How much do roofing leads cost? Real ranges and the only number that matters

Lead sellers quote a price per lead because it is the smallest, friendliest number they can show you. The number that decides whether leads make you money is cost per acquired job. Here are the ranges, and the math that connects them.

What roofing leads cost per lead

These vary widely by market, season, and source. Treat them as directional.

| Lead type | Typical price each | |---|---| | Shared residential | 20 to 75 dollars | | Exclusive residential | 100 to 300 dollars or more | | Appointment set | 150 to 500 dollars | | Storm or insurance | 75 to 300 dollars | | Commercial | 200 to 1,000 dollars or more |

Prices climb after a storm, when demand spikes and every contractor in the metro is buying at once.

Storm pricing also moves on its own clock. In the first week after a hail event, exclusive storm leads in the hit area can run as low as 25 to 50 dollars each because so many roofs qualify at once. As the weeks pass and the obvious roofs get claimed, the price drifts up. Roofing search ads that sit near 70 dollars a lead in a quiet month routinely spike past 150 once a metro takes a hit and every contractor bids at the same time.

The only number that matters

Cost per acquired job is the price per lead divided by the share of leads you actually close. The close rate is where shared and exclusive split apart.

Take a 40 dollar shared lead. It is also sold to four other contractors, so you are calling a homeowner who is fielding five roofers. Say you close one in twenty five of those. Your real cost per job is:

40 dollars divided by a 1 in 25 close rate, which is 1,000 dollars per job, before you count the hours spent on the twenty four that went nowhere.

Now take a 200 dollar exclusive lead with no competition on the call. Say you close one in four:

200 dollars divided by a 1 in 4 close rate, which is 800 dollars per job, with far less wasted time.

The 40 dollar lead looked like a fifth of the price. It cost more per job and burned more of your week. That is the trap in shared lead pricing.

There is a second cost baked into the shared model. When a seller takes one homeowner and sells that name to five contractors at 40 dollars each, the seller collects 200 dollars while four of the five buyers get nothing for their money. That is the honest description of a shared lead: you are paying for competition, not customers. The price is set by what the seller can collect, not by your odds of winning the job.

What you are actually paying for

When you buy a lead, you are paying for a homeowner's contact details and a guess that they have a need. You are not paying for verified damage, for exclusivity unless it is stated, or for speed. If the lead is shared, you are also paying to enter a race you may not win. Offers for free roofing leads follow the same logic in reverse: free usually means shared, aged, or bait for an upsell.

How to lower your real cost per job

• Buy exclusive over shared, and call within minutes, not hours.
• Cap any shared lead spend and measure close rate honestly before scaling it.
• Build channels you own, like referrals and a ranked site, so your blended cost per job falls over time.
• Target qualifying roofs from property and storm data so your canvassing and outreach land on homes with a real reason to need you, which raises close rate without raising spend.

For the full comparison of channels, start with the roofing leads guide. For why one word in a contract changes your close rate, read exclusive roofing leads.