How to use the Google Map area feature

The Google Map area feature lets your customers measure a roof, lawn, pool, garden, or any area straight from a satellite map. Your prices then update automatically based on that size.

Works great for roofers, landscapers, lawn care, pool builders, concrete and paving, cleaners, solar installers, and more.

Try it live: Roofing Demo Estimator

What you’re building

Two questions that work together:

1. A measurement question — the customer enters a size (e.g. “What is the total square footage of your roof?”)
2. A pricing question — the price changes based on that size (e.g. “What type of roofing material are you interested in?”)

The first captures the size. The second multiplies its prices by that size.

Step 1 — Open your measurement question

In your estimator’s admin, find the question where the customer enters a size. For roofing, this is “What is the total square footage of your roof?”

Click the settings cog (gear icon) on the right side of that question.

Step 2 — Turn on the map area picker

A settings panel will open. Scroll down to Multiply Options and turn on these settings (top to bottom):

1. Use number field — lets people type a number (like sq ft)
2. Allow map area picker — shows the satellite map
3. Area unit — pick Square feet (ft²) or Square metres (m²)
4. Auto-detect building outline — leave this ON for roofs and houses (it finds the building for the customer). Turn it OFF for lawns, pools, gardens, driveways — anything where the customer draws the area themselves.

Tip: Auto-detect ON for roofs. Auto-detect OFF for anything custom (lawn, pool spot, garden bed, paving area).

Step 3 — Pick how you’ll charge

You’ve got two ways to charge per square foot. Pick one.

Option A — Fixed price per unit (simple)

In the same panel, find “Fixed price per unit (optional)” and enter a rate, like $5. That charges $5 for every square foot. That’s it.

Option B — Multiply by another question (recommended)

Best when the price changes depending on what the customer picks. For roofing, asphalt shingles cost less per sq ft than tile or slate.

To set this up:

1. Save and close the measurement question’s settings.
2. Find your pricing question (for roofing: “What type of roofing material are you interested in?”).
3. Click its settings cog.
4. Scroll to Multiply Options.
5. Tick Multiply all costs by a user input.
6. In the dropdown that appears, pick “What is the total square footage of your roof?”
7. Click Save.

This tells Priceguide: take each material’s price, and multiply it by the sq ft the customer entered.

Step 4 — Enter your per-square-foot prices

Now set the Min and Max for each option as dollars per square foot — not total dollars.

Here are 2026 US averages to start from:

Type the values into Min and Max on each option, then hit Save & Publish.

(These numbers are already loaded in the live demo estimator above so you can play with them.)

Step 5 — See it from the customer’s side

Open your estimator and pick the service. On the size question, type an address into the search box and pick a match from the dropdown.

The map zooms in and auto-detects the building outline (if you left that on). The square footage gets filled in automatically. The customer can also type a number into the “OR ENTER MANUALLY” field at the bottom if they prefer.

Step 6 — Watch the magic on the final quote

Pick a material, finish the rest of the questions, and look at the estimate. You’ll see the per-sq-ft price spelled out, multiplied by the size.

In this example:

• 2000 sq ft × $3–$5 per sq ft = $6,000–$10,000 for asphalt shingles
• Plus the $5,000 base cost
• Total: $11,000–$15,000

If the customer picked metal instead, the same 2000 sq ft would have given $14,000–$28,000 in materials. That’s the multiplier doing its job.

Step 7 — The map and address follow through to the results page

Here’s a recent addition your sales team will love. When a customer measures their property with the map, that same map and address now show up on the results page at the end of the estimator, right beside the size they measured.

So on the final summary, you see:

• The outlined area the customer measured (the shaded shape on the map)
• The full address they searched for
• The square footage it worked out to

No more guessing where the job is or how big it is. The customer already showed you, and it’s sitting right there in the summary next to the price.

That means whoever picks up the lead has the exact location and size in front of them from the first glance, before they ever pick up the phone.

Use it for more than roofs

The same setup works for any service that charges by area:

• Landscapers / lawn care — turn auto-detect OFF, let customers draw their lawn
• Pool builders — let customers outline where they want the pool
• Concrete / paving / driveways — measure the area to be paved
• Solar installers — measure the usable roof
• Cleaners — rough interior area
• Painters — exterior wall coverage

Same three toggles. Different per-unit prices. Done.

That’s the whole feature. Questions? You can contact us here.