Kasra Dash:
So if I am a roofing company and I want a consistent flow of inquiries I don't want to be waiting on referrals. I want to be growing my roofing business month on month, the revenue, the profits, even maybe I want some more vans on the road. What do you recommend?

James Dooley:
So the first thing I would do is head on over to fatrank.com. We do a lot of roofing leads. There are so many different subtopics within roofing whether it's flat roofing, pitch roofing, tile roofing, slate roofing. You've got stuff like blue roofing, brown roofing, biodiverse roofing, roofing specifically for churches. You've got roof repair, roof cleaning, roof painting. So there are many different parts of roofing that we would be asking about, what you specialise in. FatRank.com does a lot of roofing leads and you only pay on converted jobs. You have nothing to pay for SEO or PPC or social media. You only pay on performance. That means you pay nothing for the lead. If you convert a job once you've done the job and been paid, you pay a commission. It's a no brainer for roofing business owners.

I definitely wouldn't throw all your eggs into one basket. There are many other lead generation companies. There's Bark, there's Checkatrade, there's TrustATrader, there's Yell pages premium advertising. All these others might also get you a return on investment. But can you expand a little bit on why a business owner needs to make certain that if they are paying for leads, they need to track the KPIs?

Kasra Dash:
Yeah this is a very common misconception not even just in the roofing industry, across all business owners. They've been told you need billboard ads, you need Facebook ads, you need SEO, but they don't know how to track it. One thing I'd look at is if you are getting any leads, figure out where they're coming from and figure out how much you're spending on those leads. You might be doing SEO, Facebook ads, and lead generation, and only one of those things might be working for you. If you can figure out what's working and double down and triple down on that one thing you can explode your business overnight.

But that is the biggest thing with KPIs. When you look to partner with lead generation companies again set KPIs for each. You might go out to three different lead generation companies because you've got the budget and you're serious about growing your business. Set KPIs for each one. After three months you might say company one and two didn't do good enough but company three did a brilliant job, so I'm going to spend more with them. That's KPIs.

Away from lead generation, let's say SEO. Would you recommend doing SEO?

James Dooley:
Yeah if you're a roofing company and you want to grow and want more leads then yes absolutely. It's another platform. Generating leads via SEO is a major play. Two parts: the maps listing, so Google Business Profile. Getting lots of reviews, citations, daily posts, photos. Getting that listing helps with leads and brand reputation. Then your website. Making certain you're talking about all the different roofing services and all the areas you work. Trying to rank for biodiverse roofing in London if that's what you offer.

SEO is major. The only issue is it's a long term investment. It's the holy grail for consistent lead gen but short term it costs money and takes time. So what's your thought moving on from SEO for roofers to PPC?

Kasra Dash:
PPC for roofers can be very expensive especially if you aren't living and breathing the ad campaign. You need negative keyword lists, blocking certain IPs. There is click fraud where competitors click your ads. That burns budget. Some roofing clicks in the UK are £50 to £200. Three clicks could be £600 down the drain. If you're not up to date with it you can burn budgets very quickly.

If you're doing PPC I highly recommend hiring someone to do it for you. Business owners might provide a good service but not be great at marketing or running PPC. That's PPC. One pro is you can generate leads a lot quicker than SEO. Away from PPC what about social ads?

James Dooley:
Social media ads can be good. Great if you've got the retargeting pixel on Meta and retarget on Facebook and Instagram. Social ads can work and organic social helps with brand awareness. Social is a major play. PPC leads usually have more intent. They searched and clicked so they convert higher but they cost 10 times more than Facebook leads. Then you track KPIs to see cost per acquisition.

Both can work as well as lead generation and SEO but track KPIs. If it's not working spend less and if it's working spend more. As a fractional CMO looking at all ways for a roofing company to grow there are many plays. Just make certain you track return on investment and get the best value for your spend. At FatRank.com we take the risk. We pay everything upfront. You pay only on conversion if you qualify. That's a no brainer. But maybe still try one or two other lead gen companies. Do some SEO for branding. Do PPC if long tails convert. Be active on social media. That's what I'd do if I owned a roofing company.

Kasra Dash:
Just one thing to add. Roofing is very seasonal. In winter months there are more leaks and repairs. In summer fewer repairs. You might run PPC ads for repairs in August but there might not be as many repairs needed so your results drop. Bear in mind it's seasonal.