Locals Ads Guide

If you want more roofing leads from Google, Daniel Dimsey lays out a very practical way to build a campaign that actually targets the right searches, controls spend, and turns clicks into calls and quote requests. The whole point is not just to “run Google Ads”, but to set them up properly for a roofing company so you are showing up for high-intent local searches instead of wasting money on junk traffic.

This guide walks through the exact setup process Daniel Dimsey uses for roofing campaigns, from keyword research through to bidding, location targeting, ad copy, and campaign structure.

Start in Google Ads and claim the ad credit if you are new

The first stop is your Google Ads account. If the account is brand new, check whether you can claim Google’s introductory ad credit offer. In the example shown, spending $1,800 in the first 60 days unlocked $1,200 in ad credit.

If you are just getting started, that is worth taking advantage of. It reduces the risk of testing and gives you more room to gather data early.

Find the right roofing keywords before building anything

One of the best parts of the Daniel Dimsey approach is that he does not start by building the campaign first. He starts with keyword research, because if you bid on the wrong searches, the rest of the setup does not matter.

Where to find the keyword data

Inside Google Ads, go to:

• Tools
• Keyword Planner
• Discover new keywords

Then paste your website into the tool and choose use the entire site. Google will pull keyword ideas based on your services.

Set the location to your actual service area

This step matters. Change the location from a broad region to your actual city or the nearest relevant city. That way, the keyword data reflects the local demand and the local click costs you are actually dealing with.

For example, if you serve Melbourne, set the location to Melbourne rather than all of Australia. The data becomes far more useful.

Sort by average monthly searches

Once the results load, sort the list by Average monthly searches so the highest-volume keywords rise to the top.

From there, select the terms that are genuinely relevant to your roofing business. Examples shown included:

• roof repairs
• roofing and repairs
• roofing Melbourne
• roof plumbing

In Australia, “roof plumbing” is commonly used to refer to metal roofing work, so local phrasing matters.

Use the bid estimates to understand what competitors are paying

Pay close attention to these two columns in Keyword Planner:

• Top of page bid low range
• Top of page bid high range

That gives you a rough sense of what advertisers are paying to appear near the top of the search results for that keyword.

For example, when someone searches for a term like roof repairs, the sponsored listings at the top are ads, and advertisers may be paying anywhere from around $10 to $37 per click for that position depending on the keyword and competition.

Copy the keywords you want to target and save them somewhere safe. You will need them when you build the campaign.

Create a new Google Ads campaign with the right objective

Now you can move back to the campaign dashboard and create a new campaign.

Choose Leads, not Sales

Select Leads as the objective.

That fits roofing businesses much better than sales because the goal is normally to generate:

• phone calls
• quote requests
• form submissions

You want the campaign optimised around real enquiries, not ecommerce-style purchases.

Add your conversion actions

The recommended conversion action is phone call leads, and ideally you will also track form submissions from your website.

Conversion tracking does matter, but it does not have to stop you getting the campaign built first. You can set the campaign up now and finish tracking shortly after.

Use Search as the campaign type

For roofing companies, Search is the preferred campaign type.

Daniel Dimsey is very direct on this point: do not waste money on the other campaign types if you are trying to get local roofing leads. Performance Max is mentioned as the only possible second option, but only with a very large budget and even then not as the preferred starting point.

For most roofing businesses, search ads are where the intent is highest and the targeting is clearest.

Set the goal as website visits

When prompted for how you want to reach your goal, choose Website visits and enter your website URL.

The bidding mistake most roofers make

According to Daniel Dimsey, one of the biggest setup mistakes is choosing a bid strategy focused on conversions when the Google Ads account has little or no conversion data.

Start with clicks, not conversions

Instead of optimising for conversions straight away, switch the bid strategy to Clicks and set a maximum cost per click.

This gives you control early on.

Set your max CPC based on the high-range bid estimate

Use the keyword data you found earlier. If the average top-of-page high range for your target terms is about $35, set your maximum CPC at roughly $35.

The reason is simple: if you do not cap your CPC, Google can spend far more than you expect on a single click. That could mean $60, $70, $80, or even $100 for one click, which is not where you want to start unless you have a very specific reason and enough data to justify it.

The cap keeps Google under control while you gather performance data.

Turn off the parts of Google that waste budget

This is another strong recommendation from Daniel Dimsey: remove both of these options during setup:

• Google Search Partners
• Display Network

The argument here is that they are harder to track and often lower quality. If you cannot clearly track where spend is going and what it is producing, you probably should not be paying for it.

Set your locations properly or you will burn money

Location targeting is where a lot of roofing campaigns go wrong.

Target your actual service areas

Use Enter another location and then Advanced search to manually add the towns, suburbs, postcodes, or zip codes you serve.

You can use a radius pin if you really want the quick version, but the professional setup is to target actual areas individually. That gives you more control later, especially when you want to make bid adjustments based on which areas convert better.

If you only drop a giant radius pin, you lose a lot of that precision.

Use Presence, not Presence or Interest

This is the big one.

Most roofing advertisers leave the location setting on Presence or interest. That means people outside your service area can still see your ads if Google thinks they are “interested” in your location.

That is how you end up paying for irrelevant clicks from people you cannot service.

Set it to:

• Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations

This helps make sure your ad budget is going toward homeowners in the areas you actually want to work in.

Add audience segments on Observe

You can also add audience segments that seem relevant to your roofing business, but do not put them on targeting mode. Put them on Observe.

The reason is not to restrict delivery too tightly at the start. It is to collect useful data. Later, you can see which audience segments convert better and make more informed bidding decisions.

That is a smart data-collection move without limiting reach too early.

Use your own keywords, not the random ones Google suggests

When Google starts generating assets from your website, edit the suggestions rather than accepting everything as-is.

The first thing to change is the keyword list. Remove the weaker suggestions and paste in the high-intent keywords you already selected from Keyword Planner.

This keeps the campaign focused on the searches that actually matter.

Always use exact match for roofing keywords

Daniel Dimsey is very clear here: for roofing campaigns, his recommendation is to stick with exact match and ignore broad match.

Why broad match is a problem

Broad match can send your ads to all sorts of loosely related searches. That opens the door to irrelevant traffic and wasted spend.

With exact match, the search has to closely match the keyword you chose, which keeps intent much higher.

That is especially important in local service businesses where each click can be expensive.

There is already enough search volume in roofing to avoid getting too loose. You do not need to chase every possible variation if your core local service terms already have strong demand.

The four pillars of a high-converting roofing ad

This is the core ad copy framework from Daniel Dimsey. Every roofing ad should include these four ingredients:

1. Keyword relevance
2. A call to action or callout fee
3. Discounts or offers
4. Social proof

That framework keeps the ad closely aligned with the search, gives people a reason to click, and builds trust quickly.

1. Keyword relevance

Your ad should mirror what the person searched for as closely as possible.

The method used here is keyword insertion in the headline. Set it to title case, insert one of your target keywords, and pin that headline in position one.

That way, if someone searches for “roof repairs Melbourne”, the ad can dynamically show that phrase in the headline. This makes the ad feel highly relevant to the search.

And yes, pinning headlines may lower Google’s “ad strength” rating. The point made here is that ad strength is not something to obsess over if pinning helps you control relevance and messaging.

2. Call to action or callout fee

Your second headline should push action.

If you offer a $0 callout fee, lead with it. If you do not, use something direct like Get Your Free Quote.

That gives people an immediate reason to contact you now instead of later.

3. Discounts or offers

If you have a promotion, put it in the ad. A discount can create urgency and improve click-through rate.

One example used was:

• $50 off today

If you have a real offer, use it. If you do not, do not invent one.

4. Social proof

People want to know they can trust you.

Use trust indicators like:

• number of five-star reviews
• how many customers have used your business
• guarantees or risk-reversal messaging

An example description pulled all of that together with messaging around service type, location, a callout fee, an offer, review count, fast quotes, and a confidence-building guarantee.

Include a phone number directly in the ad

Make sure you add your business phone number as an asset so people can call straight from the ad.

That gives you two conversion paths:

• they click the number and call you directly
• they click the ad and fill out the form on your website

For a roofing company, both are valuable, and both should be available.

Build separate campaigns for separate services

This is an important structural recommendation from Daniel Dimsey.

Do not dump every roofing keyword into one giant campaign and call it done. If you want stronger relevance and better performance, break things out by service.

That means separate campaigns for services like:

• roof repairs
• roof tiling
• roof plumbing
• new roofs or roof replacement

Why? Because each campaign can then have:

• keywords that all match one service
• ad copy written specifically for that service
• landing page messaging aligned with that service

That tighter relevance usually improves lead quality and conversion rate.

Add images and site links

Images

You can add image assets to support the ad. While before-and-after project photos can work, the recommendation here is to use photos of you and your team where possible.

The thinking is simple: people often respond better when they can see who they are hiring.

Site links

Use site links to send people to helpful, relevant pages on your website. You can align these with the same four-pillar logic:

• a service-specific page such as roof repairs
• a quote page
• a social proof page with reviews
• a page for a current offer or discount

That gives searchers more options and lets you support the ad with stronger supporting paths.

Callout assets and some of the extra add-ons are not considered essential here, so the focus stays on the parts that tend to matter most.

How to think about daily budget

The recommendation is to spend as much as you can reasonably afford, especially because roofing is a high-ticket service and one booked job can justify a meaningful ad budget.

A simple budgeting formula

If you want a rough target of at least 10 clicks per day, multiply your maximum CPC by 10.

For example:

• Max CPC: $35
• 10 clicks per day: 35 × 10 = $350/day

That should give you a baseline for daily spend. In practice, you may get more than 10 clicks depending on the actual CPCs you end up paying.

The broader point from Daniel Dimsey is that if your website converts well, even conservative numbers can make the economics work. If 10 clicks produced around three quote opportunities and roofing jobs are high value, the campaign can pay for itself very quickly.

Of course, if that budget is too high for your current situation, start with what you can afford. It is better to begin with a controlled campaign than to avoid running ads altogether.

Publish the campaign, then fix the keyword match type

After entering the budget, publish the campaign.

Then go into:

• Audience, keywords and content
• Keywords

Select all keywords, edit the match type, and change them to Exact match.

That final clean-up step locks the campaign into the keyword control you want.

The setup philosophy behind the whole method

What makes the Daniel Dimsey setup useful is that it is built around control and relevance.

Instead of letting Google make every decision for you, the strategy is to:

• choose keywords based on real local search data
• cap your CPC based on competitor bid ranges
• turn off low-clarity traffic sources
• target only the areas you actually serve
• show ads only to people physically in those areas
• write ad copy that directly matches the search
• split campaigns by service for stronger relevance

That is how you reduce waste and improve the odds of getting genuine roofing leads instead of random clicks.

Final checklist for setting up roofing Google Ads

• Claim the Google Ads credit if your account is new
• Use Keyword Planner with your website URL
• Set the location to your actual city or service area
• Sort keywords by average monthly searches
• Use top-of-page bid ranges to estimate CPCs
• Create a Leads campaign
• Choose Search as the campaign type
• Optimise for Clicks at the start
• Set a maximum CPC based on the high-range estimate
• Turn off Search Partners and Display Network
• Target specific service areas manually
• Set location targeting to Presence, not Presence or interest
• Add audience segments on Observe
• Replace Google’s keyword suggestions with your own researched keywords
• Use Exact match
• Build ads around keyword relevance, call to action, offers, and social proof
• Add your phone number as an asset
• Create separate campaigns for separate services
• Add team photos and relevant site links
• Set a realistic daily budget based on your CPC target

If you follow the setup the way Daniel Dimsey outlines it, you end up with a roofing campaign designed for local intent, tighter control, and far less wasted spend. That is what gives you a real shot at dominating page one for the searches that actually turn into jobs.