- The fastest wins are free: a complete Google Business Profile with photos and reviews, and answering every call. Most roofing firms lose more work to missed calls than to competitors.
- Paid channels each have a catch: directories and lead sellers share the enquiry with three or four firms; Local Services Ads and your own ads only work if someone rings back in minutes.
- For re-roofs and big repairs the job is won at the survey, so the channel that delivers booked surveys, not names, is the one to measure everything else against.
1. Fix the phone first (this week)
Before spending a pound on demand, check what happens to the demand you already get. Ring your own number from a friend's phone at 5.30pm on a weekday. If it goes to voicemail, that is where the work is going. A homeowner with a leak rings the next roofer on the list within a minute or two.
Options, cheapest first: divert to whoever is on the ground that day; a missed-call text-back so the caller gets a reply in seconds (templates here); an answering service or AI receptionist that takes the details and books the survey. The last one is what MyTradeBuddy's roofing answering service does, and it pays for itself on the first saved re-roof.
2. Google Business Profile (free, two weeks)
Homeowners search "roofer near me" and ring one of the three in the map box. Getting in that box is the highest-return free work a roofer can do: every category filled, a service area that matches where you actually work, ten or more real photos of your jobs, and a review request sent after every completed job. Ten recent reviews beat a hundred old ones.
We wrote up the setup for service-area businesses here; the same post covers Local Services Ads, which sit above the map and charge per lead.
3. Local Services Ads (weeks, pay per lead)
Google's Local Services Ads put a "Google Guaranteed" badge on your listing and charge per lead rather than per click. They suit roofers because the intent is high and the homeowner rings you directly. The catch is the same as everywhere: the same homeowner may ring two or three badged firms, so the first to answer wins. Set a budget, track which calls became surveys, and turn it off if the phone is not being answered.
4. Directories and lead sellers (days, shared)
Checkatrade, TrustATrader, MyBuilder, Rated People and Bark will all send roofing enquiries. Every one of them sells the same homeowner to several firms, and you pay whether or not you win. That can still be worth it for repairs and gutters if you respond fast; it is a poor way to buy re-roofs, where one lost shared job is hundreds of pounds of margin. Roofing leads UK, compared sets the sources side by side with what each costs per booked survey.
5. Storm weeks (hours, if you are ready)
After bad weather the phone rings more in a day than in a normal fortnight, and most roofing firms lose most of it because nobody can answer. The firms that win storm weeks have three things ready before the wind: a way to answer and qualify every call, a triage rule (active leak now, tarp today, full survey this week) and a follow-up for the enquiries that went quiet. How to qualify storm damage leads faster covers the triage.
6. Letting agents, insurers and property managers (months, steady)
A single letting agent with three hundred managed properties sends more roof repairs a year than most directories. The pitch is reliability, not price: turn up when you say, send photos, invoice cleanly. Insurers and loss adjusters work the same way and pay slower. This channel takes months to open and years to lose, which is why it is worth the effort.
7. Your own ads (weeks, needs a system behind them)
Google and Meta ads for roofing work when the landing page asks one question and the enquiry is called back in minutes. They fail when the form fills sit in an inbox until Friday. If you run them yourself, decide who answers before you decide the budget. The lead generation guide covers the setup for trades in general.
8. Booked surveys, not leads (the one to measure the rest against)
For re-roofs and large repairs the job is decided at the survey. That makes the booked survey the unit worth paying for, and it is how MyTradeBuddy works for roofers: demand generated for one roofing business per area, every enquiry answered and qualified on job type, urgency and intent, chased by phone, text and email until it books or says no, and billed per booked survey. No monthly fee, no contract; the trade-off is that one business per area means your patch may already be taken. How it works for roofers.
Whatever mix you choose, track one number across all of it: what a booked survey costs you from each channel. It is the only figure that lets you compare a free Google profile with a £40 Bark lead with a directory membership, and it usually surprises people.
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Frequently asked questions
Fastest first: answer every call, complete your Google Business Profile and collect reviews, then add paid channels (Local Services Ads, directories, your own ads) only once someone can ring back within minutes. For re-roofs, measure every channel by what a booked survey costs.
Google search and maps, Local Services Ads, directories like Checkatrade and MyBuilder, lead sellers such as Bark, letting agents and insurers, their own ads, and exclusive booked-survey systems like MyTradeBuddy. Directories and lead sellers share each enquiry with several roofers.
Storm response is the winter channel: be ready to answer and triage every call, offer same-day tarp-and-make-safe visits, and follow up every enquiry that goes quiet. Letting agents and property managers also send steady repair work year round.
Shared leads can pay for repairs if you respond in minutes. For re-roofs they are a poor buy because several firms hold the same enquiry. Judge any source by cost per booked survey, not cost per lead.