Roofing contractors love to argue about which platform generates leads. Facebook, Google, direct mail, door knocking. Almost nobody talks about the number that actually matters: what each lead costs once you account for close rate.
Radius marketing wins that argument, and it’s not close. The math is simple enough to run on the back of a napkin, and once you run it, most of the debate about “which channel is best” stops mattering.
What Roofing Leads Actually Cost Right Now
Paid search leads for roofing routinely run $80 to $250 per lead depending on market competition, and that’s before you account for the leads that never answer the phone. Facebook leads are cheaper per click but convert at a lower rate, often landing in a similar range once you factor in the volume of unqualified clicks.
Untargeted direct mail, the kind that blankets a zip code with generic postcards, typically costs $0.50 to $0.80 per piece and converts at around 0.5%. Mail 1,000 pieces at $0.65 each and you’ve spent $650 to generate roughly 5 leads. That’s $130 per lead before you’ve even gotten a phone call that turns into a signed job.
Radius marketing built around a completed job changes both sides of that equation. It costs more per piece than a generic postcard, but the response rate is high enough that the cost per lead drops well below what paid ads or blind mail produce.
Why Radius Targeting Beats Broad Reach
The reason radius marketing works isn’t the geography by itself. It’s that the geography is tied to relevance. A homeowner three doors down from a job you recently completed has context a random homeowner across town does not have.
That context is what moves response rates from 0.5% to 3-5%. A 500-piece radius campaign at that response rate generates 15 to 25 leads, not 2 or 3. Spread the same campaign cost across that lead count and the cost per lead falls dramatically, often by half or more compared to broad, untargeted approaches.
ShingleDrop’s Growth package runs 500 mailers for $4,850. At a 4% response rate, that’s 20 leads for roughly $242 each in mail cost. Factor in a typical roofing close rate and that’s a fraction of what the same 20 jobs would cost to generate through paid search.
The Physical Shingle Is What Makes the Radius Work
A radius list by itself doesn’t guarantee a high response rate. Plenty of roofers have mailed a tight radius with a generic postcard and gotten generic postcard results.
What separates a working radius campaign from a wasted one is whether the piece actually gets opened and held. ShingleDrop includes a real piece of asphalt shingle sourced from the completed job in every mailer. That physical object is why the response rate holds at 3-5% instead of collapsing to the 0.5% average that most direct mail produces.
Homeowners don’t recycle a piece of their neighbor’s actual roof without looking at it first. That single design decision is what turns a radius list into a lead-generating asset instead of another postcard headed for the trash.
Running Your Own Numbers
Take your average job value and your current cost per lead across whatever channels you’re using now. Then estimate what a 500-piece radius campaign around your next completed job would generate at even a conservative 3% response rate.
For most contractors, that comparison alone justifies shifting a portion of ad spend into radius mail. It’s not a replacement for every channel, but it consistently produces the lowest cost per lead of any option available once you factor in close rate and job value. Learn how ShingleDrop’s process works from job site to mailbox to see exactly where that cost advantage comes from.
FAQ
How is radius marketing cheaper than Facebook or Google ads per lead?
The response rate is the difference. Radius mail tied to a recent, nearby job converts at 3-5% versus the fractional-percent click-to-lead rates typical of paid ads, which spreads the campaign cost across far more leads.
What radius size gives the best cost per lead?
Most contractors see the strongest results with 250 to 500 homes around a completed job. Smaller radii concentrate cost on the most relevant homeowners, while larger radii trade some relevance for reach.
Do I need a big marketing budget to test this?
No. ShingleDrop’s Starter package covers 250 mailers for $2,750, enough to test the model against a single job before committing more budget.
How do I track cost per lead accurately?
Every ShingleDrop order includes a dedicated landing page and QR code, so responses are tracked separately from your other marketing and you get a clean number instead of a guess.
If your current cost per lead is eating into your margin, radius marketing built around your own completed jobs is the fastest way to bring it down. Start your order and run the numbers yourself.