KKV Labs

Free roofing playbook: the lead bill

How to get roofing leads without paying Angi or HomeAdvisor

Here is how to get roofing leads without paying Angi or HomeAdvisor: work out what a shared lead really costs you on one roof, cap the spend in writing, then build the five lead sources a roofing company already owns. Those are the street you just worked, the insurance claim, the supply house and the adjuster, the phone, and your own site. At the numbers below, a booked roof costs $375 to $750 in lead money. Below are 10 steps you can do yourself.

September 21, 2026 · 8 min read · Published by KKV Labs LLC

What you need

  • Last year's invoices from every lead company you pay
  • Your job list for the year, with what each roof was worth
  • The phone number a homeowner with a leak actually rings
  • The name of one adjuster and one supply house you already deal with
  • Half an hour a week for 90 days, and no new spend

Time: about 30 minutes a week, for 90 days. Cost: nothing. Every step below is free to do yourself.

Go straight to the 10 steps

Start here

What a shared roofing lead costs you on one roof.

Every number here is counted from our own files when this page is built, or linked to where it came from.

A shared lead is not a customer. It is a name sold to you and to three, four or five other roofers at the same moment, and you are all racing to call first. A roofing lead runs about $75 and shared leads turn into a signed job 10% to 20% of the time (HOMESHOWOFF on the real cost of contractor leads, a marketing firm's own figures, read 21 September 2026). So one booked roof takes 5 to 10 of them, which is $375 to $750.

Now put that against the roof. A full replacement runs about $10,000, with most between $7,500 and $14,000 (Fixr's roof replacement cost page, read 21 September 2026). Gross profit on roofing work runs 20% to 40% (ServiceTitan on roofing profit margins, a software firm's own figure, read 21 September 2026), so take 30% in the middle: $3,000 on that roof. At 8 leads, the middle of the range above, $600 of that $3,000 went on lead money before your crew left the yard. That is 20% of the profit on the roof.

This is not only a grumble. In January 2023 the Federal Trade Commission ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million for selling leads it had described in a way that was not true (FTC press release, 23 January 2023). One contractor wrote that of 39 leads, 3 were real people, and all of them had already been called by at least 7 other contractors (Trustpilot, 1 star, 6 September 2026).

The plan

Ten steps to roofs nobody sold twice.

The first two stop the money going out. Seven build the lead sources a roofing company already owns. The last one hands you to the free ChatGPT playbook rather than repeating it here.

  1. 01

    Work out what one booked roof really costs you now

    Open last year's invoices from the lead company and add up what you paid. Count the roofs you actually signed off those leads, not the calls and not the free inspections. Divide the money by the roofs. Write that one number up on the office wall where you can see it.

    How to check it workedYou hold one number: dollars per booked roof. Set it beside the gross profit on an average roof, about $3,000 at the figures above, and you can see who made more, you or the lead company.

  2. 02

    Cap the lead spend in writing, and pick the month to do it

    Do not switch it off mid storm run if those leads are paying the crew this month. Send an email that says exactly what you want the monthly cap set to, and keep the reply. Pick a quiet month, not a hail month, for the first cut. Everything after this step is free to do.

    How to check it workedYou hold a dated email, sent by you, naming the cap in dollars, and a reply that agrees to it.

  3. 03

    Text your last twenty roofs, then walk their street

    A homeowner will not need another roof for twenty years, so do not ask a past customer to come back. Ask them for the house across the road. After a hail day, walk the street you already worked and leave a note that names the roof you did and the month you did it. Those neighbours watched your crew for two days already.

    How to check it workedYou sent twenty texts and you know how many came back. One roof pays for a year of doing this.

  4. 04

    Make every insurance claim bring you the next one

    When one house on a street files a hail claim, the roofs either side took the same storm. Ask that homeowner for the two names next door while the adjuster is still up the ladder. Check your own state first, because some states limit what a roofer may say about a claim: Florida bans a flyer, card or email that pushes a homeowner to file one (Florida Statutes 489.147). 42% of the 520 roofing home pages we read on September 11, 2026 say they help with a claim and 46% link a storm or claim page, so saying it is normal, and asking next door is the part most roofers skip.

    How to check it workedFor every claim job you finish, two neighbouring addresses are written on the job sheet before you leave the street.

  5. 05

    Get known at the supply house and by the adjusters on your storms

    The people who see every roof in town are the counter staff at the supply house and the independent adjusters working your storms. Learn their names. Tell them in one plain line what roof work you do and which towns you cover, and ask to be one of the two names they hand out. This costs a box of doughnuts and it never resells your name to five other roofers.

    How to check it workedTwo adjusters and one supply house contact know your company name and your towns. Write the three names down.

  6. 06

    Take the leak call before the other four roofers do

    A homeowner with water coming through the ceiling rings three, four or five roofers at once, and the one who picks up first usually wins (HOMESHOWOFF on the real cost of contractor leads). Switch on calls and messages on your Google Business Profile. Put the phone number at the top of your site as a link that dials. 89% of the 520 roofing home pages we read already have that dialling link, so this one is table stakes, not an edge.

    How to check it workedRing your own number from another phone during work hours. Nobody picking up inside three rings is this week's job.

  7. 07

    Put a roof price range on your own site

    A homeowner who cannot find a price on your site goes to a directory to get one, and that is exactly where a shared lead is born. Put the range up and say what moves it: the size in squares, the pitch, the material, and whether the old roof comes off. Only 15% of the 520 roofing home pages we read show any price at all, and a replacement runs about $10,000 nationally (Fixr's roof replacement cost page).

    How to check it workedSearch your own site for a dollar sign. Nothing coming back means the homeowner is getting your price from a directory.

  8. 08

    Spend in the quiet months and stop in the storm months

    When hail lands the phone rings without help, so that is the month to cut the lead spend, not feed it. The cold months are when the town pages, the review asks and the neighbour texts have to carry you. One storm month carries two quiet ones: the average residential roof replacement in 2025 claims data cost $17,631 (Verisk figures reported by Insurance Journal, 1 June 2026).

    How to check it workedTwo months are marked on the calendar: the one where you cut the lead spend, and the one where you push the neighbour texts.

  9. 09

    Write down where every roof came from, on one page

    One line per roof: the date, the town, the job type, what it was worth, and where it came from. Neighbour, adjuster, supply house, Google, your own site, or the lead company. The crawl says the average roofing site lists 58% metal and 49% flat work alongside 65% storm work, so record the job type too: you may be paying for leads on the one roof type that already comes free.

    How to check it workedYour sheet has one line per roof for 90 days, and you can add up what the lead company actually brought in.

  10. 10

    Be the roofer the AI answer gives out

    Homeowners now ask ChatGPT and Google's AI for a roofer, and the answer names only a few: 4.6 on average in our 60 city run on September 10, 2026. In 59 of those cities no single roofer was held up as the best, so the door is open. That name was not sold to five other roofers, and the free ChatGPT playbook linked below is the whole 10 step job.

    How to check it workedAsk ChatGPT who the best roofer is in your town, write the names and the date down, then start the free ChatGPT playbook.

Our own numbers on this page: 60 US cities asked "best roofer in [city]" in Google AI Mode on September 10, 2026; 520 roofing home pages read by machine on September 11, 2026; and a separate study of 20 city answers captured on September 15, 2026 that recorded every link the answer pointed at. Every figure above is counted from those files when this page is built. Anything from outside our own work is linked where it is used, with the site named. Published by KKV Labs LLC.

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Check your city

See who AI names in your city today.

Every city in the list was asked the same question in Google AI Mode on September 10, 2026: who is the best roofer here. This shows the companies that answer named back. It is one answer on one day, not a ranking. Not in the list? Ask us to run yours free.

Start typing to jump down the list. 60 US cities are screened so far.

Every one of the 60 cities below was asked the same question in Google AI Mode on September 10, 2026: who is the best roofer here. This shows you the roofing companies that answer named back. It is one answer on one day, not a ranking.

Pick a city to see the roofing companies AI named there, and the date we captured the answer. The three answers you can get are below, with how many of the screened cities gave each one.

What the three answers mean

  • GREEN59 of 60Several businesses named, none called the best. The door is open.
  • YELLOW1 of 60Several named, but the answer puts one of them ahead.
  • RED0 of 60One business only, or nobody named. The hardest kind of market.

Questions

What homeowners ask before they call.

These are the questions Google shows under a roofing search. Answer them on your own site and you are answering the machine as well as the homeowner.

How much does a new roof cost?
This is the question a homeowner searches before they call anyone, and the roofer who answers it plainly gets the call instead of a directory. Give a range on your own site and say what moves it: the size in squares, the pitch, the material, and whether the old roof comes off. Of the 520 roofing home pages we read on September 11, 2026, only 15% show a price at all, so a plain range is still a rare thing for a roofer to publish.
Do you use subcontractors, and are the crews insured?
Homeowners ask this before they sign, and most roofing sites duck it. Answer it on your own site in two lines: say whether the crew on the roof is yours or hired in, and say that everyone up there is covered. A roofer who answers the awkward question in public is the one who gets the call, and it costs nothing to write.
Can I pay for the roof over time?
A roof is an unplanned bill, so this question decides jobs. 52% of the 520 roofing home pages we read show payment plans or financing at all, and the split is wide: 64% of the roofers AI named against 48% of the rest. That is a same day count of what the two groups of roofing sites carry, not proof that one causes the other. If you offer a plan, say so in words, not only on a lender's badge.
Will you handle my insurance claim?
42% of the 520 roofing home pages we read say they help with an insurance claim, so a homeowner expects an answer. Say what you actually do: meet the adjuster on the roof, photograph the hail hits, give them the measurements. Some states limit what a roofer may say about a claim, so read your own state's contractor law before you write the page. Step 4 above links Florida's, which is the strictest we found.

Read next

The other half of the job.

Everything we publish for roofers

Next step

You can do all of this yourself in 90 days. If you would rather we did it:

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We run the 10 questions your customers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode in your city and show you who gets named today. Then we fix the pages, listings and answers that decide it.

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