How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation
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What Does “How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation” Talk About?
This episode of the James Dooley Podcast features James Dooley and Kasra Dash breaking down actionable strategies for roofing companies looking to scale their business and generate more leads. The conversation starts with a crucial point about niche definition, with Kasra explaining that roofing is far more complex than most people assume, covering everything from flat roofing and heritage slate roofing to repair, maintenance, cleaning, and painting. Before spending a single pound on marketing, roofing business owners are advised to identify which sub-niche they excel at and where they generate the most profit.
From there, the episode dives into lead generation, SEO, social media, and paid advertising. Kasra introduces FatRank's unique pay-on-conversion lead generation model, where roofing companies only pay when a job is actually completed and paid for. The hosts then compare SEO versus PPC, noting that while SEO is a long-term investment requiring six to twelve months before meaningful results appear, PPC for roofing can cost four to five hundred pounds per converted job, making it an expensive route. Traditional advertising like TV and radio is also briefly examined and largely dismissed as cost-prohibitive compared to a well-executed SEO campaign. The episode wraps up with practical advice on social media, including sharing before and after photos and videos to build Google's E-E-A-T signals while also improving on-site conversion rates.
“you need to start to understand prior to going out there and starting doing your advertising and marketing to try and grow your roofing company what it is you're best at and where you make the most profit because that's the most important part.”
— Kasra Dash
Who Are the Guests on “How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation”?
James Dooley is a well-known SEO expert and digital marketing entrepreneur who hosts the James Dooley Podcast. With deep experience in ranking websites and generating leads across multiple industries, James brings practical, data-driven perspectives to business growth conversations. In this episode he contributes live search data, such as pulling up real monthly search volumes for roofing terms in Manchester, and offers informed commentary on the cost-effectiveness of different marketing channels.
Kasra Dash is the founder of FatRank, a lead generation company that specialises in working with trade and service businesses including roofing contractors. Kasra has hands-on experience building lead generation systems and working directly with roofing companies across the UK. His expertise spans SEO strategy, niche positioning, and performance-based lead generation models, and he brings a consultant's mindset to helping business owners understand where to focus their growth efforts.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- Roofing companies must clearly define their sub-niche, whether flat roofing, heritage roofing, repairs, or maintenance, before investing in any marketing because focused positioning attracts higher-intent leads and improves profitability.
- FatRank's pay-on-conversion lead generation model removes financial risk for roofing companies because payment is only triggered when an inquiry converts into a completed and profitable job.
- SEO is the most recommended long-term growth strategy for roofing businesses, with results typically appearing within six to twelve months, and focusing on long-tail keywords like church heritage roofing or skylight repairs makes ranking far more achievable.
- PPC advertising for roofing is costly, running approximately four to five hundred pounds per converted job, which makes it a less efficient channel compared to a sustained SEO investment for most roofing businesses.
- Building a strong online presence through Google reviews, testimonials, case studies, and before and after photos on social media is essential not only for SEO and E-E-A-T but also for improving conversion rates once a lead has been generated.
“you've got SEO which is the long term play social media you could be outreaching to certain customers that you want to work with genuinely outreaching to them on like LinkedIn and places like that and then yeah you can generate leads pretty instantly via FatRank”
— Kasra Dash
Is “How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation” Worth Listening To?
This episode is a genuinely practical resource for anyone running or marketing a roofing business. Rather than dealing in vague generalities, James and Kasra get specific about real costs, realistic timelines, and which channels actually deliver returns. The discussion around PPC costs being four to five hundred pounds per converted job versus reinvesting that same budget into a long-term SEO campaign is the kind of honest cost comparison that most marketing content avoids, and it gives business owners a clear framework for making better spending decisions.
What also makes this episode stand out is Kasra's emphasis on getting the fundamentals right before spending money on any channel. The point that roofing is not one industry but dozens of overlapping sub-niches is an insight that many roofing business owners have probably never considered, and it reframes how they should think about their entire marketing strategy. Combined with the explanation of FatRank's risk-free lead generation model and the actionable social media tips around before and after content, this episode delivers a complete growth roadmap that listeners can begin acting on immediately.
Who Should Listen to “How to grow a roofing business? | Roofing Business Lead Generation”?
This episode is ideal for:
- Roofing business owners and sole traders looking to generate more consistent enquiries and scale their operations
- Marketing managers or in-house marketers working for trade or construction companies who need a clear channel comparison
- SEO professionals and digital marketing consultants who work with or want to start working with local service businesses
- Entrepreneurs considering starting a lead generation business or pay-on-performance marketing agency in the trades sector
Where Can You Listen to James Dooley Podcast?
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What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The breakdown of roofing sub-niches alone was worth my time. I never thought about separating flat roofing maintenance from heritage slate work as completely different marketing targets, but it makes total sense. Really changed how I think about our service pages.”
“Kasra's explanation of the FatRank lead generation model where you only pay on completed jobs was fascinating. As someone who has burned money on Google Ads for a trades business before, the idea of a performance-based model is incredibly appealing. Concrete and refreshingly honest episode.”
“James pulling up live search volumes for roofing in Manchester mid-episode was a nice touch, it made the SEO conversation feel grounded in real data rather than theory. The comparison between PPC costs and a long-term SEO investment was exactly the kind of practical breakdown I needed to hear.”
James Dooley: Today I want you to teach me on how I can grow my roofing company what's your strategies what are some things that I shouldn't do
Kasra Dash: So if you are a roofing business that's looking to grow I would strongly recommend a couple of different scenarios. I would strongly recommend SEO but prior to doing SEO what the roofing company needs to understand they need to sit down and work with a consultant that's going to stringently keep them in line of what it is that you're doing. What I mean by that is obviously while I'm a roofing contractor but there's lots and lots and lots of different types of roofing whether it's flat roofing blue roofing green roofing biodiverse roofing slate roofing just tiled roofing there's so many different types heritage roofing right and even when some people say they're a roofing contractor are you installing new roofs are you retiling existing roofs are you doing roofing repair are you doing roofing maintenance are you doing roofing cleaning are you doing roofing painting like there's so many different sub niches within the roofing as an industry you need to start to understand prior to going out there and starting doing your advertising and marketing to try and grow your roofing company what it is you're best at and where you make the most profit because that's the most important part. The first thing I would do and I'm slightly biased because I founded FatRank was I'd go to FatRank.com we work with a lot of different roofing companies we do a lead generation model that I don't think anybody else does for roofing companies where we will generate you inquiries and you pay nothing for the inquiries you only pay on converted jobs so you only pay out of the profit that you make nothing else to be paid. The issue is we're very selective with what roofing companies that we work with so you need to be making certain that you've got a good like online presence with regards to good quality reviews and testimonials because the last thing that we want to do is turn around and go and give you an inquiry and you thought you come up against another roofing company and you're 100,000 pounds for this job and these are 100,000 pound or dollars and then at the 11th hour they're uncertain which company to go with and this company over here has got a better online presence with regards to reviews testimonials and case studies compared to your company we're very selective in trying to use and provide leads for companies that are good at converting otherwise we don't get paid and you don't win the jobs. So rolling on from if you are a roofing company and you do apply for FatRank.com I definitely won't throw all your eggs into one basket so we are just one lead generation provider I would then be trying to generate your own leads if you're looking to grow your roofing company. SEO is a major play that you should be doing it's not going to get you instant return on investment it's a long term investment but SEO shouldn't just be okay I want to rank number one for roofing in the UK like think more niche think more long tail like church heritage roofing or something like that if you work for churches and do heritage roofing or refelt my flat roof and stuff like that. It could be skylight repairs it could be lots of different things of what you do try to make certain you're going after the keywords that you can try to rank for that are easier to rank for your topical authority and team up with a quality SEO agency that's going to help you grow your online presence there's a lot of cowboys out there so be very careful making certain that you're teaming up with the right SEO agency is very important but that's another major major play. Then I'd say the next biggest part is social media if you've got any jobs before and after photos be sharing those before and after photos on your social media be doing any videos and put it onto your YouTube channel of showing jobs of what you've done again it's just adding more it as Google call it E-E-A-T expertise authoritativeness trust and experience so you want to be doing these anyway not because Google tells you to but actually this is good for conversion rate optimisation for you to try to make certain you're converting that lead into an order and making profit take all the boxes and make certain that offline you might be an amazing roofing company but make certain you look amazing online because that's where people are looking people are checking online to see how good you are as a company so that is personally what I would do. So what would you do if you're a roofing company looking to grow online
James Dooley: So like what you've mentioned I think consistency is super important when it comes to like social media making certain that you're frequently uploading to Instagram and Facebook just being proactive as much as possible and then another added benefit to all of this is SEO like I've just searched up on my computer very quickly roofing in Manchester and that's just one variation there's several variations it gets 150 searches a month and that's actually on the lower end it's probably getting about four or 500 searches a month so if you can start investing into SEO now you will be able to get quicker or I say quicker results you'll be able to get results in about 6 or 12 months time but the longer you don't invest into SEO that's just another revenue stream that you're not actually getting any clicks or not getting any inquiries from. So yeah I think
Kasra Dash: What about like PPC would you do PPC for roofing
James Dooley: PPC for roofing from what I've been told and I know a lot of roofing companies it's a lot of money it's around four or five hundred to get one converted actual job
Kasra Dash: What about traditional marketing like radio ads TV ads billboards anything like that
James Dooley: Again I'm sure that there are companies that have made TV ads work but again for a TV ad on Sky what is it like 15,000 you could invest into a really good SEO campaign for something like that. If you could only choose two strategies to grow your roofing company then what two strategies would you go with
Kasra Dash: I would probably go with SEO being number one and also obviously FatRank as well being number two I just think that that's probably a good combination I think to to get FatRank working and to also get SEO working very well I would also invest time into social media I think you need it's probably a bad question to ask because you probably you need SEO social media and you need a lead generation company that's going to generate you a consistent flow of inquiries you've got SEO which is the long term play social media you could be outreaching to certain customers that you want to work with genuinely outreaching to them on like LinkedIn and places like that and then yeah you can generate leads pretty instantly via FatRank
James Dooley: Yeah definitely so is anything else that you would touch on on how to grow a roofing company
Kasra Dash: No I think just be as visual as possible roofing again it's kind of like before and afters as well so getting as much of them and also ranking those images as well but yeah I think we've covered it all really hopefully you like the tips that we've done for how to grow a roofing business
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.