Key takeaways
- Judge an agency on whether it can trace an ad dollar to a booked inspection and a signed roof in your roofing CRM.
- Every account stays in your company's name: Google Ads, Business Profile, website, domain, CRM.
- Walk away from shared leads sold as exclusive, review schemes, promised rankings and contracts with exit fees.
- Ask how the agency handles storm season before you sign, not after the first hailstorm.
A good marketing agency for a roofing company reports in booked inspections and signed roofs, keeps every account in your name, and plans for storm season before it starts. If an agency cannot show you how a click became an inspection in JobNimbus or AccuLynx, it is selling activity. Here is how to tell the difference before you sign anything.
What to look for
Look for an agency that can follow your money from the ad to the signed contract. Ask these questions in the first meeting, and listen for specific answers:
- "Who owns the accounts?" The right answer: your company owns the Google Ads account, Business Profile, website, domain and CRM, and the agency works in them as a user.
- "What will you report?" Calls, inspections booked, estimates sent, roofs signed and cost per signed roof, by source. That requires leads tagged in your roofing CRM and signed contracts sent back to the ad platforms as conversions (conversion measurement).
- "What happens before and during storm season?" You want a storm-response page ready to publish, ad campaigns built in advance, and a rule for raising budget in the ZIP codes a storm hit.
- "How do you treat insurance jobs and retail jobs?" They close on different timelines and need different follow-up. An agency that judges both by the same seven-day window will cut the campaigns that bring in claims.
- "What will be done, by when?" Named deliverables with dates, not a monthly "management fee".
- "What happens if we part ways?" No exit fee, and every login, file and report handed over.
Choosing a marketing partner
| Question | Look for | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | Everything in your name | They own the ad account or site |
| Contract | Projects with outcomes and dates | Long lock-in with no exit |
| Reporting | Calls and booked jobs | Impressions and clicks only |
| Promises | Honest trade-offs | Promised top rankings |
Red flags
Walk away from anyone who keeps your accounts, sells you leads they also sell to competitors, or promises a ranking.
- Shared leads sold as exclusive. The same storm lead sold to several roofers turns every inspection into a price war.
- The ad account or Business Profile in the agency's name. Leave, and you lose the history and sometimes the listing.
- Reports full of impressions, clicks and "engagement" with nothing about inspections or signed roofs.
- Review schemes. Buying reviews, writing them or posting them under fake names is banned under the federal rule on consumer reviews (16 CFR Part 465).
- Fake locations and keyword names. Profiles at addresses where you have no office, or names stuffed with "Best Roofer" and a town, break Google's guidelines and get suspended (Google's guidelines).
- A promised position on Google. Nobody controls the results.
- Long contracts with exit fees. Good work keeps clients without them.
Agency vs hiring
One marketing hire rarely covers what roofing needs: Google Ads, where Local Services Ads for roofing are now moving (Google on the move), plus the Business Profile, the website, Meta ads and CRM follow-up. Many roofing companies do best with someone in-house who photographs jobs and gathers reviews, working with an outside team for the specialist work. The hire-or-agency guide for roofing companies lays out a cost framework you can fill in with your own local numbers.
Why VETS Growth Marketing
You get a full growth team for about the cost of one senior hire, every account in your name, and no long-term contract. The work always runs in the same four steps:
- Assess. We review your Google profile, website, ads and follow-up, and trace last season's leads through JobNimbus or AccuLynx to see where inspections and signed roofs came from.
- Prioritize. We rank the moves by how many inspections and roofs each should add, and put a date on each one.
- Execute. We do the work inside your accounts, and you can see what changed each week.
- Measure. We report calls, inspections booked, roofs signed and cost per customer, then reset the plan before each storm season.
For the moves we usually make first, see how to get more customers for a roofing company.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We work as projects with outcomes and dates, so you always know what is being built and when it lands. Your ad accounts, profile, website and CRM stay in your company's name, and you can leave at any time with all of it. Every report ties back to inspections booked and roofs signed. Book a growth consultation: we will review your profile, site, ads and follow-up, and you will leave with the five moves that matter most for your roofing company, whether or not you hire us.
Sources
- About conversion measurement, Google Ads Help
- 16 CFR Part 465: Use of consumer reviews and testimonials, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, Google Ads Help