Kill your bad solar leads.
Solar has one of the worst lead-to-install ratios in home services because most companies measure the wrong number. Here's the funnel math that actually predicts revenue.
Cost per lead is the metric that lies to you.
Every solar company we onboard is obsessed with cost per lead. It's the easiest number to report and the least useful one to optimize. A $20 lead that never sits an appointment is worth zero. A $250 lead that closes into a $30,000 install is worth more than a hundred cheap ones combined.
Buying leads from a broker feels efficient because the invoice is small. But brokered leads are almost always sold to multiple installers at once, contacted by whoever calls first, and stripped of any real qualification. Generating your own leads costs more up front and produces homeowners who haven't already talked to three of your competitors before you dial the phone.
Track cost per install, not cost per lead. Everything else is a distraction from the number that actually pays your bills.
Buying leads vs. generating your own.
| Factor | Purchased/shared lead | Self-generated lead |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $20–$45 | $150–$350 |
| Exclusivity | Sold 2–5x | Yours alone |
| Speed-to-lead control | Low | Full control |
| Appointment-set rate | 8–15% | 25–35% |
| Close rate on sat appointment | 8–12% | 18–25% |
| Effective cost per install | $3,500–$8,000 | $1,500–$3,000 |
The purchased lead looks cheaper on the invoice and costs more on the P&L. Run this math on your own numbers before you renew a broker contract.
Four numbers, tracked separately, tell you everything.
| Funnel stage | Healthy rate | If it's low, look at |
|---|---|---|
| Lead → appointment set | 25–35% | Qualification questions, speed-to-lead |
| Appointment set → appointment sat | 65–75% | Confirmation texts, reminder timing |
| Appointment sat → proposal given | 80–90% | Rep preparation, site assessment quality |
| Proposal → closed install | 20–30% | Financing options, follow-up cadence |
Multiply the four rates together and you get your true lead-to-install conversion. Most installers we audit are closer to 2–4% blended. The best-run accounts we manage hit 8–10%.
How we clean up a solar lead pipeline.
- →Qualification questions moved upstream
Homeownership, roof age, bill amount, and credit tier get asked in the ad or form, not on the first call. This is the single change that most improves set and close rates.
- →A 5-minute speed-to-lead rule, enforced
Every lead triggers an instant text and a call attempt within 5 minutes. Leads not reached in 3 attempts within 24 hours get flagged and routed to a different rep, not left to rot.
- →Appointment confirmation on a 3-touch cadence
Text at booking, text 24 hours out, call 2 hours out. This alone typically lifts sit rate by 10–15 percentage points with zero ad spend change.
- →Closed-lost reason coding, mandatory
Every lost deal gets tagged: bad roof, bad credit, renter, price, competitor, no-show, went dark. Untagged losses are a black box you can't fix.
- →Monthly source-level cost-per-install review
Every lead source — Google, Meta, referral, purchased — gets ranked by cost per install, not cost per lead, every month. Budget shifts to whatever wins that ranking.
Signs your lead source is broken vs. your process is broken.
Lead source is the problem
- · High volume, low appointment-set rate
- · Phone numbers that don't answer or are disconnected
- · Leads say they never requested a quote
- · Roof/ownership disqualified before first call
- · Same lead shows up already contacted by a competitor
Process is the problem
- · Good set rate, poor sit rate
- · No confirmation texts or reminder calls sent
- · Long gap between lead submission and first call
- · Reps show up unprepared to the site visit
- · No structured follow-up after "still thinking about it"
Fix the funnel, then fix the ad platform.
Most installers want to fix their ads first because it feels like the fastest lever. It's usually the wrong order. Clean up qualification and speed-to-lead first — it's free and it multiplies the value of every dollar you're already spending. Then decide where the next dollar of new spend goes: our Google Ads breakdown for solar installers covers high-intent search, and our Meta ads breakdown covers volume and awareness plays.
Solar lead quality questions
- Is buying solar leads from a third party ever worth it?
- Only as a short-term volume bridge while you build your own generation, and only if you're tracking cost per install, not cost per lead. A $35 purchased lead that closes at 3% costs you more per install than a $200 self-generated lead that closes at 20%. Most installers never run that math and just chase the cheaper number on the invoice.
- What's the single biggest lead quality lever?
- Speed to first contact. A solar lead called within 5 minutes converts to an appointment at roughly double the rate of one called an hour later. This costs you nothing in ad spend and most installers still get it wrong because the lead sits in an inbox instead of triggering an instant call.
- How do I know if my problem is lead quality or sales execution?
- Track the full funnel — leads, appointments set, appointments sat, and installs closed — as four separate percentages, not one blended number. If your set rate is fine but your sit rate is low, that's a scheduling and confirmation problem, not a traffic problem. Compare your platform-specific numbers against our Google Ads and Meta ads benchmarks to isolate where the leak actually is.
- What's a fair cost per install for a solar company?
- Most healthy installers land between $1,500 and $3,500 in blended marketing cost per install once qualification and speed-to-lead are dialed in. Above $5,000 per install, something upstream is broken — usually lead quality, not the sales team.
20 minutes. Zero pitch.
Share your funnel numbers and we'll show you exactly where leads are dying — whether or not you ever hire us.