Google Ads for solar panel installers: owning your leads through a long decision

How do solar panel installers get better leads from Google Ads? Bid on the searches where homeowners are close to choosing an installer, show your MCS certification and real installs, run Performance Max with proper photos and video, keep battery storage as its own campaign, and stay with buyers through a research process that can take weeks or months. Never promise savings figures. Unavoidable Marketing is a Leeds-based agency that runs Google Ads for UK solar panel installers so they get their own enquiries rather than buying shared ones, and founder Andrew Heppinstall is on every strategy call.

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Last updated: 18 October 2026

Solar is a considered buy, so plan for the long road

Nobody fits solar panels on impulse. A homeowner might first search “are solar panels worth it” in spring, read about batteries over the summer, get three quotes in autumn and sign in the new year. Along the way they will see comparison sites, national installers, forum threads and every neighbour’s opinion.

A solar campaign that only counts enquiries in the first week will look like it is failing when it is actually working. We build the account in stages and measure the whole journey:

• Early research: “solar panels for my house”, “how many solar panels do I need”. Cheap to reach, low intent. A small budget, mainly to start remarketing lists.
• Comparing: “solar panel installers near me”, “MCS solar installer”, “solar and battery quote”. The core of the budget.
• Ready to book: “solar panel survey”, “book solar installation”, “solar installer reviews” plus your town. Highest intent, highest bids.

Remarketing then keeps your name in front of people who visited your site while they think it over.

The comparison site problem

Search for solar panels in almost any town and lead generation sites sit high on the page. They collect a homeowner’s details and sell them to several installers at once. You end up racing three other firms to call the same person, who never asked to speak to you specifically.

Your own Google Ads campaign works differently. The enquiry comes to you alone, from someone who saw your name, your installs and your reviews. To win against comparison sites:

• Write ads that name your business and your area, so the click is a choice of you
• Show MCS certification and any other memberships, such as TrustMark, in the ad text and on the page
• Say that one person looks after them from survey to switch on, which no comparison site can say
• Block searches that suggest someone wants a list, such as “compare solar quotes” or “solar quote comparison”, if they bring poor leads in your account

MCS: the trust signal homeowners look for

MCS certification is not a legal requirement to fit panels, but it is what most homeowners are told to look for, and many export tariffs ask for it. Put it in your headlines, on the landing page next to the phone number, and in your image assets. Pair it with a workmanship warranty you actually offer and the manufacturers you are approved with.

Performance Max needs real visuals

Performance Max shows your ads across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and display sites from one campaign. For solar it can work well, because the product is visual and the decision is slow. It only works if you feed it good material. Stock photos of a perfect panel array on a sunny villa do not convince anyone in a terraced street in Bolton or a semi in Bristol.

• Photos of your own installs on ordinary UK roofs, from the street and close up
• A short video of your team on a job, scaffold up, panels going on
• Battery and inverter installs in garages, lofts and utility rooms
• Your logo, MCS badge and a clear call to book a survey

We run Performance Max next to a tight Search campaign, so you keep control of the highest intent keywords and can see which channel books surveys.

Battery storage as its own campaign

Battery searches come from two groups: people adding a battery to panels they already have, and people buying both at once. They are different sales. A retrofit battery customer is often quicker to decide and may have been let down by an earlier installer. A separate campaign with its own ads and landing page lets you speak to both and see which books better.

What not to say in your ads

It is tempting to lead with how much someone will save. Do not. Savings depend on the roof, the direction it faces, shading, usage, tariffs and prices that change through the year. Promising a figure in an ad invites complaints and does not match what a survey will find. Talk instead about what you do: a proper survey, a system designed for that roof, honest advice on whether a battery makes sense, and aftercare. Let the survey do the numbers for that house.

Facebook and Instagram alongside Google

Because solar is a slow, visual decision, social ads often help. Short videos of installs, customer stories and street-level photos can reach homeowners in your area before they start searching, and remind them while they decide. We usually run them alongside Google, not instead of it. See our page on Facebook and Instagram ads for tradesmen.

Tracking surveys, not just form fills

We track calls, forms and survey bookings, and give you a simple way to mark which enquiries became surveys and which became signed installs. That data goes back to Google, which then looks for more people like the ones who signed. Reports show cost per survey and cost per install by campaign.

How we do it

Since 2012 we have worked on 390+ projects, and 92% of our clients come back.