ChatGPT ads · roofers · Australia
Roof leaking at 8pm: ChatGPT ads for roofers
A ceiling starts dripping and someone puts a bucket under it. Then they type the whole mess into ChatGPT. While that bucket fills, your ad can sit under the answer. I write it and I run it. We work for free and you cover your own ad spend. We only get paid a cut of what it makes you.
What a dripping ceiling makes people type
They don't type 3 words. They type the whole mess, the way they'd say it to a mate. The kind of thing people type:
- "water coming through my ceiling after the rain, who do I call tonight"
- "brown ring on the ceiling, is that the roof or the shower upstairs"
- "how much to replace 20 cracked tiles and repoint the ridge"
- "my colorbond roof is leaking around the screws, can that be fixed"
- "the gutter overflowed in the storm and the eave is soaked"
- "how much does a new metal roof cost on a 3 bedroom house"
- "does home insurance cover a roof leak from hail"
ChatGPT picks your ad from what the person is asking about right now, not from words you bid on. I write hints instead. Your trade, the jobs you want, and the words people use for them.
The leak today and the re-roof in March
Roofing runs on 2 clocks. A leak in the rain is a today job. They're putting a bucket down while they type. A re-roof is a quoted job and they'll sit on it for weeks.
So you run 2 ads, not one. The leak ad says you come out today and stop the water. The quote ad says the price comes before a tile moves. When a storm goes through, the leak ad is the one to push.
Who gets the leak call today
After a hail run, a fair bit of roof work comes off an insurer's list of repairers. A rental goes through the agent or the strata manager, who rings whoever they used last time. The rest is the map on a phone, and the lead sites that sell one leak to 4 roofers so the fastest caller wins it. The new one is the owner who opens ChatGPT while the bucket is still filling.
No roofer in Australia really knows about this yet, and if they do, they are doubtful because it is new.
Writing the leak ad
An ad has 3 parts. A title, a line of copy, and the page it points at. Here's a leak ad:
- Title: "Roof leaking? I tarp it today"
- Copy: "Licensed roofer. I stop the water today, send you photos of the damage, and quote the fix before I leave."
In NSW the licence number has to be in the ad itself, not only on your page. That rule covers residential building work. Other states have their own rule, so check yours. If you hold one, send me your licence number and I write it into the ad.
Put your own town in the copy, and your real hours. If you don't work Sundays, don't write 7 days.
What the page has to show while it's still raining
ChatGPT reads the page your ad points at when it picks the ad. So the page has to say what the ad said.
- Your licence number, up top where they can see it.
- A phone number they can press with a wet hand, up the top.
- One line on what you do in wet weather. That's the question they're holding.
- 2 photos of a roof you fixed. A before, and the same roof after.
- How the quote works. The price first, then the tiles come off.
The week after the storm, and what the clicks cost
A storm goes through on the Tuesday. The ad runs all week while people are still finding wet patches on the ceiling. Say 20 clicks come in over those 7 days. A click is someone tapping the ad. OpenAI suggests starting at US$3 to US$5 for one. US dollars, so a bit more here.
At the top of that range the week costs you US$100. Say 1 of those 20 books a tile and ridge repair, worth $900 in our dollars as my example, not a market price. I made the 20 up. Nobody has your number yet and month 1 is where you find it. No Australian roofer has published what a leak call costs on ChatGPT, and neither have I.
Let ChatGPT show your business to high-intent customers
- ChatGPT has released paid ads, and this changes the marketing game absolutely.
- If you missed out on Facebook ads in 2007, where anything you posted would have popped off, don't miss out on the next big ad platform.
- Unlike Facebook, where people get interrupted mid doom-scroll, ChatGPT shows your business to people who are already researching something related.
- That makes ChatGPT a cheat code. The engine your customers ask for advice shows your business right under its answer.
- Most marketing agencies charge you thousands before you see any results.
- We work for you, for free. You just cover your own ad spend. The first month is free, so you see the results for yourself before you pay us anything.
- Then, if you want to keep getting those results month after month, we sort out a rev-share or a retainer. A rev-share is a cut of what it makes you. A retainer is a flat monthly fee. Agreed in writing before month 2 starts.
- In the free month, we don't get paid if you don't get paid. After that, it's the rev-share or the retainer you chose.
- Only 10 a month. The work up front is heavy and brings us no income at first. That is all we can take.
If the ads make you nothing, you pay us nothing and we stop there. You will have paid OpenAI for the clicks, and that is all.
3 things roofers want to know
After a hail storm I'm booked out anyway. Why ads?
Quiet weeks after the storm are when an ad earns its keep, and the daily cap is on the budget page for a tradie.
Most of my work comes through insurers. Does this suit me?
It can bring you the owner who hasn't rung the insurer yet, or whose claim came back knocked back. Your insurance work carries on as it does now. You pay OpenAI for the clicks, not me.
Will I just get people chasing a free roof report?
Some, yes. The wording decides it. Say the price comes before the tiles come off and you get people who are ready to pay for a fix. Say free inspection and you drive across town for nothing.
Read next
How the ad account is set up, and where every dollar goes, is on the ChatGPT ads page. A roof gets priced off photos before the ladder goes up, and that case is made on ChatGPT ads for service businesses. How the sum shifts from a call-out trade to a quoted one is on ChatGPT ads for tradies. To follow one leak call from the question to your phone, read how a ChatGPT ad turns into a lead. Roofers who quote the exterior repaint as well should read the painters page. If the gutter job usually comes with rotten timber, read the carpenters page.
30 minutes, then a straight answer
30 minutes on the phone, mostly questions about your business and your customers. You get 2 straight answers. Do people ask ChatGPT for what you do? And is it worth a run, where we only get paid a rev-share or a retainer, sorted once you have seen the results, to find out?