Is this lead exclusive, and to how many?
A surprising number of "exclusive" leads are exclusive within a territory, or exclusive for an hour. Get the number, in writing. If nobody will state it, it is shared.
For solar installers
What a solar lead costs — and what one is worth to you.
Two different questions. The first has a market answer that anybody can quote you. The second has your answer, and it is the only one that decides whether to buy. A vendor benefits from you conflating them.
Question one
What they sell for.
Market ranges for the four kinds of lead an installer can buy today. The last column is the one that matters, and it reorders the table entirely: cost per signed contract, at the midpoint of each channel's close range.
| Kind of lead | Price each | Typical close rate | Cost per signed job | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared or resold leads | $15–$60 | 0.5%–2.0% | $3,000 | The homeowner is about to hear from four companies including yours, so the conversation starts adversarially. This is the channel that produces most of the industry's complaint volume, and the reason exclusive leads exist. |
| Exclusive leadsOurs | $85 | 2.0%–6.0% | $2,125 | Volume is not guaranteed and never will be, because it is bounded by how many homeowners in your territory actually went looking. Anyone promising you a guaranteed monthly quantity of exclusive leads is describing a shared lead or an invented one. |
| Paid social | $20–$90 | 1.0%–3.5% | $2,444 | The cheapest cost per lead in the table and rarely the cheapest cost per customer. A form filled in from a feed carries no confirmed homeowner status, no bill and no stated intent. |
| Paid search | $80–$300 | 3.0%–8.0% | $3,455 | Solar keywords are among the most expensive in any industry, and you are bidding against national lead aggregators whose economics are different from yours — they resell each click several times over, so they can pay more for it than you can. |
Benchmark ranges from the US residential solar market, not measurements taken here. Only the exclusive-lead price is our own, and it is a single figure because it is a published rate rather than a range. Close rates are lead-to-signed-contract on each channel's own definition of a lead, which is exactly why the price column cannot be compared across rows.
The cheapest lead is usually the most expensive customer.
A shared lead at the bottom of its range is a fifth the price of an exclusive one and closes at roughly a fifth the rate — so the saving is imaginary, and you have paid for it with a homeowner who is already annoyed by the time you dial. That is not a claim in our favour by construction: on the same arithmetic, paid social is cheaper per lead than we are and worse per customer, while your own referrals beat every row here by a factor of five.
Question two
What one is worth to you.
Computed, not quoted. A lead is worth your gross profit per job, times your close rate, times the share of that profit you are willing to spend acquiring it — 25%here, which leaves room for the sales labour that actually converts it. Find your job size and your close rate; that cell is your ceiling.
| Your typical job | Gross profit | At 2.0% | At 3.0% | At 4.5% | At 6.0% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smaller jobs6 kW at $3.10/W — $18,600 | $4,650 | $23 | $35 | $52 | $70 |
| Typical8 kW at $2.90/W — $23,200 | $5,800 | $29 | $44 | $65 | $87 |
| Larger jobs12 kW at $2.70/W — $32,400.00 | $8,100 | $41 | $61 | $91 | $122 |
Cells at or above $85 are shaded green because that is our own price, and it is the fairest way to show where we are and are not a sensible purchase. If your row sits in grey, we are too expensive for you today — and the fix is a close rate, not a discount.
Gross margin held at 25% across all three job sizes, which flatters the larger ones — margin per watt usually falls as systems get bigger. Put your own margin in the calculator.
Before you compare prices
Four things to ask any lead vendor.
What is on the lead when it arrives?
A name and a phone number is a contact, not a lead. Confirmed homeowner status, a bill figure, a location and a stated timeline are what make the first call worth having — and their absence is why some cheap leads close badly.
Where did it come from?
Organic search intent, an incentivised form, a co-registration path and a rented list produce very different conversations. A vendor who will not say is telling you.
What is the credit policy, and is there a cap on it?
Wrong numbers, duplicates, non-homeowners and out-of-area leads happen to everyone. An uncapped credit policy with a stated window is normal; a capped one transfers the vendor's quality problem onto you.
Our own answer
$85, exclusive, with the bill already on it.
Every lead here is a homeowner who ran a full cost, savings and payback estimate on this site and then asked to hear from an installer. They arrive with a bill figure, a sized system, a timeline and a ZIP code, and they are sold once. Pay-as-you-go at $85, or $499 for 10 at $49.90 each once you have seen them convert.
The first 5 are free, which exists precisely so you can answer question two with real data instead of our benchmark.
Questions
How much does a solar lead cost?
It depends entirely on what kind. Shared leads — the same form fill sold to three to five installers — trade around $15 to $60. Exclusive leads, sold to one company only, run roughly $75 to $150, with the top of that range for leads carrying a confirmed homeowner, a bill figure and a stated timeline. A lead you generate yourself through paid search typically costs $80 to $300 once the click cost is counted, and paid social is cheaper per lead and much weaker per customer. Those are prices, not values — what a lead is worth to you is a different calculation.
Why are exclusive solar leads more expensive than shared ones?
Because you are the only company calling. A shared lead is sold three to five times, so the homeowner is fielding four calls and the conversation starts adversarially — close rates on shared leads often sit under 1%, against 2–6% for exclusive. At a 1% close rate a $30 shared lead costs $3,000 per install; at 3% an $85 exclusive lead costs $2,833. The cheaper lead is usually the more expensive customer, which is the whole reason exclusive leads exist.
What is a fair price to pay for a solar lead?
Roughly a quarter of your gross profit on a job, multiplied by your close rate. On a job carrying $5,800 of gross profit, that is about $29 a lead at a 2% close rate and $87 at 6%. The table on this page works it out across job sizes and close rates. Anything above your number is a lead you should decline however good the pitch is, and anything well below it is worth buying more of.
Are cheap solar leads worth buying?
Sometimes — but only if you measure. Cheap leads are cheap because they close badly, and the arithmetic only works if your speed to first call is genuinely exceptional, because in a shared lead the first caller takes most of the value and there is no second prize. Buy a small tranche, track cost per signed contract rather than cost per lead, and compare it against what you pay elsewhere. If nobody in your business can state that number, you are not in a position to judge any lead price, cheap or otherwise.
Should I pay per lead or buy a lead package?
Per lead, until you have closed something. A package is a volume discount — here, $499 for 10 leads at $49.90 each against $85 pay-as-you-go — and a discount on a channel you have not yet proven is not a saving. Prove the close rate first on the smallest commitment available, then take the volume rate. Be wary of any monthly subscription for a nominal lead quantity: if the month is quiet you pay more per lead than the flexible rate, for the same lead.
Do solar lead prices vary by state?
Prices vary less than they should. What varies enormously is what a lead is worth, because ticket size and close rate both move by market — a state where solar pays back in eight years is a materially easier sell than one where it takes eighteen, and the jobs are often larger too. That is why a flat national lead price is a better deal in some territories than others, and why it is worth running your own numbers per market rather than accepting one figure for all of them.
How to get solar leads →
Every way a residential solar company gets customers, what each one costs per signed job, and which to start with.
Solar lead economics calculator →
Put in your close rate, ticket and margin. Get cost per install, the close rate you break even at, and the most a lead is worth to you.
Buying leads vs generating your own →
Canvassing, paid search, referrals, content and bought leads compared on cost per signed customer rather than cost per lead.
Best states for solar installers →
Every state ranked on the two things published data can actually show: how easily solar pays back for the homeowner, and how much gross profit a job carries.