You've got a list of solar marketing ideas already. Every blog has one, and they all read the same: post on social media, start a referral program, try video. What none of them tell you is which idea to do first when you have one budget and a limited number of hours.
I sold over 250 residential solar deals as a rep before I ran marketing, so I rank ideas the way a rep would. The only question I care about is what it costs to get one homeowner to actually show up for an appointment. I call that a kept appointment.
Where I have real numbers from our own campaigns, I'll give them. Where I don't, I'll rank in words and say so. I'm not going to invent a cost for a yard sign.
How should you rank solar marketing ideas?
Rank them by what one kept appointment costs you, counting both dollars and hours. Cost per lead tells you very little, and likes and views tell you nothing.
Some ideas are cheap in money and expensive in time. Some are the opposite. A fair ranking counts both, then asks a second question: can you turn it up next month if you hire two more closers? An idea that works but can't grow is a good side dish. It can't be the whole meal.
Here's my order, in three groups.
Which solar marketing ideas cost the least per kept appointment?
The ones that run on trust you've already earned: referrals, past customers, reviews and yard signs. They cost little or nothing in dollars, and the homeowner shows up already half sold.
1. Referrals. A referred homeowner trusts you because their neighbor does, so nothing else on this list produces a cheaper kept appointment. Ask on install day, and ask again when the first lower bill arrives.
2. Past customer check-ins. Your install list is a marketing asset most companies ignore. A call or a text a few months after install is the natural moment to ask for a review and a referral.
3. Google Business Profile and reviews. Free in dollars, slow in time. Plenty of homeowners look you up before they call back, so real reviews and install photos make every other idea on this list work better.
4. Yard signs. A sign at a finished install costs very little and tells the whole street who did the work.
The catch with all four is volume. You can't double your referrals because you want to. These ideas set a floor under your calendar, and you still need something else to fill it.
Which ideas cost hours instead of dollars?
Partnerships, door knocking and home shows. None of them need an ad budget, but each one needs people, and people are the expensive part.
5. Partnerships with other trades. Roofers, electricians and HVAC companies talk to the same homeowners you want. A good partner sends warm introductions. It takes months to build and depends on one relationship, so treat it as a bonus.
6. Door knocking. I knocked doors for seven years, one of them in solar. It works, and it's the hardest way to earn a deal. You pay in hours, turnover and management attention instead of ad spend. It pairs well with ads: knock the streets around your installs and let ads cover everywhere else.
7. Home shows and local events. You get face time with homeowners, which is worth a lot. You also give up a weekend and a booth fee for a number of conversations you can't predict. I'd only do the ones in neighborhoods where you already have installs.
I don't have campaign data for these three, so I won't put a dollar figure on them. To price them yourself, add up the hours, pay and fees that went in, and divide by the appointments that showed.
Which paid ideas can you turn up when you need more appointments?
Paid ads, because they're the only ideas here with a dial on them. This is the part I have numbers for.
8. Facebook and Instagram ads with a calculator funnel. This is what we run on new campaigns. The ad offers to show a homeowner how many panels their home would need. They answer a few questions and leave their details to see the result. A new campaign usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area, and some markets come in lower. About 15% of those leads book an appointment, up to 20% once a campaign optimizes for bookings. About 65% of virtual appointments show, and about 80% of in-person ones.
Run that math on 100 leads at $20. That's $2,000, around 15 booked appointments, and roughly 10 that show. So about $200 per kept appointment. Our most recent solar campaign came in just under that. It's a past result, not a promise.
9. Google search ads. Someone searching for a solar installer is further along than someone scrolling Facebook, and you pay for that intent. Only so many of those searches happen in your area, so I treat search as a second channel. I don't have a clean number to publish for it, so I won't give one.
10. Short video. Video is the idea that feeds the others. A phone video of someone standing in front of a finished install works as an ad, on your Google profile and in a text to a lead who went quiet.
One paid idea I'd skip: instant forms. They're the cheapest leads to get. Ours averaged $13.40 across three years of campaigns, and the cheapest campaigns came in under $7. But on the cheapest form leads hardly anyone picks up (think 5% contact rates), so the kept appointment ends up expensive. The full numbers are in solar lead cost by state. I cover the two ad types in Facebook ads for solar companies, and the full cost math is in how much solar leads cost.
What makes any solar marketing idea pay off?
Follow-up. Every idea above produces a name and a phone number, and what happens in the next few minutes decides whether it becomes an appointment.
Each lead needs a call and a text within minutes. Each booked appointment needs a confirmation and a reminder. Each no-show needs someone to rebook it. If nobody owns that job, the best idea on this list will look like it failed. I wrote about the routine in solar appointment no-shows.
As a rep I learned what a bad lead costs: a drive and an evening with a homeowner who was never going to buy. Good follow-up filters those out before you get in the car.
Which of these does Solarfunnels do?
We do the paid part and the follow-up: ads, funnels, calls and texts to every lead within minutes, confirmations, reminders and rebooking. It's a flat monthly fee from $750 with ad spend separate, and the details are on our pricing page.
We don't do the rest. We won't run your referral program, staff your booth, manage a door team or handle your reviews, and we only work with residential solar. I'd still tell you to do the first four ideas on this list yourself, because they make the ads work better. And we don't guarantee a number, because results depend on your market, your price and your budget.
If you want a second opinion on which idea to fund first, book a 15-minute call. I'll tell you straight whether we can help.