How Much Should a Roofer Spend on Google Ads in Calgary?

The honest answer is a number of clicks, not a number of dollars. A Calgary roofer pays $16 to $23 every time somebody clicks a search ad for roof repair, roof replacement or a roofing company (Semrush, October 2026). Whatever budget you set, divide it by that click price first, and the question "how much should I spend" turns into "how many homeowners will I get in front of, and how many of them will call".

Below is the arithmetic we use with roofing and exterior clients in Calgary, three budgets worked through to jobs, and the two situations where we tell a roofer not to run Google Ads at all yet.

Why roofing clicks cost what they cost

A roof is one of the biggest cheques a homeowner writes, and every roofer in the city knows it. In Google Ads the price of a click is an auction between everyone who wants that search, so "roof replacement Calgary" is bid up by national lead sellers, franchise roofers and the local companies that have run ads for years. Sixteen to twenty-three dollars is the range we see across roofing, exterior and renovation searches in Calgary this autumn. Repair searches sit at the lower end, replacement and "roofing company near me" at the top.

That price is the reason a roofing campaign is not a place to learn on the job. At $20 a click, a hundred wasted clicks on "roofing jobs Calgary" or "how to patch a roof yourself" is $2,000 gone before the first estimate request. The budget matters less than what happens after the click.

The three numbers that decide the budget

Every Google Ads budget for a roofer comes down to the same chain: clicks, enquiries, jobs.

• Cost per click. $16 to $23 in Calgary. We use $20 as a planning number.
• Click to enquiry. How many clicks turn into a call or an estimate request. With a dedicated landing page, a phone number at the top, photos of real roofs and a short form, 10 to 15 percent is realistic. A homepage with a "Contact us" link usually does 3 to 5 percent, and that difference is the whole economics of the channel. This is an assumption to check against your own numbers after the first month.
• Enquiry to job. How many estimate requests become signed work. Roofers who quote within a day and follow up once close 25 to 35 percent of residential enquiries. Companies that call back in three days close far fewer. Also an assumption, and the one you control most.

Put the three together and a budget becomes a forecast you can argue with.

Three budgets, worked through to jobs

The table assumes $20 a click, a 12 percent click-to-enquiry rate on a proper landing page, and a 30 percent close rate. Change any of the three and the right-hand columns move with it.

Monthly budget	Clicks	Enquiries	Jobs	Ad cost per job
$1,500	75	9	2 to 3	about $600
$3,000	150	18	5 to 6	about $550
$5,000	250	30	9	about $550

$1,500 a month is the floor. Seventy-five clicks is enough to see whether the landing page works and which searches bring repair calls versus replacement quotes, but one bad week of clicks can wipe the month. A single replacement job covers the budget and the management fee, so the channel pays even here, as long as the phone is answered.

$3,000 a month is where most Calgary roofers should start if they want the campaign to settle within a quarter. There are enough clicks to split repair and replacement into separate campaigns, to test two landing pages, and to drop the keywords that attract tyre kickers. Five or six jobs a month from search is a second crew's worth of work for many companies.

$5,000 and above only makes sense once the first two levels work, because the limit stops being the ads and becomes your estimators. Nine quotes a week is a real load. At this level we usually add neighbouring towns, storm-season campaigns and a separate budget for commercial or metal roofing, and the cost per job stays flat or drops as the account learns.

Notice what does not change much across the table: the ad cost per job. Once the landing page and the follow-up are right, spending more buys more jobs at roughly the same price. Spending more on a bad page buys more expensive silence.

What the same budget looks like with a weak setup

Take the $3,000 line and send the clicks to a homepage instead of a landing page: 150 clicks at 4 percent is six enquiries, not eighteen. Let the enquiries wait two days for a call back and the close rate halves: one or two jobs a month at roughly $1,500 to $2,500 of ad spend each. The budget was identical. The roofer who runs this version concludes that Google Ads does not work for roofing, and from where they stand that conclusion is correct.

When Google Ads is not worth it yet

We turn roofers away from Google Ads in two situations, and both are fixable in a few weeks.

• There is no landing page. If the click lands on a homepage built in 2019 with a slideshow and a contact link at the bottom, every dollar is paying for the page's problems. A roofing landing page needs the phone number and an estimate form above the fold, photos of your own roofs, the areas you serve, a review or two and nothing else. Build that first, then advertise.
• Nobody answers the phone. Homeowners with a leak call three roofers and book the first one who picks up or replies. If calls go to voicemail during the day and forms sit in an inbox until evening, the ads are buying leads for your competitors. An instant text reply to every form, a missed-call text and a shared pipeline fix this before the campaign starts, and that setup is cheaper than one month of wasted clicks.

A third case is seasonal. Calgary roofing search volume rises after hail and in late summer, and falls through the winter. A budget that is right in July is too much in January, so we plan the year in two or three levels rather than one flat number.

How to set your own number

Start from the jobs, not from the budget. Decide how many extra roofing jobs a month your crews can take. Divide by your close rate to get the enquiries you need, divide by your landing page's enquiry rate to get the clicks, multiply by $20. If the result is below $1,500, round up to $1,500, because fewer clicks than that will not tell you anything. If it is above $5,000, check the estimator capacity before you check the bank balance.

Then measure the three numbers for real. After the first month you will have your own click price, your own enquiry rate and your own close rate, and the table above gets replaced by one that belongs to your company. That is the point at which the budget stops being a guess.

If you want us to run that first month, start with construction marketing for the whole picture, Google Ads in Calgary for how we run search campaigns, and CRM and automation for the follow-up that keeps the enquiries from going cold.

FAQ

What is a good cost per lead for a roofer on Google Ads in Calgary?

With clicks at $16 to $23 and a landing page that converts 10 to 15 percent of them, a roofing enquiry from search costs roughly $130 to $230. Above $300 per enquiry, the landing page or the keyword list needs work before the budget does.

Is Google Ads or Local Services Ads better for roofers?

They work together. Local Services Ads charge per lead and sit above the search ads, but depend on a verified Google Business Profile and reviews. Search ads give you control over the keywords and the landing page. Most roofers we work with run both once the profile is in order.

How long before a roofing campaign pays for itself?

With a working landing page and a phone that gets answered, the first enquiries arrive in the first two weeks and the first booked job usually inside the first month. The account keeps improving for about a quarter as the keywords that bring tyre kickers are removed.

Should the ad budget go through the agency?

No. Pay Google directly from an account registered to your company, with the agency added as a manager. You see every dollar, you keep the campaign history, and the account stays yours if you change agencies.

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