How Much Do Solar Companies Spend on Google Ads?

Most US solar companies spend roughly $1,500 to $5,000 per month on Google Ads, and competitive metros or commercial-focused installers often spend well above that. A newer installer testing the channel can start near $1,000 a month to gather data, while established companies in dense markets push to $5,000 and up to hold position. Your right number comes from how many installs you want and what one sold install is worth, not from a round figure a competitor mentioned.

Solar is one of the pricier categories in search because the intent is high and the deal size is large. A homeowner typing "solar panel installation near me" is worth a lot to whoever wins the click, so bids run up. Below is what those clicks and leads actually cost in 2026, how Local Services Ads compare, and why the smartest solar advertisers stop optimizing for cheap leads and start optimizing for cheap sold installs.

How much do solar companies spend on Google Ads?

Most solar companies spend between $1,500 and $5,000 per month on Google Ads, with competitive markets and commercial solar running higher. A smaller residential installer often starts around $1,000 to $2,000 a month to test, while companies in dense metros or bidding on high-value commercial work commonly spend $5,000 or more to stay visible against national lead sellers.

Here are the starting points that tend to work for US installers:

• New or single-market installer testing the channel: $1,000 to $2,500 per month. Enough to learn which keywords and ZIP codes produce booked consultations before scaling.
• Established residential installer: $2,500 to $5,000 per month. The range where you can hold position on high-intent local terms and keep a steady flow of consultations.
• Competitive metro or commercial solar: $5,000+ per month. Dense markets, national aggregators bidding the same keywords, and larger commercial deals all push the floor up.

The floor matters more in solar than in cheaper categories. If clicks in your market run $30 and you only budget $800, you buy about 26 clicks for the whole month, which is not enough for Google's bidding to learn or for you to book work reliably. A starved solar account rarely gets past the noise. Our full breakdown of Google Ads for solar companies covers how to phase spend up as the account proves it can produce sold installs.

How much does a solar lead cost on Google Ads?

Blended cost per lead for solar on Google Ads runs about $104, with non-branded search leads landing between $120 and $149 each. Local Services Ads average around $53 per lead, roughly half the cost of a search lead, because you pay per lead rather than per click. But the cheaper number hides a quality gap that decides whether the spend actually pays.

Cost per click drives most of that lead cost. Solar CPCs range from about $10 to $50 depending on intent and geography: broad research terms sit at the low end, and high-intent local install terms sit at the top. Here is how the keyword types typically break down:

At those CPCs and a typical conversion rate from click to lead, a non-branded search lead landing at $120 to $149 is normal, not a sign your account is broken. The question that matters is what happens to those leads next.

Google Ads vs Local Services Ads for solar

Local Services Ads (LSAs) are cheaper per lead, averaging about $53 against $120 to $149 for non-branded search, because you pay per lead and appear above the regular ads with a Google Guaranteed badge. Search ads cost more per lead but give you control over keywords, landing pages, and messaging, which is where lead quality is won or lost.

The two are not an either-or choice for most installers. LSAs are a strong, low-cost source of local phone leads and should usually run alongside search, not instead of it. Search campaigns let you target specific services (residential, battery storage, commercial), send each click to a matching landing page, and layer in remarketing, which LSAs cannot do. A common setup is LSAs for cheap top-of-funnel calls plus search for controlled, higher-intent traffic you can shape. The Google Ads for solar companies page walks through running both without letting the two cannibalize each other.

How to set your solar ad budget

Work backward from the value of one sold install, not from a spend number. You need four inputs: what a closed install is worth to you, the share of that value you will spend to win one, your lead-to-sale close rate, and how many installs you want per month. Chain them and the budget appears on its own.

Say a residential install is worth $3,000 in margin and you will spend up to 12% of that, or $360, to acquire one. If your owned search leads close at 18%, you can afford about $65 per lead ($360 x 0.18). Want 10 installs a month? At an 18% close rate you need roughly 56 leads, so your monthly budget is around 56 x $130, or about $7,000 in a market where leads run $130. That is a budget built on your economics, and you can run these figures fast with our advertising budget calculator.

Two sanity checks before you launch. First, divide the monthly figure by 30.4 to get the daily budget Google asks for. Second, translate a target return into a break-even cost per sale using our ROAS calculator so you know the ceiling before you bid. And plan for success: as lead volume climbs and consultations turn into signed contracts, you will need to bring on installers and crew fast to keep install timelines from slipping and reviews from suffering.

Where solar ad budgets get wasted

The biggest waste in solar advertising is judging campaigns by cost per lead instead of cost per sold install. Lead quality varies enormously by source, and the cheap lead is often the expensive one once you follow it to a signed contract. Owned search leads close far better than shared aggregator leads, which changes the real math completely.

Consider the difference. Owned or search leads close at roughly 18%, so even at $120 per lead your cost per sold install lands under $700. Shared aggregator leads, sold to several installers at once, close at around 3%, which pushes cost per sold install above $1,100 even when the lead itself looked cheap. The lead price tricks you; the sold-install price tells the truth. Always judge by cost per sold install, not cost per lead.

The other repeat offenders that quietly drain solar budgets:

• No negative keywords: paying $30 a click for searches like "solar jobs," "solar panel DIY," or "free solar government program" because the keyword list was too loose.
• Slow lead follow-up: a $130 lead that waits hours for a callback is money set on fire. Solar buyers request quotes from several companies, and the first to respond usually books the consult.
• Sending clicks to the homepage: a $40 "solar installation near me" click deserves a page about local installs, financing, and the federal tax credit with a clear quote form, not a generic welcome page.
• Over-relying on shared aggregator leads: buying cheap resold leads that close at 3% instead of building owned search volume that closes at 18%.
• No call tracking: spending thousands without knowing which keywords and campaigns produce signed contracts, so you cannot cut what never closes.

Fixing these usually recovers more budget than raising bids ever would. Tight negatives, fast follow-up, dedicated landing pages, and a focus on owned leads routinely cut cost per sold install by a third without adding a dollar of spend.

Running solar Google Ads well is close to a full-time job: keyword research, negative lists, bid management, LSAs, landing pages, and call tracking all need constant attention, and the CPCs are unforgiving of mistakes. If you would rather close deals than babysit an ad account, let AdBot build and run your company's Google Ads for solar companies on autopilot for a flat monthly fee, so your budget goes toward sold installs instead of wasted clicks.