Buying solar leads is worth it only if you can respond within minutes and you measure cost per install rather than cost per lead. Most bought leads are shared with three or four other installers, so what you're really buying is entry to a race. Win the race consistently and bought leads can be a profitable volume channel. Lose it and you're funding your competitors' pipelines. This guide covers how the market actually works, the questions to ask any provider, and the maths that decides whether to buy at all.
How does buying solar leads actually work?
A lead provider runs ads or comparison sites, captures homeowners who want solar quotes, and sells their details on. The bit that matters is how many times each lead gets sold. Exclusive leads go to one installer and cost more. Shared leads go to three or four installers at once and cost less per lead, which looks like better value right up until you do the maths on close rates.
Here's the thing nobody selling leads will lead with: a shared lead isn't really a lead, it's a starting pistol. The homeowner filled in one form and now four companies have their number. The first installer to call gets a conversation. The fourth gets voicemail and a slightly irritated homeowner who's already booked two surveys.
Why does the fastest installer win a shared lead?
Because the homeowner's attention is a closing window. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that firms contacting a web enquiry within an hour were nearly seven times more likely to qualify the lead than firms that waited even an hour longer. On a shared lead that effect compounds, since you're not just racing the homeowner's fading interest, you're racing three named competitors who paid for the same phone number.
We've watched installers make shared leads work and watched them give up, and the difference is never the lead quality. The winners have a response process that fires in minutes, every time, including 8pm on a Sunday. The ones who give up ring back the next morning.
Run the honest test before you buy anything: submit an enquiry through your own website out of hours and time your own response. If it's measured in hours, buying leads will mostly buy you frustration.
What should you ask a lead provider before buying?
Five questions, and the wriggle in the answers tells you as much as the answers:
- How many installers is each lead sold to? Get a number, not "a small panel".
- How was the lead generated? Ad on what platform, promising what? A lead generated by "government grant" clickbait arrives expecting a grant you can't give them.
- What's the replacement policy? Dead numbers and out-of-area leads happen. Good providers credit them without a fight.
- Can you provide the consent trail? Under UK rules the homeowner needs to have actually agreed to be contacted. The ICO's direct marketing guidance is clear on this, and if a provider gets vague about consent, walk.
- Can you start small? Any provider refusing a small test batch before a commitment is telling you something.
What do bought solar leads cost?
Prices move around too much for a printed number to stay honest, and they vary with exclusivity, region and season. What doesn't change is the calculation. Take the price per lead, divide by your realistic contact rate, then your survey rate, then your close rate, and you get your true cost per install from that source. Do the same sums for your Google Ads and compare like with like.
An example of the shape, with round numbers you should replace with your own: pay £40 for a shared lead, reach half of them, survey a third of those you reach, close a third of surveys, and that £40 lead is actually costing around £720 per install. Whether that's good or terrible depends entirely on your margin. The point is to know your number, because "£40 a lead" tells you nothing on its own.
Is there a cheaper alternative to buying leads?
For most established installers, yes, and it's already in the building. Every lead you bought or generated over the past few years that didn't convert is sitting in your CRM. Those homeowners already asked for a quote once, nobody else is calling them, and re-opening those conversations costs nothing upfront on a pay-per-appointment model.
In our own campaigns across home energy and other high-ticket sectors, dormant databases have produced results that new-lead channels struggle to match: 15,000 old contacts turned into 62 booked surveys and a £500,000+ pipeline in six weeks for one brand. The full breakdown is in our guide to reactivating old solar leads.
The honest sequencing: work the leads you already own first, fix your response speed, and then buy leads to top up volume once you can actually win the race. Buying leads to compensate for slow follow-up is the most expensive way to stand still in this industry.
Frequently asked questions
Are exclusive solar leads worth the extra cost?
Often, yes. Paying double for a lead nobody else has usually beats paying half for a four-way race, because close rates on exclusive leads are dramatically better. Do the cost-per-install maths on both before deciding.
How quickly should I contact a bought lead?
Within five minutes, day or night. If your team can't do that, put a system in front of them that can. Response speed is a solvable problem, and it's the difference between bought leads working and not.
Can I resell or share leads I've bought?
Check your contract and the consent trail, but generally the homeowner consented to be contacted about their solar enquiry, not to have their data traded onward. Treat bought data carefully. It's your name on the call.
What's a red flag in a lead provider?
Vagueness about sharing counts, vagueness about consent, no replacement policy, and pressure to commit to volume before you've tested a batch. Any one of those, keep looking.
Want to know what your existing database is worth before you buy a single lead? Book an AI assessment call, or start with the full guide to generating solar leads.