Solar PPC judged on sat appointments, not clicks.
sat appointments
Paid search is the fastest way to put a solar company in front of a homeowner who is already shopping — and the easiest place in the account to waste real money. We run solar PPC against booked, sat appointments rather than click volume. We already handle marketing for solar installers, and exclusive residential search leads run about $140 to $220 in competitive metros, so the margin lives in what happens after the click.
Tell us a little about your brand and we'll be in touch within 24 hours to lock in a time.
FOUR WORKSTREAMS
Four workstreams behind a solar account that pays.
that pays
Buying only high-intent demand, sending it somewhere built to convert, feeding the platform real sales outcomes, and answering fast enough to hold the appointment.
Campaign structure and terms
Landing pages
Tracking and bidding
Speed to lead and follow-up
Buy the buyer, not the browser.
Most solar accounts leak in the same places: broad match with no negative discipline, tyre-kicker research terms, renters in a service area that only sells to owners, and geographies your crews will not drive to. The clicks look healthy and the calendar does not move.
We rebuild around commercial intent — installation, quote, cost, battery backup, plus your local utility and city terms — with a negative list maintained weekly and residential kept apart from commercial so neither subsidises the other.
- High-intent terms first, research terms second
- Negatives reviewed weekly, not quarterly
- Residential and commercial split at campaign level
- Geography matched to where crews actually drive
$140-220
exclusive paid search CPL for residential solar
The click is bought. The page decides.
This is where most solar budgets die. Of 114 scored solar landing pages, 85% failed Google's speed threshold, with an average mobile load of 10.20 seconds — four times the benchmark, on traffic that was already paid for.
We build fast, honest pages that match the search: a short quote form, a conservative savings estimate, financing stated plainly, and proof from your own installs. Traffic landing on a real quote page sits at a 40 to 50% sat rate against 20 to 30% for an in-platform lead form.
- A page per campaign theme, not one catch-all
- Mobile load treated as a defect to fix
- Short forms and a conservative savings estimate
- Financing and warranty stated where buyers look
85%
of scored solar landing pages fail Google's threshold
40-50%
sat rate when traffic lands on a real quote page
Feed the algorithm sales, not form fills.
Smart bidding optimises toward whatever you tell it a conversion is. Tell it a form fill and it will find you the cheapest form fills in the county, most of which never sit for a survey.
So we push the real outcome back: qualified enquiry, sat appointment, signed contract, with call tracking and offline conversion imports wired through conversion tracking and your CRM. Bidding then optimises for the thing that pays your crews.
- Call tracking on every campaign and page
- Offline conversions imported from the CRM
- Bidding targeted at sat appointments, not leads
- Spend reconciled against closed revenue monthly
$80-200
reported cost of a solar lead from Google Ads
$50-150
cost of aggregator leads sold to several installers
Five minutes decides whether it sits.
The largest single multiplier in paid solar is not a bid setting, it is how fast someone calls back. Set-to-sit rates run roughly 55 to 65% when speed to lead is under five minutes, and fall away sharply after that.
We build the response path with you: instant routing to whoever is actually free, a text within seconds, a booking link that respects the survey calendar, and a follow-up sequence for the majority who do not answer the first call. Then we report the response time next to the spend.
- Enquiries routed instantly to a real person
- Automated text and booking link within seconds
- A written follow-up sequence for missed calls
- Response time reported next to media spend
55-65%
set-to-sit rate when response is under five minutes
$170-300
cost per sat appointment from Meta lead forms
set-to-sit rate when response is under five minutes
what an exclusive paid solar search lead costs today
Search terms and negatives reviewed every week, not quarterly
Ad accounts, pages and tracking in your own name
We made the difference for those brands
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Consumer tech and platforms
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Consumer tech and platforms
Home essentials, appliances, kitchen & pet
Travel & mobility
Consumer tech and platforms
Food & beverage
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Apparel and lifestyle
Creative, content, arts & culture
Home essentials, appliances, kitchen & pet
Creative, content, arts & culture
Healthcare & regulated services
Healthcare & regulated services
Consumer tech and platforms
Retail & commerce
Healthcare & regulated services
B2B software, fintech, insurance
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Healthcare & regulated services
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Retail & commerce
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Consumer tech and platforms
B2B software, fintech, insurance
01 — The challenge
The click was never the expensive part.
Solar paid search rewards discipline and punishes autopilot. Google Ads leads are reported at $80 to $200 and aggregator leads at $50 to $150 — and the aggregator ones arrive in three other installers' inboxes at the same moment.
Meanwhile the market got harder. The residential segment is forecast to decline 21% this year, so the same budget is chasing fewer buyers and every wasted click costs more than it did last season.
“The reports were full of leads. Half of them never picked up the phone again.”
Three failures repeat: bidding optimised toward form fills nobody qualified, a slow catch-all landing page, and a callback that happens the next morning. Not one of them is visible in a click-through report, and all three are fixable inside a month.
02 — Our approach
Fix the far end of the funnel first, then buy more.
We start where the money is actually lost. Before touching a bid, we check what happens to an enquiry: how fast it is answered, whether the page it arrived on loads quickly, and whether anything downstream of the form ever reaches the ad platform. Fixing that usually beats any bid change we could make.
Then the account is rebuilt around commercial intent. Installation, cost and quote terms with the local utility and city language your buyers use, residential separated from commercial, geography drawn to where crews actually drive, and a negative list maintained weekly rather than at quarter end.
Every campaign theme gets its own page, built fast and honest: a short quote form, a conservative savings estimate, financing and warranty stated plainly, and proof from your own installs. If the page is slow, that is treated as a defect, not a trade-off.
Then measurement closes the loop. Call tracking and offline conversions push sat appointments and signed contracts back into bidding, and the monthly report reconciles spend against booked revenue — with response times printed beside it, because that number moves results more than any bid ever will.
03 — What we did
From busy reports to a booked calendar.
The same sequence whether we inherit an old account or start a new one.
01
Where the budget leaks
Search terms, geography, landing page speed, tracking and response time reviewed end to end, with every leak quantified in dollars before anything is changed.
02
Rebuilt around intent
Campaigns restructured on high-intent installation, cost and quote terms, residential split from commercial, negatives cleaned and geography matched to real crew coverage.
03
Pages and tracking
A fast page per campaign theme with short forms and an honest savings estimate, plus call tracking and offline conversions wired back into bidding.
04
Scaled on sat appointments
Budget moved toward the terms producing sat appointments, response times reported beside spend, and a monthly reconciliation against closed revenue.
WHAT YOU GET
Deliverables you keep, whatever happens next.
you keep
The ad accounts, the pages, the tracking and the reporting sit in your own name from the first week.
Account and funnel audit
Search terms, geography, page speed, tracking and response time reviewed end to end, with every leak quantified in dollars rather than adjectives.
Campaign structure and term map
A rebuild around high-intent installation, cost and quote terms, residential split from commercial and geography drawn to where your crews genuinely drive.
Landing pages that convert
A fast page per campaign theme with short forms, a conservative savings estimate and financing stated plainly, built and tested on mobile first.
Tracking and CRM wiring
Call tracking on every campaign and offline conversions imported from your CRM, so bidding optimises toward sat appointments instead of form fills.
Speed-to-lead playbook
Instant routing, an automated text and booking link, and a written follow-up sequence for the majority who do not answer the first call.
Monthly read on booked work
Spend reconciled against sat appointments and closed revenue, with response times printed beside it and next month's priorities named.
HOW WE WORK
Operating standards, not promises.
Operating standards
Residential solar
Installation, cost and quote campaigns pointed at pages a homeowner can finish on a phone.
ExploreBattery storage
Backup and outage demand bought separately, because those buyers convert on different pages.
ExploreCommercial solar
Longer-cycle campaigns measured on qualified meetings and proposals, never on click volume.
Explore
Built on trust. Proven by results.
We partner with SMBs and Fortune 500 companies to deliver more than reach — we bring clarity, execution, and measurable outcomes. Every successful partnership starts with a strong culture fit and a shared drive to grow.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies
Video Ads
Static Ads
FAQ
Questions installers ask us
What should a solar lead cost us?
It depends on metro and competition, but the published ranges are a fair guide: $140 to $220 for exclusive residential search leads in competitive metros, with $80 to $200 reported more broadly. The number that matters is cost per sat appointment, and we report both.
Why are our leads not answering the phone?
Usually timing rather than quality. Set-to-sit runs 55 to 65% when the callback happens inside five minutes and drops steeply after that. We rebuild the response path first — instant routing, an automatic text, a booking link — because it lifts results more than any bid change.
Are aggregator leads worth buying alongside PPC?
Sometimes, as a topping-up channel with eyes open. They run $50 to $150 and are typically sold to several installers at once, so they compete on speed rather than trust. We would rather grow the exclusive channels you own and use aggregators to fill gaps.
Does PPC still make sense in a shrinking market?
Yes, with tighter discipline. Residential is forecast to contract 21% this year, which raises the cost of every wasted click and the value of every well-run one. Paid search is also the fastest way to hold territory while solar SEO builds underneath.
Can we send paid traffic to our existing website?
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly after measuring it. Most scored solar pages load in about 10.20 seconds on mobile, which quietly wastes a large share of paid clicks. Where a rebuild is not wanted, we build campaign pages alongside the current site.
How much budget do we need to start?
Enough to gather signal in your metro rather than a fixed minimum we quote everyone. We size it from your service area, your close rate and the local cost per click, then say plainly what that budget can and cannot be expected to produce in the first quarter.
Do you run Meta as well, or only search?
Both where it makes sense. Search captures people already shopping; Meta creates demand and retargets, at a different cost and close rate. We usually pair search with solar creative so the social side has ads worth running.
How do you handle commercial solar campaigns?
Separately, and measured differently. Commercial cycles run months, so we optimise toward qualified meetings and proposals rather than same-week appointments, and we keep the budget ring-fenced so residential volume cannot quietly absorb it.
Who owns the ad account and the data?
You do, always. Accounts are created in your name, tracking sits in your analytics property, and the landing pages are yours. If we ever part ways, the history and the assets stay with you.
How quickly will we see a difference?
Waste usually falls within the first month because negatives, geography and response time are quick wins. Bidding toward sat appointments needs a full quarter of clean data, and we say which months are build months at the start.
What do you report each month?
Spend, cost per qualified enquiry, cost per sat appointment, closed revenue where your CRM allows it, and average response time. Plus a plain paragraph on what changed and what is next, written by the person running the account.
Who actually runs our campaigns?
A named senior buyer who learns your utility territory, financing options and survey calendar, supported by our landing page and tracking teams. You have their direct line, and they are the one writing your monthly read.
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