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How much do Google Ads cost for a roofer or builder in the UK?

By , Founder·Last updated ·9 min read
The short answer

Most UK roofers and builders should budget £750 to £2,000 a month in Google Ads spend, paid directly to Google. Roofing clicks typically run £3 to £10 (emergency leak repairs £8 to £15); builder clicks run £3 to £8, higher for extensions and loft conversions. Expect a cost per lead of roughly £30 to £60 and a cost per booked job of £150 to £300, plus a management fee if an agency runs it.

Roofers and builders ask this question for a similar reason: the spread of job value is huge. A five-minute gutter fix and a full loft conversion both start with the same Google search, but they do not cost the same to advertise for, and they should not be run in the same campaign. Here is a realistic, UK-specific breakdown so you can plan a budget that books jobs instead of guessing.

The three numbers that make up your cost

As with any trade, roofer and builder Google Ads cost is not one figure, it is three, and mixing them up is how accounts overspend.

  • Ad spend, what you pay Google directly for clicks. This is your budget, set by you, and it goes to the platform, not the agency.
  • Management fee, what an agency charges to build, run and optimise the account. A fixed monthly fee, separate from spend.
  • Cost per result, what each click, lead or booked job actually costs once the account is running. This is the number that decides ROI.

At Scalepoint, ad spend passes straight to Google at cost with no markup, our fee here, the platform's spend there. The minimum ad budget we recommend is £500 a month so the account has enough data to optimise.

What roofer and builder clicks cost in the UK

Roofing and building CPC moves with urgency and job value. Emergency roofing terms cost the most because the searcher wants someone today; extension and loft conversion terms sit at the higher end of the builder range because the job value is much higher, so each click is worth more to win even though fewer competitors bid on it. The figures below are independent third-party UK market data, not Scalepoint's own campaign figures, see the sources note below.

UK roofer and builder CPC by term type, 2026 (Whito UK Builder Marketing Costs; Digital Tradies UK roofer PPC data)
TradeExample termTypical CPC
Builder, standard termsbuilder [town], extension builder near me£3–£8
Builder, high-value workloft conversion company [town]£6–£8
Roofer, standard termsroofer [town], roof repair [town]£3–£10
Roofer, emergencyemergency roofer, roof leak repair£8–£15

For context, the wider "Home Services" category this site's plumber and electrician guides use as their baseline averages £3.20 with a typical range of £1.50 to £5.50 (Whito, UK PPC Costs 2026). Roofing and building both sit at or above that baseline, in line with plumbing and electrical work, but the top of the range runs higher because a leak repair, a re-roof and a full extension are not the same purchase.

A sensible starting budget

For a single-area roofer or builder, £750 to £2,000 a month in ad spend is a realistic starting range, higher than plumbing or general electrical work, because roofing and building jobs typically carry a higher average value, which supports a higher cost per click and cost per lead. At a blended CPC of around £6, £1,200 buys roughly 200 clicks a month. Below £500, most accounts do not gather enough data to get efficient.

Job type changes the maths more here than in most trades. A gutter clear or small repair needs the click cost kept tight or the numbers stop working; an extension or loft conversion justifies a far higher cost per click and cost per lead because a single booked job can be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

From spend to booked jobs

Cost per booked job is the number that actually matters, and it depends on two conversion steps: clicks to leads, and leads to booked work. Here is how a £1,200 month can look once the account is dialled in (Scalepoint modelling, illustrative).

Example £1,200/month, optimised account (illustrative)
StageFigure
Ad spend£1,200
Clicks (≈£6 CPC)~200
Leads (≈10% of clicks)~20
Cost per lead~£60 falling to £30–£45 as it optimises
Booked jobs (≈40% of leads)~8
Cost per booked job~£150–£300

A standard roof repair or small building job comfortably clears a £150 to £300 cost per booked job. Extension and loft conversion work carries far higher job value, independent industry reporting puts average UK extension and loft conversion jobs at £18,000 or more, so the same or a higher cost per job is still comfortably profitable. The account just needs separate campaigns and landing pages so Google does not average a £4 roof-repair click with an £8 extension click.

The management fee on top

Running Google Ads well is ongoing work: keyword research, negative keywords, ad copy, bid strategy, conversion tracking and landing pages, more so here, since "roofer" and "builder" both cover routine repairs, larger installs and high-value projects like extensions, each of which needs its own campaign to avoid wasted spend. Scalepoint manages Google Ads from £495 a month as a standalone service, or inside the Spark bundle at £750 a month combined with Meta. That fee is fixed and separate from your ad spend, no per-lead charge, no markup, and you own the ad account.

No VAT, the price you see is the price you pay. Scalepoint is under the £90k VAT threshold, so there is nothing to add on top of the quoted fee.

Five ways to lower your cost per job

  1. Split routine repairs from high-value work (extensions, loft conversions, full re-roofs) into separate campaigns, a shared campaign lets Google spend a repair budget on high-CPC extension clicks and vice versa.
  2. Track conversions properly, calls and form fills, so Google optimises toward booked jobs, not clicks.
  3. Build a tight negative-keyword list to stop paying for "roofer apprenticeship", "builder salary" and "planning permission" research searches with zero commercial intent.
  4. Use before-and-after project photography on your landing pages, not just your ad copy, homeowners spending five figures on an extension or re-roof want evidence of quality work before they call.
  5. For roofers specifically, keep a storm-response campaign ready to scale spend immediately after bad weather, when emergency search volume spikes and the searcher wants someone today.

Get those right and Google Ads becomes a predictable lead channel for a roofing or building business of any size: you decide the spend, you see every result, and you own the account for good.

Sources & method

CPC figures in the table above are independent third-party UK market data, not Scalepoint campaign data: Whito's "UK Builder Marketing Costs 2026" (published 26 May 2026, last updated 11 August 2026) for the £3–£8 builder range and the £15–£45 Local Services Ads cost-per-lead figure, and Digital Tradies' "Google Ads for Roofers" guide (published 11 April 2026) for the £3–£10 standard and £8–£15 emergency roofer ranges. The Home Services baseline (£3.20 average, £1.50–£5.50 range) is Whito's "UK PPC Costs 2026" report, the same source this site's plumber and electrician guides cite, checked 2026-09-02. The £18,000-plus extension job-value figure is independent industry reporting (a UK trades marketing guide), not Scalepoint's own client data. Cost-per-lead and cost-per-job figures in the modelling table are Scalepoint's own modelling based on those CPC ranges and typical UK trade conversion rates, labelled illustrative rather than a guarantee, since actual conversion depends on the account, area and competition.

In summary

Plan on £750 to £2,000 a month in Google Ads spend, paid straight to Google. Roofing clicks typically cost £3 to £10 and builder clicks £3 to £8, which works out at roughly £30 to £60 per lead and £150 to £300 per booked job. Add a management fee if an agency runs the account.

Want more guides like this in your Google Top Stories? Add Scalepoint as a preferred source.

Common questions

How much should a roofer or builder spend on Google Ads per month?+

A realistic starting range for a single-area UK roofer or builder is £750 to £2,000 a month in ad spend, paid directly to Google, higher than plumbing or general electrical work because roofing and building jobs typically carry a higher average value. £500 is roughly the minimum for an account to gather enough data to optimise. Scale up once the cost per booked job stays profitable and you can handle the extra work.

What is a good cost per lead for a roofer or builder on Google Ads?+

A typical UK roofer or builder sees a cost per lead of roughly £30 to £60 once the account is optimised, depending on area, competition and whether the campaign targets routine repairs or higher-value work like extensions and loft conversions. The figure that matters most is cost per booked job, which usually lands between £150 and £300 for standard work.

Why do roofer and builder Google Ads cost more for some jobs than others?+

Emergency roofing terms (a leak or storm damage) cost £8 to £15 a click because the searcher wants someone today, while standard roofing and building terms run £3 to £10. Extension and loft conversion keywords sit at the higher end of the builder range because the job value is much higher, fewer competitors bid it up, but each click is worth more to win.

Do I pay Scalepoint for the ad spend or just management?+

You pay a fixed management fee, Google Ads from £495 a month, and your ad spend goes directly to Google at cost, with no markup. You see exactly what is fee and what is spend, and the ad account stays in your name, so you own it whether or not we keep working together.

How quickly will Google Ads bring in roofing or building work?+

Google Ads can produce enquiries within days of going live because you are paying to appear at the top of results for ready-to-book searches. The first few weeks are about gathering data; cost per job then falls as conversion tracking, negative keywords and separate campaigns for repairs versus higher-value extension work are refined over the first one to two months.

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