What roofing leads really cost in the UK in 2026

Last Updated on September 8, 2026

The price of a roofing lead is not what decides whether leads make you money. Your conversion rate is. This is the data behind that claim, gathered from public 2026 pricing, and it is free to cite with a link.

The headline finding

A roofer paying £55 a lead and converting one in five pays about £275 per won job. The same roofer converting one in ten pays £550 for the identical lead. The platform did not change. The follow up did.

What a roofing lead costs in 2026

Pay per lead, shared platforms. Roughly £25 to £120 per roofing lead depending on the job type and the area. A mid figure of about £55 is typical.

Shared lead conversion. Roughly 15 to 25 percent, because the same enquiry is sold to several firms at once and the customer is comparing you against them all.

Monthly retainer or owned marketing. Roughly £400 to £1,500 a month for a local roofing firm. A lean setup of search and a Google Business Profile can run nearer £300 to £500.

The maths, worked through

Take 20 leads a month at £55. That is £1,100 a month, or £13,200 a year.

At a 20 percent win rate, that is four jobs a month, about £275 per won job. At 10 percent, two jobs, about £550 per won job. Same spend, same leads, double the cost, purely because of what happened after the enquiry arrived.

Now compare owned channels. Enquiries that come to you directly, through your own reputation, reviews and a verified listing, tend to convert far higher, often 30 to 50 percent, because the customer has already chosen to trust you before they call. In worked examples that pulls the cost per won job down to roughly £108 to £217, well below the shared lead figure.

Why the number that matters is cost per won job

Cost per won job is cost per lead divided by your win rate. Shared leads and fixed membership fees both inflate it, and the shared model caps your conversion because you are one of several firms racing on the same enquiry. The platform is not the deciding variable. Your response speed and your conversion are.

This is why the honest advice is not “find a cheaper lead source.” It is “fix what happens after the lead, then the source you already use gets cheaper on its own.”

How to use this

Work out your own cost per won job. Take what you spent on leads last month and divide by the jobs you actually signed from them. If that number is uncomfortable, the fix is almost never a different platform. It is faster replies, clearer quotes and one polite follow up.

Whito verifies UK roofers against Companies House so customers, and the AI tools they now ask, can trust you before they call. Figures here are typical 2026 UK ranges from public sources including Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and specialist roofing lead providers. Confirm current rates before relying on them.

The leads trap: why buying more is not the fix

We should be straight with you, because most people writing about leads have something to sell you. Whito does run a leads product. Which is exactly why we can tell you the part the lead sites never will.

More leads will not fix a roofing business that does not convert. It will just make the leak bigger and faster.

The mistake: treating leads as the answer

Winter comes, the work goes quiet, and the obvious move is to buy more leads. Sign up to another platform, top up the credits, wait for the phone to ring.

For a week or two it feels like progress. Then the same problem comes back, because the problem was never the number of leads. It was what happened after each one arrived.

Buying leads to fix a slow month is like turning the tap up on a blocked gutter. You are adding pressure to a system that already cannot cope with the flow it has.

The maths nobody shows you

Roofing leads on the shared platforms cost somewhere between £25 and £120 each, depending on the job and the area. Say you pay £55 a lead and buy 20 a month. That is £1,100.

Shared leads convert at about 15 to 25 percent for most roofers, because the same enquiry is sold to several firms at once. At 20 percent you win four jobs. Your cost per won job is around £275.

Now change one number. You are slow to call back, the customer has already had three other roofers on the drive, and you win one in ten. Same £1,100, but now two jobs, and your cost per won job has doubled to £550. You feel like leads do not work.

The lead price did not change. Your conversion did. That single number, how many enquiries you turn into signed jobs, decides whether leads make you money or drain you. Almost nobody measures it.

Why you are losing the leads you already pay for

Three leaks account for most of it, and none of them are about buying more.

You call back too slowly. A homeowner with a leak is messaging several roofers at once. The first to answer and offer to come and look usually wins, often before the others have seen the enquiry. If you reply the next evening, you have already lost half your leads to someone faster.

You quote like everyone else. A number, no reassurance, no scaffolding line, no mention of the certificate, no sign you can be trusted on a roof they cannot see. When every quote looks the same, people pick the cheapest, and racing to the bottom is not a business.

You never follow up. Roofing jobs are big decisions and rarely won on the first message. The customer goes quiet, you assume it is a no, you move on. One polite follow up two days later wins work you have already paid the lead fee for.

Fix those three and your existing leads are worth double. No extra spend.

The reframe: leads are fuel, not an engine

A lead is fuel. Fuel is useless without an engine that turns it into movement.

Your engine is the boring stuff. How fast you reply. How clearly you quote, with the scaffolding, the materials and the certificate spelled out. Whether people can check that you are a real, accredited business before they let you on their roof. Whether you follow up. Whether they trust you enough to say yes at a fair price rather than haggle you down.

Build that engine and every lead goes further. There is a reason firms that win work through their own reputation and a strong Google presence often see cost per won job nearer £100 to £220, well under the shared lead figure. The difference is not the source. It is the conversion.

This is the whole of Whito’s thinking in one trade. Structure before scale. Fix what happens after the lead before you spend more getting them.

What to do before you buy another lead

Work out your conversion rate. Of your last twenty enquiries, how many became signed jobs? If you do not know, that is the first problem.

Commit to replying to every enquiry within the hour during working time, and offer to come and look. On a roof nobody can see from the ground, the firm that turns up first has already half won.

Make your quote reassuring, not just a price. Itemise the scaffolding and materials, confirm the certificate on notifiable work, and remind them you are verified and accredited.

Follow up once, politely, on anything that goes quiet.

Only then turn the leads up. Now you are adding fuel to an engine that works, and the numbers stack in your favour.

The sharp takeaway

Leads are not the problem and they are not the solution. Your conversion is both.

Buy leads once you can prove you turn enquiries into jobs. Until then, more leads just means more money spent proving your business is not ready. Fix the engine first, then add the fuel.

Whito verifies UK roofers so customers can trust you before they call, which is half the conversion battle won. Claim your free listing, and when you are ready to add fuel to a working engine, our leads come from people who already chose to trust a verified business.

Jacob Whitmore Founder and Lead Analyst

Jacob Whitmore founded Whito. He works on what UK businesses are actually charged for marketing, and on getting those numbers published with the date they were checked.

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