The short answer
- From your own ads: in one campaign we ran for a roofing contractor in Cork, about €29 per enquiry.
- From a lead site: priced in credits or a monthly membership, and usually shared with other tradesmen.
- The number that matters isn’t cost per lead. It’s the cost of each job won, against what that job is worth.
The rest of this guide shows where those figures come from and how to work out your own. If you’d rather see how we generate them, see what a system can include.
Three ways roofers pay for leads
1. Pay per lead
You buy each enquiry. On Tradesmen.ie you pay an initial registration fee, then buy credits in advance and spend them on the leads you want. The minimum bid starts at three credits and rises with the value of the job. Up to four tradesmen can buy the same lead.
2. Pay a membership
You pay a monthly fee to receive job leads. OnlineTradesmen.ie advertises membership from €43.33 to €99.99 a month, with no commission and no per-lead fees.
3. Generate your own
You pay Meta for advertising, in your own ad account, and the enquiries come to you alone. If an agency runs it for you, their fee is on top.
| Source | What you pay | Who gets the lead |
|---|---|---|
| Tradesmen.ie | Registration fee, then credits for each lead you buy | Up to four tradesmen |
| OnlineTradesmen.ie | Monthly membership, €43.33 to €99.99 | Not stated on its membership page |
| Your own ads | Ad spend, plus an agency fee if you use one | Only you |
Lead site prices and terms are from each site’s own pages, checked on 30 September 2026. They change, so confirm before you sign up. We compare more sites in are lead sites worth it?
One real set of numbers
In one month, a Meta Ads campaign we ran for a roofing contractor in Cork spent €1,029 and produced 35 enquiries. That is about €29 per enquiry.
Every enquiry went straight to the owner’s phone. Called, quoted and followed up, they became roughly €30,000 to €32,000 of roofing work: about 29 to 31 times the ad spend.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Ad spend | €1,029 |
| Enquiries | 35 |
| Cost per enquiry | About €29 |
| Value of jobs won | Roughly €30,000 to €32,000 |
| Return on ad spend | About 29 to 31 times |
Two cautions. The figures cover ad spend only and don’t include our fee, and job value is not profit. And it is one campaign in one area: a different county, a different offer or a different month will give different numbers.
Why cost per lead is the wrong number
A €10 lead that never answers the phone is dearer than a €60 lead that books a re-roof. What you’re buying is jobs, so that’s what to measure.
Three things decide what a roofing lead is really worth:
- Who else has it. A lead sent to four roofers is worth less than one sent only to you.
- How fast you reply. The roofer who rings first tends to get the visit. A lead you ring tomorrow is a different lead. See speed to lead.
- What it’s for. An enquiry about a slipped slate and one about a full replacement cost much the same to generate. The ad and the form decide which you get.
How to work out what you can afford to pay
- Average job value. Add up your last ten jobs of the kind you want more of and divide by ten.
- Close rate. Of every ten enquiries you speak to, how many become jobs?
- Cost per job. Divide the cost of a lead by your close rate.
An illustration, not a benchmark. If leads cost €30 each and one in five becomes a job, each job costs €150 to win. Whether that is good depends entirely on the job. On a €600 repair it is a quarter of the invoice. On a €9,000 re-roof it is under two per cent.
Run the same sum on whatever you use now. Include the membership fees, and the hours spent on leads that went nowhere.
What pushes the cost of a roofing lead up or down
- The job you advertise. Emergency repairs are competitive to advertise for. Planned work like re-roofs and fascia gives you more room.
- The area. A city has more homeowners, and more roofers trying to reach them.
- The offer. A roof inspection is an easier first step for a homeowner than “call for a quote”.
- The season. Storms create demand you don’t have to pay to create.
- The questions on the form. More questions means fewer, better leads. Fewer questions means more, weaker ones.
Quick answers
Can I buy exclusive roofing leads in Ireland?
Some sellers offer them, at a higher price per lead. Leads from your own ads are exclusive by nature, because nobody else is in your ad account.
Are there free roofing leads?
Referrals, reviews and your Google Business Profile bring enquiries with no ad bill. They cost time rather than money, and you can’t turn them up when the diary is empty.
Sources
- Tradesmen.ie, Tradesmen Frequently Asked Questions, last updated 12 October 2025. tradesmen.ie/tradesmen_FAQs
- OnlineTradesmen.ie, membership page. onlinetradesmen.ie/Tradesmen.aspx
- Abula Marketing client reporting: one month of Meta Ads for a roofing contractor in Cork.