Overtake Marketing Study: Two in Three AI-Named Roofers Miss Google Maps Top 10

Roofers named by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews had a median of 289 Google reviews, against 242 for the Google Maps top 10

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, October 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — AI search tools often name local roofers who differ from the businesses that lead Google Maps, an Overtake Marketing study of 20 U.S. cities found. AI answers named 199 rated roofers. Of those, 133, about two in three, sat outside their city’s Maps top 10.

Researchers sent 80 queries to four AI tools. They ran the queries on October 15 and October 16, 2026. They collected 67 AI-generated answers in total, and the roofers in those answers had a median of 289 Google reviews, against 242 for the Maps top 10.

An AI answer can narrow the field to a few roofing contractors before a homeowner opens a map. BrightLocal surveyed 1,002 U.S. adults for its Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. It found that 45 percent ask AI tools for local business recommendations. Google said AI Overviews reach over 2.5 billion monthly active users.

Most homeowners rarely buy a roof, and the purchase is expensive. A single AI answer can cut the field to a handful of names in a few paragraphs. The study measures those picks against Google Maps rankings and against review counts and star ratings. It also shows how a roofing business can check its own visibility in AI answers.

How the Study Worked

Researchers asked four AI tools the same roofer question in each of the 20 cities. The team used ChatGPT while logged out. It used Perplexity and Gemini while logged in. The team typed the same phrase into Google and saved any AI Overview. An AI Overview appeared in 7 of the 20 cities.

For every roofer named in an answer, the researchers searched Google Maps and recorded its star rating and review count. The team drew a baseline from the top 10 Google Maps results for “roofer in” each city. That baseline totaled 200 listings.

The answers named 225 city and business pairs in all. Seven of those pairs were name variants of listings the team had already counted, so it merged them. It set aside another 19 pairs with no single rated listing. That left 199 rated roofers.

Each tool received each question once per city. The figures cover one sample taken over two days. They are not a permanent ranking.

Two in Three AI Picks Sat Outside the Maps Top 10

A total of 199 rated roofers were named in AI answers. Of those, 66 appeared in their city’s Google Maps top 10. The other 133, about two in three, did not.

Overlap rose when tools agreed. Two or more tools named 65 roofers. Of those, 34 made their city’s Maps top 10. That was just over half. Only one tool named the other 134. Of these, 32 made the Maps top 10. That was about one in four.

This matters for a roofing company that has spent years working toward the map pack. A business can rank well on Google Maps and still miss the AI answer for its city. A business outside the map pack can still be named.

Review Volume Beat the Map Pack

Review volume differed between the two groups. The median roofer named by AI had 289 Google reviews, against 242 for the Maps top 10.

Most roofers the tools named, about 85 percent, had 100 or more reviews. The Maps top 10 reached 80 percent. At 250 or more reviews, the shares were about 57 percent and 49 percent.

The gap widened when the tools agreed. Roofers that two or more tools recommended had a median of 484 reviews, and that median was more than double the roughly 228 for roofers named by one tool.

Star ratings barely separated the groups, which shared a median rating of 4.9. In the Maps top 10, 89 percent held a rating of 4.8 or above, against 83 percent of AI picks. In this sample, review count set the AI picks apart more than star rating did.

The Tools Rarely Agreed

The same question drew fairly different answers from the four AI tools. The tools named 218 distinct roofing companies across the 20 cities. The median was about 10 per city.

Two or more tools named only 70 of those companies, roughly 32 percent, in the same city. Three or more tools named 16 companies. Just two companies made all four lists. Four-tool agreement was possible only in the 7 of 20 cities where Google showed an AI Overview.

For homeowners, the listed contractors can change with the app or tool they open. Roofing contractors face a related problem. Visibility in one AI tool says little about visibility in another, and each AI tool is worth checking on its own.

Where the Answers Came From

Of the 67 answers, 32 cited at least one review or directory site such as Yelp, Google, BBB, Angi or Thumbtack. Perplexity did so in 18 of its 20 answers and AI Overviews in 6 of 7. ChatGPT cited one in 6 of 20 answers, Gemini in 2 of 20. Other answers cited ranking sites, roofer websites and similar sources.

The answers also told homeowners what to look for. Nearly all mentioned licensing or insurance. About nine in ten raised warranties, while more than half referred to manufacturer certifications.

Those details give roofing contractors (https://overtake.marketing/marketing-for-contractors/) a practical starting point, and a roofer can make its license and insurance details easy to find, along with its warranty terms and manufacturer certifications. When those facts sit on its own site and on the directories AI tools cite, the tools see the same details the answers ask homeowners to check.

What the Study Did Not Measure

The study did not rank roofers by quality and cannot say why any AI tool named any company. AI tool answers can shift between sessions and accounts. They can also vary by location and from day to day. Review counts change daily as well. The figures therefore show patterns in one sample and are not fixed results.

The company said it will share the full answers and method notes on request, and it said the business list and the Google Maps baseline are available the same way.

“AI tools in our study tended to name roofers with long review histories, and many sat outside the Google Maps top 10. Owners may want to check what these tools say about them,” said Sam Newland, CEO of Overtake Marketing.

What It Means for Roofing Companies

Overtake described the AI summary as a second list beside the map pack. Owners can check which independent mentions AI answers cite and how AI describes their roofing services. A Google Business Profile is part of a digital presence, so owners may want consistent business information across it.

The first step in AI search optimization, also called answer engine optimization or AI SEO, is checking visibility in AI answers (https://overtake.marketing/ai-search-readiness/). A roofing company can ask each tool, including Google AI Overviews, the kind of question a homeowner asks during storm season or after storm damage. It can then note which roofers come up and compare its own review count and star rating with the Maps top 10 in its city (https://overtake.marketing/tools/).

An owner can write down two or three questions a homeowner in the area would really ask, such as who repairs storm damage nearby or who installs a particular roofing material, and put each one to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google. For each answer, it helps to record whether the company is named, which competitors are named, which sources the answer cites and how the company is described. Repeating the same questions a few weeks later shows whether the picture is stable or changing, since AI answers can shift between sessions and days.

The notes from that exercise can point to simple fixes. If an answer cites a directory where the company has an old phone number, few reviews or no listing at all, that listing is worth updating. If the answer describes services the company does not offer, or leaves out ones it does, the company’s own pages may need clearer descriptions of the work, the service area and the credentials homeowners are told to look for.

Roofing contractors can also track missed inbound calls (https://overtake.marketing/lead-pipeline-operating-system/), since a call that is not answered is a lead lost no matter where it came from.

Overtake (https://overtake.marketing/how-it-works/), a marketing agency for service businesses, publishes Marketing for roofers and Local SEO for Service Businesses, and offers the Google Review Funnel.

About Overtake Marketing

Overtake Marketing (https://overtake.marketing/about/) is the marketing arm of Benefitra. It works with operator-led service businesses on paid search, local SEO, websites and reviews, and measures results in each client’s own Google Search Console data. More research is on the Overtake blog (https://overtake.marketing/blog/).

Sam Newland
Overtake Marketing
+ +1-857-255-9394

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