A storm-season roofer stops burning ad spend on tire-kickers
A storm-season roofer stops burning ad spend on tire-kickers
Modelled on a roofer spending $6,000 a month on paid ads, generating 150 leads, of which most were never going to buy.
The starting situation
Storm-response ads generate volume, and volume hides the problem: the crew drives to inspections for homeowners with no insurance claim, no intention, and no timeline. Every wasted inspection is half a day of a salesperson plus fuel, and the good leads wait behind the bad ones.
What was installed
- AI Appointment Setter qualifying every inbound lead inside four messages
- Insurance-claim vs cash-job branch before any inspection is offered
- Calendar routing that only books inspections for qualified addresses in the service area
- No-show recovery sequence over SMS and email
Before and after
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend / month | $6,000 | $6,000 |
| Leads generated | 150 | 150 |
| Inspections driven | 62 | 38 |
| Inspections that were qualified | ~24 | ~34 |
| Inspection-to-contract rate | 19% | 34% |
| No-show rate | 28% | 11% |
The arithmetic
- 24 fewer wasted inspections × roughly 3.5 hours each = 84 hours of sales capacity returned per month.
- 38 inspections × 34% = about 13 contracts, versus 62 × 19% = about 12 — same output from 39% fewer site visits.
- That reclaimed capacity is what lets the same crew absorb a storm week without dropping leads.
The $129 system is recovered by avoiding roughly two pointless inspections.
Verdict: Qualification is not about rejecting people. It is about protecting the hours your closers spend in front of buyers who can actually say yes.
What to install to reproduce this
This build runs on AI Appointment Setter, bundled inside the Roofers package.
- · AI Appointment Setter qualifying every inbound lead inside four messages
- · Insurance-claim vs cash-job branch before any inspection is offered
- · Calendar routing that only books inspections for qualified addresses in the service area
- · No-show recovery sequence over SMS and email
Related pages
More build math
Key terms on this page
- Lead qualification
Lead qualification is the process of asking a new enquiry a short set of questions — job type, location, timeline, and budget range — to decide whether it is worth a sales conversation and how urgently to route it.
- Speed to lead
Speed to lead is the elapsed time between a prospect making contact and your business making a real, personalised first response.
- SMS lead responder
An SMS lead responder is an automation that sends a personalised text message to every new enquiry within seconds, then continues a short qualifying conversation over text until the lead books or opts out.
- Payback period
Payback period is how long a system takes to generate enough additional gross profit to cover what it cost to buy and install.
- Cost per booked job
Cost per booked job is the total spend on acquiring and handling leads divided by the number of jobs actually booked from them.
- Booked rate
Booked rate is the percentage of leads that end up with a scheduled appointment, estimate, or call in the calendar.
How the numbers on this page are measured
Every metric quoted for this modelled build has a stated definition, a formula, and an assumption you can test against your own books. Last reviewed 2026-08-05.
| Metric | Definition | How it's calculated | Assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed to lead | The elapsed time between a prospect raising their hand (form, call, DM) and the first substantive reply reaching them. | first_reply_timestamp − inbound_timestamp, measured per lead and reported as a median. | An automated reply counts only if it asks a qualifying question or offers a booking action — an autoresponder that says 'we got your message' is not a reply. |
| Booked rate | The share of qualified conversations that end with a confirmed appointment on the calendar. | confirmed_appointments ÷ qualified_conversations. | Qualification uses the same three questions before and after install, so the denominator is comparable. |
| Cost per booked job | All-in monthly cost of the system divided by the jobs it books. | (system_cost + tool_subscriptions) ÷ booked_jobs_attributable_to_the_system. | Only jobs where the system made first contact are attributed; jobs from referral or repeat customers are excluded. |
Sources
- The Short Life of Online Sales LeadsHarvard Business Review, 2011Response time is the dominant variable in inbound lead conversion; contact odds fall sharply after the first hour.
- Lead Response Management studyMIT / InsideSales, 2007Contacting a web lead within five minutes materially increases qualification rates versus contacting after 30 minutes.
- Local Consumer Review SurveyBrightLocal, 2024Most consumers read reviews before choosing a local service business, and review recency affects trust.
- Local Search Ranking FactorsWhitespark, 2023Review quantity, recency, and response behaviour are recognised local-pack ranking signals.
- Small business phone and messaging behaviour researchGoogle / Ipsos small business studies, 2019Calls are a primary conversion path for local service searches, so unanswered calls are lost revenue rather than deferred revenue.
- Business texting engagement benchmarksTwilio Messaging research, 2023SMS is opened and replied to faster than email for time-sensitive service conversations.
What this is — and isn't
Figures on this page are modelled, not audited client results. Inputs (call volume, ticket size, close rate) are stated next to every number so you can substitute your own. We do not publish named-client outcomes, aggregate ratings, or testimonials we cannot evidence.
Full modelling rules, attribution rules, and the correction policy are on our methodology page.
Guarantees and supported integrations
- 14-day refundInstall it, run it, and if it doesn't fit, get your money back.
- Lifetime updatesEvery revision of a system you own ships to you, free.
- No lock-inBlueprints run on your own accounts. Cancel and they keep working.
- Secure checkoutPayments handled by the processor. We never store card details.
Works with the stack you already pay for
- Zapier
- Make
- HubSpot
- GoHighLevel
- Pipedrive
- Twilio
- Cal.com
- Calendly
- Google Workspace
- Notion
- Airtable
- OpenPhone
Integration partners, not customer logos. We publish client names only with permission — none yet, so none shown.
Plug the same leak in your shop.
Start with the single system that recovers the most revenue, then add the rest of the bundle.