Roofers NEED Organic Content, or They'll Pay More For Ads in 2026

Social media content is more important now than ever before. And even if you hate it, even if you don't wanna show up on camera, and even if you have no idea what to do, well, this interview is for you. I'm sitting down with Joe Hughes. He is one of the most well-known folks in the roofing space, coining the phrase becoming 5-mile famous. He's the creator of Contractor Dynamics, a well-known agency in the space. And we had a really rich conversation that you are about to jump into to help you dominate your organic content marketing in 2026. Enjoy. Joe, good to have you here, man. Let's talk organic content. Why would you say organic content is more important now than ever before?

Well, I mean, it's just organic is healthier for you, right?

It's health benefits from no herbicides, pesticides.

There you go. Yeah. Allegedly. Yeah. Uh, it's all about trust. It is all about trust. We live in this day and age, this world where there's so much noise and there's so much fake news and there's so much You know, divisiveness, and there's now AI content and, and people are very skeptical, not just in the roofing industry, but just in general. And so content, especially faces on video, authentic, real content, telling stories, showing people, uh, is just an accelerant to building trust and really now kind of a requirement of what your market needs to see in order to feel good about reaching out to you, engaging with you. So it's more important than ever. It's also noisier than ever. So we can't just be random with it anymore. We need to be a little bit more strategic and well thought out about it. But comes down to trust. That's it.

Yeah. And we'll get into the strategic and trust and what goes into good content because it depends on who you ask, by the way. I love this. I nerd out on this topic. You know, one of, and I'm curious if you agree with this or not, but one of the reasons I've been leaning in really heavily on helping our members in RSRA with organic content is that paid ads have gone up, lead volume has gone down. And to counter that, what do people do? Put more money in ads. And organic content allows you to, I'm going to say the B word, brand, which I kind of hate that word because of how many different meanings people attribute, which we'll get into later today. But the point is, if you play the paid media game, every impression that you're in front of someone, you have to pay for. When you pair paid with organic, now you're getting all these free impressions that make it where when they see your paid ad for the first time, they're far more likely to respond because there's a level of familiarity and trust already built. You don't have to pay for every single touchpoint. So I don't know if you agree with that or not, but that's what I've seen. And that's what I've seen in the, in the ad performance data. But I know you run an agency doing this. So what do you think?

100%. I mean, we work with roofing companies of all shapes and sizes. And that is a few years ago, going back to say 2020, you could just run those lead generation ads, say on Meta, on Facebook and Instagram. And you could, you know, it was kind of like a formula, right? You put in $5,000 and you're going to get 20 leads a month and that sort of thing. And a lot of roofers still kind of have that mentality, which I'm sure you've seen.

Yeah.

And businesses in general. I don't mean to pick on roofers, but nowadays that doesn't work anymore. I think we saw a lot of that last year with the new roof for $5,997 or whatever variation was in your local market. And that stuff just kind of burns out the audience. So yeah, people need to see, you know, you mentioned one of your recent YouTube videos, Adam, like, you know, whether they need to see you 7 times or 40 times or whatever that number is. It's a lot more than it used to be. So if you're going to be, if you're running just straight, uh, direct response marketing, lead gen without brand awareness, um, you're just, you're just going to waste money. The, that's not, that's not what people want. And then if we're talking Meta, uh, specifically with Facebook and Instagram, they came out with a massive update about 6, 7 months ago, uh, called the Andromeda update where They are deprioritizing the, uh, you know, the hot, the, the heavy calls to action, the spammy language, um, sort of thing. And they're favoring real human content and engagement because they, the algorithm knows that's what people want. And if they can keep people on their platform longer, then they can serve more ads and make more money. So the algorithm really made a big adjustment into what what the end consumer wants, which is, you know, realness and authenticity.

Yeah. You know, the interesting thing on that, John on our team, he lives in the UK, and I logged into our business account, and it thought that I was him in the UK. And it's— I clicked on this, someone commented on one of my videos, and I clicked on it. And it said, in British pounds, by the way, it says for £2.99, you can go ad-free. And they're testing this now, ad-free Facebook. Now for so many people, and roofers just love Facebook, they consume an amazing amount of time on Facebook that should they have invested in their company, they would grow a lot more. But that's besides the point. End of my rant there. Those folks like $2.99, are you kidding me? For the— my guess is screen time would probably show multi-hours every day. So you're probably talking, I'd guess minimum 12 hours a week, probably of what roofers spend on Facebook on average. Maybe more, and $2.99 is nothing. So, uh, anyway, now you look at all the, all the consumers in general, like, I would spend $2.99 to have ad-free. When they, if or when they make that move in the US, oh boy, things are going to change. Oh yeah, they are going to change. And then they're like, I pay for ad-free YouTube. Why? And people like, you like YouTube? I'm like, yeah, I love YouTube. Like, that's where I learn. Like, I, I, I love it. And where I go to get entertained. And I just don't, I don't have ads. But yeah, so what do you think is going to change when, if or when this ad-free option will come to the US and will people pay $2.99 a month to not have to deal with ads?

$299?

No, $2.99 a month. Oh, come on.

That's a no-brainer. I pay that every day. Now, I do like the ads because it's, you know, we kind of, it's R&D. It's how, you know, it's how I study a lot. But, uh, yeah, I mean, anytime, look, anytime you're dependent on any platform, that's, that's a, uh, makes your business more fragile, right? It's a vulnerability. So whether it's Google, whether it's Facebook or whatever it is, if you're dependent on anything that's outside of your company, then, then that's, that's risky. So yeah, I mean, that's where I know you mentioned brand, organic content. Uh, those are things that it, crazy as it is, uh, it's still free organic content. That's the definition. It's free and, you know, and healthy. Yeah. And Gary Vee talks about it, you know, like it's not going to be— it's not going to be free forever. And I remember, you know, back in the day, Gary Vee talking about this is 2018 when he was— he showed up at a couple of roofing conferences and he's like, take advantage of this now as small businesses before the Fortune 500, the Fortune 100 companies start figuring this out. And now that's what you see in your feed. You see the big brands, the big companies. They figured out that it's, you know, what Gary would call underpriced attention. And now we're competing with not just the roofer across town, we're competing with, you know, the top 5, you know, top companies in the, in the world, you know, for, for that attention. So, um, yeah, bottom line, don't be dependent on anything outside of your, of your business.

Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to not be dependent. It's like diversifying where you're, where you're getting business from. So what do you see as the top mistakes that you see roofers making that are trying to get into organic content?

Um, top mistake, not having strategy. And maybe this can go for business in general, but, uh, just kind of winging it, right? Like you hear maybe someone like Adam or someone like me or, you know, someone else like, hey Gary, you need to do content. And just like, all right, yeah, I'll record something. And there's no, there's no strategy, there's no thought. A lot of times there's no thought given as to who is my ideal client, who's my ideal customer, and being able to speak directly to them. Of course, we see lots of folks in the roofing industry that lots of roofers that are kind of making content for other roofers to kind of impress them, which, you know, if that's not your business, then, then don't do that. Don't try to go viral. Uh, try to be relevant and valuable to the people that are in, you know, your backyard, in your zip codes. So biggest thing I would say is not having a strategy and just kind of winging it. And then if you're winging it, you're not gonna see results and then you're not gonna get that feedback loop. It's not gonna work. And then you're just gonna stop doing it. And that leads to just like sporadic activity. Uh, and you really need to be consistent with this stuff. Yeah.

I, I want to go back to one thing that you said, which is roofers making content for other roofers. Talk to me about that.

Well, I think it's, you know, we're all, we're all, yeah, we can all be guilty of it maybe for, you know, creating content to get the engagement or the likes or the attention or whatever it might be. And it is a free platform and it's a dopamine machine, right? So we put out a piece of content and a bunch of people are engaging with it or fighting over it or whatever it is. Then there's that constant drip of dopamine that our brains just love. So I think that has a lot to do with it. And maybe people just not thinking about it. I don't understand that. I mean, because everything I put out is kind of for our ideal, you know, prospective clients, our market. Yeah. But just, you know, just think about that. And ultimately content comes down to like, who is my ideal client? And what do they love, hate, desire, and fear? And my content should address at least one of those four things and thinking about that constantly with their content. So yeah, I don't know why so many folks do it.

I don't know.

Like, you know, I think it's, it's an opportunity to, it's for, for all of us. I mean, like I said, it's a free platform. Like we can all create a personal brand. It's an opportunity to, to be, to be seen. It's, it's status. Yeah, I mean, you can unpack that psychologically, I guess, a lot more. I don't know.

You know, I just, I get, I was actually just at IRE. I was in a cab with a few people. We were on the way to dinner and talking about organic content. And I get really, I get worked up when I see folks teaching this stuff who have these seemingly big audiences, but the audience has no value. And what I mean by that is they'll be like, oh, look, look at how big my audience. And I have all these people. I'm like, but if you are a roofer in Indianapolis, all you care about is within the, let's just say, 1-hour radius, maybe hour and a half to whatever it is your service area is. That's all that matters. You know, like, and people get obsessed with these vanity metrics. And I wanna share this story. I don't know if I ever shared this with you, but I had a gentleman named Evan Carmichael audit my YouTube channel. I'm in Genius Network with him. He's, his YouTube channel's like 4-point-some million subs and he's done consulting for very, very high-level people, channels that most people would be familiar with. And it was right when I started doing YouTube Shorts and he goes, get rid of the YouTube Shorts on your channel. And I'm like, Evan, are you kidding me? Like my analytics are blowing up. Like we're getting the views, we're getting subs. He goes, it's garbage traffic. He goes, look at this. And he shows me, he says, this video is being served up alongside like Trump assassination gone wrong, angry road rage accident. So these aren't roofing company owners. This is people scrolling Shorts for mind rot, you know? And they're not, the person's gonna watch that, be like, wow, I should really go join, put my time and energy into joining and applying this high-level roofing organization that's a membership where I can learn to better my business. Like, that's not what they're gonna do. He goes, delete 'em all. And your analytics are gonna tank and you're gonna hate me, but they'll recover, watch. And I pulled them and you can see my analytics tanked. But you know what happened is we rebuilt even stronger and it's going up. Our watch time improved, our click-through rate improved because with those shorts being served to the wrong audience, it would reserve my long-form videos up to those people and they wouldn't watch 'em 'cause they're like, I don't wanna watch this dude talk about a door-to-door pitch or talk about the roofing industry. Like, It was serving the wrong audience. So as soon as we got rid of all of that, we curated a really rich, rich audience of people. And I just wanted to emphasize to our folks who are giving us their very valuable time right now that the size— I can't believe I was gonna say— I'm gonna go there.

Yeah, it's the roofing.

It doesn't matter. It like the metrics that matter is are you getting in front of someone who is qualified to buy a roof? And that's that. And be careful of what your channel says to the world or your Instagram or your Facebook or your TikTok. Because if your customers look you up and you're just like, you know, showing flashy things that your customers had bought you and you're out like at the club or gosh, I had one person I know that put up a picture, like a video of them at a strip club. And I'm like, I would never in a million, well, one, I don't go to strip clubs, so that's an easy fix. But two, like, why, who would be like, oh, this would be great for my customers to see me doing? Like, oh my God.

Yeah. Who do you want, what do you want to be known for? So it's funny you bring that Evan Carmichael up. I don't know him, however, and that's a very interesting note about the shorts. I'm definitely going to take note of that because I'm always learning. So my friend Jan is a realtor in New Jersey here where I live, and I was just at his office last week. It's a great podcast studio and he interviewed me on the podcast. And so he was, uh, I don't think he was coached by Carmichael, but he consumed his course or content or, you know, whatever it might be. And Jan is a realtor and he is interviewing other local business owners in his area, which is an amazing strategy. Going back to roofers creating content for roofers, you see, uh, some of these roofers out there trying to get into the podcast game and they maybe see guys like Adam Bensman or whoever else, and they try to, you know, they have like this, this roofing industry podcast. But man, the real, the real money is interview other local business owners, make them famous, make yourself more well-known, cross-pollinate audiences, create a lot of content, local content. Most business owners have horrible or no content. So you're supplying them with content, you're building relationships. That local podcast strategy is probably one of the first things I would do if I started a roofing company. Dude, it's awesome.

Yeah, that is Evan's trademark move.

Oh, it is?

Yeah. You reach out to people and say, hey, can I interview you? And through that interview, you're one, getting content created through the interview. Two, you're building a relationship with them. And three, they're sharing it to their network. And for you, bringing it hyper-local, goldmine. Like, yes. Don't talk to other roofers. Talk to the local realtor, talk to the restaurateur, talk to the local charity, talk to the high school, talk to the coaches of the sports teams. Like, man, we just created a business. We're not even going to publish this. This is going to be our new business idea. How do we format? I'm on a mission to outvalue everybody. So, and I know you are too, by the way, that wasn't a competition to outvalue you, Joe. We are collaborating here together to outvalue others. And I love that we can just share this freely with people.

So, and thank you for initiating that.

I do want to get into this. Uh, how do you make organic content? What is it that you need? Like, what's— let's talk first, like, equipment.

Okay.

What does someone need to make organic content?

I actually have some on my desk here. Um, well, what you don't need is you don't need a $2,000 camera like this, uh, or a video production team or anything like that. Uh, all you need is what we all have, and that's a smartphone, right? So, Yeah, these phones are great. I would definitely recommend, I was just shooting a YouTube video, so I have all this on my desk. So the DJI wireless or, you know, some variation thereof, you clip that little thing on there, especially if you're out in a job site, you know, there's wind, there's noise, compressors going. You wanna make sure that you get good audio. People are not gonna tolerate bad audio. They'll tolerate bad, you know, visuals before they tolerate bad audio. So that's really all you need. And as far as equipment, you can also get, you know, a $20 iPhone tripod on Amazon. So, you know, you already have your phone, DJI, a couple hundred bucks, and tripod, you're looking at, you know, $300. You have a nice little video kit. And if you're an owner, like that's something that you can gift to your, you know, sales reps or team members or project managers or, you know, things like that to ensure that everyone has the tools that they need.

Yeah. Love it. Gosh, it's amazing. I just saw someone in our community post like about, What cameras I am shooting. So I have this camera and then I got, uh, this camera and, and these two cameras. I, I think the, they're Sony ZV-E10, it's like the entry-level camera, factory lenses, two $500 cameras on these, uh, uh, stands that are inexpensive. The most expensive thing I have is right behind me and it's lighting. It's LED, uh, uh, softbox.

Um, oh yeah, I got, I got that too.

Yeah. Yeah. But my point is like so many people get worked up about all the equipment and when I started my YouTube channel, I shot everything in this, like, this was before smartphones, because I started my channel in 2015, before smartphones were what they were. I was using like a $200 Amazon video camera with a $12 plug-in microphone. Um, I didn't have any lighting and I didn't do any edits. And then I just filmed everything on my phone. So I hope Joe and I inspired you to just get, get your butt in gear and do it. Uh, Joe, content ideas, where do you, where and how? Because I know this is the question. People like, I know I need to do organic content. And they come up with a laundry list of excuses. I'm not the one at my company for that. I don't like being on camera. I don't know what to say. So what do you say to all of that?

Uh, I don't like being on camera. That's such a big one. Um, you've got to, uh, you know, we coach our clients on this all the time. It's like, man, you, you know, you did, you did $3 million last year. You want to do $5 million this year. That's a big gap. Like, what's your plan to get there? Like, how bad do you want that? You know, why do you want to grow? Like, get into that why. Because, you know, what they say is when you have a strong why, then the how doesn't matter. I forget what that, how that goes, but you just got to do it. And like I said, if you're doing it right and you're following some sort of strategy, you're going to start seeing a trickle of results. Even if it's just people, you know, at the supermarket, they're like, hey, Joe, I've been seeing your videos. Like, that's like a good feedback loop. Obviously, that doesn't pay the bills, right? But, you know, you get that feedback loop like, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to keep doing that. Or you get to an appointment and the homeowner is like, yeah, like, I love your, you know, I've been watching your videos. Hey, I'm interested in financing. I saw that financing video you put out there and like, oh wow, this is actually helping me to have a warmer appointment. So this homeowner might be, you know, ready to, ready to go, or at least maybe, you know, they're not going to beat me up on price as much. Like you start getting that feedback loop. So Anyway, that's not content ideas, but like that courage to get started. I mean, I don't know. I would say 1 out of every 300 roofing companies is doing like good consistent video these days, even in 2026. So it's a huge opportunity.

Yeah.

And as far as content ideas, I have to defer to Marcus Sheridan with They Ask, You Answer, now Endless Customers. I mean, that is something that I do every day is take the questions that your market is asking, you know, whether it's at the door, it's at the kitchen table, you know, it's on social media, the questions that you're getting from your friends, whatever it might be, the questions, the hesitations, the objections, why people choose to go with your roofing company, like what they value about it. So you're going to get that content from your— from the front lines. And if you're a sales rep, well, you already have that content. So that's free content. Just answer the questions because if you know the lady has a question about financing, you can bet that there's other homeowners or property owners in that area that are wondering about that as well. Or, you know, should I wait till the next storm or should I get my roof done now? Or, you know, all that sort of stuff. And then the other thing is like, unlike Adam and I, you know, we're at our desks like, well, we want to create content. We kind of have to get creative, right? But you guys are out in the field, you're already doing cool stuff, right? You're on jobs, you're doing inspections, you're doing jobs, you're meeting with customers, you know, you're going to happy hour with your team, whatever it is. Uh, all you gotta do is kind of like tell stories about, about what you're doing. Like the content's already there. You just gotta get in the habit of, of documenting that and telling like these micro stories. Yeah.

You know, one tip I have for, for salespeople is as you're leaving the home, Or right when you get in your truck, open your camera and just say the homeowner's first name. Don't share their last name or their address, obviously. Just ask me, repeat the question and answer it. There's your piece of content. Do you offer financing? Why did the other guy offer this and you didn't?

You know, I love that.

Well, I know I need to have my roof replaced. Why is it that I need to pay my deductible? How much should my roof replacement cost? Why was the other guy $3,000 $100 cheaper than you. Hey, I called you out because it's leaking up here and I called the other roofer and he didn't answer his phone and it says they're outta service. What happened? You know, like whatever scenarios that you just face, tell the story about the real life scenario. Say Peggy just asked me this question and answer it. You have literally endless content walking out the front door of their house, standing in front of their house with your truck in the background with your logo. Just providing valuable education to people. And I, by the way, I also wanna echo Marcus Sheridan. That's how my entire YouTube channel started. I read his book and I was like, oh, if I was a roofing salesperson, here's the questions I'd ask. My early videos were all titled the exact question. And then, and then here we are.

So amazing.

It was great. I got to, you know, hang out with Marcus on this. He, a couple interviews we did and he ran a session for us and, and the company. And anyway, so it was fun to be like, hey dude, you know, I'm kind of here because you, That, that is really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, two things on that as far as content ideas, I use the Notion app. I mean, a lot of people use the Notes app on their iPhone or whatever it might be. You're going to think of ideas once you get into this all the time, like in the shower. I think of most of my ideas when I'm running and I'm always pausing, just jot them down in my Notion, uh, in my note there so that when I do go create content, I have like 100 ideas. I'm not, you know, staring at a blank page. And then our sales, our sales team. So this is for the owners out there, the marketing managers. You know, you have a sales team. What our sales team does is we have our marketing meeting every Wednesday. So prior to that meeting, they'll go into our software that we run our meetings in called Streddy, and they will drop in the actual quotes that people have been like prospects been saying on sales calls. Hey, you know, these guys are, you know, hesitating, or this is, this is the message that they heard in our ContractorDynamics YouTube video and that they repeated back to me in the sales call. So like, that's great feedback too. So getting that feedback from the front lines is, is huge.

Yeah, dude, I, I'm going to be doing a whole new interview on this with a couple of AI experts. We're actually hosting an event down at an AI data center for our members. Coming up to actually build, uh, agents to do this. But it all started with this idea where I built a, a prompt that would take call transcripts and produce social media content. And then I was like, wait a minute. So then I have the, it was like, take the call transcript, produce social media content, but it analyzed the call first, then create the image, then take, so take the transcript, pull video titles and exact quotes. Here's the frameworks to follow. So I love that you said that. You're like, yes, just pull ideas. And by the way, I was looking down. So I just wanted to show that I'm not like, this is it. Let me switch cameras here. These are my video ideas. Oh, love that.

Love that.

That I just dump on my phone. The lost art of putting in the work. There's no, and by the way, I don't even, I haven't done all these. Sometimes you sit here, right? Like a successful roofing sales rep full day. 10 tools you can use to make running your roofing company easier. You know, going, I haven't done these ones. Like going on a walk with, there's a few people I highlighted to talk about this. I was just like, oh, I'll do, you know, Peter Santenello style, grab a selfie stick, just go for a stroll and have a walk, you know, and a talk. So, uh, I just wanted to echo, yes, dump ideas into a folder when you have them. Uh, as Joe Polish says, and I don't know where he get that, if he's the original one, but he says inspiration is perishable, act on it immediately. So if you're inspired, do you, do you find that like, what gets you in the mood to film?

Uh, what gets me in the mood to film? Helping, helping roofing companies, honestly. And I know that might sound like a brown-nose kind of answer, but when we're, you know, we're working with a client or we meet someone at an event and they're like really struggling with marketing and they're so frustrated and they've had bad experiences and they earnestly want to figure it out. I love that. So, you know, like same thing, I'll be helping someone out and then I'm like, all right, well, you know, Steven really needed that advice that we gave him. To me, that's so basic, right? It's like 101, like marketing advice. But to him, that was kind of like he had never heard that before, right? Like, oh, well, there's hundreds of other thousands of other roofing company owners that would probably value that information as well. So yeah. And then again, the feedback loop when, you know, when Lane, our sales guy, is like, hey, this guy like repeated this phrase that you mentioned in this video. And I was like, oh, okay. That means people are actually paying attention and getting value. Like, that's cool.

Yeah. To help, uh, man, I just, I hope everyone here, when you find it, just do it. Like, just pull out your camera and just film. 'Cause it, it comes at weird times, at least for me. Like, I, I used to have a filming schedule and now I just produce as I'm motivated and I clear everything else. I'm like, I'm in the mood to film, shutting everything down, canceling this. I gotta get this out. You know? So I, I, and I've found that my best work now comes from, and this is of course scheduled, But the framing of this, like it came from, like, you know, I've got my email pulled up to you, like, here's what I'd like to talk about. But all of that was also an impromptu when the inspiration came, it was documented. When the inspiration for ideas come, they're shared here. Yeah, it's a different skillset to tap into, that's for sure.

That's cool. You just, when the muse visits you, that's when you record content. That's interesting.

Yeah. I dance with my work, you know, it's like, that's when it's going to flow when it flows and I think the art of creativity, you know, I, I really, I'm a creative trapped in a visionary's body, I guess.

Okay.

Really been trying to lean into that more and more is just to build my life around creating flow as much as possible, which is totally different. Like that's, you know, I know if you're in roofing, running a company, managing a company, running a team in sales, you still like, you have a creative act of connecting and, and making magic in people's lives. That I would just encourage everybody to, I encourage you to, to just follow the inspiration as it, as it arises because it keeps you in that flow state. It keeps you invigorated, excited, and moving. And your best work is done when you're having fun with it and not like, I gotta go produce content now, or I gotta call, you know what I mean?

Like, Adam, of course. Yeah. We're behind and Sydney, our marketing director, is like lovingly like, hey Joe, like, Can you get some YouTube videos done? Like, ah, you know, it's not ideal, right? It's probably not great content. Yeah. And I would say that like what you're getting at, Adam, like we all need, we all need more white space in our calendars for sure. You know, they say, Dan Sullivan says that the tightly scheduled entrepreneur cannot transform.

Yeah.

You know, I would say, you know, cannot be creative, cannot really, you know, create as much of an impact. And I'm way guilty of that. We're just talking about traveling and all that. Like, I'm so happy to be, be back home and have that white space in my calendar. Um, so that we can, you know, we can, we can grow and continue to get better.

Yeah. That's awesome. Joe, thanks for bringing so much value. Just to wrap up, you showed me you've got a, a beautiful new course that literally launched today at course.contractordynamics.com. And where else can people go to learn more about you and how you support people? Specifically roofers in content generation and meta advertising and all the other magic you bring to the world.

Thank you so much for the plug. Yeah, of course, is brand new. We just launched today, so check that out. It's completely free. Beyond that, Contractor Dynamics is our company. We've got a YouTube channel, not quite as big as The Roof Strategist here, but we are working on it. And our Nailed It podcast is called Nailed It: The Business of Construction. So Yeah, just go check out some content and, you know, I hope you get some value from it.

Yeah. Awesome, man. Thanks for being here. And for those that want to join me in the trenches and build some content together, click the link to learn more about joining ours. All right. We'll see you on the next one.