# Solarfunnels > Solarfunnels Inc. runs done-for-you marketing for residential solar companies and independent solar consultants in the United States: Facebook and Google ads, funnels and landing pages, an appointment setter that calls and texts every new lead within minutes, and CRM follow-up. Clients get exclusive leads and booked appointments or live transfers for a flat monthly fee. Founded by Ben Claybrook, a former solar rep who sold more than 250 residential solar deals. Key facts: - Who it is for: residential solar installers with closers to keep busy, and solar consultants who want their own lead flow. - Pricing: one flat monthly fee, set by the client's ad budget and given once a call is booked. Ad spend is separate, paid by the client and never marked up. Month to month, no setup fee. - Leads are exclusive to one client and never resold. Solarfunnels does not sell leads per lead or per appointment and does not work aged leads. - Typical results from past campaigns, not promises: about $18 to $25 per lead on a new campaign, about 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show. - Track record: more than $500K in solar ad spend managed, more than 25,000 homeowner solar leads, more than 50 solar companies, in more than 15 states. - No results are guaranteed. Residential solar only. - Contact: (949) 849-4104, ben@solarfunnels.com, 30 N Gould St, Sheridan, WY 82801. ## Pages - [Home](https://solarfunnels.com/): what Solarfunnels runs, who it is for, how it works - [Pricing](https://solarfunnels.com/pricing): how the flat monthly fee works, ad spend, terms, what is included and what past campaigns produced - [For solar sales reps](https://solarfunnels.com/solar-sales-reps): what Solarfunnels runs for a rep or an independent consultant, how it is paid for and who it fits - [FAQ](https://solarfunnels.com/faq): the questions solar companies and reps ask before they start, answered by Ben - [About Ben Claybrook](https://solarfunnels.com/about): the founder and author of the guides - [Book a call](https://solarfunnels.com/book): a free intro call with Ben - [Contact](https://solarfunnels.com/contact) - [Blog](https://solarfunnels.com/blog): guides on solar lead generation ## Guides - [How far out should you book a solar appointment?](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-far-out-to-book-a-solar-appointment): Book a solar appointment the same day when someone can sit it, and within a few days if today is full. Why next-week slots go cold, and how to save them. - [Google ads vs Facebook ads for solar companies](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/google-ads-vs-facebook-ads-for-solar): Google ads vs Facebook ads for solar companies: run Facebook first for volume you can turn up, and Google search for homeowners already looking for solar. - [Aged solar leads: what they are and why we don't work them](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/aged-solar-leads): Aged solar leads are cheap because the homeowner asked weeks or months ago. What goes wrong with them, when they can still pay off, and why we skip them. - [Exclusive vs shared solar leads: what you actually get](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads): Exclusive solar leads go to one company, shared leads go to several. What each label really covers, what to ask a vendor, and when shared still works. - [Facebook ads for solar companies: what works, what doesn't](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies): Facebook ads for solar companies, from someone who runs them: instant forms vs a calculator funnel, real cost per lead, a starting budget and what to track. - [How much do solar leads cost? Real numbers by lead type](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost): How much do solar leads cost? Our own numbers by lead type, from $3 instant forms to $25 calculator leads, and what a shown appointment really costs. - [How to get solar leads for free (and what free costs you)](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/free-solar-leads): Free solar leads exist for reps: referrals, install-day neighbors, local groups and trade partners. What each one costs in hours, and when to pay instead. - [How to get solar leads: 7 sources, ranked by a former rep](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-to-get-solar-leads): How to get solar leads, ranked by a former rep: seven sources compared on money, time and the kind of homeowner each one puts in front of you. - [Should you buy solar leads? An honest answer from a former rep](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/buy-solar-leads): Should you buy solar leads? A former rep on what you get for the money, five questions to ask a lead company, and when your own ads beat buying. - [Solar appointment no-shows: what's normal and how to cut them](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows): Solar appointment no-shows are normal up to a point. See what show rate to expect, why homeowners ghost, and the confirmation steps that raise it. - [Solar lead cost by state: what 12,483 Facebook leads cost us](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-lead-cost-by-state): Our own numbers: 12,483 homeowner solar leads from Facebook and Instagram ads at $13.54 each, split by state, year and lead type, with the caveats. - [Solar live transfers vs pre-set appointments: which to take](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments): Solar live transfers vs pre-set appointments: who each one fits, where each one breaks, real show rates, and what to ask before you buy either one. - [Solar marketing agency cost: 3 ways agencies bill, and what to ask](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-marketing-agency-cost): What a solar marketing agency costs depends on how it bills: flat retainer, percent of ad spend, or pay per lead. What each rewards, and our own numbers. - [Solar marketing ideas, ranked by what a kept appointment costs](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-marketing-ideas): Ten solar marketing ideas from a former rep, ranked by what one kept appointment costs you in dollars and hours, with real numbers from our own campaigns. - [Solar speed to lead: why the first minutes matter most](https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-speed-to-lead): Speed to lead in solar means calling and texting a homeowner within minutes of the form. Why it matters, and the follow-up routine for the days after. ## Optional - [Full text of the guides](https://solarfunnels.com/llms-full.txt): every post on this site, in the site's own words, in one file # Full text of the guides The guides below are the same posts linked above, in full. # How far out should you book a solar appointment? https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-far-out-to-book-a-solar-appointment Book a solar appointment the same day when someone can sit it, and within a few days if today is full. Why next-week slots go cold, and how to save them. Published: 2026-10-31 Book a solar appointment the same day when a closer can sit it, and within the next two or three days when today is full. I treat a slot a week out as a maybe, because the homeowner has gone back to an ordinary week and the visit no longer feels like the thing they just asked about. A sales manager asks me this after a Thursday falls apart. The homeowner sounded ready on the phone. Nobody came to the door. I sold over 250 residential deals as a rep before I ran ads. The visits I trusted were the ones close to the moment someone raised a hand. ## Why do solar appointments booked a week out fall apart? The homeowner's attention moved, and nothing in their week pulls it back. The form comes in at 7:40 on a Tuesday. They're on the couch, the power bill annoyed them, and they answered a few questions. If you reach them in those minutes, solar is still the open thought. That first call is what [solar speed to lead](/blog/solar-speed-to-lead) is about. Offer a time while the phone is still in their hand and they'll often take the soonest hour that doesn't wreck dinner. Push that same yes eight days out and it gets cheap. Yes is easy when the cost is "sometime next week." By the following Wednesday there's a practice and a shift they forgot, and your reminder shows up from a number they don't remember. Distance is the first reason I give for no-shows in [solar appointment no-shows](/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows). A homeowner who was curious on Monday has a week of other things on their mind by the following Tuesday. I'll leave a hole on Friday before I fill it with a maybe from last week. ## Is a same-day solar appointment better? Yes, when someone can actually sit it. It fits when the homeowner is home now and will still be home in two hours, or when a closer just lost a sit and is already in the truck near that ZIP code. Same day goes wrong when you push a maybe into a tonight they didn't want. "We can be there at 8" after they said the kids are going to bed buys a polite yes and an empty driveway. Ask what is actually open. If tonight is open, take tonight. If tonight is chaos, take the next open evening and stop selling the slot. A live transfer is same day taken as far as it goes. The homeowner is on the phone and a closer picks up. That only works when a closer is free. If they're in another kitchen, book a time today or tomorrow. I compare the two in [solar live transfers vs pre-set appointments](/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments). ## How many days out is still a fair booking? Two or three days is the window I use when today and tomorrow are full. The homeowner can still remember the form, and you still have time to confirm by text and a short call. I break that window when they can only be home on Saturday, even if Saturday is five days out. I will not skip an open Wednesday so a closer can batch sits on Friday. Offer the sooner time first. If you lead with next Thursday, people take it to end the call, even when tomorrow at 6 was open. Book an evening or Saturday unless they work from home. I expect a Wednesday at 10 to fall apart when the form came in at night. Say the hour and your name. "Saturday sometime" does not hold. Keep the call short: answer what they asked, give two times, and get off. ## What if the closer's week is already full? Book the soonest time you can keep, say that it is the soonest, and stay on the lead until that day. Don't invent an earlier time. Don't park them two weeks out because the calendar software opened there by default. A full week means you don't have the people for the leads you already bought. Add a closer, or cut ad spend until this one can breathe. More leads on a closer who can't sit anyone until the 14th gives you a pretty cost per lead and a thin show rate. We've run solar campaigns past $3,000 a day across Meta, Google, YouTube and TikTok. The limit was how many appointments the team could take. With one closer, keep the next few days for people who just sent the form. Let the older "still thinking" conversations take the later slots. The person from an hour ago is worth more of Thursday night than the person who has been circling since last month. ## Should you book virtual solar appointments further out? No. Book virtual and in-person close to the form. Virtual is easier to skip, so I keep that gap short. On our campaigns, about 80% of in-person appointments show and about 65% of virtual ones do, once a confirmation text and a call go out after booking. Those are past results, and another market will land somewhere else. A virtual miss costs a few minutes. An in-person miss costs the drive. I still book virtual on a near day, because that channel already loses more sits. Use a video call when the house is far, and sit in person when the closer is already nearby. ## How do you hold a slot that is a couple of days out? Confirm it. The full sequence is in the no-show piece linked above, so this stays short. Right after they book, text who is coming and when, and ask for a reply. Then make a short call. One reminder the day before if there is a day to spare, and one text an hour out. Mark anyone who never replied as unconfirmed before the closer drives. A reminder will not rescue a yes that only existed to end the call. If they cancel, offer the soonest time you actually have, and stop if they won't pick one. ## What if the only open time is next week? Take it, say it's a week out, and watch it. Tell them the truth on the booking call. If the first time you can be there is next Wednesday at 6, say that. A full calendar is easier to respect than a surprise. Name who is coming, and ask them to put it on their phone while you still have them. Send one text before the day that does a job. Use the panel count from the form, or remind them to have a power bill out. Skip "just circling back." If a cancellation opens an earlier time, call and offer it. Moving a soft Thursday up to tomorrow saves more sits than another reminder. If they never confirm, call the morning of. If you can't reach them, fill the slot with someone you can. A week-out appointment with no reply is a placeholder. ## What should a sales manager count each week? Count how many booked appointments sit inside a few days of the form, and how many sit further out. Then see which group showed up. I won't hand you a target percentage. I don't publish our show rate split by how far out the slot was, and I'm not going to make one up. If the board is full of visits booked more than a week ago and people aren't showing, leave the ads alone until you've looked at the booking window. Keep two clocks separate. Speed to lead is how fast you make first contact. Booking distance is how far the sit is from that contact. You can call in two minutes and still offer "a week from Tuesday" because that's when the closer likes to run appointments. The fast call gets the conversation. The far slot gives it back. ## How does Solarfunnels book the time? We call and text every new lead within minutes, then put them on your calendar at the soonest time you can actually take. If you're free, that can be a live handoff. If you're in another appointment, it's a set time. After they book, the confirmation goes out, and a missed visit gets a rebook offer the same day. You pay one flat monthly fee, set by your ad budget, month to month, with no setup fee. Ad spend is separate. It starts around $1,000 a month, you pay the platforms, and we don't mark it up. The details are on our [pricing](/pricing) page. We don't sell leads one at a time, and we don't guarantee a number of sits. Your market and your calendar move the result. If the week is full of maybes and you want a straight read on the booking window, [book a quick call](/book). ### How far in advance should you book a solar appointment? Book it the same day when a closer can sit it, and within the next two or three days when today is full. Take a slot a week out only when it is truly the soonest time you can keep, and treat it as unconfirmed until the homeowner replies. ### Are same-day solar appointments better? They are better when the homeowner is actually free and someone can be there. Pushing a tonight they did not offer produces a polite yes and an empty driveway. If tonight is chaos, book the next open evening. ### What if the only solar appointment you can offer is next week? Take it, say plainly that it is a week out, and name who is coming. Send one useful text before the day, offer an earlier time if a cancellation opens one, and do not keep the drive if they never confirm. ### Should virtual solar appointments be booked further out than in-person ones? No. Book both close to the form. On our campaigns about 65% of virtual appointments show and about 80% of in-person ones do, with a confirmation text and call after booking. Those are past results. Virtual is easier to skip, so book it on a near day. --- # Google ads vs Facebook ads for solar companies https://solarfunnels.com/blog/google-ads-vs-facebook-ads-for-solar Google ads vs Facebook ads for solar companies: run Facebook first for volume you can turn up, and Google search for homeowners already looking for solar. Published: 2026-10-30 For most solar companies, run Facebook and Instagram ads first and Google search ads second. Facebook is how you add appointments when the calendar needs more of them, and Google search is how you reach the homeowner who already went looking, in an area that only has so many of those searches. A sales manager asks me after a Google rep calls, or after an expensive Facebook week when someone wants to move the money. I sold 250+ residential solar deals as a rep before I ran the ads. The spend we publish is $500K+ across Facebook and Google. I would not empty one account because the other had a bad Tuesday. ## What is the difference between Google ads and Facebook ads for solar? Google search ads show after a person types a query, something like "solar installers near me." They asked. You pay when they click, and the click has to land on a page that says who you are and lets them leave a name and a number. Facebook and Instagram ads show up while someone is scrolling. They were not shopping for an installer. You pay to reach homeowners in the towns where you install, and the ad has to give them one reason to stop. On our campaigns that reason is a fact about their own house, usually how many panels it would need. The page asks a few questions, then asks for the phone number. That setup is in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). | | Google search ads | Facebook and Instagram ads | |---|---|---| | What the homeowner did | Typed a query | Was scrolling, then tapped | | How much volume you can add | Limited by searches in the towns you work | You can spend more in those same towns | | The first conversation | Often further along, and often about price | Needs a call and a text within minutes | | Where the first ad dollar goes | After Facebook is producing appointments that show | First, when the calendar can take more sits | ## Which should a solar company run first? Facebook, when you need a calendar you can grow. I rank the sources that way in [how to get solar leads](/blog/how-to-get-solar-leads). A search lead is often further along. It is still my second channel, because the number of people typing those queries in one metro does not grow just because you hired a closer. You bid against the other installers in town and against companies that resell the lead. Facebook lets you pick the ZIP codes and put more money in next month. You pay for that with the hour after the form. You interrupted someone, so somebody has to call and text while they still remember the tap. Leave it until morning and you own a name and a number. A closer whose week is already full from referrals can flip that and use search to fill an open slot. ## When do Google ads beat Facebook for a solar company? When the team can only sit so many appointments, and you want those homeowners to have gone looking on their own. Search is the higher price per click. I say that in the source ranking linked above, and I still will not pin a dollar amount on it. It also fits once people compare company names. They look you up before they call back. A Google Business Profile with real reviews and photos of finished installs sits next to the ad. We do not sell profile work. I still tell every company to ask for the review on install day. An empty profile spends the click and loses the return call. Ease off Facebook in one case: your people cannot call the leads you already have. More names on top of a slow callback make both channels look useless. Get the first call out within minutes, then add search. And don't move the budget because one Facebook week looked expensive. Cost per lead moves with the ad, the form, and the town. Read the week by appointments a homeowner attended. How a lead price becomes that number is in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## When do Facebook ads beat Google for a solar company? When you need more appointments than local search can supply. Two closers, or one rep who wants a full week of sits, will run out of useful queries in a mid-size territory before the calendar is full. On Facebook you widen the radius a little, swap the photo when people stop tapping, and leave the questions on the page alone. It also fits an offer that tells the homeowner something about their own house. Someone who was not searching will still want a panel count. Someone who typed "solar companies near me" is often collecting prices, and another company may already be booked for Thursday. A new shop with no installs yet should do the same. A search click lands on a thin page and an empty profile. Run Facebook while the first jobs and reviews come in, and turn search on after there is something for that click to find. ## What should you expect to pay? On Facebook, a new calculator campaign on our accounts usually runs $18 to $25 per lead, and some markets come in under that. An instant form can be $3 or $4. I don't run those when a rep's evening is the scarce thing, because contact rates sit around 5%. The account can look cheap every week and still hand the closer an empty Thursday. Past results from our campaigns, not a quote for your town. On Google I am not publishing a cost per click or a cost per lead. That spend sits inside the $500K+ across Facebook and Google, mixed in with the Facebook spend, so I won't pull one figure out for you to budget from. If a proposal quotes a single Google cost per lead, ask which queries, which towns, and whether the number is a form fill or a homeowner who showed up. A small service area can burn through the queries worth buying with money still left in the account. Leftover search budget usually means you ran out of good queries. ## Can a solar company run Google and Facebook ads together? Yes. I add search once Facebook is producing appointments that show, and once every new lead gets a call and a text within minutes. Search then catches the homeowner who missed the feed and went looking anyway. Keep two budgets. A quiet search day can mean fewer people searched. A quiet Facebook day can mean a tired photo or a longer form. Moving every dollar to the account that looked good on Tuesday throws out what both were learning. The smallest ad budget we run is about $1,000 a month. At that size I would stay on Facebook until bookings are steady, then move a slice to search. A larger budget can run both earlier. We have managed solar campaigns past $3,000 a day across Meta, Google, YouTube and TikTok. The limit was how many appointments the closers could take. ## What should you track each week? Appointments that showed, and the ad spend behind each one. Cost per click and cost per lead stay on the sheet. Neither one gets to pick the winner alone. On Facebook, count how many leads were called within minutes and how many booked. On Google, read the search terms that spent money. Free panels, tax credits, solar jobs, and "how do solar panels work" will spend and then waste a setter's afternoon. Shut those off. Keep terms that sound like a homeowner pricing an install. If the leads look real and the calendar stays thin, check the hours after the click before you change the ad. Confirm, remind, and rebook. That work is the same on both channels. ## How does Solarfunnels handle Google and Facebook? We run the ads and the follow-up for residential solar companies and consultants. You pay a flat monthly fee set by your ad budget, month to month, with no setup fee. Ad spend is separate. You pay the platforms, and we do not mark it up. The details are on our [pricing](/pricing) page. We do not sell leads one at a time or bill per appointment. We do not guarantee a number of leads or deals, because your market, your price and your budget move the result. We do not do commercial solar, SEO, or review management. If you want a straight read on which channel fits the budget you have, [book a quick call](/book). I'll tell you if we can help, and if the money should stay on one channel for now. ### Are Google ads or Facebook ads better for solar companies? Facebook and Instagram ads are the better first channel for most solar companies, because you can add appointments in the towns where you install. Google search ads are the better second channel, because they reach homeowners who already went looking, and a local market only has so many of those searches. ### How much do Google ads cost for a solar company? I don't publish a cost per click or a cost per lead for Google search. Search is the higher price per click of the two, the homeowner is usually further along, and a small territory can run out of useful queries before the budget is gone. Ask any proposal which queries, which towns, and whether the number is a form fill or an appointment that showed. ### How much do Facebook ads cost for solar leads? On our own campaigns, a new calculator funnel usually runs $18 to $25 per lead, and some markets come in lower. Instant forms can be $3 or $4, with contact rates around 5%. The higher cost per lead has been the better buy once you count conversations. Those are past results, and another market will land somewhere else. ### Should a solar company run Google and Facebook ads at the same time? Yes, once Facebook is producing appointments that show and every lead gets a call and a text within minutes. If the ad budget is about $1,000 a month, put that month on Facebook first. A company that can spend more can run both sooner, with a separate budget and a separate scorecard for each. --- # Aged solar leads: what they are and why we don't work them https://solarfunnels.com/blog/aged-solar-leads Aged solar leads are cheap because the homeowner asked weeks or months ago. What goes wrong with them, when they can still pay off, and why we skip them. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Aged solar leads are homeowners who asked about solar weeks or months ago, sold again as a list. They cost less than fresh leads because most of a lead's value is gone after the first few hours, and we don't work them. Somebody offered you a few thousand solar leads for a fraction of what fresh ones cost. The spreadsheet has names, phone numbers, addresses, maybe a power bill amount. On paper it's the cheapest pipeline you'll ever buy. Before you pay for it, it helps to know what you're actually getting. 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. We don't work aged leads at all. I'll explain why, and I'll also tell you when they can still make sense, because for some reps they do. One thing up front. I won't quote prices for aged leads. We don't sell them, and I can't verify what other people charge. ## What are aged solar leads? Aged solar leads are homeowners who asked about solar a while ago, weeks or months back, and whose details are being sold again. The lead was fresh once. Somebody already bought it, or tried to work it, and now it's on a list. The homeowner did raise a hand at some point. That part is real. What you don't know is how long ago, what they were shown, and who has called them since. ## Why are aged solar leads so cheap? They're cheap because most of a lead's value is gone after the first few hours. A homeowner who filled in a form ten minutes ago is thinking about their power bill right now. A homeowner who filled it in last spring is thinking about something else. The seller has often been paid for that lead once already. Anything they get for it a second or third time is extra, so the price can drop a long way and still be worth their while. So a low price on an aged lead isn't a discount. It reflects what's left in it. ## What goes wrong with aged solar leads? Three things, mostly: the homeowner has moved on, other companies got there first, and the consent behind the lead is old and hard to see. **They've moved on.** Some already went solar. Some got a quote, didn't like it and decided against the whole idea. Some sold the house. Plenty just don't remember filling in anything, so your call lands as a cold call from a stranger. **They've been called already.** A lead that has been sold before has been dialed before, often by several companies. By the time you reach the homeowner, you're paying for the mood the last few callers left behind. I get into how that works in [exclusive vs shared solar leads](/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads). **The consent is old, and you usually can't see it.** When a homeowner fills in a form, they agree to be contacted by someone, in some way, at that moment. With an aged list you often can't see what the form said, which company it named, or when they ticked the box. You're calling and texting on the strength of a permission you've never read. I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. The rules on calling and texting consumers are strict and they change, so check any purchased list with whoever handles your compliance before you load it into a dialer. Ask the seller for the consent record for each lead. If they can't produce it, that tells you something. ## Are aged solar leads worth buying? They can be, for a rep who has more time than budget, a dialer, and the patience to hear "who is this?" all afternoon. They're a poor fit for a team that wants a steady calendar. Think of an aged list as a numbers job. Most of the list goes nowhere. A few homeowners never got a proper quote the first time and are still open to one. If your hours are free and the list is cheap enough, those few can pay for the rest. The cost is your time and your phone number. Low answer rates mean a lot of dials for every real conversation, and numbers that get ignored or flagged over and over get harder to reach people with. That hurts your fresh leads too. Run the same math on any lead source: what does one shown appointment cost, and how many of those do you close? I walk through it in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). The price of a lead by itself tells you very little. If you do buy a list, ask a few things first: - How old is each lead, by date and not by "bucket"? - How many companies has it been sold to? - Can I see the form the homeowner filled in and the consent wording? - Have these numbers been checked against do-not-call lists recently? If a seller can't answer all four plainly, that's worth knowing before you pay. ## Why does Solarfunnels only work real-time leads? For compliance, first. We only work leads that come in live from your own campaign, where we know what the homeowner saw, what they agreed to, and when. It's a hard line. If you hand us a list of old leads, we'll say no. That's a real limitation if you're sitting on a few thousand of them, and I'd rather you hear it now than on a call. The second reason is the numbers. On our own campaigns, a real-time lead from a calculator funnel costs $18 to $25 on a new campaign, and about 15% to 20% of those leads book an appointment. Of the appointments that get booked, about 65% of virtual ones and about 80% of in-person ones show. Those are past results from our campaigns. They aren't promises, and your market will move them. Fresh doesn't always mean good, though. Instant form leads are the cheapest real-time leads there are, and on the cheapest ones hardly anyone picks up. Think 5% contact rates, on a lead that's minutes old. A homeowner who barely meant to send the form is close to worthless at any age. Age makes that worse. A bad lead costs you a drive and an evening with a homeowner who was never going to buy, and a stale one adds weeks of distance on top. ## What should you do instead of buying aged leads? Generate your own, and call them fast. A lead from your own ad is exclusive to you, you know what the homeowner agreed to, and you can reach the homeowner while the question is still on their mind. That costs more per lead than a list does. Compare the two on cost per kept appointment, because that's the number that pays you. If you're weighing the options, [should you buy solar leads](/blog/buy-solar-leads) covers buying against building, and [how to get solar leads for free](/blog/free-solar-leads) covers the routes that cost hours instead of dollars. It's also the work we do. We run the ads and the funnel, call and text every new lead within minutes, and book them on your calendar. It's a flat monthly fee with ad spend separate, and the details are on the [pricing page](/pricing). We don't sell lists, we don't guarantee a number, and we only do residential solar. If you want to compare your current lead source against your own campaign, [book a quick call](/book) and bring your numbers. ### What are aged solar leads? Aged solar leads are homeowners who asked about solar weeks or months ago and are now being sold again, usually as a list. They cost far less than fresh leads because most of the value was in the first hours after the homeowner asked. Many have already been called by other companies. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? It depends on the lead type. On our own campaigns, real-time leads from a calculator funnel usually cost $18 to $25 each on a new campaign, and Facebook instant form leads averaged $13.40 over three years. Aged leads are sold for less than fresh ones, but we don't sell them and can't vouch for anyone's prices. ### How to get solar leads for free? Referrals from past customers, door knocking and your own social posts cost time instead of money. They work, but the volume is hard to control. Most teams that want a predictable calendar end up adding paid ads on top. ### How to generate leads for solar panels? Run your own ads to a form or a short funnel that asks a few qualifying questions, then call and text every homeowner within minutes. Leads you generate yourself are exclusive to you, and you know exactly what the homeowner saw and agreed to. That is harder to know with a purchased list. --- # Exclusive vs shared solar leads: what you actually get https://solarfunnels.com/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads Exclusive solar leads go to one company, shared leads go to several. What each label really covers, what to ask a vendor, and when shared still works. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 An exclusive solar lead goes to one company. A shared solar lead is sold to several companies at once, costs less per lead, and puts you in a race to reach the homeowner. You bought a batch of leads the vendor called exclusive. You call the first one, and the homeowner tells you they already talked to a solar company yesterday. By the vendor's definition, that lead may still have been exclusive. The word covers less than most buyers assume. I sold 250+ residential solar deals as a rep before I got into marketing. This is how I'd think about the choice now. ## What are exclusive leads? An exclusive lead is a homeowner's inquiry that is sold or delivered to one solar company and nobody else. A shared lead is the same inquiry sold to several companies at once. That's the whole definition, and it leaves a lot out. It tells you who the vendor sent the lead to today. It says nothing about where the homeowner came from, how long ago they filled out the form, what the page told them they'd get, or whether the same record gets sold again later. ## What is the difference between exclusive and shared solar leads? The difference is how many companies call the homeowner. With a shared lead you're in a race from the first minute, and with an exclusive lead you should be the only one calling. Shared leads are cheaper per lead because the vendor gets paid several times for the same homeowner. The homeowner's phone lights up with calls from companies they've never heard of. Whoever reaches them first usually sets the price expectation, and everyone after that is arguing against it. Plenty of homeowners stop answering altogether. Exclusive leads cost more per lead. In return you get a homeowner who isn't being chased by your competitors off that same form. I say "off that same form" on purpose, and the next section is why. ## Why do exclusive solar leads sometimes act like shared ones? Because exclusive describes the sale, and the homeowner is free to do whatever they want. There are a few common ways an exclusive lead ends up crowded or cold. The homeowner filled out more than one form. Someone shopping for solar on a weeknight doesn't stop at one website. Your vendor sold their record only to you, and another vendor sold a different record of the same person to someone else. The lead is exclusive now and resold later. Some sellers give you a window, then sell the record again as an [aged lead](/blog/aged-solar-leads). That may not hurt you on day one. It does tell you how the vendor thinks about the homeowner's information. The lead is exclusive and slow. It was collected on a generic comparison page, and it reaches you hours later or in a spreadsheet the next morning. By then the homeowner has forgotten the form. Nobody else is calling, and they still won't pick up for you. The form made it too easy. If all the homeowner did was tap twice on a pre-filled form, you own a phone number and not much else. On our own campaigns, instant form leads cost $3 or $4 and contact rates run around 5%. Calling the lead exclusive doesn't fix that. ## What should you ask a lead vendor before you buy? Ask how the lead was created and how fast it gets to you. Those two answers tell you more than the word exclusive does. - Can I see the ad and the form the homeowner filled out? - What did the page say would happen next, and did it name my company? - Is this record sold to anyone else, today or later as an aged lead? - How long is it between the homeowner hitting submit and the lead reaching me? - What happens with wrong numbers, renters and duplicates? A good vendor answers all of those without getting defensive. If you're still deciding whether to buy at all, I cover that in [should you buy solar leads](/blog/buy-solar-leads). ## When do shared solar leads still make sense? Shared leads can work for a team that's built to win the race. That means someone dialing within the first minutes of every lead arriving, all day, and enough closers to work the volume. If you have a call floor, a dialer and a pitch that holds up when the homeowner has already heard from other companies, cheap shared leads can pencil out. You'll burn through a lot of them, and you need to be fine with that. They're a poor fit for a solo consultant or a small crew. If you're in appointments all afternoon, you'll call that lead at dinner time, and you'll be the last company to reach them. The last rep through the door spends the whole appointment undoing what the first one said. Either way, don't judge on cost per lead. Count what it costs you to get one appointment that shows, per source. I walk through that math in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## Are exclusive solar leads worth the higher price? Usually yes, if the lead is fresh, the homeowner did some work to become a lead, and somebody calls them within minutes. Take away any one of those and the label stops mattering. With our numbers it looks like this. A new calculator-funnel campaign, where the homeowner answers a few questions to see how many panels they'd need, usually runs $18 to $25 per lead. About 15% of those leads book an appointment, and about 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show. Our most recent solar campaign came out just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result and I'm not promising it. Those leads cost several times what an instant form lead costs. They've still been the better buy for us, because the people answer the phone. ## Where do truly exclusive solar leads come from? From ads that run only for you. The one lead you can be sure nobody else bought is the one that came from your own campaign, on a form that belongs to you. You can build that in house. I laid out the options in [how to get solar leads](/blog/how-to-get-solar-leads). Or you can have someone run it for you, which is what we do at [Solarfunnels](/). We run the ads under your brand or ours, and every lead from your campaign goes to you and is never resold. Each one gets a call and a text within minutes, a confirmation, a reminder, and a rebook if they no-show. It's a [flat monthly fee](/pricing) 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. What we don't do: we don't sell leads by the lead or by the appointment, so you can't buy a small batch from us to test. We don't work aged leads, only real-time ones, for compliance. We only do residential solar. And I won't guarantee a number of leads or deals, because that depends on your market, your price and your budget. If you'd like to talk it through, [book a quick call](/book). ### What are exclusive leads? An exclusive lead is a homeowner's inquiry that is sold or delivered to one company and nobody else. The label only describes who the vendor sent it to. It doesn't tell you how fresh the lead is, how it was collected, or whether the homeowner also filled out forms somewhere else. ### What is the difference between exclusive and shared solar leads? A shared solar lead is sold to several companies at once, so it costs less per lead and you're racing the others to reach the homeowner. An exclusive solar lead goes to one company, costs more per lead, and should mean you're the only one calling from that form. ### Are exclusive solar leads worth the higher price? Usually yes, if the lead is fresh, the homeowner did some work to become a lead, and somebody calls within minutes. Judge it by what one appointment that shows costs you, per source. An exclusive lead that sits for a day performs a lot like a shared one. ### Where can I buy solar leads? Solar leads are sold by lead marketplaces, pay-per-appointment companies and live transfer call centers, and you can also generate your own with ads. Before you buy, ask to see the ad and the form, ask whether the record is ever resold, and ask how fast it reaches you. ### What is the best company to buy leads from? There isn't one best company for everyone. The best source is the one with the lowest cost per appointment that shows for your team, so test with a small budget and track booked and shown appointments per source. Leads from your own ad campaign are the only ones you can be sure nobody else received. --- # Facebook ads for solar companies: what works, what doesn't https://solarfunnels.com/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies Facebook ads for solar companies, from someone who runs them: instant forms vs a calculator funnel, real cost per lead, a starting budget and what to track. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Facebook ads work for a solar company when the campaign is built to produce appointments and you judge it on appointments. Instant forms and a calculator landing page are different campaigns, which is why one company fills a calendar and another can't get the leads on the phone. You've probably heard both versions of this story. One solar company says Facebook ads filled their calendar. Another says they paid for 200 leads and couldn't get ten of them on the phone. Both are telling it straight, and most of the time they ran two different kinds of campaign. I sold 250+ residential solar deals as a rep before I ran marketing. Since then we've managed $500K+ in solar ad spend across Facebook and Google and generated 25,000+ homeowner leads for 50+ solar companies. This is what I'd tell a friend who's about to put money into Facebook. ## Do Facebook ads work for solar companies? Yes, as long as the campaign is built to produce appointments and you judge it on appointments. Facebook and Instagram put your offer in front of homeowners in the exact areas you install in. The catch is that nobody opens Facebook to shop for solar. On Google the homeowner searched for you. On Facebook you interrupted them, so the ad and the page behind it have to sort the curious from the serious before your rep ever dials. Campaigns that skip the sorting are the ones people complain about. ## Should you use Facebook instant forms or a landing page? Use a landing page with a few questions on it if your reps' time is worth anything. Instant forms are cheaper per lead and more expensive per sale. An instant form opens inside Facebook with the person's name, phone and email already filled in. Two taps and they're a lead. We've seen those come in at $3 or $4 each. The trouble is that contact rates run around 5%. Buy 100 leads at $4 and you've spent $400 to have five conversations, which is $80 per conversation before anyone has agreed to anything. There's a second cost that never shows up in the ad account. The other 95 leads still get dialed, and all those unanswered calls hurt your phone number's reputation. Once a number starts getting flagged as spam, even your good leads stop picking up. What we run for most solar companies is a calculator funnel. The ad offers to show a homeowner how many panels their home would need. They click through to a page, answer a few questions, and leave their contact details at the end to see the result. A new campaign like that usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area, and some markets come in lower. | | Instant form | Calculator funnel | |---|---|---| | Typical cost per lead | $3 to $4 | $18 to $25 on a new campaign | | What the homeowner did | Tapped twice | Answered questions about their own home | | When you call | Around 5% pick up | They remember asking and expect the call | | What you know before dialing | Name and number | Owner or renter, power bill, roof | The full cost math, down to what it works out to per appointment, is in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## What questions should a solar funnel ask? Three: do they own the home, what's their power bill, and what shape is the roof in. Those are the same three things I needed to know as a rep before a drive was worth making. Renters can't buy. A homeowner with a tiny power bill has nothing to save. A roof that needs replacing soon turns your solar pitch into a roofing conversation. Asking up front costs you a few leads, and every one of those was going to waste an evening for one of your closers. ## What does a good solar Facebook ad look like? It says who it's for, promises one specific piece of information, and looks like something a real person posted. Here's a solar Facebook ads example in words. The image is a plain photo of an ordinary house with panels on the roof, shot from the street on a phone. The headline reads "How many solar panels would your home need?" The text above it is two lines. It names the area you serve, says it's for homeowners, and tells them they can answer a few questions to see their number. No exclamation points and no countdown timer. A second version that holds up well is a short phone video of someone standing in front of a finished install, saying who they are, what area they work in, and what the homeowner will find out if they click. What I'd stay away from: - Stock art of a smiling family on a lawn. People scroll past it because it looks like an ad. - "Free solar" or anything that sounds like a government program. It attracts people who expect something for nothing, and it's the kind of claim that gets ad accounts in trouble. - A list of everything your company does. One promise per ad. Both of those examples offer the homeowner one small next step and leave the selling to the page and the phone call. ## How much should a solar company spend on Facebook ads? Enough to get a real read, and for us that starts around $1,000 a month in ad spend. That's the smallest budget we run. Here's the arithmetic. At $18 to $25 per lead, $1,000 buys roughly 40 to 55 leads. About 15% of leads book an appointment, so that's six to eight on the calendar. About 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show, which leaves you four to six conversations with qualified homeowners. Our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result, and your market will land somewhere else. For a single consultant that's a workable month. A company with several closers should size the budget to the number of appointments the team can run. We've managed solar campaigns past $3,000 a day across Meta, Google, YouTube and TikTok, so your sales capacity will cap you long before the platform does. Give a new campaign more than a month before you judge it. The booking rate tends to climb toward 20% once the campaign has enough booked appointments to optimize for them. ## What should you track every week? Booked appointments and appointments that showed, and what each one cost. Cost per lead is a weak signal when you look at it alone. The instant form campaign above wins on cost per lead every single week and loses on everything that pays a commission. Cheap can work, though. One installer we ran ads for got 10,000+ leads at under $13 each across several states, and at that volume a lower cost per lead is worth having, as long as every lead gets worked right away. So the weekly check is short. How many leads came in, how many got a call and a text within minutes, how many booked, how many showed. If shows are the weak spot, the fix is usually in the follow-up, which I've covered in [how to cut solar appointment no-shows](/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows). ## What does it cost to have someone run this for you? It depends on who you hire, so I'll only speak for us. We charge a [flat monthly fee](/pricing) set by your ad budget, month to month, with no setup fee. Ad spend is separate. You pay it and we never mark it up. A few things we don't do. We don't sell leads one at a time or charge per appointment. We don't guarantee a number of leads or deals, because results depend on your market, your price and your budget. And we only do residential solar, so I'm the wrong person to ask about commercial. The fee covers the ads, the funnel and the follow-up. Every lead gets a call and a text within minutes from Summer, our virtual assistant, and she either books them on your calendar or [transfers them to you live](/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments). The leads are yours alone and never resold. If you want to see what this would look like in your area, [book a quick call](/book) and I'll walk you through it. ### Do Facebook ads work for contractors? Yes, for contractors who sell to homeowners, solar included, as long as the campaign qualifies people before the sales call. Facebook reaches homeowners who weren't searching for you, so the ad and the page have to sort out who owns the home and has a reason to buy. Judge the campaign on appointments that show up, because cost per lead alone will mislead you. ### How do I advertise my solar business? Most residential solar companies we work with advertise on Facebook and Instagram, on Google search, or on both. On Facebook, an ad that offers one useful piece of information, such as how many panels a home would need, sends homeowners to a short set of qualifying questions. Whatever the channel, every lead needs a call and a text within minutes or it goes cold. ### What are instant forms on Facebook ads? An instant form is a lead form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram with the person's name, phone number and email already filled in. It takes two taps to submit, which makes the leads cheap, around $3 or $4 each in our solar campaigns. The downside is that many people submit without much thought, and we see contact rates around 5%. ### Is it better to use Facebook lead forms or a landing page for solar? A landing page with a few qualifying questions costs more per lead and less per appointment. In our campaigns, instant form leads run $3 or $4 with about a 5% contact rate, while a calculator funnel on a landing page usually runs $18 to $25 per lead from homeowners who answered questions about their own home. If your closers' time matters, use the landing page. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? There is no single average, because the price follows the type of lead. In our own Facebook campaigns, cost per lead has ranged from about $7 to $25, with instant form leads as low as $3 or $4 and new calculator funnel campaigns usually at $18 to $25. The cheaper the lead, the fewer of them pick up the phone. ### How much should a solar company spend on Facebook ads? About $1,000 a month in ad spend is the smallest budget we run, and it is enough for one consultant to get a real read. At $18 to $25 per lead that buys roughly 40 to 55 leads, and about 15% of leads book an appointment. A company with several closers should size the budget to the number of appointments the team can run. --- # How much do solar leads cost? Real numbers by lead type https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost How much do solar leads cost? Our own numbers by lead type, from $3 instant forms to $25 calculator leads, and what a shown appointment really costs. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 On our own campaigns, solar leads have cost from about $3 or $4 for a Facebook instant form up to $18 to $25 for a new calculator funnel. Both prices can be real, and the cheap one is often the expensive one by the time a homeowner is sitting across from you. You got a quote from a lead vendor. Or a rep on your team swears he can get Facebook leads for four bucks each. Now you're trying to work out which number is real. Both can be real. They're prices for different things, and the cheap one is often the expensive one by the time a homeowner is sitting across from you. I sold 250+ residential solar deals as a rep before I ran marketing. Since then we've managed $500K+ in solar ad spend across Facebook and Google and generated 25,000+ homeowner leads for 50+ solar companies in 15+ states. Every number below comes from those campaigns. I won't quote other vendors' prices, because I can't verify them and they move around. ## What is the average cost of solar leads? On our Meta campaigns, a solar lead has cost anywhere from about $7 to $25. Where you land depends mostly on how the lead was captured and which market you're in. I don't love the word average here. A $4 lead and a $22 lead can come out of the same ad account in the same week. What differs is the form the homeowner filled out, and what happens when you call them. | Lead type | What we've paid per lead | What happens next | | :- | :- | :- | | Facebook instant form | $3 to $4 | Around 5% pick up the phone | | Calculator funnel, new campaign | $18 to $25 | About 15% book, up to 20% once the campaign optimizes for bookings | | One installer, long-running campaigns | Under $13 | 10,000+ leads across several states | Look at the last row. Costs often come down as a campaign learns a market, but I'd budget a brand new campaign at the higher numbers and be happy if it beats them. ## Why are some solar leads $4 and others $25? Because the cheap ones take the homeowner two taps and the expensive ones take some effort. Effort is what you're paying for. A Facebook instant form fills in the name and phone number for them. They tap twice and go back to scrolling. We can get those for $3 or $4. The trouble starts when you dial, because contact rates run around 5%. At $4 a lead, that's about $80 for every homeowner who picks up, and nobody has booked anything yet. All that unanswered dialing also hurts your phone number's reputation. So we mostly run a calculator funnel. The homeowner wants to know how many panels they'd need, and to find out they answer a few questions: do they own the home, what's the power bill, how's the roof. A new campaign like that usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area, and some markets come in lower. It costs more per lead. It also brings people who were curious enough to do a little work, and it tends to bring bigger systems. ## What does a booked solar appointment cost? Take your cost per lead and divide by the share of leads that book. On our campaigns about 15% of leads book an appointment, and that can reach 20% once a campaign optimizes for booked appointments. Run it with a $20 lead. At 15% booked, that's about $133 per booked appointment. A $25 lead at 15% is about $167. An $18 lead at 20% is $90. Those booking rates don't happen by themselves. They assume every lead gets a call and a text within minutes, and that someone keeps following up for days after. A homeowner who fills out a form at night and hears from you the next afternoon has usually moved on. ## What does a solar appointment that shows up cost? Divide once more, this time by your show rate. About 65% of virtual appointments show, and about 80% of in-person ones. Take the $133 booked appointment from above. If it's virtual, you're at about $205 per appointment that shows. In person, about $167. Our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result, and I'm not promising it to anyone. This is the number I'd judge every lead source by. As a rep I never cared what a lead cost. I cared whether somebody was home when I pulled up. A bad lead costs you a drive and an evening with a homeowner who was never going to buy. Show rates move too. Confirmation calls, reminders and rebooking are a big part of it, and I wrote about that in [solar appointment no-shows](/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows). ## What about shared leads, live transfers and pre-set appointments? Vendors sell these by the unit, and the price depends on the vendor, the state and the filters you ask for. I can't give you an honest number for someone else's product, so I'll tell you how I think about each one. A shared lead is sold to several companies at once. It's cheaper per lead for that reason, and you're in a race from the first minute. More on that in [exclusive vs shared solar leads](/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads). A live transfer is a homeowner already on the phone, handed to your team. You're paying for contact someone else already made, so it costs more than a raw lead. A pre-set appointment costs the most per unit. The vendor has already eaten every lead that didn't pick up and every one that didn't book, and that's built into the price. I compare those last two in [live transfers vs pre-set appointments](/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments). Whatever you buy, push it through the same math. Work out what one shown appointment costs, then how many of those it takes you to close a deal. ## What is a reasonable cost per lead for solar? A reasonable cost per lead is one that gets you to a shown appointment at a price your close rate can carry. The lead price by itself tells you very little. For us, an $18 to $25 calculator lead has been a better buy than a $4 form lead, because more of them answer, book and show. Your numbers may come out differently. Track leads, booked appointments, shown appointments and closed deals for a month, per source, and the answer is usually obvious. If you want to see how much the lead price moves from one state to the next, we published three years of our own campaigns in [solar lead cost by state](/blog/solar-lead-cost-by-state). One warning from the rep side. A source can look great on cost per lead and still wear your team out. Reps who spend a week dialing people who never answer stop trusting the leads, and then they stop calling the good ones fast too. ## How does Solarfunnels charge? We charge a [flat monthly fee](/pricing), set by your ad budget. We don't sell leads by the lead or by the appointment. Ad spend is separate. You pay for it and we never mark it up. It's month to month with no setup fee. The three ways an agency can bill are in [solar marketing agency cost](/blog/solar-marketing-agency-cost). For that we run the ads and the funnel, call and text every lead within minutes, confirm the appointment and rebook no-shows. The leads are exclusive to you and never resold. A few things we don't do. We don't work [aged leads](/blog/aged-solar-leads), only real-time ones, for compliance. We only do residential solar, so I can't help with commercial. And I won't guarantee a number, because results depend on your market, your price and your budget. If you want to run your own numbers with me, [book a quick call](/book). ### What is the average cost of solar leads? It depends on the lead type. On our own Meta campaigns, solar leads have cost from about $7 to $25 each. Facebook instant form leads can be had for $3 or $4, and a new calculator-funnel campaign usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area. ### What is a reasonable cost per lead for solar? A reasonable cost per lead is one that gets you a shown appointment at a price your close rate can carry. For us, $18 to $25 calculator leads have been a better buy than $3 or $4 instant form leads, because far more of them answer the phone and book. ### How much does a solar appointment cost? Divide your cost per lead by your booking rate, then by your show rate. At $20 a lead with 15% booking, a booked appointment costs about $133. Our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed, which is a past result and not a promise. ### Is it worth paying for leads? It can be, if you measure the right thing. Judge any paid lead source by what one shown appointment costs and how many of those you close, never by the price of the lead alone. A cheap lead that nobody answers is more expensive than it looks. ### How to get solar leads for free? Referrals from past customers, door knocking and your own social posts cost time instead of money. They work, but the volume is hard to control. If you want a predictable calendar, you'll probably end up adding paid ads on top. --- # How to get solar leads for free (and what free costs you) https://solarfunnels.com/blog/free-solar-leads Free solar leads exist for reps: referrals, install-day neighbors, local groups and trade partners. What each one costs in hours, and when to pay instead. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Free solar leads for a rep come from referrals, neighbors on install day, local groups and trade partners. None of them costs money, and all of them cost hours. You get paid on what you close. The company hands you a few leads a week, some of them have already talked to another rep, and you're wondering how to fill your own calendar without knocking doors until dark or spending money you haven't made yet. You can do it. I sold over 250 residential solar deals as a rep, and the cheapest deals a rep ever closes come from sources that cost nothing but time. That's the catch in "free": you pay in hours. Below is what works for a rep and what each source takes out of your week. ## How do you get solar leads for free? Work the people who already trust you, then the people who trust them. That means past customers, their neighbors, local groups, your Google profile, and trades who are in homes every day. None of it needs an ad budget. All of it needs you to keep showing up for a few months before it pays. ### Past customers and referrals The best free lead you'll ever get is a past customer's brother-in-law. Referred homeowners close faster and shop around less, because someone they know already did the homework. The mistake I see reps make is asking once, at signing, when the customer hasn't seen a panel yet. Ask again on install day. Ask again when the first lower bill arrives, because that's when they're telling people about it anyway. The time cost is a few texts and calls a week. Start here. ### The neighbors on install day A crew on a roof is the best ad on the street, and the neighbors are already looking at it. Walk the houses on either side and across the road, tell them what's going on, and leave your number. Yes, it's door knocking. But you have a reason to be there, and it's the one kind I'd tell a rep who hates knocking to keep doing. It costs part of an afternoon per install. ### Local Facebook groups, without spamming Groups work if you act like a neighbor first and a rep second. Answer questions about power bills and panels when they come up. Post a finished install now and then, with the homeowner's OK. Don't paste your pitch into every thread. Admins remove it and people remember who did it. This one costs a few minutes a day and it's slow. Expect weeks before anyone messages you. ### A Google Business Profile If you sell under your own name or your own company, set up a profile and ask every customer for a review. Homeowners look you up before they call you back, and a profile with real reviews and install photos gets the callback. If you only sell under an installer's brand, check with them before you set one up. Setup takes an afternoon, then one review request after each install. It won't bring many leads by itself. It makes every other source convert better. ### Roofers, HVAC techs and other trades Trades are in homes every day, and they hear about high electric bills before you do. A roofer who just finished a new roof is talking to a homeowner at the right moment for solar. Find two or three trades you'd be comfortable sending your own customers to, and send them work first. Referrals come back once you've given some. It's slow to start and steady once it runs. ## Can you get solar leads without door knocking? Yes, but you trade the doors for either time or money. The free sources above replace knocking only after they've had months to build. If you need appointments this month and you won't knock, what's left is paid: your own ads, or leads someone else generated. I rank all of them in [how to get solar leads](/blog/how-to-get-solar-leads). I'd skip the free lead lists that lead sellers hand out. Those are usually old leads that other reps have already called. We don't work [aged leads](/blog/aged-solar-leads) either. Real-time only, for compliance. ## What does free cost you? Your hours, and hours are what a commission rep is shortest on. Every evening in a Facebook group or driving out to meet a roofer is an evening you aren't in front of a homeowner. Early on that trade is fine, because you have more time than deals. Once you're closing consistently, an hour in an appointment is worth more than an hour looking for one. Free sources also have a ceiling. Referrals and neighbors grow with your installs. They can't double next month because you want them to. ## When does paying for your own leads make sense? When you can close what you sit with and your calendar is the limit. If you're still learning to close, more appointments mostly means more lost deals, so stay on the free sources and get the practice in. For comparison, the paid math from our own campaigns looks like this. A new campaign with a calculator funnel usually runs $18 to $25 per lead. About 15% of leads book. About 65% of virtual appointments and 80% of in-person ones show. Our most recent solar campaign came out to just under $200 per appointment that showed, which is a past result and not a promise. Hold that against your average commission and your close rate and you'll know quickly whether it works for you. The full breakdown is in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). That's the work [we do for reps and consultants](/solar-sales-reps): your own ads and funnel, every lead called and texted within minutes, appointments booked on your calendar. It's a [flat fee](/pricing) set by your ad budget, with ad spend separate and starting around $1,000 a month. The leads are exclusive to you, and we limit how many reps we take in each area. We don't charge per lead and we don't guarantee a number. Keep working the free sources either way. A rep with referrals coming in and paid appointments on top has a calendar that doesn't depend on the company's lead list. If you want to see whether your area is open, [book a quick call](/book). ### How to get solar leads for free? Ask past customers for referrals on install day and again when their first lower bill arrives, talk to the neighbors while the crew is on the roof, be useful in local Facebook groups, keep a Google Business Profile with real reviews, and trade referrals with roofers and HVAC techs. None of these costs money. All of them cost hours and take a few months to build. ### How to get leads for solar sales? A solar rep has three places to get leads: the company, free sources built on relationships, and paid sources like your own ads. Company leads only go so far, so most reps who last build a referral base first and add their own paid lead flow once they are closing consistently. ### How to get leads for free without paying? Free leads come from people who already trust you and the people who trust them: past customers, their neighbors, local community groups and other trades. Be careful with free lead lists from lead sellers, which are usually old leads that other reps have already called. ### Is selling solar door-to-door worth it? It can be, but you pay in hours and burnout instead of dollars. If you dislike knocking, keep one version of it: walk the houses around each install while the crew is on the roof. You have a reason to be there, and the neighbors are already curious. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? In our own Facebook campaigns, a new campaign with a calculator funnel usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area. About 15% of those leads book an appointment. Our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed, which is a past result and not a promise. --- # How to get solar leads: 7 sources, ranked by a former rep https://solarfunnels.com/blog/how-to-get-solar-leads How to get solar leads, ranked by a former rep: seven sources compared on money, time and the kind of homeowner each one puts in front of you. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-30 Start with the lead sources you own: referrals from past customers, your own Facebook and Google ads, and a Google Business Profile with real reviews. Bought leads stop the day you stop paying. 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: 1. Referrals from past customers 2. Your own Facebook ads 3. Google search ads 4. Reviews and local search 5. Door knocking 6. Bought appointments and live transfers 7. Bought shared leads The rest of this post is why. I rank ten marketing ideas the same way, by what a kept appointment costs, in [solar marketing ideas](/blog/solar-marketing-ideas). ## 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](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost) and the setup in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). What people miss is the work after the form. Somebody has to [call within minutes](/blog/solar-speed-to-lead) 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 compare the two in [Google ads vs Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/google-ads-vs-facebook-ads-for-solar). 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](/blog/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](/pricing) set by your ad budget, 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 quick call](/book). I'll tell you straight whether we can help. ### How can I get solar leads? Start with the sources you own: referrals from past customers, your own Facebook and Google ads, and a Google Business Profile with real reviews. Add door knocking around your installs if you have someone to lead the team. Bought leads and appointments can fill gaps, but they stop the day you stop paying. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? In our own Facebook campaigns, cost per lead has ranged from about $7 to $25. A new campaign with a calculator funnel usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area. Instant forms can bring leads in for $3 or $4, but contact rates on those run around 5%. ### Where can I buy solar leads? Lead vendors sell shared leads, exclusive leads, booked appointments and live transfers. Before you buy, ask how the lead was generated, how many companies receive it, and whether you can see the ad and hear the call. Solarfunnels does not sell leads per lead or per appointment. We run your own campaigns for a flat monthly fee. ### Is selling solar door-to-door worth it? It can be. Door knocking gives you a pipeline you control and costs nothing per lead, but you pay in hours, turnover and burnout. It works best with a manager who is out there with the team, and on the streets around homes you have already installed. ### How can I promote my solar business? Ask every customer for a referral and a Google review, run ads to homeowners in the areas you install in, and follow up with every inquiry within minutes. The follow-up matters as much as the promotion, because most solar leads go cold before anyone calls them back. --- # Should you buy solar leads? An honest answer from a former rep https://solarfunnels.com/blog/buy-solar-leads Should you buy solar leads? A former rep on what you get for the money, five questions to ask a lead company, and when your own ads beat buying. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Buying solar leads can work, but only when you know exactly what you're paying for and you have people ready to call. Judge it by what one appointment that shows costs, because a cheap lead nobody answers is expensive. You have closers with open calendars, or you're a rep whose company leads dried up, and a lead company just quoted you a price per lead. Before you send the money, you want to know if it's going to turn into deals or into a week of voicemails. I sold over 250 residential solar deals as a rep before I moved into marketing. Since then we've managed more than $500K in solar ad spend and generated over 25,000 homeowner leads for more than 50 solar companies. My short answer: buying solar leads can work, but only when you know exactly what you're paying for and you have people ready to call. ## What are you really buying when you buy solar leads? You're buying a name and a phone number. Everything that decides whether that number turns into a deal is set by the seller: how old the lead is, how many other companies got it, and what the homeowner thought they were signing up for. Age matters most. A homeowner who asked about solar a few minutes ago still remembers doing it. One who filled out a form last week has either talked to someone else or forgotten the whole thing. Then there's the number of buyers. A shared lead goes to several companies at once, so you're in a race the second it lands. An exclusive lead goes to you alone, and it costs more for that reason. I wrote up the difference in [exclusive vs shared solar leads](/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads). The last part is what the homeowner was promised. Some asked for a savings estimate. Some clicked an ad about a program they think is free. Some believe they asked one company for a quote and now five are calling. You inherit whatever the ad said, even though you never saw it. That's why the price per lead tells you so little. A cheap lead nobody answers is expensive. The number to watch is what you pay per appointment that shows, and I break down real numbers in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## What should you ask a solar lead company before you pay? Ask five questions and don't pay until all five get a straight answer. A good seller can answer them in one email. - Is the lead exclusive or shared, and if it's shared, with how many buyers? - How old is the lead when it reaches me? - How did the homeowner opt in, and whose name was on the form? - What's the return policy for wrong numbers and people who never asked about solar? - Will you show me the ad or the page the homeowner saw? The last one is where weak sellers go quiet. If they won't show you the ad, assume it promised something you can't deliver, and expect to hear about it on every call. The opt-in question protects you. There are consent rules for calling and texting homeowners, and you're the one doing the dialing. So ask how the homeowner opted in before you load a list into your phone system. Take the return policy seriously too. Every batch has some bad numbers in it. What you need to know is whether you get credit for them or eat them. ## When is buying solar leads the right call? Buying leads makes sense when you need activity this week and you have people with free hours to dial. Nothing else puts names in front of a team that fast. A new team is the clearest case. New reps get better by talking to homeowners, and a batch of leads gives them conversations on day one while you sort out everything else. A call team with open hours is the other one. Bought leads reward speed and persistence. A room that calls within minutes and keeps calling will pull more appointments out of the same list than a closer squeezing in dials between sits. If it's just you, selling during the day and calling a shared list at night, be careful. As a rep I learned what a bad lead costs: a drive and an evening with a homeowner who was never going to buy. ## When does running your own ads beat buying leads? Your own ads win once you can commit a steady monthly budget and you want leads nobody else is calling. Every lead is exclusive, seconds old, and came from an offer you wrote. Here's what that has looked like for us. Our cost per lead on Meta has ranged from about $7 to $25, and a new campaign built around a solar calculator usually runs $18 to $25 depending on the area. About 15% of those leads book an appointment, and about 65% of virtual appointments show. So 100 leads at $20 is $2,000, which books around 15 appointments and puts you in roughly 10 of them. That's about $200 per appointment that showed, and our most recent solar campaign came in just under that. It's a past result, not a promise. The catch is the work. Someone has to write the ads, build the pages, and call every lead within minutes, every day. Skip that last part and your own leads go cold the same way bought ones do. The cheapest version of your own ads has a trap in it as well: instant forms can bring in leads for $3 or $4, but contact rates run around 5%, and all that unanswered dialing hurts your phone number's reputation. More on that in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). ## Is there a middle option between buying leads and doing it yourself? Yes. You can pay a company to run your ads and work the leads for you, so you get exclusive leads without building a marketing department. That's what we do at [Solarfunnels](/). It's a [flat monthly fee](/pricing) set by your ad budget, month to month, with no setup fee. You pay for the ad spend separately and we never mark it up. The leads are exclusive to you and never resold, every one gets a call and a text within minutes, and the ads can run under your brand or ours. It isn't for everyone. We don't sell leads by the lead or by the appointment, so if you want a stack of names by Friday, a lead company is the better fit. We only work real-time leads, never [aged lists](/blog/aged-solar-leads), for compliance. We only do residential solar. And we don't guarantee a number, because results depend on your market, your price and your budget. | | Buy leads | Run your own ads | Done for you | |---|---|---|---| | Who else gets the lead | Often several buyers | Nobody | Nobody | | Lead age at first call | Depends on the seller | Minutes, if you're fast | Minutes | | Who does the work | You dial | You build and you dial | The service does both | | How you pay | Per lead | Ad spend plus your time | Flat fee plus ad spend | ## How do you test a lead company without getting burned? Start with the smallest batch they'll sell and work it the way you'd work your best leads. Call each one within minutes of delivery, keep calling for several days, and write down three numbers: how many you reached, how many booked, and how many showed. Then divide what you spent by the appointments that showed. That one figure lets you compare a lead company, your own ads and a done-for-you service on equal terms. If the seller's leads hold up, buy more. If they don't, you've lost a small batch and you know what to ask the next seller. If you'd like to see how your own campaign would stack up against that, [book a quick call](/book) and I'll tell you straight whether we can help. ### Where can I buy solar leads? You can buy solar leads from lead companies that sell shared or exclusive leads, from companies that sell pre-set appointments or live transfers, or you can generate your own with ads. Before you pay anyone, ask whether the lead is exclusive, how old it is when it reaches you, how the homeowner opted in, and what the return policy is. ### What is the best company to buy leads from? The best company to buy solar leads from is the one that gives straight answers to five questions: exclusive or shared, lead age at delivery, how the homeowner opted in, the return policy, and whether you can see the ad the homeowner clicked. A seller who won't show you the ad is one to skip. ### Is it worth paying for leads? Paying for solar leads is worth it when you have people ready to call within minutes and you judge the result by cost per appointment that shows, not cost per lead. A cheap lead nobody answers is expensive. In our campaigns, instant-form leads at $3 or $4 each had contact rates around 5%. ### Are lead generation companies worth it? It depends on the model and on your team. Companies that sell leads by the lead suit teams with callers who have free hours. A done-for-you service that runs your ads and calls your leads suits teams that want exclusive leads without building a marketing department. Either way, measure cost per appointment that shows. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? There is no single average, because age and exclusivity change the price. In our own campaigns, exclusive leads from Meta ads have ranged from about $7 to $25 each, and a new campaign built around a solar calculator usually runs $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area. ### Should I buy solar leads or generate my own? Buy leads when you need activity this week and have people with time to dial. Generate your own when you can commit a steady monthly budget and want exclusive leads nobody else is calling. Your own leads take more work up front, because someone has to build the ads and call every lead within minutes. --- # Solar appointment no-shows: what's normal and how to cut them https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows Solar appointment no-shows are normal up to a point. See what show rate to expect, why homeowners ghost, and the confirmation steps that raise it. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 On our campaigns, about 80% of in-person solar appointments and about 65% of virtual ones show. Some no-shows come with the job, and a calendar where half the appointments vanish means something upstream is broken. You blocked the evening, pulled up the address and drove out. Nobody came to the door. Or you sat on a video call looking at your own face while the homeowner never joined. Every solar rep knows that feeling. I sold over 250 residential deals before I ran marketing, and a bad appointment cost me a drive and an evening. Some no-shows come with the job. A calendar where half the appointments vanish means something upstream is broken, and most of it can be fixed. ## What is a normal show rate for solar appointments? On our campaigns, about 80% of in-person appointments and about 65% of virtual appointments show. If you're well below that, look at how your appointments get booked and confirmed before you blame the leads. Those numbers come from exclusive leads off our own ads, called within minutes and confirmed after booking. So even with everything done right, plan on one in five in-person appointments missing, and about one in three virtual. Book your week with that in mind. It helps to see the whole chain. About 15% of leads book an appointment, and that can reach 20% once a campaign is optimizing for booked appointments. Out of 100 leads, that's 15 on the calendar and somewhere between 10 and 12 that show. Our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed. That's a past result, not a promise, but it tells you what a no-show is worth: every one you rebook is a sit you've already paid for. The full math is in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## Why do homeowners no-show solar appointments? Four reasons cover most of it: the appointment was booked too far out, no person ever confirmed it, the homeowner didn't know who was coming, or the lead was already cold when it got booked. Distance first. A homeowner who was curious on Monday has a week of other things on their mind by the following Tuesday. The closer the slot sits to the moment they raised their hand, the better it holds. Then confirmation. An appointment that exists only as a calendar entry is easy to skip. One that a person called about, by name, feels like a commitment to another human. Homeowners also skip when they don't know who's coming. "Someone from the solar company" could be anybody. Tell them your name, when you'll arrive or call, and what you'll go over. Strangers get stood up. A rep with a name gets a text that says "running late." The fourth reason starts before the appointment exists. If a homeowner fills out a form at night and hears from you the next afternoon, the few who still book are lukewarm. It's worse with cheap instant-form leads. Those can cost $3 or $4 each, but contact rates run around 5%, and the people you do reach often barely remember the form. I go into that in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). ## How do you reduce solar appointment no-shows? Confirm at three points: right after booking, the day before, and an hour before. Each touch has one job, and none of them should read like a sales pitch. | When | What to send | The job | |---|---|---| | Right after booking | A confirmation text and a short call | Make it real and ask for a reply | | The day before | One reminder text | Put it back on their mind | | An hour before | A reminder, or "still on?" if they never confirmed | Catch the ones about to slip | The confirmation matters most. Send the text right away with the day, the time and the name of the person they'll meet, and ask them to reply YES. Follow it with a quick call. A homeowner who types YES has made a small commitment, and you now know which appointments are solid and which aren't. The day-before text only applies if they booked more than a day out. Same-day and next-day appointments don't need it. An hour before, split the list. People who confirmed get a plain reminder. Anyone who never replied gets a "still on for today?" text. If that goes unanswered too, flag the appointment as unconfirmed so the rep can decide whether the drive is worth it. Don't cancel it automatically. Some people show up without ever replying. ## What should you do after a solar appointment no-show? Rebook it the same day. A missed appointment is often a scheduling problem, and the homeowner who asked about solar last week still has the same power bill. Mark it as a no-show right away and send a short text with no guilt in it: sorry we missed you, here are two other times. Don't leave an annoyed voicemail, and don't call over and over in the same hour. That burns a lead you paid for. Keep working it at a normal pace until they rebook or tell you no. ## Do virtual or in-person solar appointments show better? In-person appointments show better, about 80% against 65% for virtual on our campaigns. It's harder to skip someone standing at your door than to ignore a video link. The costs run the other way, though. A virtual no-show costs you a few minutes. An in-person no-show costs the drive and the slot. So confirm in-person appointments harder. For virtual ones, put the link in the hour-before text and call if they haven't joined shortly after the start. If no-shows are wearing your team down, [live transfers](/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments) sidestep the problem, since the homeowner is already on the phone. ## Can you send too many appointment reminders? Yes. Past a point, reminders stop helping and start pushing people away. We learned that on our own bookings. Our first cadence stacked calls, texts and emails into the hours after someone booked, and it came across as heavy-handed. We cut it back to what's in the table above: one confirmation text and call, a day-before text when there's a day to spare, and one text an hour out. Fewer touches, and each one has a reason to exist. That's the system we run for clients at [Solarfunnels](/), and working no-shows until they rebook is included. Two things we don't do: we don't charge per appointment (it's a [flat monthly fee](/pricing)), so a no-show never turns into a billing argument, and we don't guarantee a show rate. Your market, your offer and how fast you mark no-shows all move the number. If you want the whole thing handled, from the ad to the hour-before text, [book a quick call](/book). ### What is a normal show rate for solar appointments? In our campaigns, about 80% of in-person and about 65% of virtual solar appointments show. Those figures come from exclusive, real-time leads that get a confirmation text and call after booking. If your show rate is well below that, check how your appointments are booked and confirmed. ### How to deal with no show appointments? Mark the appointment as a no-show and rebook it the same day with a short, friendly text that offers two new times. Keep working the lead at a normal pace until the homeowner rebooks or says no. Skip the annoyed voicemail, because it burns a lead you already paid for. ### Why do solar leads ghost appointments? Homeowners skip solar appointments for four main reasons: the appointment was booked too far out, no person ever confirmed it, they didn't know who was coming, or the lead was already cold when it was booked. Each of those can be fixed at booking or in the confirmation steps. ### How do you reduce solar appointment no-shows? Confirm at three points: a text and a short call right after booking that asks the homeowner to reply YES, one reminder the day before if there is a day to spare, and one text an hour before. Anyone who never confirmed gets a 'still on?' check instead of a plain reminder. ### What does a solar appointment setter do? A solar appointment setter calls and texts new leads, answers the common questions, and books the homeowner on a closer's calendar. A good setter also confirms the appointment after booking and works no-shows until they rebook. ### Do virtual or in-person solar appointments show better? In-person appointments show better. In our campaigns about 80% of in-person appointments show, against about 65% of virtual ones. A virtual no-show costs less, though, because you lose a few minutes instead of a drive. --- # Solar lead cost by state: what 12,483 Facebook leads cost us https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-lead-cost-by-state Our own numbers: 12,483 homeowner solar leads from Facebook and Instagram ads at $13.54 each, split by state, year and lead type, with the caveats. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Across the Facebook and Instagram campaigns we ran over the last three years, 12,483 homeowner solar leads cost $169,058 in ad spend, which is $13.54 per lead. One state and one company make up most of that total, and I'd rather tell you now than have you plan a budget around a number that doesn't fit your market. Most other numbers you find for solar lead cost are a vendor's price list or somebody's guess. These are ours. ## How much does a solar lead cost on Facebook? Across everything we ran, $13.54. The typical campaign landed close to that: the median was $13.96 per lead, and the middle half of campaigns fell between $9.57 and $19.41. That's from the 30 campaigns that produced at least 30 leads each. The cheapest campaign came in at $6.73 per lead. The most expensive was $54.38. Here's the catch. Our largest advertiser, a New York installer, is 83% of the leads. Take that one company out and the picture changes: the median campaign was $19.74 per lead, and the middle half ran from $12.37 to $24.34. If you're starting a new campaign in a market we haven't run before, plan with the second set of numbers. It lines up with our planning number for a new campaign, which is $18 to $25 per lead. I go through the math from there in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## What does a solar lead cost in each state? It ranged from about $11 in Florida to almost $27 in California. I've only listed states where we generated at least 200 leads, because below that the number moves too much to mean anything. | State | Leads | Cost per lead | Solar companies | |---|---|---|---| | New York | 9,813 | $12.32 | 4 | | Virginia | 801 | $12.68 | 1 | | Florida | 642 | $10.97 | 4 | | Texas | 522 | $20.38 | 4 | | California | 321 | $26.65 | 4 | | Illinois | 308 | $25.38 | 1 | A few things to keep in mind when you read it. New York is mostly one installer, 95% of the leads in that row. The other three New York companies together got 516 leads at $9.05, so the state looks cheap either way. Virginia and Illinois are one company each. Treat those as one campaign's result, not as the price of a lead in that state. Texas and California are four companies each with nobody dominating, so I trust those two rows the most. They're also the two most expensive. We ran campaigns in five more states (Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania), but they produced 76 leads between them. That's not enough to publish a number for any of them. ## Has the cost per lead gone up? Not in our data, but I wouldn't call it a trend either way. The mix of companies changes every year, and that moves the average more than the market does. | Period | Leads | Cost per lead | Cost per 1,000 impressions | |---|---|---|---| | 2023 (Oct to Dec) | 627 | $14.09 | $24.00 | | 2024 | 6,785 | $16.14 | $22.85 | | 2025 (Jan to Aug) | 4,773 | $10.18 | $27.74 | | 2026 (Aug to Sep) | 298 | $7.09 | $40.61 | What I do take from it: reaching a thousand homeowners got more expensive, from about $23 in 2024 to about $28 in 2025. Cost per lead still fell, because the campaigns running in 2025 were fewer (4 companies, down from 12) and had been tuned for longer. The 2026 row is two months and one company. Read it as a single campaign. ## Do instant forms cost less than a calculator funnel? Yes, per lead. Nearly everything in this report is an instant form, the kind that opens inside Facebook or Instagram with the homeowner's details already filled in. | Lead type | Leads | Cost per lead | |---|---|---| | Image ad with an instant form | 11,766 | $13.40 | | Video ad with an instant form | 650 | $14.49 | | Calculator funnel on a website | 67 | $28.97 | The calculator row is only 67 leads from three companies, so that $28.97 is a small sample and I wouldn't lean on it. Our planning number for a calculator funnel is $18 to $25 per lead. The gap shows best inside a single campaign. On our most recent one, in Florida, the instant form ad set brought in 254 leads at $4.48 each. The calculator ad set next to it came in at $27.01. We run the calculator funnel on newer campaigns even though it costs more per lead. Form leads are the easiest to get and the hardest to reach on the phone. This report can't show you that part, because it counts leads and stops there. I compare the two in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). ## How did we count? Everything here comes from Meta's own ad reporting for campaigns we ran. Here is exactly what's in and what's out. - **Dates:** October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026, in full calendar months. Campaigns were running in 25 of those 36 months. - **Size:** 59 campaigns for 18 solar companies in 11 states, $169,058 in ad spend, just under 7 million impressions. - **What a lead is:** a homeowner who submitted a form asking for a solar quote or a savings estimate, either inside Facebook or Instagram or on a landing page. It is not a booked appointment, an appointment that showed, or a sale. - **What's included:** every homeowner solar lead campaign, including the ones that spent money and produced nothing. - **What's left out:** campaigns that advertised our own service to solar companies, and anything that wasn't solar. - **Concentration:** one New York installer is 83% of the leads and 77% of the spend, at $12.53 per lead. The other 17 companies together are 2,113 leads at $18.49. - **Channels:** Facebook and Instagram only. No Google, no other lead source. This isn't everything we've ever run. It's the part Meta's reporting still holds, which goes back about three years. ## What should you do with these numbers? Use them to sanity-check a quote, not to set a target. If someone promises you $5 solar leads in California, this is a reason to ask how. Then do the math past the lead. On our campaigns, 15% to 20% of leads book an appointment, and about 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show. On our most recent solar campaign that came to just under $200 per appointment that showed. Those are past results, not promises, and yours depend on your market, your price and your budget. One limit I should be plain about. I can't tell you which state closes best, because we see the lead and the appointment, and the sale happens on your side of the table. If you want to know what we charge, it's a flat monthly fee with ad spend separate, and it's all on the [pricing page](/pricing). If you want to walk through your own market, [book a quick call](/book). ### What is the average cost of solar leads? Across 12,483 homeowner solar leads that Solarfunnels generated with Facebook and Instagram ads from October 2023 to September 2026, the average was $13.54 per lead. One large New York installer makes up 83% of those leads. Without that installer, the other 17 companies averaged $18.49 per lead. These are leads, not appointments, and past results, not promises. ### How much does a solar lead cost on Facebook? In our own campaigns the typical Facebook solar campaign came in at about $14 per lead, with the middle half of campaigns between $9.57 and $19.41. Leaving out our largest advertiser, the typical campaign was $19.74 per lead, with the middle half between $12.37 and $24.34. The cheapest campaign was $6.73 per lead and the most expensive was $54.38. ### Which states have the cheapest solar leads? In our data, Florida ($10.97), New York ($12.32) and Virginia ($12.68) were the cheapest per lead, and Texas ($20.38), Illinois ($25.38) and California ($26.65) cost the most. Virginia and Illinois are one company each, so those two say more about one campaign than about the state. ### How much do solar leads cost in California? In the Facebook and Instagram campaigns Solarfunnels ran between October 2023 and September 2026, California cost $26.65 per lead, across 321 homeowner leads for four solar companies. That was the most expensive of the states where we generated at least 200 leads. These are form submissions, not appointments, and past results, not promises. ### How much do solar leads cost in Florida? In the Facebook and Instagram campaigns Solarfunnels ran between October 2023 and September 2026, Florida cost $10.97 per lead, across 642 homeowner leads for four solar companies. That was the cheapest of the states where we generated at least 200 leads. These are form submissions, not appointments, and past results, not promises. ### How much do solar leads cost in Texas? In the Facebook and Instagram campaigns Solarfunnels ran between October 2023 and September 2026, Texas cost $20.38 per lead, across 522 homeowner leads for four solar companies, with no single company dominating the number. These are form submissions, not appointments, and past results, not promises. ### Is a cheap solar lead a good solar lead? Not by itself. Cost per lead only tells you what the form submission cost. What matters is the cost of an appointment that shows up, and this report stops at the lead, so it cannot tell you which state or lead type closed best. --- # Solar live transfers vs pre-set appointments: which to take https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments Solar live transfers vs pre-set appointments: who each one fits, where each one breaks, real show rates, and what to ask before you buy either one. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Neither live transfers nor pre-set appointments is better in general. Live transfers work when someone on your team can answer the moment a homeowner is ready, and pre-set appointments suit closers who are in homes all day. Someone has offered you solar live transfers, someone else is pitching pre-set appointments, and both swear theirs is the one that closes. You're trying to work out which one your team can turn into installs. I sold 250+ residential solar deals as a rep, and these days my company delivers both to solar companies and consultants. They're good at different things, and picking the wrong one for how your team works gets expensive fast. ## What is a solar live transfer? A live transfer is a phone call handed to you while the homeowner is still on the line. Somebody else makes first contact, checks the basics, and then connects you. The usual sequence goes like this. A homeowner fills out a form. A setter calls them, confirms they own the home, asks about the power bill, and says something like "I've got one of our solar consultants available, can I bring them on?" Your phone rings. If you pick up, you're talking to a homeowner who was thinking about solar a minute ago. When people shop for live transfer solar leads, they're shopping for a delivery method. The lead underneath can be fresh or old, exclusive or shared, and that matters more than the transfer does. ## What is a pre-set solar appointment? A pre-set appointment is a time on your calendar that a homeowner agreed to before you ever spoke with them. It can be a video call or a visit to the house. The setter does the same qualifying, then books a slot in place of connecting you. You get the name, the address, the answers they gave, and a time. Between the booking and the appointment, somebody has to keep that homeowner warm with a confirmation and a reminder, or they forget. ## Which one fits your team? Live transfers fit a team that has someone free to answer the phone right now. Pre-set appointments fit closers who spend the day in homes and can't. | | Live transfer | Pre-set appointment | |---|---|---| | What you get | A homeowner on the phone this minute | A booked time, virtual or in person | | What you need | Someone who can always pick up | A calendar that's kept current | | Where it breaks | The call goes to voicemail | The homeowner doesn't show | | Fits best | Inside sales, virtual closers, a consultant at a desk | Field closers, in-home presentations | Think about a closer who spends most evenings in somebody's living room. A transfer that comes in mid-presentation goes straight to voicemail, so appointments are the only thing that works for that person. A virtual closer at a desk with a headset is the opposite case. For that person, a slot booked for later in the week just gives the homeowner time to cool off. Plenty of teams run both. Transfers during the hours someone is on the phones, appointments for everything else. ## What goes wrong with live transfers? The transfer rings out. That's the big one, and it happens on the buyer's side. A homeowner who just agreed to talk to a consultant and then listens to ringing and a voicemail greeting is worse off than one who was never transferred. They did their part and nobody showed up. Forms come in at night and on weekends, when most sales teams aren't staffed, so coverage hours matter more than people plan for. The second problem is rushed qualifying. A setter who gets paid per transfer has every reason to get the homeowner to you fast, fit or no fit. Ask to hear recordings. The fix for the first problem is a fallback. If nobody picks up, the homeowner should get booked onto a calendar before the call ends, so the lead doesn't die on a voicemail greeting. On our campaigns, Summer, our virtual assistant, calls and texts every lead within minutes and either books them on your calendar or transfers them to you live, depending on what you've told us your team can cover. ## What goes wrong with pre-set appointments? Some of them don't show. Across our campaigns, about 65% of virtual appointments and 80% of in-person appointments show up. So if ten virtual appointments get booked, plan on six or seven conversations. In person it's closer to eight. Anyone quoting you a price per appointment should say whether that means booked or shown, because the gap between those two is where your real cost hides. Show rates move with follow-up. A confirmation text and call right after booking, a reminder before the appointment, and rebooking the ones who miss all push the number up. There's more on that in [how to cut solar appointment no-shows](/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows). ## What do live transfers and pre-set appointments cost? It depends on how they're sold, and I can only give you real numbers for our own campaigns. We don't sell either one by the piece. We charge a [flat monthly fee](/pricing) set by your ad budget, the ad spend is separate and never marked up, and every lead that comes in gets worked toward a transfer or an appointment. Here's how the ad spend works out. A new campaign usually runs $18 to $25 per lead, so 100 leads cost $1,800 to $2,500. About 15% book, which is 15 appointments. Ten to twelve of those show, depending on whether they're virtual or in person. That puts you at roughly $150 to $250 in ad spend per appointment that showed. Our most recent solar campaign came in just under $200. That's a past result and I wouldn't promise it to anyone. The per-lead side of this is broken down in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-solar-leads-cost). ## What should you ask before you buy solar appointments or live transfers? Ask where the lead came from and what you're billed for. Most of the bad experiences I hear about trace back to one of these going unasked: - Is this lead exclusive to me, or has it been sold to other companies? - How old is the lead at the moment of the call or the booking? - Did the homeowner agree to be contacted about solar, and by whom? - What counts as billable? A no-show? A transfer that drops right after the handoff? - Which qualifying questions were asked, and can I see the answers? The first two decide most of it. A transfer built on a lead that several companies bought is still a shared lead, and I've gone through that difference in [exclusive vs shared solar leads](/blog/exclusive-vs-shared-solar-leads). You should know where we stand on those too. Our leads come from ads we run for you, and they're exclusive and never resold. We only work leads in real time and we don't work aged lists, for compliance reasons. We don't guarantee a number of appointments. And we only do residential solar. If you'd like help deciding between the two for your team, [book a quick call](/book) and we'll work through it. ### Are solar live transfers better than pre-set appointments? Neither is better in general. Live transfers work when someone on your team can answer the phone the moment a homeowner is ready, and they fail when the call goes to voicemail. Pre-set appointments suit closers who are in homes all day, with the tradeoff that some booked appointments won't show. ### What does a solar appointment setter do? A solar appointment setter contacts new leads, confirms the basics such as home ownership, the power bill and the roof, and then either books a time with a closer or transfers the call live. A good setter also confirms the appointment afterward and rebooks the homeowners who miss it. ### Where can I buy solar leads? Solar leads are sold by lead marketplaces, by call centers that sell live transfers and appointments, and by agencies that run ads on your behalf. Before buying from any of them, ask whether the lead is exclusive, how old it is, and what you are billed for. Solarfunnels doesn't sell leads per lead or per appointment. We run the ads for a flat monthly fee and the leads belong to the client. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? It depends on the type of lead. In our own campaigns a new calculator funnel usually runs $18 to $25 per lead, about 15% of those leads book an appointment, and our most recent solar campaign worked out to just under $200 per appointment that showed. That is a past result and other markets will differ. ### How do you deal with no-show solar appointments? Expect some and plan for them. In our campaigns about 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show. A confirmation text and call right after booking, a reminder before the appointment, and rebooking the homeowners who miss are what move that number. --- # Solar marketing agency cost: 3 ways agencies bill, and what to ask https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-marketing-agency-cost What a solar marketing agency costs depends on how it bills: flat retainer, percent of ad spend, or pay per lead. What each rewards, and our own numbers. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 What a solar marketing agency costs depends on how it bills: a flat retainer, a percent of ad spend, or a price per lead or per appointment. The model matters more than the number on the first page, because two proposals with the same monthly total can pay the agency for different things. 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 show you how ours works, with our real lead 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 set by your ad budget, 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](/blog/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](/blog/how-much-do-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 set by your ad budget. It steps up as the budget grows, and you get the exact figure for your budget as soon as you book a call: a 2-minute video lays it out before we talk. The basics are on our [pricing page](/pricing). 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. 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 quick call](/book). Bring them along. ### How much does a solar marketing agency cost? It depends on how the agency bills: a flat retainer, a percent of ad spend, or a price per lead or per appointment. Solarfunnels charges one flat monthly fee, set by your ad budget, plus your own ad spend from about $1,000 a month, which is never marked up. It is month to month with no setup fee, and you get the exact fee as soon as you book a call. ### How much money should a company spend on marketing? For a solar company, work backward from the appointments your closers can run instead of picking a percentage. With Solarfunnels, ad spend starts from about $1,000 a month and the flat monthly fee is set by that budget. Size the budget to your sales capacity, and judge it by what one appointment that shows costs you. ### What are the ways a solar marketing agency can bill? There are three common models. A flat retainer is a fixed monthly fee for the work. A percent of ad spend rises as your budget rises. Pay per lead or per appointment charges for each result. Each model rewards something different, so ask what the agency earns more for doing. ### How can I promote my solar business? Ask every past customer for referrals and reviews, then add a paid channel you can turn up or down, such as Facebook or Google ads. Whoever runs the ads, every lead needs a call and a text within minutes. Measure each source by what one appointment that shows costs you. --- # Solar marketing ideas, ranked by what a kept appointment costs https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-marketing-ideas Ten solar marketing ideas from a former rep, ranked by what one kept appointment costs you in dollars and hours, with real numbers from our own campaigns. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Rank solar marketing ideas by what one kept appointment costs you, in dollars and in hours. Referrals, reviews and yard signs cost the least, then add one paid channel you can turn up or down. 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](/blog/solar-lead-cost-by-state). I cover the two ad types in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies), and the full cost math is in [how much solar leads cost](/blog/how-much-do-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](/blog/solar-speed-to-lead). 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](/blog/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 set by your ad budget, with ad spend separate, and the details are on our [pricing page](/pricing). 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 quick call](/book). I'll tell you straight whether we can help. ### How can I promote my solar business? Start with what costs the least per kept appointment: referrals from past customers, a Google Business Profile with real reviews, and yard signs at your installs. Then add one paid channel you can turn up or down, such as Facebook ads with a calculator funnel or Google search ads. Call every lead within minutes, or none of it pays off. ### What are some creative ideas for solar advertisements? Offer the homeowner one useful answer before anyone calls them. The ad we run offers to show how many panels their home would need, then asks a few questions about the house. A short phone video of someone standing in front of a finished install also holds up well. ### What are the 5 key marketing strategies? For a residential solar company, five cover most of it: referrals from past customers, local search with reviews, paid search ads, paid social ads with a funnel behind them, and in-person work such as door knocking and events. Measure each one by what a kept appointment costs, and follow up fast on all of them. ### What are 10 marketing strategies? Ten that solar companies use are referrals, past customer check-ins, a Google Business Profile with reviews, yard signs, partnerships with roofers and other trades, door knocking, home shows, Google search ads, Facebook ads with a calculator funnel, and short video. Rank them by cost per kept appointment in your own market, because the order changes from one company to the next. --- # Solar speed to lead: why the first minutes matter most https://solarfunnels.com/blog/solar-speed-to-lead Speed to lead in solar means calling and texting a homeowner within minutes of the form. Why it matters, and the follow-up routine for the days after. Published: 2026-10-06 Updated: 2026-10-29 Speed to lead in solar is the gap between a homeowner sending a form and your first call or text. Shorter is better, and within minutes is the standard to aim for. A lead comes in at 7:40 on a Tuesday evening. You're at a kitchen table with another homeowner, so you see it at 9:15 and decide to call in the morning. In the morning it rings out. You leave a voicemail, send a text, and never hear back. That lead wasn't bad. It was live for a few minutes, and nobody was there. 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. Calling fast is the least glamorous part of that work, and it's the first thing I'd fix, before touching an ad. One note before the details. I'm not going to quote studies or industry statistics here. Everything below is either our own numbers or plain reasoning about how a homeowner's evening goes. ## What is speed to lead in solar? Speed to lead is the gap between a homeowner sending a form and your first call or text. Shorter is better, and "within minutes" is the standard to aim for. It's a simple measure. A form comes in at 7:40. If the phone rings at 7:42, your speed to lead is two minutes. If it rings the next morning, it's fourteen hours, and you're calling a different person than the one who filled in the form. ## Why do the first minutes matter so much? Because the homeowner is thinking about solar right now, and that doesn't last. In the first minutes you're continuing a thought they started. After that you're interrupting something else. Picture their side. They're on the couch with their phone. An ad about power bills caught them, they tapped it, they answered a few questions. For that moment solar is the thing on their mind and the phone is in their hand. Ten minutes later they're making dinner. An hour later they're putting kids to bed. By tomorrow they may not remember which form they filled in, or whether it was solar or windows. When an unknown number calls at 10 the next morning, they're at work and they let it ring. You didn't lose that homeowner to a competitor. You lost them to their own evening. There's a second effect. A call that arrives right after the form feels like service, because the homeowner asked a question and somebody answered. The same call a day later feels like telemarketing, even though they asked for it. ## How fast should you call a solar lead? Within minutes, every time you can manage it. Hours is too slow, and the next day is close to a cold call. The hard part is that homeowners tend to fill in forms when they're home, which is when a rep is busy selling. If you're in an appointment, you can't step out to dial. That's a staffing problem, and no amount of willpower fixes it. So the first call can't depend on the closer being free. Somebody or something else has to make it. On our campaigns every new lead gets a call and a text within minutes, and the setter either books the homeowner on your calendar or transfers them to you live if you're available. More on those two outcomes in [live transfers vs pre-set appointments](/blog/solar-live-transfers-vs-appointments). ## What should the first call and text say? Say who you are, why you're calling, and ask one easy question. The homeowner should know within a few seconds that this is about the form they just sent. Send the text alongside the call. Plenty of people won't pick up an unknown number but will read a text that says your name, your company, and "you just asked about solar for your home." Now the number has a name on it, and your next call isn't from a stranger. Keep the first conversation short. Check the basics, like whether they own the home and roughly what the power bill is, answer what they ask, and offer a time. You're trying to get an appointment on the calendar. The selling happens there. ## What is the best way to follow up with a lead who doesn't answer? Keep trying over the following days, at different times of day, with calls and texts together. One attempt is not follow-up. A homeowner who didn't answer at 7:42 in the evening hasn't said no. They were busy for that minute. Try again later that evening, again the next day at a different hour, and then spread the attempts out. Morning, lunch and early evening reach different people. Two rules keep this from turning into pestering. Each message should be short and say something useful, like two times you could meet. And when a homeowner tells you no or asks you to stop, stop. ## What happens after they book? Booking isn't the finish line. An appointment needs a confirmation text and a call, a reminder before it, and a rebook if the homeowner misses it. On our campaigns about 65% of virtual appointments and about 80% of in-person appointments show. Those rates come with the confirmation and reminder in place. Skip them and you're back to hoping. The whole routine is in [solar appointment no-shows](/blog/solar-appointment-no-shows). ## Does calling fast fix a bad lead source? No. Speed gets the most out of a lead. It can't put interest there that never existed. Here's what we've seen on our own campaigns. Instant form leads are the cheapest to get, and on the cheapest ones hardly anyone picks up. Think 5% contact rates. Calculator funnel leads cost $18 to $25 on a new campaign, and about 15% to 20% of them book an appointment. Both kinds get called within minutes. The instant form lead still mostly doesn't answer, because the form took two taps and the homeowner barely meant to send it. The calculator lead typed in their own numbers and wanted the result. Speed matters for both, and it only pays off on the second. I compare the two in [Facebook ads for solar companies](/blog/facebook-ads-for-solar-companies). Those figures are past results, not promises. Your market, your offer and your budget move them. ## How does Solarfunnels handle speed to lead? We run the ads and the funnel, call and text every new lead within minutes, book them on your calendar or transfer them live, then confirm, remind and rebook. You show up and sell. It's a flat monthly fee with ad spend separate. The details are on the [pricing page](/pricing). A few limits. We only work real-time leads from your own campaign, so we can't speed up a list of old leads you already have. We only do residential solar. And I won't guarantee a booking rate. Results depend on your market, your price and your budget. If your leads are sitting until morning, [book a quick call](/book) and we'll look at where the minutes are going. ### What is speed to lead in solar? Speed to lead is the time between a homeowner sending a form and your first call or text to them. In solar it matters because the homeowner is thinking about their power bill at that moment and often not an hour later. We call and text every new lead within minutes. ### What is the best way to follow up with a lead? Call and text within minutes of the form, then keep trying over the following days at different times of day. Once the homeowner books, confirm with a text and a call, remind them before the appointment, and rebook them if they miss it. Stop when they tell you no. ### What does 'follow up on leads' mean? Following up on leads means contacting people who asked about your service until they book, buy or say no. For a solar lead that is the first call and text, the repeat attempts when nobody answers, and the confirmation and reminder once an appointment is on the calendar. ### What is the average cost of solar leads? It depends on the lead type. On our own campaigns, Facebook instant form leads averaged $13.40 over three years, and leads from a calculator funnel usually run $18 to $25 on a new campaign. The cheaper lead is often the more expensive one once you count how few of them answer the phone. --- # Frequently asked questions From https://solarfunnels.com/faq. The questions are worded to stand alone. The answers are the public FAQ. ## Does Solarfunnels run on someone else's software? No. We built it ourselves and we keep building on it. None of it is resold. ## What does a solar lead cost with Solarfunnels? A new campaign usually runs about $18 to $25 per lead depending on the area, and some markets come in lower. Instant forms can get leads for $3 or $4, but hardly anyone picks up (think 5% contact rates) and it hurts your phone number's reputation. So we run a calculator funnel for homeowners who are curious how many panels they'd need. It costs a bit more per lead and brings real interest and bigger systems. ## Where do Solarfunnels leads come from? Facebook and Instagram ads that send homeowners to a solar calculator we built. They fill it in to see how many panels their home would need, so they know they're asking about solar. Leads come in real time and get a call and a text within minutes. ## What information comes with each Solarfunnels lead? Name, email, phone, address, average power bill and whether they own the home. You get a text with the details, and it's all in your account. ## Are the appointment numbers Solarfunnels quotes booked or shown? Booked. About 65% of virtual and 80% of in-person appointments show. 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. ## Does Solarfunnels charge per lead or per appointment? No. One flat monthly fee, and we do all the marketing: ads, campaigns, funnels and follow-up, right up to the appointment. ## What happens when a Solarfunnels lead is a bad number or a renter? We don't sell leads, so there's no per-lead price to credit. You pay a flat fee and your own ad spend. A bad number, a renter or someone outside your area is marked as disqualified and we don't book them. ## Do I have to call and follow up with the leads myself? No. We call and text every lead until it's an appointment or a transfer. You show up and sell. ## Does Solarfunnels confirm appointments before I show up? Yes. A confirmation text and call, a reminder before the appointment, and we rebook no-shows. ## Does Solarfunnels charge a setup fee? No. ## Can Solarfunnels work my old or aged solar leads? No. We only work real-time leads, for compliance. ## Do I need my name or brand on the solar ads? You don't need it. Ads run under our brand and we deliver the appointments to you. ## Are the solar appointments in person or virtual? Either. Plenty of teams start in person and add virtual later. ## Can I use Solarfunnels next to my door-knocking team or another agency? Yes. Plenty of teams run a few lead sources at once. ## What happens when a solar appointment no-shows? Mark it as a no-show and we work the lead again to rebook it. That's included. ## Who pays for the ads with Solarfunnels? You do, and we never mark it up. It's billed weekly in advance by card or bank, separate from your monthly retainer, plus a 3.5% processing fee. It starts only when your ads go live. ## How fast can I start with Solarfunnels? About 3 business days after onboarding. You get a text when you're ready to go live. ## Is there a contract with Solarfunnels? Month to month. Cancel any time and it stops at the end of that billing month. The first month is setup and learning, so give it more than a month before you judge it. ## Can I change my ad budget? Yes. Text us and the change applies from the next week. ## Are Solarfunnels leads shared with other solar companies? No. They're exclusive to you and never resold. ## Will other solar reps get leads in my area? We limit how many reps we take in each area. ## Can I choose the zip codes or cities my solar leads come from? Yes. We target by zip code, city, county or state, or a radius around you. For one utility's territory, we work from a list of its zip codes. ## Can I set my own qualifications for solar leads? Yes. Power bill, roof, shade, credit and homeownership. Homeownership is self reported, so a renter gets through now and then. On a small budget, keep the rules loose and take everyone who qualifies. Plenty of homeowners want to talk before they send a utility bill, so don't require one up front. ## Do I need my own Facebook page or ad account? No. Your ads run from ours, so you can stay unbranded. ## Who calls the homeowners after they ask about solar? Summer, our virtual assistant, calls and texts within minutes. She books them on your calendar or transfers them to you live. ## What do I need to do as a Solarfunnels client? Show up, pick up transfers, keep your calendar current, and mark no-shows. ## How do I see my results with Solarfunnels? You get your own account with every lead, call, text and appointment, plus a weekly report of what's been spent. ## Does Solarfunnels guarantee results? No. Results depend on your market, your price and your budget, and we won't promise you a number.