Roofing is one of the most expensive categories in paid search, and one of the most volatile. Demand arrives in bursts after weather events, competitors bid aggressively during those bursts, and the same click that costs a modest amount in February can cost several times that in the week after a hailstorm. A roofing PPC agency that is good at this manages the volatility deliberately: budgets that flex, geography that follows the damage, negative keywords that keep the DIY and job seeker traffic out, and lead tracking honest enough that you can see cost per booked job rather than cost per click. This page sets out what to check before you hand over an account.
Storm demand is the whole game, and most accounts ignore it
Roofing demand is not smooth. A single storm can multiply searches in specific zip codes for a fortnight and then return them to baseline, and an account running a fixed daily budget across a fixed radius will spend the same money at wildly different values through that cycle. Ask any candidate how they respond in the first forty eight hours after a weather event: whether they raise budgets, whether they tighten geography onto the affected areas, whether they change ad copy and landing pages to speak to storm damage and insurance claims, and crucially who has the authority to make those changes without a meeting. An agency that reviews accounts weekly is a poor fit for a business whose best week of the year can be over before the review happens.
Where roofing budgets actually leak
Four leaks account for most wasted spend. Geography that pays for clicks outside the radius you will actually drive, usually because the campaign targets a metro rather than a set of zip codes. Broad keywords that catch people researching how to fix a leak themselves, roofing job seekers and material suppliers. Missing negative keyword discipline, which is not a one-time task but a weekly one. And landing pages where the phone number is hard to reach on a small screen, which matters enormously because most roofing enquiries arrive by phone from someone standing outside looking at a ceiling stain. Ask to see the negative keyword list from a comparable account and the mobile landing page they intend to use. Both are concrete, both are cheap to inspect, and both predict performance better than the deck.
Counting leads honestly, and the recording question
Because the channel is phone-led, tracking has to capture calls or the reporting is fiction. Agree in writing what counts: a minimum call duration, exclusion of wrong numbers, suppliers and existing customers, and reconciliation against your own booking system every month. If calls will be recorded, check your state's consent requirements first, since several require every party to consent rather than just one, and the agency's default settings will not know which state you are in. Reconcile monthly rather than quarterly, because a definitional gap that runs for a quarter is expensive to unwind. Also ask what happens to the tracking numbers if the relationship ends, since numbers held in the agency's account can take your call history with them.
Paid search alone is a rented position
Paid search buys demand today and stops the moment the card stops, which is exactly what you want during storm season and exactly the wrong sole strategy for the rest of the year. The durable complement is visibility you own: local listings, review volume, and pages that answer the questions homeowners ask before they are ready to call. Most established roofers end up running both, funding paid search while the organic side is built, which is a decision worth making explicitly rather than by default. If you are weighing that, look at what SEO for a roofing company actually involves before assuming it is slower than it is, because listings and review work often move local visibility faster than content does.
Questions people ask about roofing ppc agency
What fee structure is normal for roofing paid search?
Flat monthly, a share of media spend and per-lead pricing all exist in this trade. Percentage of spend rewards larger budgets, per-lead shifts risk to the agency at a higher unit cost. Ask for management fee and media spend as separate lines, then judge on cost per booked job.
Should we use Local Services Ads as well as search ads?
Many roofers run both, since the two occupy different positions on the results page and are priced differently. Whichever you use, the screening and verification requirements are set by the platform, so ask a candidate who handles that process and what it does to your timeline.
How quickly can we judge whether the account works?
By volume of clicks and leads rather than by calendar. Agree in advance how many conversions constitute a fair test, and avoid restructuring the account halfway through. In a seasonal trade, judge across a full demand cycle rather than a quiet month.
Who should own the ad account?
You should. The conversion history inside it is what makes automated bidding work, and rebuilding it costs months of performance. Create the account under your own billing, add the agency as a user, and confirm in the contract that the account and its data stay with you.