Before you sign with any of the roofing marketing companies pitching you, get one answer in writing: if you leave, which accounts, phone numbers and leads stay with you? A good provider answers that in a sentence, then shows you what a signed job costs and what its guarantee covers. This post gives you the questions to ask, ties each one to an official source where one exists, and works through what a long contract and a lead-count report can hide.
Who owns what if you leave?
Ownership is easy to settle before you sign and hard to fix after. Ask for this list in the contract, not in a sales email.
| Asset | Ask for | What the official source says |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | You stay primary owner; the agency gets manager access | Google says to keep owner access when a third party runs the profile. Managers can't add or remove users. |
| Google Ads account | An account in your company's name that you can log in to | Google says an agency must set up a separate account for you and that you have a right to clicks, impressions and total cost. |
| Domain name | Your company listed as registrant | ICANN says the registrant holds the rights. Only the name holder, the administrative contact or someone they authorize can start a transfer. |
| Website, copy and photos | A signed copyright transfer and a full export | Copyright starts with the creator, and a transfer generally must be in writing and signed. |
| Tracking phone numbers | Numbers on your account, or a written promise to port them out | The FCC says a phone company can't refuse a port over an unpaid balance. |
| Search Console and Analytics | You as verified owner and Administrator | A removed verified owner can return unless their token comes off the site. Administrators control user access. |
Two rows need a closer look. "Work for hire" language in a contract may not do what it sounds like: a contractor's work only qualifies if it fits one of nine listed categories and a signed agreement says so, and a website isn't named on that list. Ask for a plain transfer of rights instead. The FCC's porting page is also written for the phone company's own customer. If the number sits on the agency's account, you aren't that customer, so the promise to port has to be in your contract.
Then ask about what isn't an account: your lead list, form submissions and call recordings. Can you export them as a file on your last day? Can the site move to another host, or is it built on the agency's own platform? And whose Meta business portfolio holds your Facebook ad account? If calls get recorded, ask how callers are told. The FCC has no recording rules for individuals but notes that some state laws prohibit it, so the answer depends on your state.
What does it cost to leave?
Take an example with made-up numbers: a $2,500 monthly fee on a 12-month contract. That's $30,000 over the term. If you know by month three that it isn't working and there's no exit clause, you may still owe the other nine months, or $22,500. That number, not the monthly fee, is what you're really risking on the day you sign.
So ask these before you look at the price:
- How long is the first term, and does it renew on its own?
- How many days' notice do you need to give, and in what form?
- Can you leave early if agreed numbers are missed? Which numbers, by when?
- Is there a setup fee, and is any of it refunded if you leave?
- What gets handed back, and how many days after notice?
A simple rule: if the first term is longer than the time the company itself says it needs to show results, ask for a checkpoint at that date with a right to leave. Google tells you to ask an SEO what results to expect and in what timeframe. Put the answer in the contract. These are business terms, so have a qualified attorney read anything you'd struggle to walk away from.
What should the monthly report show?
It should show signed jobs and cost per signed job, because a lead count can make the worse option look better. These two providers are made up, and each costs $5,500 a month in total ($2,500 fee plus $3,000 ad spend):
| Example | Leads | Inspections | Signed jobs | Cost per lead | Cost per signed job |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider A | 40 | 12 | 3 | $138 | $1,833 |
| Provider B | 15 | 11 | 5 | $367 | $1,100 |
Provider A wins the lead report and loses on the number that pays your crews. Use total cost, fee included, as in the cost-per-signed-job formula from our lead channels post, and judge over three months or more, since one month of roofing jobs is a small count.
Google backs you on the money side. It says partner fees often come on top of ad costs and tells you to get the agreement in writing. Its rules for third parties require any separate management fee to be disclosed in writing before your first purchase and shown on invoices. If the terms promise a monthly report, it has to show what Google charged, without the agency's fee. So ask to see the Google invoice next to the agency's invoice.
Signed jobs have to be matched to a source, and only your office can do that. Agree before day one on how, using a setup like the one in our guide to tracking leads back to jobs. And before you blame or credit any agency, test your own line: our speed-to-lead post has a 15-minute check for lost calls.
What does the guarantee actually cover?
A useful guarantee names the measure, the deadline and the remedy. "More leads or your money back" names none of them until you ask what counts as a lead, by when, and whether the remedy is cash or more months of service.
Some promises can be ruled out on the spot. Google says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google" and that if an SEO guarantees first place, you should find someone else. It also warns against anyone guaranteeing a specific ad position, because position comes from an auction that changes with every search.
Lead promises deserve the same care. In its 2023 action against HomeAdvisor, the FTC alleged that the company claimed lead-to-job rates it couldn't back up, and the order required up to $7.2 million in redress. The order binds that one company, but its test is a good one to borrow: any claim about how leads turn into jobs should come with data behind it at the time it's made. Ask for that data, and how many clients it covers. Our post on exclusive and shared leads covers what a "guaranteed lead" tends to mean.
Who is on the hook for reviews, calls and texts?
Don't assume the agency carries all the risk because the agency did the work. Two rules matter here.
Reviews. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews, including AI-generated ones, and rewards tied to a particular sentiment. The FTC's Q&A says a business can be liable for buying reviews it knew or should have known were fake, and that red flags like reviews arriving too fast after a purchase can count. Penalties for knowing violations run up to $53,088 per violation as of October 2026. Ask exactly how the company gets reviews, and whether it ever writes them or pays for them. Asking only happy customers isn't banned by the rule itself, but the FTC says it could still violate the FTC Act.
Calls and texts. If a provider calls or texts homeowners for you with autodialed or prerecorded messages, ask to see the consent. Federal rules define prior express written consent as a signed agreement that clearly authorizes the seller to send those messages to a stated number. You may still read about a "one-to-one" consent rule. A court threw it out, and the FCC took it off the books on August 29, 2025. Using a vendor doesn't move the risk either: the FCC has said a seller can be held liable for a third-party telemarketer's violations under agency principles, and that reviewing scripts or letting a vendor use your trade name can point that way.
For both rules, this is what the official sources say, not legal advice. Check your own setup with a qualified attorney.
Which questions change by type of company?
The list above is written with a roofing marketing agency in mind, the kind that runs your SEO and ads, where the ownership table matters most. Other providers need a different emphasis.
- Roofing lead generation companies that sell you leads leave you with no accounts to own. Focus on how many contractors get each lead, credits for bad leads, and minimums.
- Done-for-you mail companies should tell you whose list is used, whose name goes on the mail, and what the price includes. Our post on running mail yourself versus hiring it out has the full list. Also ask what happens to the tracking number when you stop.
- Full-service agencies get every question in this post, and one more: which of the roofing marketing services they list do they do themselves, and which go to a subcontractor?
When should you walk away?
Three answers are enough to end the call: the company won't put ownership in writing, it won't report signed jobs with its fee included, or it guarantees a ranking. If it won't say how it collects reviews or consent, that's a fourth. A company that's good at this work will have heard these questions before and won't mind them.
Where Scoutbound fits
Scoutbound is a done-for-you direct mail service for roofers, so these questions apply to it too. There's no long contract: plans run month to month, and you can cancel anytime. Letters go out under your brand, not Scoutbound's, to homes with visible roof wear in ZIP codes chosen with you. Postage and printing are included in the price. Calls, texts and QR scans show up in your online portal, where you can filter responses by campaign and count the responses to each one.