You have two or three agency proposals open. One quotes a monthly fee. One quotes a percentage. One says you only pay per appointment. You can't line them up, because they aren't quoting the same thing.
I sold over 250 residential solar deals as a rep before I ran marketing for solar companies. Here's how the billing works from the inside, and what I'd ask before signing.
I won't quote what other agencies charge. I can't verify their prices and they change. I'll explain the models, then give you our real numbers.
How much does a solar marketing agency cost?
It depends on the billing model, and the model matters more than the number on the first page. Two proposals with the same monthly total can pay the agency for completely different things.
There are always two buckets of money. The first is what the agency keeps for its work. The second is ad spend, which goes to Facebook or Google. Some proposals blend them, and that makes a quote look bigger or smaller than it is. Before you compare anything, split every proposal into those two buckets.
For reference, ours splits like this: a flat monthly fee from $750, and ad spend from about $1,000 a month that you pay and we never mark up. More on that below.
What are the three ways solar marketing agencies bill?
A flat retainer, a percent of ad spend, or a price per lead or per appointment. Each one rewards the agency for something different, and that's the part to read closely.
| Model | What you pay for | What it rewards | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat retainer | The work, at a fixed monthly fee | Keeping you as a client | What the fee covers, and what's extra |
| Percent of ad spend | A cut of your budget | Spending more | Whether results rise with the budget |
| Per lead or per appointment | Each result delivered | Volume | How a lead or an appointment is defined |
Flat retainer. You pay a fixed fee each month and the agency does the work. Your cost is predictable, and the agency isn't paid more for spending more of your money. The risk is a retainer that keeps billing while nothing improves. A month-to-month term takes care of that, because you can leave.
Percent of ad spend. The agency takes a percentage of whatever you spend on ads. It's simple, and it grows with you. But the agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not the extra spend brings extra appointments. If you sign one of these, ask to see results at each budget level before you raise it.
Pay per lead or per appointment. You pay for each lead or each appointment delivered. It feels safest, since you only pay for results. The trouble is the definition. A lead can be anyone who typed in a phone number. An appointment can be a time slot the homeowner never agreed to. Ask whether the leads are exclusive to you, and whether a no-show still gets billed. I cover that in exclusive vs shared solar leads.
What else shows up on the bill?
Setup fees, contract length and ad spend markup. These three decide what you actually pay in the first few months, and they're easy to miss on a proposal.
A setup fee is a one-time charge before any ads run. A contract term decides how long you keep paying if it isn't working. And some proposals bill ad spend through the agency, so ask whether the amount on your invoice is the amount that reached the ad platform.
Also ask who calls the leads. A proposal that stops at "we generate leads" leaves the hardest job with you. Someone has to call and text every lead within minutes, confirm the appointment and rebook the no-shows. If that's your team, count their hours as part of the cost.
What should you ask before you sign?
Ask the same questions of every agency and write the answers side by side. That's the only way the proposals become comparable.
- What do you keep, and what goes to the ad platform?
- Is ad spend marked up, and can I see what was spent?
- Is there a setup fee?
- How long is the contract, and how do I cancel?
- Are the leads exclusive to me?
- Who calls the leads, and how fast?
- Are your numbers leads, booked appointments or appointments that showed?
- Do you guarantee anything, and what's the fine print?
Be careful with the last one. I don't guarantee a number, and I'd read any guarantee twice before trusting it.
How do you compare two proposals fairly?
Add up everything you'd pay in a month, then divide by the appointments that showed. That single figure works for all three billing models.
Here's the math with our own numbers. A new calculator funnel campaign usually runs $18 to $25 per lead. About 15% of leads book, and about 65% of virtual appointments show. So 100 leads at $20 is $2,000 in ad spend, about 15 booked appointments and roughly 10 that show. That's about $200 in ad spend per appointment that showed, and our most recent solar campaign came in just under that. It's a past result, not a promise. The agency's fee goes on top, so add it before you compare. I walk through the lead side in how much solar leads cost.
Run the same sum on a per-appointment quote, counting only the appointments that showed. Sometimes the per-piece price wins. Often it doesn't.
How does Solarfunnels charge?
We charge a flat monthly fee that starts at $750. The fee steps up with your ad budget, and you get the exact figure for your budget on a call. The basics are on our pricing page.
Ad spend is separate. It starts from about $1,000 a month, you pay for it, and we never mark it up. It's billed weekly in advance, plus a 3.5% processing fee. So the smallest setup is around $1,750 a month before that processing fee.
There's no setup fee and it's month to month. A campaign is live about 3 business days after onboarding. For the fee we run the ads and the funnel, call and text every lead within minutes, confirm appointments and rebook no-shows. The leads are exclusive to you and never resold.
Here's where we aren't the right fit. We don't sell leads by the lead or by the appointment, so if you want to pay per piece, look elsewhere. We only work real-time leads, not aged lists. We only do residential solar. And we don't guarantee a number, because results depend on your market, your price and your budget.
If you have proposals on your desk and want a straight comparison, book a 15-minute call. Bring them along.