You have closers who can sell and a calendar with holes in it. Or you run two crews and the phone only rings when a past customer talks you up. Either way you're asking what I asked when I was a rep: where do the next ten appointments come from?
I sold over 250 residential solar deals before I ran marketing for solar companies. Since then we've managed more than $500K in solar ad spend across Facebook and Google. These are the seven sources I've seen up close, ranked by where I'd put my own money and hours first.
How can I get solar leads without spending a year finding out what works?
Start with the sources you own, then add the ones you rent. Referrals and your own ads build something that stays with you. Bought leads stop the day you stop paying, and they teach you nothing about your market.
My ranking, best first:
- Referrals from past customers
- Your own Facebook ads
- Google search ads
- Reviews and local search
- Door knocking
- Bought appointments and live transfers
- Bought shared leads
The rest of this post is why.
Which solar lead sources are worth your time?
1. Referrals
Referrals close better than anything else on this list and cost the least. The homeowner already trusts you because their neighbor does. The catch is volume. You can't turn referrals up next month because you hired two closers. Ask every customer on install day, then again when the first lower bill shows up, because that's when they're telling people about it anyway.
2. Your own Facebook ads
This is the source I'd build a company's lead flow on, and it's the one I have numbers for. Across our campaigns, cost per lead on Meta has ranged from about $7 to $25. A new campaign with a calculator funnel, where the homeowner answers a few questions to see how many panels they'd need, usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area. Some markets come in lower.
You can get leads for $3 or $4 with instant forms. I don't recommend it. Contact rates on those run around 5%, and all that unanswered dialing hurts your phone number's reputation.
The lead is only the start. About 15% of leads book an appointment, and that can reach 20% once a campaign optimizes for booked appointments. About 65% of virtual appointments show, and about 80% of in-person ones. On our most recent solar campaign that worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result, not a promise. I walk through the math in how much solar leads cost and the setup in Facebook ads for solar companies.
What people miss is the work after the form. Somebody has to call within minutes and keep following up, or you paid for a name and a phone number.
3. Google search ads
Search leads have the most intent and the highest price per click. Someone typing in a search for a solar installer nearby is further along than someone scrolling Facebook. The limit is that only so many of those searches happen in your area, and every installer and lead seller is bidding on them. I treat Google as a second channel once Facebook is working. I don't expect it to scale the same way.
4. Reviews and local search
Free in dollars, slow in time. A Google Business Profile with real reviews and install photos brings in homeowners who are already comparing installers, and those are good conversations. It takes months of asking for reviews before it adds up. Do it anyway, because it makes every other source convert better. People look you up before they pick up the phone. To be clear, we don't do SEO as a service. I recommend it, we just don't sell it.
5. Door knocking
I knocked doors for seven years, one of them in solar. Door knocking works, and it's the hardest way to earn a deal. You control your own pipeline and you don't pay for leads, but you pay in hours, turnover and reps who burn out. The companies that knock well have a manager who is out there with the team. If you don't have that person, the doors won't save you. It pairs well with ads: knock the streets around your installs and let the ads cover everywhere else.
6. Bought appointments and live transfers
Better than shared leads, if you can check how they were generated. Someone else ran the ads and made the calls, and you pay for the result. Ask to see the ad the homeowner clicked and to hear the call. If the vendor won't show you, assume the homeowner was promised something you can't deliver. Also ask what happens when the appointment doesn't show, because many won't.
7. Bought shared leads
Last on my list. The same homeowner gets sold to several companies, so you're racing other callers and whoever dials first usually wins. If you buy them, be the fastest to call and expect most of them not to answer. I compare the two models in exclusive vs shared solar leads.
How much should I budget to generate my own solar leads?
Plan on about $1,000 a month in ad spend as a floor, plus whoever runs it. At $18 to $25 per lead, $1,000 buys roughly 40 to 55 leads. At 15% booked, that's 6 to 8 appointments. With show rates between 65% and 80%, about 4 to 6 of them happen. Those are estimates from our own campaigns, and your market can land on either side of them.
For reference, that's close to how we charge. A flat monthly fee from $750, with ad spend separate, paid by you and never marked up. Month to month, no setup fee. We don't sell leads per lead or per appointment, and we don't guarantee a number. I wouldn't trust anyone in this business who does.
What kills a lead source that should have worked?
Slow follow-up, almost every time. A homeowner fills out a form at 9pm, gets a call the next afternoon, and has already moved on. Every lead needs a call and a text within minutes. The ones who book need a confirmation and a reminder, and the ones who don't show need someone to rebook them.
If nobody at your company owns that job, fix it before you spend another dollar on any of the seven. A cheap lead that never gets called costs more than an expensive one that does.
If you want to talk through which of these fits your market, book a 15-minute call. I'll tell you straight whether we can help.