Google Ads generates solar leads by putting your business in front of homeowners at the moment they search for an installer, and it works when you control three things: tight geography, buyer-intent keywords, and instant response to every enquiry. Get those right and paid search is one of the most predictable lead sources available. Get any of them wrong and you'll spend a lot learning that clicks aren't customers. This guide covers the keywords, the targeting, the landing page and the maths.
Do Google Ads work for solar installers in the UK?
Yes, with a caveat that decides everything: the click is the cheap part. Solar keywords are competitive because every installer, aggregator and national brand wants the same searches, and the homeowner clicking your ad is usually clicking two or three others in the same sitting. The ad gets you into the conversation. What happens in the following ten minutes decides whether you paid for a lead or a statistic.
So before spending a pound, be honest about your response process. Research published in Harvard Business Review found firms that contacted a web enquiry within an hour were nearly seven times more likely to qualify the lead than slower firms. If enquiries from your website currently wait hours for a reply, fix that first. It's cheaper than any bid strategy and it improves every channel you run, not just this one.
Which solar keywords make money and which waste it?
The money is in buyer intent. The waste is in research intent, and telling them apart is most of the skill.
Buyer intent, bid on these: "solar installers [your town]", "solar panel installation quote", "solar panels cost [area]", "solar installer near me", "battery storage installer [town]". Someone typing these wants a company, not an education.
Research intent, let these go: "how do solar panels work", "are solar panels worth it", "solar panel efficiency", "diy solar panels". These searchers are months from buying, if ever, and they'll happily spend your budget getting educated.
Negative keywords, add these on day one: free, grants, grant application, jobs, careers, training, course, DIY, kits, wholesale, caravan, motorhome, shed, calculator. Every one of those words attached to a search is a click you'll pay for and never quote. Review the search terms report weekly for the first month, because the strange things people type will surprise you, and each one you exclude sharpens the whole account. Google's own search terms documentation covers where to find the report.
One more that catches solar installers specifically: brand searches for national companies. If someone's searching a specific national installer by name, they're probably not your customer, and bidding on those terms buys expensive confusion.
How tight should geographic targeting be?
Tighter than feels comfortable. The right radius is where your surveyors can profitably drive, not where you'd theoretically take a job. A lead 90 minutes away that books a survey and doesn't close costs you the click, the fuel and half a surveyor's day. Most installers do best starting with their genuine core patch, making the maths work there, then widening deliberately.
Set locations to "presence" rather than "interest" in the campaign settings, or you'll pay for people in other regions reading about your area.
What should the landing page do?
Match the ad and remove friction. If the ad says "solar installation quotes in Cheshire", the page says the same thing, shows real local installs, and asks for the enquiry with one short form. Sending paid clicks to your homepage is the classic waste, because the homepage asks visitors to navigate and paid visitors don't, they bounce.
And then the part that gets ignored: what happens after the form. The enquiry needs an instant response, a real one that starts qualifying, not an auto-reply promising contact "within 24 hours". That promise is where the click you paid for goes to die. This is a conversion problem more than an ads problem, and it's exactly what our Solar Installer's AI Opportunity Report breaks down, with recordings of what instant response actually sounds like.
How do you know if your Google Ads are profitable?
Run the chain: cost per click, to cost per enquiry, to cost per surveyed roof, to cost per install. Fill it in with your real numbers, not the ones in your head. An account can look healthy at £3 a click and be quietly unprofitable at the install level, and the reverse is true too, expensive clicks that close well are cheap.
If you can't fill in the chain because the tracking doesn't exist, that's the first job. Conversion tracking on the form, call tracking on the number, and a habit of matching installs back to their source. Boring, and worth more than any optimisation you'll ever make on top of untracked spend.
Worth comparing against the chain for your other sources too, including bought leads and the leads already in your CRM. In our campaigns, reactivating a dormant database typically produces booked appointments at a fraction of what fresh paid leads cost, because the acquisition money was spent long ago.
Are Local Services Ads worth it for solar?
Where they're available for your category, usually worth testing. The pay-per-lead model and the badge sit well for local trades, and they capture the "near me" searcher with high trust. Treat the leads with the same urgency as any other, the same response rules apply.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a solar installer budget to test Google Ads?
Enough to buy a meaningful number of enquiries, not clicks. Work backwards: if your patch's clicks cost a few pounds and pages convert around the typical range, budget for at least 20 to 30 enquiries before judging anything. Judging an account on five leads is reading tea leaves.
Should I run the ads myself or use an agency?
Either can work. What doesn't work is set-and-forget from anyone. If an agency runs it, insist on seeing the search terms report and the full cost chain monthly, and keep ownership of the account.
Do I need new landing pages for every campaign?
One good page per service per area beats a dozen thin ones. Match message to search, show local proof, one form.
Why are my leads not answering the phone?
Usually because too much time passed. Call within five minutes and connect rates transform. If your team can't, automate the first response.
Fix the response half of the equation before raising the budget: book an AI assessment call, or go back to the full guide to generating solar leads.