Solar leads.
One installer per area.
SolarReviews' own page publishes the shared-lead reality: 689k leads YTD, $25-300 per lead, each one sold to 2.3 companies on average, a 3-7% close rate, no returns. We sell the opposite. A consumer brand we run takes the enquiry, and when it passes five published checks, confirmed by SMS in the homeowner's own words, it is warm-referred to exactly one installer in that area, never resold. Fail a check, it is not sent and not billed.
What does a solar
referral look like?
It is 1 of 1: one homeowner, one installer, one area. The project is not dropped into a marketplace for 2.3 companies to chase; it is passed to the installer who holds that area, after the homeowner has confirmed the detail over SMS.
Solar lead generation gets called many things. A “lead” can be a form fill, a phone number, a comparison request, or a name passed around a marketplace. Those are not the same product. The useful question is whether an installer receives a homeowner who has been checked, or a contact record entering a race.
Our consumer brand takes the enquiry before any installer sees it. We confirm the person owns the roof rather than rents it. We ask what they want in their own SMS words. We capture a stated timeline. We ask whether another installer has already quoted or booked them. We keep consent on record. Then, and only then, one installer gets the handover. The five published checks are the rule behind it, and they are the same rule the billing system enforces.
What a referral arrives with
- The homeowner’s name and direct number
- Confirmation they own the roof, not rent it
- The project in their own SMS words
- Their stated timeline
- “No other installer quoted or booked”, confirmed
- Consent on record, delivered in real time
If you want to buy solar leads, three questions expose any vendor quickly. Does the homeowner know which installer will call? Has the same record been sold to anyone else? And can a failed qualification still become your cost? On this model the answers are: yes, no, and no.
What do solar
leads cost?
$25-300 per lead, by SolarReviews’ own published numbers, and the range buys shared distribution: they state each lead is sold to 2.3 companies on average.
Credit where due: that disclosure is more honest than most. SolarReviews’ own page states 689k leads YTD, an 80-85% contact rate, a 3-7% close rate, no returns, and that 93-97% of leads will not close. Those are not our estimates. They are the seller’s own published operating numbers, and they describe the product precisely: a price per lead is not the price of a private conversation, it is the price of joining a queue around one homeowner.
| What matters | SolarReviews' published model | OptiMAX |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $25-300 per lead, published on their own page. | Per referral. Pay only for referrals that pass five published checks. |
| Distribution | Each lead sold to 2.3 companies on average. | One installer per area. The referral is 1 of 1, never resold. |
| Contact and close | 80-85% contact rate, 3-7% close rate, by their own numbers. | Homeowner confirmed by SMS before the handover, expecting your call. |
| When it goes wrong | No returns. They state 93-97% of leads will not close. | Fails a check, it is not sent and not billed. |
The comparison is of delivery rules, not of intentions. Shared solar leads start with several installers attached to the same homeowner. Exclusive solar leads start with one recommendation, and make the qualification visible before the installer is billed. The UK market prices the same distinction: a shared lead anchors at £15-40, an exclusive intent-confirmed referral at £45-120. The gap is the price of the absence of the race.
The demand side explains why the race exists. “Solar leads” draws 720 searches a month in the US at $39.90 a click, and 40 in the UK at $43.95. Installers are paying auction prices before any qualification has happened. A referral that has already passed five published checks is the other end of that pipeline: the qualifying work done, the homeowner confirmed, and one destination from the start.
What gets a solar enquiry
through the five checks?
Five published checks stand between an enquiry and your phone, and the rule is mechanical: fail one, and it is not sent and not billed.
First, the roof. The homeowner must own it. A renter can be genuinely interested in solar and still be no use to an installer planning a roof-mounted array; that distinction is checked before delivery, not discovered on your first site visit. Second, the project is confirmed over SMS in the homeowner’s own words: panels, battery, the roof they mean, so you read what they said, not our summary of a form.
Third, a stated timeline. A homeowner pricing the switch for this quarter and one reading about payback for next year carry different urgency, and they say which they are, in writing. Fourth, not already quoted: a homeowner who has an installer booked or a quote in hand is not a referral, so the question is asked before anything is sent. Fifth, consent on record, so the homeowner is expecting you by name. Pass all five and the referral goes to exactly one installer, in real time.
That is the whole of our solar lead generation model, and it is the same standard that runs across the green energy referral model, solar, EV chargers and heat pumps alike. The solar version just stays specific: roof ownership, the array, the timeline, and the decision the homeowner has already made.
Why do shared solar leads
close at 3-7%?
Because the same homeowner is sold to 2.3 companies on average, by SolarReviews’ own numbers, so installers quote against each other on a lead none of them owns.
Their published 80-85% contact rate is the useful half of the picture. The homeowner answers the phone. Contact is not the problem; ownership is. Every installer who bought the record gets the same conversation, and the sale mostly goes to one of the others or to nobody. SolarReviews states there are no returns and that 93-97% of leads will not close, which is the economics after payment, carried entirely by the installer.
Exclusive solar leads change the route, not the homeowner’s decision. One installer in the area gets a homeowner who owns the roof, described the project in their own words, stated a timeline, confirmed nobody else is quoting, and consented to the call. There is no race to lose.
What do installers ask
before holding an area?
Every answer below follows from one mechanism: five published checks, one installer per area, never resold.
What do solar leads cost?
Why do shared solar leads close at 3-7%?
What makes a solar referral exclusive?
Is there a retainer or a lock-in?
What are the five checks on a solar referral?
Is your area
still open?
One installer per area, first come. SolarReviews sells each lead to 2.3 companies on average; we never resell a referral. Five published checks on every one; fails a check, it is not sent and you are not billed.