A roofer outside a storm market wrote that door-knocking for insurance work doesn’t fit there, and that “Google pay per click makes sense but is expensive.” The plan was to try short-form video ads on Facebook for leads instead.
As of October 2026, Meta recommends vertical 9:16 video at 1080 by 1920 for Reels ads, saved as an MP4 or MOV file.
YouTube treats a square or vertical upload of up to three minutes as a Short, so a clip shot upright on a phone can run as a Reels ad and post as a Short.
A copywriter who writes video ads for home improvement contractors, roofers included, says a polished but generic video ad now “reads as an ad instantly.” People scroll past it, and the cost per lead creeps up.
Shoot the ad the way you shoot an inspection, with you or a crew lead on a real roof.
The FTC bans fake testimonials, AI-generated customers included
Someone who runs Facebook ads for a roofing company in Oklahoma and Florida called AI spokesperson videos their biggest recent win for ad creative, crediting strong hooks and the trust they built. An AI presenter in your ad should never speak as one of your customers.
The FTC’s Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule took effect October 21, 2024. It bans testimonials from people who don’t exist, AI-generated people among them, or from people who never had a real experience with the business.
The same rule bans offering a homeowner a reward on the condition that their review or testimonial is positive. It also bans buying fake views or followers, such as bot-generated ones, when you knew or should have known they were fake. The FTC can seek civil penalties for each knowing violation.
Put only real customers on camera, and never tie a discount to a good word. Turn down any vendor selling bot views or followers.
Unpaid Facebook posts from roofers draw little response
We checked 18 roofer Facebook pages. Three had posted within two weeks, and none of those posts earned a comment.
A new social media coordinator at a roofing and construction company reported Facebook and Instagram posts reaching no more than 60 people, against 700 to 1,500 views on each TikTok post. All of those accounts were small, and a view is not a call.
If you post for free, reuse the clips you cut for the tablet and the Google profile, and ask callers whether they saw one. Does Social Media Bring Roofing Jobs? covers unpaid posting in more depth.
Flying a drone for marketing takes an FAA Part 107 certificate
Anyone flying a drone for work or business needs an FAA Remote Pilot Certificate under Part 107, and that includes filming roofs for marketing. The drone must weigh under 55 pounds.
To get the certificate a pilot must be at least 16, able to read, write, speak and understand English, fit to fly safely, and pass the FAA’s initial aeronautical knowledge test. After that, the pilot has to finish the FAA’s free online recurrent training every 24 calendar months to keep flying commercially.
The rep who praised drone footage also said he lacked the certification, so check before anyone in your company flies for a job.
A tile roofing owner whose drone is Part 107 certified still asked other roofers about the legal and ethical side of flying over single-family neighborhoods to spot broken tile and offer repairs. Read the FAA’s rules on airspace and on flying over people before you fly over homes nobody hired you to look at. Drones for Roof Inspections: The FAA License and Which Drone to Buy covers the test and the hardware.
Check these before you film or pay for a video ad
- Film the next month of inspections and tear-offs, holding still on the damage.
- Post a clip of each finished job to your Google Business Profile.
- Give every video ad its own tracking number before it runs.
- Show your name and the towns you serve before a YouTube ad can be skipped.
- Shoot ads on a real roof, with you or a crew lead on camera.
- Put only real customers on camera, with nothing offered for a good word.
- Fly only with a Part 107 certificate, and keep the recurrent training on the calendar.
A clip on your Google profile is seen only by people who find the profile, so it helps to know where on the map you show up. 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.