A lot of roofing ads get into trouble the same way. Not with a bad keyword or a wrong bid, but with a promise. "Free roof." "We cover your deductible." "$99 a month." "Lifetime warranty." Each of those can be true, legal and effective, and each of them can also break a federal rule, a state law or a Google policy, depending on how it's worded and what the landing page says.
Chapter 13 covered the insurance promises. This chapter covers the rest of the offers roofers run: free inspections, financing, warranties, prices and storm-week pricing. Everything here is how we read the rules for a roofing guide, not legal advice. Rules vary by state, and every roofing company should have counsel review its own ads and pages.
Nearly Every Roofer Offers a Free Inspection. "Free" Can't Be Your Pitch.
In our example market, Minneapolis-St. Paul, all 12 roofing websites we studied offered a free inspection or estimate. In a 2026 trade survey from Roofing Contractor magazine, most of the contractors who answered said they don't charge to assess a roof. Homeowners still type "free roof inspection" about 1,600 times a month nationally, so the phrase earns a spot in the ad. It just won't make you the roofer they remember. It's the ticket to get in the door.
At least one roofer in the example market went the other way. Modern Exterior Systems publishes paid inspection pricing, "$200 to $400 depending on scope." Whichever way you go, say it plainly.
The legal side of "free" is narrower than most roofers think. The FTC's guide on the word "free" is written mainly for free-with-purchase offers. A no-strings free inspection isn't that. But "free gutters with any new roof" is, and then the FTC's guide says you can't quietly raise the roof price to cover the gutters, the conditions have to be stated clearly at the start of the offer, and the same "free" offer shouldn't run in one area for more than six months out of any twelve.
One more line from Chapter 13 applies here: Florida bars roofers from giving homeowners anything of value in exchange for a roof inspection, and Minnesota bars it on jobs paid from insurance. A free inspection is fine. A gift card for agreeing to one isn't.
"$0 Down" Doesn't Trigger Loan Disclosures. "$149 a Month" Does.
Financing is where a roofing ad can trip a federal rule without anyone noticing. The rule is Regulation Z, the Truth in Lending advertising rule, and it applies to anyone who advertises credit, not just lenders. A roofer who advertises financing is covered.
Regulation Z lists "triggering terms." If an ad states the amount of a down payment, the number of payments or the repayment period, the amount of any payment, or the amount of a finance charge, the ad also has to disclose the down payment, the repayment terms and the annual percentage rate, using that term.
The CFPB's official commentary helps with the edges. A statement like "no down payment" doesn't trigger the extra disclosures, and neither does a vague phrase like "regular monthly payments." A specific payment amount, like "$149 a month," does. Our reading is that a repayment period, like "0% for 12 months" or "18 months same as cash," triggers them too. The commentary also says a triggering term counts even when it isn't stated outright but can be figured out from the ad.
The roofers in our example market show what the safe version looks like. Kaufman Roofing's search ads say "Financing Available," which triggers nothing, and its financing page spells out each plan, including the deferred-interest terms of its 18-month promotion and the standard APR. Stinson Services' financing page lists its 0% plan as a table with the rate, the term and the loan range. A Search ad has no room for a full disclosure, so a practical approach is to keep trigger terms out of the ad and put the complete terms on the page it links to. Our reading is that this is a workable practice, not a legal safe harbor.
Google Rejects Roofing Financing Ads That Hide the Interest Rate
Google has its own rule on top of the federal one. Its dishonest pricing policy doesn't allow ads that fail to clearly disclose the payment model or the full expense a customer will bear, and it lists "failing to disclose interest rates" as an example. A roofing ad that leads with a low monthly payment and hides the rate is the kind of ad the policy describes.
Google's separate rules for loan ads, with their required minimum and maximum repayment periods and maximum APR, are written for lenders, lead generators and companies connecting consumers to lenders. Our reading is that a roofer selling roofs with financing available isn't one of those, but Google doesn't say so directly for home improvement financing. If a financing-led ad gets disapproved, ask Google's support which policy it tripped before rewriting it.
"Lifetime Warranty" in a Roofing Ad Has to Say Whose Warranty It Is
Warranties show up in roofing ads and on roofing sites constantly, and the federal rules split them in two.
Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, roofing materials a homeowner contracts for are consumer products, so a manufacturer's written warranty on the shingles falls under the Act. A warranty that covers only the roofer's workmanship on the labor doesn't. But the FTC's guides on advertising warranties still apply to both: an ad should mention a warranty only if the company actually performs on it. When an ad mentions a written warranty on the materials, homeowners should be able to see the full terms before they buy.
So "lifetime warranty" in an ad raises two questions homeowners can't answer on their own: lifetime of what, and whose? Crown Roofing & Restoration's website answers both in one line: "Every project carries two warranties: product manufacturer warranties on the materials and our own craftsmanship warranty on the labor." That's the clarity to copy. Say which warranty the ad means, put the full terms on the page, and don't advertise a warranty you wouldn't honor three years later. Of the 635 Google reviews we read for Chapter 8, 22 brought up warranties or certifications. Thirteen of those were complaints, most about a roofer who didn't back a warranty when a homeowner tested it.
"Roof Replacement From $8,000" Only Works if a Real Job Costs That
Prices can help. A 2026 homeowner survey from the same magazine found that nearly two-thirds of homeowners are more likely to call a roofer who shows pricing on the website. A few example-market roofers do: Keystone Builders publishes an average Minneapolis replacement figure and a per-square range, and Northern Forge Construction publishes a range for the suburb it serves.
The rule is simple: a "from" price has to be a price a real job can hit. Google's pricing policy names bait-and-switch outright: a teaser price low enough to pull homeowners in, attached to a roof nobody plans to sell at that number. If "roof replacement from $8,000" (an example number) only applies to a detached garage, it's bait.
Emergency work has its own line. For urgent, on-site services with variable pricing, like emergency repairs, Google says businesses must clearly disclose in the ad or on the landing page all applicable fees, such as call-out charges, emergency hour surcharges and whether estimates are binding. For a roofer, that's emergency tarping and middle-of-the-night leak calls. Put the call-out fee and the after-hours rate on the page before the storm, not in the invoice after it.
Google's Ad Rules Ban Price Exploitation, and Hail Week Is Where Roofers Test Them
Google's same pricing policy names price exploitation: using a person's vulnerable situation or duress to charge significantly more than the going market rate. A homeowner with a tarp on the roof and rain in the forecast is under duress by any reasonable reading. Storm weeks are when demand spikes, and when a roofing account is most tempted to raise prices, push urgency and write "sign today" copy.
Don't. Besides Google's rule, Chapter 14 covered the storm-contract laws that give homeowners the right to cancel after signing, in some states for days after a declared emergency. Pressure copy doesn't hold up against a right to walk away. Keep storm-week ads to what the homeowner actually needs: fast inspection, clear pricing, and a roofer who'll still be there next month. Write your storm-week pricing rules down before hail season starts, so nobody on the team has to decide them at 9 p.m. with the phones ringing.
A "Free Inspection" Missing From the Landing Page Can Get the Roofing Ad Disapproved
The last rule ties the rest together. Google's misrepresentation policy doesn't allow promising products, services or offers in an ad that are unavailable or not easily found on the destination. Every offer in a roofing ad has to live on the page first.
Before any offer goes into an ad, open the landing page from Chapter 4 and check it the way a homeowner would. The free inspection is stated, with any conditions. The financing terms are there, APR included, if the ad names a payment or a term. The warranty is named and its terms are a click away. The price is one a real job can meet. The emergency fees are listed. And on insurance pages, the storm-contract rights are shown. If any of that is missing, fix the page first, then write the ad.
Booked Inspections First, AI Max Last: The Order That Keeps a Roofing Account Honest
That's the last piece. Looking back across the guide, the order is the method:
- Track the booked inspection, not the form fill.
- Start with the searches where homeowners hire, like "roofer near me."
- Price your clicks on the roofs you actually sign.
- Send each search to its own page.
- Keep only the roofing keywords, and fence out the rest.
- Exact match first, broad match later.
- Win the top spots that book inspections.
- Write headlines in homeowners' words.
- Fix Google's defaults before launch.
- Fence in Performance Max when the account is ready.
- Plant your name before the storm with Demand Gen.
- Run Local Services Ads from month one.
- Fence AI Max before it writes a promise you can't keep.
- Split insurance jobs from cash jobs.
- Own your leads instead of renting them.
- And make every offer something you can put on the page and stand behind.
The full guide lives on the roofers guide home. If you'd rather have someone build a roofing account in this order and keep it honest after launch, that's what our Google Ads management does.
