Ranked by what a signed job costs, referrals and your free Google Maps listing come first, because a homeowner who says no costs you nothing. Door knocking and Google’s Local Services Ads (LSA) sit in the middle: knocking costs time at every door, and LSA charges for each lead Google counts as valid. Mailers and leads bought from sites like Angi come last, because you pay for every house a mailer reaches and every lead a seller sends, whether or not anyone signs.
Cost per job is what a lead source cost you divided by the jobs it signed. I found no published figure for roofing, so the last section shows how to work out yours.
| Lead source | What you pay for | What a homeowner who says no costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Referrals and reviews | Nothing up front | Nothing |
| Your Google Business Profile | Nothing, and Google takes no payment for a better Maps rank | Nothing |
| Door knocking | Time at every door | The knocker’s time |
| Local Services Ads | Each lead Google counts as valid | The lead’s price, unless Google judges it invalid |
| Mailers and yard signs | Every house a mailer reaches, before anyone calls | The whole drop |
| Bought leads, such as Angi | Every lead a seller sends | The lead’s price |
Referrals cost nothing up front, and the FTC bans paying for good reviews
A roofing owner wrote in a YouTube comment that he went through 4 marketers in one year, and that referrals, plus a few insurance and church jobs, carried the year.
The FTC’s review rule, in force since October 21, 2024, bans creating or buying fake reviews. It also bans rewarding a customer for a review on the condition that the review says something positive. Knowing violations can draw civil penalties of up to $53,088 each, the amount the FTC announced in 2024. Asking every customer for an honest review is untouched by the rule.
Google says positive reviews and helpful replies can help a business stand out. Ask for the review and the referral on the same visit once the job is done, and reply to every review you get, the bad ones included.
Google says no one can pay for a better Maps ranking
Google’s help page on local ranking says, “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Local Services Ads and Search ads are separate placements you pay for.
A Pennsylvania roofing and siding owner wrote on r/PPC, “Most of our leads have come from our Google Business Profile and LSAs.”
Google names three things that mainly decide local results. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search, and distance is how far your business is from the person searching. Prominence is how well known the business is, and it draws on signals such as links and review count.
Because distance counts, where you show up depends on where the homeowner searches from. Your office address stays put, so work on the other two: make your profile’s services and description name the jobs you want, and gather reviews and links from other websites. For the setup, see Google Business Profile for Roofers: Setup and What Moves Maps Rankings.
Door knocking costs time, and homeowners get three business days to cancel
A roofing owner grossing about $10k a week called door knocking “my most effective lead gen” on r/Entrepreneur. He said his roofing work stopped during a month when he couldn’t knock.
A rep two weeks into roofing door knocking reported about 100 doors and 1 to 3 leads a day. How many of those leads sign decides each knocker’s cost per job, so log signed jobs by knocker.
One contracting company owner wrote in a YouTube comment, “I can’t keep canvassers to save my life,” and moved to social media and home shows instead.
The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule lets a buyer cancel a sale over $25 made at their home until midnight of the third business day, and Saturday counts as a business day. The seller must give a dated contract or receipt that explains the right to cancel, plus two copies of a cancellation form.
The rule leaves out a repair or maintenance visit the homeowner asked for, though anything sold beyond that repair is covered. A cold knock is a visit the homeowner never asked for, so put dated contracts and cancellation forms in every knocker’s folder.
Local Services Ads are moving into Google Ads, so save your reports first
Google is moving LSA into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. The move began in August 2026 for select US home-service advertisers, and roofing is named in that first group. Broader groups follow in late 2026, and accounts outside the US follow in 2027.
Under LSA, Google doesn’t charge for a lead it judges invalid at first contact. Its models recheck charged leads and may credit low-quality ones automatically, and you can report a bad lead in that lead’s feedback survey. Google publishes no roofing lead price and says the price varies by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode. For budgets and disputes, see Google Local Services Ads for Roofers: Budget, Cost per Lead and Disputes.
After the move, Google says advertisers “still only pay for valid leads (such as phone calls and messages) rather than ad clicks.” Account admins get an email 14 days before their account moves and a reminder 7 days before.
LSA performance reports don’t carry over, and the separate LSA dashboard is retired. Download your reports when the first email arrives, and keep them beside your own record of which leads signed.
Mailers and yard signs cost money before anyone calls
USPS lists Every Door Direct Mail postage at $0.26 a piece at Retail. At that rate a 5,000-piece drop, the most a Retail mailing can send to one ZIP Code in a day, costs $1,300 before printing.
The Retail minimum is 200 pieces, or $52 in postage. Mail the minimum near a roof you just finished, using a phone number that appears nowhere else, and count the signed jobs before you mail more.
One owner who put yard signs up at intersections wrote that police warned him it was illegal, with fines starting at $1,000 per sign after the warning. Local ordinances set sign rules, so keep signs in customers’ yards with their permission and check your city’s rule before you plant one anywhere else.
Bought leads come last, and HomeAdvisor’s lead sales drew a 2023 FTC order
One contractor reported closing 4 jobs from a batch of Angi leads. By his account he made about $650 on those jobs and owed Angi $482.
An Arizona contractor wrote that Angi sends the same lead to too many companies and charges every one of them $35 to $100 for it.
In April 2023 the FTC approved a final order requiring HomeAdvisor, an Angi company, to pay up to $7.2 million in redress over how it sold leads to service providers. The FTC alleged that since at least mid-2014 HomeAdvisor had misrepresented the quality and source of its leads, and had claimed they turned into jobs at rates much higher than it could back up.
If you buy leads, ask the seller how many other companies get each one, and judge the seller by the jobs its leads signed for you.
Count what each lead source signed before you add another
A commenter on r/Construction listed what a new roofing company pays for: subscriptions for hail tracking, a CRM for customer records, a dialer and email blasts, then mailers and Facebook and Google marketing on top. The Pennsylvania owner from r/PPC spent a few thousand dollars on Google Search Ads, then asked whether anyone had made them work for roofing.
Before you add a lead source, write down what each current one cost you last quarter and how many jobs it signed, and divide, so the new one has a number to beat. For the setup, see How to Track Which Marketing Brings In Your Roofing Jobs.
- Ask every finished customer for a referral and an honest review, and never pay for a good one.
- Make your Google profile’s services and description name the jobs you want.
- Give every knocker dated contracts and cancellation forms.
- Download your LSA reports when Google’s first migration email arrives.
- Test mailers at the USPS minimum with a phone number used nowhere else.
- Ask any lead seller how many companies get each lead.
- Divide each lead source’s cost by its signed jobs every quarter.
The free Maps listing tops this ranking, so start by seeing where your map ends. 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.