The Roofing Yelp Ad Guide for More and Better Leads

Let's be honest... Yelp is simply home services version of Indeed at this day and age. You post your services, put out ad spend of $250 to $25,000 per month and you get a boatload of resumes (job invoice requests). On the flip side they are the HR hiring team as well. These local online shoppers will check your resume (that's your profile and reviews) and then throw out a salary offering ("can you do the job for this amount?")

Why you Have to be able to "sell" roofing services

You have to be able to verbally communicate through messaging and phone calls your level of expertise or you'll be left in a bidding war. Train your team on how to sell a roofing estimate and close deals. Never let someone who can't sell roofing respond to a call, message, or online form. Period.

Yelp is a hiring platform

udnerstanding yelp's buyer intent

142 million people or more use Yelp every month while 45% of local homeowners look at your Yelp Reviews before calling you. Do you know when they call you?

At the last possible moment before their roof caves in or after they found leaking that has led to bigger problems. Homeowners and businesses know that roofs are damn expensive. So just know that they know it's gonna cost them a pretty penny. That's why they put away money and have a specific budget they can spend. It's your job to pick the right areas to service and produce great questions to "qualify" them before spending any time with them.

The Ladder Roofing Scenario

Envision a homeowner on a ladder, perplexed, witnessing water damage due to a failing roof. They try to do it themselves but soon learn why you get paid the big bucks. They search "roofer" into Yelp and your ad shows up at the top. Your Profile has no competitor ads on it. So they message you for an estimate or call you directly. This is the "do it for me" buyer.

Real-Life Examples of Roofing Leads on Yelp

A couple notice a section of shingle roofing flapping in the wind. You and I both know there's already damage if any rain or elements have gotten under the shingles. They go to yelp and bypass the ads but find your listing at the top 10 options. They send out estimates to all ten companies. The fastest response with qualifying questions will get them to see you as both responsive and the expert. You'll likely get hired on this one or at a higher ratio than your competitors. Qualify your leads!

Emergency Leak with Yelp at the Top of Google Search

Alice is a homeowner who finds a puddle in the garage. She calls out an HVAC company who says her hot water heater is fine and thinks her roof sucks. Guess what, they were right. She jump on Google and searches for "roofer near me" and yelp is at the top, so she clicks on it, and what do you know ... your paid ad is at the top and she clicks to call you right away.

Yelp ad budget tips for roofers

CPC is not what you think it is...

Yelp is going to charge you for each of the following types of roofing ad leads:

Calls

Yes this is the best lead cause you get to sell. Activate your call tracker to find the last four digits of the phone number. You should go through those numbers every month to see if there's any "spam." You get charge for every one of them.

Messaging

You get charged for every person that messages you asking for a quote and dear lord will they finagle you. Stick to your pricing but start by asking great questions. See below for examples.

Website Visits

Create a landing page on your website, hide the top navigation so they can get out of the page, then in the form entitle it "yelp paid ad page." When the form is submitted, you'll know that's a yelp paid ad lead. Easy!

Qualifying Questions to a Yelp Ad Estimate Request

• Hi ______________ (name of person), I'd like to know more about your roofing project needs. Want to make sure the time needed fits an open slot we have in the next days.
• You can answer these questions or call me directly at (AAA) BBB-CCCC.
• What type of roof do you have?
• How many stories?
• How old is the roof?
• How big is the section needing repairing?
• Are you looking at a full roof replacement?
• Is it leaking? If so how big is the puddle?
• What color is the roof? Need to make sure we have that in stock.
• Great, so without looking at it in person its hard to to give you a full estimate. Our fees are $AAA.00 to come out and give you a full quote. If you like our final quote, we'll apply the estimate invoice amount as a discount to the total. Fair enough?
• Great, I have openings at _________ on ____________.
• Can I get your email and address and direct phone line.
• Great, see you then.

which roofing companies benefit the most?

If your roofing company has a sheet metal license and will do gutters too. You will get 100-300 leads a month with a paid ad budget of $500 - $1,500 per month dependent upon your review count and the amount of local competition. Again, I see with complete honesty and handling clients Yelp Ad budgets with 20-40x ROi...

If your roofing company does multiple types of roofing, gutters, and has a sheet metal license. Yelp is the single best paid ad platform on the planet.

NEVER ASK FOR ROOFING REVIEWS ON YELP

Ask for a Yelp Review and you could get banned for life

Yes you read that right, for life. Yelp wants its reviews to be completely voluntary and organic. If you never leave a job site without it being cleaner and more secure, your reviews will come. If you get a bad review unless it's a competitor profile pretending to be you, you're gonna get 5-stars. So just be a good roofer and you have nothing to worry about.

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6 TIPS FOR A GREAT YELP AD

Complete Your Profile

Answer every last question on your profile. Your ad won't gain customers if your profile looks like an abandoned mine town. Come up with a great introduction for the company as well as an owner statement. Upload your profile pics too. No need for logos, it doesn't really help and costs more.

Choose Your Cities not a Circle

In the Ad you get to choose cities your Ad will appear. Do not select the circle. Instead individually pick the cities you service that you know have the highest household income. The higher they earn, the more likely they can afford larger projects. Follow the money.

Pick your Roofing Keywords

In your keywords start within 1 word searches like; roof, roofing, roofer, and shingles. Then add in 2 word searches; metal roofing, metal roofer, shingle roof, roof installation. Then go for three keywords. Stop after three word phrases. You're good to go.

Pick Negative Keywords

You want to select keywords and phrases for things you don't do or don't want to do. If you do gutters but don't do gutter cleaning, take that out. If you don't want to do repairs, then take out roof repair, but that probably is not a good idea. Better to upsell.

Add Portfolio Pics to Your Ad

When you "add" portfolio your images show up in the Ad. It's more expensive but pictures of your work will stand out and get more clicks to your profile and more leads. Not once, every time.

Have Patience: Ads improve over time

If you have no reviews your ads will take more time to get 2-4 leads per day or more. If you have reviews it shouldn't take long. However, the quality of your leads will take 1-2 months to solidify in Yelp.

If your Roofing company offers multiple types of roofing and/or gutter services, Yelp can be the single biggest and best platform for immediate leads. If you only supply metal roofing you're going to get a lot of "leads" that are out of your wheelhouse. You Ad spend should start small at $250 or more, be constantly reviewed, and only scaled when you have the perfect ad and are happy with the leads being sent to you. Remember that Yelp is a hiring platform that does ads, so never ask for reviews, just let it happen. The biggest hurdle you'll overcome is spending now to get results over time. Patience, monitoring, improvement, and Yelp ads can be highly profitable for your roofing company for years to come.

This is largely based on your budget, but every "lead" (site visit, call, or message) should cost you $15-$30 per lead. That's the great thing about Yelp is that its leads while not as great as Google Maps leads, they are considerably cheaper. Either way, the Ad Spend calculator will tell you how much to spend each month based on your total budget. It's easy to do yourself. However, caution... that's a minimum, Yelp can charge you more if your ad does well so go in every 2-3 days and check the balance, evaluate your leads, and then decide to continue or put it on hold.

how much to spend per month on roofer yelp ads?

Key Takeaways yelp ads for roofers

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