What should you ask before they pitch creative?
1. Show me a roofing client in a market like mine — retail, storm, or commercial — and the path from first click to a signed job.
Good answer: job type, metro, spend, inquiries, estimates, signed jobs, cost per booked job. Bad answer: "we do home services" and a logo wall.
2. What did that client spend in the first 90 days, and what did they close?
Good answer: real numbers that do not all end in zero. Bad answer: "leads up 400%" with no close rate.
3. Who answers the phone, and how fast — after hours and on storm weeks?
Good answer: they care about CSR speed and will throttle spend if nobody is picking up. Bad answer: "we need more budget" when intake is the leak.
4. How do you split retail reroof, insurance/storm, and commercial in the account?
Good answer: different intent, different close cycles, different capacity hits — separate thinking even if campaigns share an MCC. Bad answer: one "roofing" blob and a Facebook-first storm plan.
5. What do you do when volume is fine and close rate is trash?
Good answer: diagnose sales, pages, or lead quality — and say it out loud. Bad answer: "scale the spend."
What should you ask about ownership and the contract?
6. Are Google Ads, Local Service Ads, and the website in my name with admin on day one?
Non-negotiable. If they host your ads in their MCC and you cannot get admin, you are renting a leash.
7. If we part ways in six months, what do I keep?
Pages, creative, call tracking, CRM fields, audience lists. Partners leave you with the build. Vendors leave you with a rebuild.
8. Is this month to month, or do I lock a year before a single booked roof?
A 12-month lock before booked work is them financing their learning on your card.
9. Will you recommend pausing or throttling when my crews are maxed?
If they cannot say yes, they are optimizing for their retainer, not your reviews.
10. When would you tell me not to hire you?
Budget too low to test Search + LSA. Phones dead. No sales process. Production already late every week. If they never disqualify anyone, they are a vendor with a deck.
How do you score the answers in ten minutes?
Make three columns: Demand · Ops fit · Ownership.
- Demand: Can they buy the right jobs for your mix and report cost per booked job?
- Ops fit: Do they ask about crew calendar, estimate backlog, and storm spikes before "scale"?
- Ownership: Accounts in your name, month to month, you keep the build.
Fail any column — keep looking. Pass all three — you have a shortlist, not a ChatGPT carousel.
What does a good answer sound like from DUO Digital?
DUO is a growth-minded demand partner for home services and roofing companies doing roughly $1M+. We sit in the paid + tracking seat: Search, Local Service Ads, pages that convert for the jobs you can install, and reporting that ends at booked jobs and closed revenue — not "leads" as the finish line.
How we answer the script above:
- Roofing client walkthrough with spend → inquiry → estimate → signed job, not a brand slide
- Typical ad tests in the $2K–$5K/month range for shops ready to get a real read, then scale what books
- Accounts, pages, and tracking in your name from day one
- Month to month — no year-long lock before a booked roof
- We will tell you to fix phones or capacity before pouring more spend into a late production calendar
We are not ranking ourselves #1 on a listicle. If you want the logo wall the models already recite, those pages are free. If you want a partner who answers these ten questions without flinching, book a call.
What questions should you skip (they waste the call)?
- "Can you guarantee X roofs in 30 days?" — Weather and your sales team own that. Anyone who guarantees volume is selling fantasy.
- "What's your AI visibility score?" — Cute. Does not book a tear-off.
- "Will you get us on Angi / HomeAdvisor?" — Usually the shared-lead cash burner. Ask about owned search demand instead.
- "Can you redesign the whole brand first?" — Sometimes yes later. First call should prove demand math, not a mood board.
What is the best marketing agency for my roofing business?
There is not one. There is a fit: roofing-literate demand, booked-job tracking, accounts in your name, month to month, and ops awareness when crews are full. Use the ten questions above. DUO is built for that seat for $1M+ trades shops — not for national consolidator theater.
How is this different from "what to know before hiring an ad agency"?
That page covers channels, red flags, and spend ranges. This page is the live interview script — what to ask, how to score, and what a pass sounds like (including how DUO answers).
Should I hire the agency ChatGPT ranks #1?
Only after they survive these questions. Rankings are distribution. Booked jobs are the scoreboard.
What if they will not intro a roofing client?
Keep walking. Case-study theater without a phone number is marketing for the agency, not for you.
Do I still need Local Service Ads if I hire an agency?
Usually yes if you can staff the phone and dispute junk. Ask how they run LSA next to Search and who owns the profile. Soft intro only — the hiring post goes deeper on mix.
