Roofing door hangers cost less per door than mailed letters, even after you pay someone to walk them: about $0.62 a door in the example below, with the rep's time counted, against $1.00 for a letter. That makes hangers the cheaper way to book an inspection only if they bring in at least about 6 in 10 of the responses a letter would, and that is the number worth testing.
Below are both calculations with inputs you can swap for your own, the federal mailbox rule and the city rules that apply to hangers, and where each one fits best. Short version: hangers earn their keep at doors your reps are already walking past.
What does a door hanger really cost per door?
Printing is the smaller part, as long as you order in volume. 4OVER4, a printing company, puts door hanger printing at about $0.05 to $0.25 a piece in its door hanger cost FAQ, with the price falling as quantity rises. Small runs cost far more: as of October 2026, its door hanger product page lists 250 hangers for $290.41, over $1 each. The example below uses $0.15 a piece, which assumes a run in the thousands.
The bigger part is walking. The median wage for door-to-door sales workers was $19.89 an hour in 2025, according to BLS wage data published by O*NET OnLine. Wages made up 70% of private employers' compensation costs in June 2026, per the BLS employer costs release of September 9, 2026, so a rep costs about $28 an hour with benefits, before mileage. That's the same hourly cost we used in our post on door knocking vs. direct mail.
How many doors an hour? Direct to Door Marketing, a hanger distribution company, says a professional distributor typically covers 400 to 800 door hangers a day in suburban areas, roughly 50 to 100 an hour over an eight-hour day, and its pricing guide puts an experienced distributor at about 80 to 120 doors an hour. The example uses 60 an hour, since your rep isn't a full-time distributor. Spread-out lots, long driveways and hills push the number down.
| Example input | Hanger, your own rep | Hanger, hired distributor | Mailed letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per door | $0.62 ($0.47 walking plus $0.15 printing) | About $0.70 (small-campaign price, printing included) | $1.00 all in |
| Rep hours per 1,000 doors | About 17 | None of yours | None |
| Homes that call, text or scan | 1 in 200 | 1 in 200 | 1 in 200 |
| Responses that book an inspection | 3 in 4 | 3 in 4 | 3 in 4 |
| Cost per inspection | About $165 | About $187 | About $267 |
The distributor figure is Direct to Door's published starting price of around $695 for 1,000 hangers, printing and distribution included, for small campaigns as of October 2026; the same guide says the price per door falls as campaigns get larger. The letter's $1.00 is the same example as in the door knocking post. Postage alone for one metered First-Class letter is $0.78 under the USPS price list effective October 4, 2026. Presorted mail costs less per piece and printing adds to it; our post on cost per job for direct mail breaks down the per-piece side.
The input that decides it: response per door
The table gives hangers and letters the same response rate, and that is its weakest assumption. We found no independent, published data comparing the two. Printers publish hanger response figures, but they don't settle it: 4OVER4's door hanger statistics page says typical response rates "run 1% to 5%" without naming a study, a sample size or a control group.
You can turn the question around instead. Divide the hanger's cost per door by the letter's: $0.62 divided by $1.00 is 0.62. So the hanger is the cheaper way to an inspection as long as it gets at least 62% of the letter's response. If letters bring in 1 in 200 homes, hangers need about 1 in 320 or better. With a hired distributor at $0.70, they need 70% of the letter's response, about 1 in 285. Walking speed moves this a lot: at 100 doors an hour instead of 60, the hanger costs about $0.43 a door and needs only about 43% of the letter's response.
To find out where you stand, split one neighborhood: hangers on half the streets, letters on the other half, each with its own tracking number and QR code. Our post on tracking direct mail leads covers the setup. Run it more than once, because a single round of a few hundred doors can land well above or below its real average by chance.
Can you put a door hanger in a mailbox?
No. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1725, knowingly putting mailable material with no postage paid into a mailbox to avoid postage is a federal offense, punished by a fine for each violation. The USPS rules in Domestic Mail Manual section 508.3.1.3 go further: a mailbox may be used only for matter bearing postage, and no part of it may be used for unstamped items, including anything placed on it, attached to it or hung from it. So the flag and the box door are off limits too. The hanger goes on the front door. If you're unsure how this applies to your setup, check with a qualified attorney.
What city rules apply to door hangers?
Cities set their own rules for leaving printed material at homes, and they differ. Three examples show what to look for:
- Los Altos, California requires no permit, but a handbill may not be left at a home that posts a sign such as "No Handbills," and it must be left so it won't blow away (Municipal Code Chapter 9.08).
- Fullerton, California requires printed material to be handed to the person, tied to or slipped over a doorknob, or folded, bound or weighted so wind and passing traffic can't scatter it (Section 7.30.050).
- Scottsdale, Arizona makes it a violation to deliver handbills, fliers or door hangers to a resident who has posted a visible sign refusing them (Revised Code Chapter 19, Section 9).
Before a crew hangs in a new city, look up its handbill or litter ordinance and ask whether the solicitor permit your reps need for knocking also covers hanging. If the rules aren't clear, check with the city or a qualified attorney.
What a letter can do that a hanger can't, and the reverse
| Question | Door hanger | Mailed letter |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets it? | Whoever opens the front door, owner or renter | The person named on the envelope, such as the owner |
| How fast? | The day you walk it | Printing plus USPS delivery time |
| Whose hours? | A rep or a hired crew, at every door | Nobody walks |
| Can it carry details about the house? | Not wisely: anyone at the door can read it | Yes, inside a sealed envelope |
| Can it be tracked? | Yes, with its own tracking number or QR code | Yes, the same way |
The privacy point matters if you want to show a homeowner something specific, such as a photo of their roof. An open hanger works like a postcard there, and our post on postcards vs. letters explains why house details belong in an envelope. Timing cuts the other way: a hanger is there tonight, while a letter needs printing and delivery, which our post on how long bulk mail takes breaks down.
When door hangers make sense
Hangers are cheapest when the walking is already paid for. Leave one at every door where nobody answers during canvassing. In the example from the door knocking post, a rep knocks about 25 doors an hour and talks with someone at 1 in 4, so roughly 19 doors an hour get a hanger. At the example's $0.15 each, that's under $3 of printing an hour on top of time you were spending anyway.
They also fit the days right after a storm, on streets your crew is working that day, and the homes around a job you're on, where neighbors can see the crew. Letters fit better where walking is slow or impossible (spread-out lots, gated neighborhoods), where many homes post "no handbills" signs, when you want to say something specific about the house, and when your reps' hours are already full.
The two also work in sequence. A hanger at a no-answer door today and a letter to the same address a week or two later reach the homeowner twice, once at the door and once by name. Give each its own tracking number so you can see which one did the work.
Where Scoutbound fits
Scoutbound handles the letter side without walking. In ZIP codes chosen with you, it checks aerial images and mails a personalized letter only to homes whose roofs show visible wear, under your brand, with postage and printing included. On request, it can also mail a list of addresses you supply, such as the homes where nobody answered the door. Scoutbound doesn't choose or check those roofs, but each letter still shows an aerial image of that home's roof, and addresses without a usable image are left out. Each letter carries its own QR code and the campaign's tracking number, and calls, texts and scans show up in your portal.