How to get more roofing leads (and stop losing the ones you already get)

Start with the roofing leads you are already losing

Most advice on how to get more roofing leads starts with spending. We would start with the phone. In October 2026 our calls reached 125 roofing companies between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. their time. A person picked up 51 of them. 63 rang out without reaching anyone, and 10 went to voicemail. Roofing had the lowest answer rate of the three trades we called; HVAC was 54% and plumbing 48%.

A homeowner with a leak doesn’t leave a voicemail and wait. They call the next roofer on Google. If your phone goes unanswered half the time during a workday, every new lead source you add loses half its value before it starts. Forwarding unanswered calls to an answering service is the quick fix; the options are in our roofing answering service page and the contractor answering service guide.

Google Business Profile (free)

For “roofer near me” searches, the map results come from Google Business Profiles. Google’s own local ranking tips name three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. It says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. What that means in practice:

• Fill in every field: services (repair, replacement, inspections, gutters), service area and hours.
• Ask every happy customer for a review the day you finish the job, while the crew is still in the driveway. A text with the review link works better than an email a week later.
• Reply to every review, good and bad. Google says replying shows you value the feedback.
• Post photos of real jobs: before and after, tear-offs, the crew. They show you do the work you list.

Google Local Services Ads

Local Services Ads sit above everything else and charge per lead. Roofing runs high: 99 Calls’ campaign data puts roofing at $106.87 a lead for April to June 2026, up from $73.62 a year earlier. Google ranks these ads partly on how responsive you are, so missed calls cost you twice. Our LSA cost per lead guide has the benchmarks and how to work out cost per booked job.

Angi, Thumbtack and other lead sites

Lead sites are the fastest way to get roofing leads this week, and the easiest way to lose money. Reported roofing prices are about $25 to $60 per lead on Angi and $35 to $70 on Thumbtack, and each request goes to several roofers. They pay off when you call within minutes and track what each booked estimate costs you. Thumbtack vs Angi leads compares the two.

Referrals, yard signs and the neighbors

A roof replacement is visible to the whole street for a week. Put a yard sign up with the homeowner’s permission, knock on the doors either side to say you’ll be making noise, and leave a card. Ask past customers for referrals when you send the final invoice and again a few months later. Real estate agents and home inspectors see roofs that need work every week, so a few of them on your side can send steady jobs.

After a storm

Hail and wind bring a rush of calls and a rush of out-of-town crews. Homeowners call several roofers at once and book whoever shows up first with a clear inspection time. This is when an unanswered phone costs the most, because ten people can call in the same hour. If you can’t take the calls yourself, set up a way to cover them before storm season starts.

Old quotes and past customers

Every quote that didn’t close is a homeowner who needed a roof and liked you enough to let you in. Many of them never hired anyone, or still need gutters or a repair. A call round to quotes from the last 6 to 18 months, in a slow month, is the cheapest roofing lead source there is. HelloSetter’s Call old leads feature does this automatically for customers who gave consent.

How much each roofing lead source costs

How to get more HVAC leads works the same way

The same list applies to HVAC, with one difference: demand comes in heat waves and cold snaps instead of storms, and HVAC calls are more often urgent. In our calls, HVAC shops picked up 54% of the time, better than roofers but still nearly one call in two missed. The HVAC answering service page covers forwarding those calls.