Give a new solar Facebook campaign more than a month before you decide it failed. On our campaigns about 15% of leads book an appointment at the start, and that share climbs toward 20% once there are enough booked appointments for the ads to optimize for them.
You turned it on Monday. By Friday the cost per lead looks low and the calendar is nearly empty. Someone on the team wants it off before the weekend.
I sold over 250 residential deals as a rep before I ran marketing, and now we run ads and follow-up for solar companies and consultants. A slow first week on a lead who did some work is normal. A slow first week on a form that took two taps is a broken campaign. Waiting helps when the homeowner did the work. It won't turn a two-tap form into a real inquiry.
How long should you wait before judging solar Facebook ads?
More than a month, if the homeowner had to answer a few questions before they became a lead. That first month is setup and learning. The move from about 15% booked toward 20% happens once the campaign has enough booked appointments to optimize for them. A handful of leads can't teach it who books.
People mix up the day the ads go live with the day you can judge them. With us, a campaign is live about 3 business days after onboarding. That means the ads are running. You still judge them on the month of bookings and shows after that.
While you wait, you still work the leads. Call and text each one within minutes. Check bookings and shows every week. Change a form that is obviously the wrong form. Don't turn the ads off because one Friday was thin.
What should the first month of solar Facebook ads produce?
Start from the smallest budget we run, about $1,000 a month in ad spend. At $18 to $25 a lead, a new calculator funnel buys roughly 40 to 55 leads. About 15% book, which is six to eight appointments. About 65% of virtual appointments show and about 80% of in-person ones, so you land around four to six conversations with homeowners.
Those are past results from our campaigns. Your market will land on either side of them. For a single consultant, that's a workable month and a fair test. A company with several closers should size the budget to the appointments the team can sit. Extra spend during the month buys extra leads. It doesn't skip the learning.
That $18 to $25 is the calculator funnel, not an instant form. The ad offers a panel count for the house. The homeowner answers a few questions and leaves their details to see the number. Some markets come in lower. I'd still budget a brand new campaign at $18 to $25 and be happy if it beats that. Cost per lead often comes down as a campaign learns a market, so the first week can look more expensive than it does after the campaign has learned the area. How we build that funnel is in Facebook ads for solar companies.
Why does cost per lead look good before anyone books?
Because the cheap lead usually did almost nothing. An instant form opens inside Facebook with the name and phone filled in. Two taps and they're a lead. We've seen those at $3 or $4, and contact rates run around 5%.
Buy 100 of them and you've spent $400 to reach about five people. That's about $80 per conversation, and none of them has agreed to a time. The other 95 calls still go out. A phone number that gets ignored over and over has a harder time reaching the leads who would have picked up.
So the ad account can look great on a Friday while the closers had a bad week. I'd trust the closers. On our Meta campaigns a lead has cost anywhere from about $7 to $25. I judge the shown appointment, not the cheap lead. What a booked appointment and a shown appointment cost is in how much solar leads cost.
When should you stop solar Facebook ads before the month is up?
Change them when almost nobody answers and the form took two taps. Another three weeks will not make a homeowner remember a form they barely meant to send. Put a short page in front of them that asks if they own the home, what the power bill runs, and whether the roof can take panels. You'll pay more per lead. You'll talk to people who expected the call.
Leave them running when the leads are real and the callback is late. Someone who asks at 7:40 and hears from you the next morning has usually gone back to their evening. The ads did their job. The lead went cold because nobody called while the phone was still in their hand. Every lead needs a call and a text within minutes, then more attempts over the next few days, at different times of day. That routine is in solar speed to lead.
Pause when the closers are booked solid and a new lead would wait for a free hour. More spend just piles up people who go cold. Slow the budget until there's a time you can actually keep, then turn it back up.
I wouldn't shut a campaign off because Tuesday's leads were expensive, or because Thursday produced none. One day is noise. Judge a month of booked appointments and appointments that showed.
Does a bigger budget make Facebook ads work faster?
In one narrow way. More spend gets you to enough bookings for the ads to optimize in fewer days. It doesn't fix a two-tap form, and it doesn't turn a next-morning call into a two-minute one.
About $1,000 in the month is enough for one consultant to see a pattern. A team that can sit more appointments can spend more, and the extra dollars should follow open time on the calendar. If you raise the budget on an instant form and the contact rate stays around 5%, you paid more for the same unanswered calls.
What should you check each week during that month?
Leads in. Leads that got a call and a text within minutes. Appointments booked. Appointments that showed. Beside those, what each booked appointment cost you and what each shown one cost you.
Our most recent solar campaign came in just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result, not a promise for your market. Set your own number next to it. A cheap cost per lead can hide a month of empty sits.
If calculator leads are coming in and almost nobody books, listen to a few calls before you edit the ad. The usual misses are a first call that starts selling the system, and a first call that offers next week because the calendar software had a gap there. Offer the soonest time a closer can sit.
If they book and then don't show, check how far out the appointment was set and whether anyone confirmed it. More ad spend won't rescue a sit nobody confirmed.
How does Solarfunnels run that first month?
A flat monthly fee, set by your ad budget, month to month, with no setup fee. Ad spend is separate. You pay for it and we never mark it up. The details are on the pricing page.
The fee covers the ads, the funnel and the follow-up. Every lead gets a call and a text within minutes. The leads are yours alone and never resold. We don't guarantee a number of leads or deals, because that depends on your market, your price and your budget.
If you want to see what the first month would look like in your area, book a quick call.