ROOFING · ST. CHARLES, IL
New State, $0 in Ads: Organic Leads From AI Every Week
How a roofing company that moved from Colorado to St. Charles, Illinois built a 100% organic presence that has ChatGPT and Claude sending it qualified calls every week.
Read the case studyorganic AI leads in one week
Google reviews (up from 15)
in ad spend. 100% organic.
organic calls from AI search
Results as of October 2026.
The challenge
Where they started
Dean Giesel started roofing in 2020 and built a successful company in Colorado. Then he and his family moved home to Illinois and relaunched as Hammerfall Roofing in St. Charles.
His standards, his crew, and his experience came with him. His online presence didn't. When Hammerfall came to RallyPoint, their Google Business Profile and location were still set up in Colorado, with 15 reviews. In the Fox Valley, where they now needed to win jobs, they barely existed online.
And they were stepping into one of the most cutthroat industries in local marketing. Every roofer knows digital marketing matters, and that's the problem. The map results are packed with established companies that have years of reviews behind them. Roofing ad clicks are expensive, and competing usually means spending thousands of dollars a month just to stay in the conversation.
A new company in a new state needed a smarter way in, one that didn't depend on outspending everyone.
Our approach
What we did
We put Hammerfall on our local SEO roadmap, the same formula we use to build organic visibility for contractors, and built every piece to work on Google and in AI search at the same time.
- 1
A real map pin in St. Charles. This was essential. We moved Hammerfall's presence out of Colorado and onto a physical, verified St. Charles location, so Google Maps and AI tools connect the business to the community it actually serves. The verified location gives homeowners a clear local business to find and helps search engines connect it to the area.
- 2
Reviews, consistently. Google and AI tools both lean on reviews to decide who to trust. We built a steady review process into Hammerfall's routine, and they've grown from 15 to 35 Google reviews.
- 3
A custom-coded website powered by AI. We built a fast, mobile-first site with its own page for every service, from roof replacement and storm damage repair to gutters and insurance claims, plus pages for the Fox Valley, DuPage County, and northwest suburb communities they serve.
- 4
Built for AI search. AI search engines are the wild west, but we've learned what they respond to. We added straightforward answers to the questions homeowners actually ask, structured data that spells out the business, the owner, the services, and the service area, and identical business details everywhere Hammerfall appears online.
No ad budget. Every lead in this story came in 100% organically.
The results
What they got back
In one year, Hammerfall went from having no presence in a brand-new state to getting multiple organic calls a week from ChatGPT and Claude, with $0 spent on ads.
The moment it clicked came on September 24, 2026, when Dean sent us this email.
The email that started it
Real client email
Dean's email to our team on September 24, 2026. Shared with permission.
“I have probably received 6-8 calls within the past week”
“the AI recommended me as the best choice”
“Organic leads are a goldmine.”
In a single week, 6 to 8 homeowners called and told Dean the same thing: they asked AI for the best roofing contractor in the area, and it recommended Hammerfall as the best choice.
That was the start, not a spike. Hammerfall still sees consistent organic calls coming in through AI search every week.
And these aren't tire kickers. By the time they call, these homeowners have already been told Hammerfall is the best choice. Dean says they're the best leads he's ever received, and he hasn't spent a dollar on ads to get them.
Illustration. AI answers vary by question and user.
0 → 6-8 in one week
organic calls from homeowners who found them through ChatGPT and Claude
How it unfolded
Day one
Google Business Profile and location still set in Colorado, 15 reviews
Foundation
Physical St. Charles location and map pin live
Ongoing
Reviews grow from 15 to 35
Sep 24, 2026
Owner reports 6-8 organic AI-referred calls in one week
Today
Consistent organic lead flow from ChatGPT and Claude
Before Rally Point
- Google Business Profile tied to Colorado
- 15 Google reviews
- Invisible to ChatGPT and Claude
After Rally Point
- Verified map pin in St. Charles, IL
- 35 Google reviews
- Recommended by AI as the best choice, 100% organic
The AI backdoor
Most roofers are fighting over the front door.
Where most roofers compete
- Expensive Google Ads bidding wars
- A crowded map pack full of established companies
- Social media posts that rarely turn into calls
Where Hammerfall got in
- Organic recommendations from ChatGPT and Claude
- Few roofing companies optimizing for AI search yet
- Homeowners who already heard you're the best choice
AI search engines are the wild west. There's no clear playbook yet for growing consistently on ChatGPT and Claude, and most roofers are still putting everything into Google and social media.
But across our clients, we're consistently seeing more leads come in through AI search. We've built a system that AI search engines respond to, and we put it to work for every client. We still help roofers grow on Google. AI search is the backdoor that often gets them calls faster.
On the job
"These are the best leads I've ever received."
Your turn
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