Last updated 21 October 2026
Google Ads for roofers.
Short version: Google Ads work for a roofer, but the auction is upside down. The dearest clicks are on the smallest jobs: "emergency roof repair near me" ran up to £21.10 a click at the top of the page in UK Keyword Planner data pulled October 2026, while "cost to reroof house" topped out at £2.90. A leak repair is a few hundred pounds; a re-roof is five figures. So split emergencies, flat roofs, re-roofs and gutters into separate campaigns, and give the planned work more of the money than its click price suggests.
Four more things are particular to roofing. Storms bunch the urgent calls into a few days, and Google's own budget rules already flex for that. Local Services Ads are open to roofers, and Google's screening checks no roofing scheme. Guarantee and scheme claims belong on some ads and not others. And the biggest searches near yours come from people buying sheeting and sealant, not booking a roofer.
Roofing click prices
Leaks bid high. Re-roofs bid almost nothing.
Top-of-page bid ranges from Google's Keyword Planner for the UK, read on October 2026. The low and high figures are the planner's estimate of what it takes to show above the free results for each roofing search:
| Search | Job | Searches a month | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| emergency roof repair near me | Emergency and leaks | 320 | £4.06 to £21.10 |
| emergency roofers near me | Emergency and leaks | 480 | £3.56 to £16.69 |
| emergency roof repair | Emergency and leaks | 720 | £3.33 to £16.18 |
| roof leak repair | Emergency and leaks | 2,400 | £3.17 to £17.20 |
| storm damage roof | Emergency and leaks | 90 | £2.60 to £25.82 |
| roofer near me | Repairs and general | 33,100 | £2.98 to £12.64 |
| roof repairs near me | Repairs and general | 9,900 | £3.30 to £12.94 |
| roofing companies near me | Repairs and general | 8,100 | £3.16 to £13.78 |
| roof repair | Repairs and general | 6,600 | £3.61 to £14.21 |
| flat roof repair | Flat roofs | 4,400 | £2.77 to £12.11 |
| flat roofers near me | Flat roofs | 1,600 | £3.67 to £14.06 |
| flat roof replacement | Flat roofs | 720 | £2.34 to £9.86 |
| conservatory roof replacement near me | Re-roofs and replacements | 1,000 | £4.66 to £17.51 |
| garage roof replacement | Re-roofs and replacements | 2,400 | £3.03 to £11.57 |
| roofing replacement | Re-roofs and replacements | 1,000 | £2.58 to £13.49 |
| new roof cost | Re-roofs and replacements | 1,900 | £0.79 to £3.11 |
| cost to reroof house | Re-roofs and replacements | 260 | £0.69 to £2.90 |
| guttering and fascia replacement near me | Gutters, fascias and chimneys | 390 | £3.07 to £20.74 |
| fascia and soffit replacement | Gutters, fascias and chimneys | 1,300 | £2.83 to £16.09 |
| gutter repair near me | Gutters, fascias and chimneys | 8,100 | £1.56 to £7.47 |
| chimney repair | Gutters, fascias and chimneys | 880 | £1.86 to £10.54 |
| chimney repointing | Gutters, fascias and chimneys | 720 | £1.30 to £5.08 |
Read that table against what the jobs are worth. The top bid on "emergency roof repair near me" is 7 times the top bid on "cost to reroof house", yet the work runs the other way:
| Job | What is priced | Typical price | Price source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leak repair | Fix a roof leak | £220 to £550 | MyJobQuote cost guide, Sep 2026 |
| Re-roof | New tiled roof, 3-bed semi | £10,000 to £15,000 | Homebuilding, incl. scaffold |
The bottom of the re-roof range is 18 times the top of the leak range. Price searches such as "new roof cost" (1,900 a month, £0.79 to £3.11) are cheap because the person is still researching, so a re-roof campaign only pays if the website answers the price question with a real range and a way to book a survey. That is where a roofer's website does most of the selling; what it needs is in websites for roofers. Flat roofs earn their own campaign too: "flat roof repair" alone is searched 4,400 times a month, and a flat roofer does not want to pay for slate and tile searches.
Commercial roofing is a separate auction altogether. "commercial roof repairs" bid £9.16 to £46.22 in the same pull, against £3.61 to £14.21 for "roof repair". A domestic roofer should add "commercial" as a negative; a commercial roofer needs its own campaign and its own budget.
For a rough cost per lead, use the average click instead of the bid range. UK keyword data pulled August 2026 put "roofer near me" at £5.54 a click on average. The one published conversion rate for home-services search ads is American, at 7.33%; if that share of your clicks became leads, each lead would cost roughly £76. Your own figure comes from your website and your phone; the full working is in how much to spend on Google Ads.
Storms and the season
Budget for the storm, not the forecast.
Urgent roofing demand moves hard with the weather. UK searches for "emergency roof repair" peaked at 1,900 in September and fell to 320 in May and July, while "roof repair" ran from 12,100 in September and October down to 3,600 (Google Ads keyword data, pulled September 2026; the tool rounds volumes into bands). The Met Office's named storms for 2025/26 ran from Amy in early October 2025 to Dave in early April 2026, and it called that a quieter season than the record 12 of 2023/24.
Search for storm work directly and the auction is thin but expensive: "storm damage roof" had 90 searches a month and a top-of-page bid of £2.60 to £25.82. Most storm calls arrive as ordinary leak and emergency searches instead. What decides whether you catch them is how the budget behaves on the day:
| Google budget rule | What it means on a storm day |
|---|---|
| Up to twice the daily budget on a single day | A busy day is partly covered before you change anything |
| A monthly cap of 30.4 times the daily figure | Overspend on the storm day comes back off quieter days that month |
| Changing the budget mid-month resets the cap | A raise counts from the day you make it, so make it early |
| An ad schedule does not cut the monthly spend | Switching hours off moves the money; it does not save it |
So keep emergency and leak work in its own campaign with its own budget. When a named storm is coming, raise that one budget by what your crew can actually get to, and bring it back down once the calls slow. You will read advice to multiply the budget by a fixed figure; none of it comes with a source, and a phone you cannot answer turns the extra clicks into calls for the next roofer, which is the gap a call answering service fills. Storm ads also carry a rule of their own: Google bans promising offers in the ad that are not available or easy to find on the website, so a "free roof inspection" headline has to be a real offer, shown where the ad lands.
Pay per lead or per click
Local Services Ads take roofers, gutters included.
Roofers is one of Google's UK Local Services Ads categories, and it is not limited to London. Google's own description of the category reads "install, repair and maintain the shingles, gutters and venting on your roof", so gutter work sits inside it. Here is what Google's UK screening page lists for roofing, set against standard Search ads:
| Local Services Ads | Search ads | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A valid lead, such as a call you answer or a missed call in your hours where the caller holds on past 20 seconds | Every click, and a tap on the call button is charged like any other click |
| What Google screens | That the roofing business exists, carries public liability cover and holds any licence local law asks for, through a verified Business Profile; usually three to four weeks | Its ad policies, misrepresentation among them, plus advertiser verification as it rolls out |
| Scheme or rating checks | None listed: no NFRC, CompetentRoofer, TrustMark or review score | None; what you claim in the ad is on you |
| Refunds for bad leads | None in the UK: Google offers no lead credits to EMEA advertisers | None; negatives are how you stop paying for the wrong searches |
Some roofing marketing guides still say you need "Google Guaranteed status" and a minimum review score, and quote a per-lead price. Google's UK pages say none of that: the badge is now Google Verified, the old Guaranteed badge went in October 2025, and Google publishes no lead price, only that prices vary by location, job type and bidding mode. Run Local Services Ads for the call you will answer, and Search for the job types you choose and the words you write. How the badge and the charging work in full is in Google Local Services Ads, and the one trade it is closed to is covered in Google Ads for locksmiths.
Guarantees in the ad
The guarantee sells re-roofs, not repairs.
When half or more of a roof is replaced, building control has to be notified, unless a registered competent person self-certifies the work. gov.uk lists two authorised schemes for replacement roof coverings, CompetentRoofer and NAPIT. On a CompetentRoofer job a homeowner gets a compliance certificate and a 10-year insurance-backed guarantee, but that scheme "does not apply to repairs or new work". That decides which ad can carry which claim:
| Ad for | Claim that fits | Only if |
|---|---|---|
| Re-roof or full replacement | Self-certified, with a 10-year insurance-backed guarantee | You are registered with the scheme that issues it |
| Leak or tile repair | Speed, area covered, your reviews | Never the scheme guarantee: it does not cover repairs |
| Any roofing job | A membership name or logo, such as NFRC | You are a member; a mark you are not authorised to use is banned outright |
Both rules have teeth. Under Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, using a trust mark you are not authorised to use is unfair whatever the circumstances, and so is claiming an approval that is false or whose terms you are not keeping to. Google separately bans misleading statements about your affiliations or qualifications. If you are registered, homeowners do search for it (Keyword Planner, UK, October 2026):
| Search | Searches a month | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|
| competent roofer | 260 | £0.92 to £4.71 |
| nfrc roofers near me | 210 | £1.93 to £8.36 |
"competent roofer" and "nfrc roofers near me" are small but cheap, and the person typing them has already decided what to check. What homeowners are told to ask a roofer, and what each job is worth, is in roofing leads. Treat this section as a summary of the rules to check your own membership against, not a ruling on it.
Searches to block
Merchants and sealant buyers come first.
Ask Google's planner for roofer search ideas and these come back alongside the jobs (UK, October 2026). Each one has a roofing word in it and no roof for you to fix:
| Search | Who is searching | Searches a month |
|---|---|---|
| roofer supply near me | Merchant | 12,100 |
| chimney sweep companies near me | Other trade | 12,100 |
| metal roof sheeting | Materials | 9,900 |
| roofers yard near me | Merchant | 2,400 |
| roofers checkatrade | Directory | 880 |
| evercryl | DIY sealant | 590 |
| bostik flexacryl | DIY sealant | 480 |
| sealing roof leaks | DIY | 390 |
| wickes shed roof felt | Retailer | 320 |
| bath leak through ceiling | Plumbing job | 210 |
Google says a negative keyword does not catch close variants, so plurals and synonyms need adding by hand: supply and supplies, yard and yards, sheet and sheeting. Block the sealant brands by name, add bath and shower so a ceiling leak from upstairs plumbing does not cost you a click, and add any job you do not do. The list every trade should start from is in why Google Ads are not working.
One group needs checking rather than blocking. These material-word searches are bigger than most job searches but bid at a fraction of them:
| Search | Searches a month | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|
| felt roofers | 27,100 | £0.10 to £0.98 |
| tile roofers | 22,200 | £0.24 to £2.08 |
| slate roofers | 8,100 | £0.41 to £1.96 |
"felt roofers" is searched more often than "roofing companies near me" yet tops out at £0.98, against £13.78. Our reading is that few advertisers win jobs from it, and that many of those searches are people after the material rather than the fitter. Bid on "roofer near me" and the job words, then look at your search terms report before you let a felt, tile or slate search spend anything.
Account set-up
Set it up for the wet ceiling call.
| Setting | Google's rule | For a roofer |
|---|---|---|
| Location option | The default reaches people in an area or showing interest in it; Presence keeps it to people who are there | Presence, so your budget goes on roofs you can actually reach |
| Radius | Nothing under 1 km, and a very small area may barely show | Draw it round where you can get a ladder up the same day |
| Call asset hours | The number can be shown only on the days and hours you take calls | Keep it off while the whole crew is up on a roof |
| Smart Bidding | It ignores your hour-by-hour bid changes but keeps to the ad schedule | Cut hours in the schedule, not in bid adjustments |
| Call tracking | A forwarding number logs connected calls over 15 seconds; a call can count as a conversion past a length you set | Set the length long enough that a sealant buyer who rang by mistake does not count |
| Call-only ads | None new since February 2026; existing ones go dark in February 2027 | Put the number on a responsive search ad as a call asset |
The same trade-by-trade approach for wet trades is in Google Ads for plumbers, and for call-out work with planned jobs alongside it in Google Ads for electricians.
Who keeps the customer
Every roof you quote stays with you.
A roofing job bought from a directory or a lead site can go to several roofers at once, so the homeowner with a five-figure re-roof is comparing your quote before you have seen the roof. Ads you run yourself, pointing at your own website and your own phone number, put that homeowner through to you and nobody else. Our Google Ads work for roofers sits inside the roofer's own account: opened in your name, billed by Google to your card, and yours to keep, history and all, whether or not you stay with us.
The case against paying for leads that other roofers also get is laid out in the shared lead trap.
Roofers' questions
What roofers ask about Google Ads.
- Are Google Ads worth it for roofers?
- They can be, because a leak through the ceiling sends people straight to Google, and so does a homeowner pricing a new roof. UK keyword data from August 2026 put the average click on "roofer near me" at £5.54. The catch is that the dear clicks are on the small jobs: emergency repair searches carry the highest top-of-page bids, while re-roof price searches bid at a few pounds. Run them with separate campaigns for emergencies, flat roofs, re-roofs and gutters, and count calls as conversions so you can see what each kind of job costs you.
- How much does a roofer pay per click in the UK?
- It depends on the job. In Google's Keyword Planner for the UK (October 2026), the top-of-page bid for "emergency roof repair near me" ran £4.06 to £21.10, "roof repair" £3.61 to £14.21 and "cost to reroof house" £0.69 to £2.90. Commercial work is dearer again: "commercial roof repairs" ran £9.16 to £46.22. Treat them as the planner's estimate of the price of the top slots; your real average click comes out of your own account once it runs.
- Can roofers use Google Local Services Ads in the UK?
- Yes. Roofers is one of Google's UK Local Services Ads categories. Before you go live, Google confirms the firm is a real business with public liability cover and any licence the law requires there, through a verified Business Profile, which it says usually takes three to four weeks. It names no review score, no NFRC check and no Google Guaranteed status; that badge was folded into Google Verified in October 2025. You pay per valid lead rather than per click.
- Should I raise my Google Ads budget when a storm hits?
- Raise it for the storm campaign only, and know what Google already does on its own. Google can spend up to twice your average daily budget on a busy day, inside a monthly cap of 30.4 times the daily figure, so a storm day is partly covered before you touch anything. Changing the budget mid-month resets that cap from the day you change it. Advice to multiply your budget by a set figure when a storm hits comes without a source; move it by what your phone and your diary can take, then bring it back down.
- Can I put CompetentRoofer or NFRC in my ad?
- Only if you hold it, and only on the ads it covers. UK consumer law treats displaying a trust mark without authorisation as unfair in all circumstances, and Google bans misleading claims about your affiliations or qualifications. CompetentRoofer registration lets you self-certify a re-roof where half or more of the roof is replaced, and comes with a 10-year insurance-backed guarantee for the homeowner, but that scheme does not apply to repairs. So the guarantee belongs on re-roof ads, not leak repair ads.
- What negative keywords should a roofer use?
- Start with the merchants: "roofer supply near me" is searched around 12,100 times a month in the UK, more than "roofing companies near me". Then add roofing materials such as metal sheeting, DIY sealant brands, directory names, chimney sweeps, and bath or shower leaks, which are plumbing jobs. Google does not stretch a negative to its plurals or synonyms, so add those yourself.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
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