Start with the number that decides everything
Before any channel or creative decision, a solar business needs one figure: what a closed customer is worth. Everything downstream depends on it. A ₹60 lead is unaffordable if you close 2% of leads on a ₹80,000 residential system, and comfortable if you close 12% on a ₹4 lakh commercial one.
Most solar businesses we speak to have never calculated it. They judge campaigns on cost per lead alone, which is the number an agency can most easily manipulate — broaden the audience, simplify the form, and cost per lead falls while the sales team quietly drowns.
Meta Ads is where the volume is, and why
Across our accounts, the large majority of solar spend sits on Meta rather than Google. The reason is simple: most Indian homeowners are not searching for solar. They are annoyed about an electricity bill. Meta lets you interrupt that person; Google only catches them once they have already decided to investigate.
Here is what that looked like across our markets, all Instant Form lead campaigns.
| Market | Leads | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|
| Hardoi | 98 | ₹5.86 |
| Varanasi | 813 | ₹10.87 |
| Prayagraj | 9,598 | ₹20.13 |
| Kanpur | 13,435 | ₹22.37 |
| Bareilly | 3,011 | ₹24.57 |
| Lucknow | 8,419 | ₹24.81 |
| Gorakhpur | 265 | ₹34.86 |
| Mahendragarh | 278 | ₹37.64 |
| Kannauj | 923 | ₹39.55 |
| Gonda | 33 | ₹51.36 |
| Gurugram | 255 | ₹55.76 |
| Delhi and Noida | 561 | ₹63.11 |
The spread is the point. A ten-fold difference in the same country, the same year, the same offer. Any agency quoting you one national cost per lead is quoting their best market.
Creative decides more than targeting
In Bareilly we ran four ads on identical ₹250 daily budgets. Two used one angle and returned leads at ₹23.82 and ₹23.95. Two used a different angle and cost ₹87.59 and ₹97.04. Same city, same week, same budget — a four-fold difference from the message alone.
The angles worth testing, roughly in the order they tend to work:
| Angle | What it promises | When it works |
|---|---|---|
| Bill savings | A number off the monthly bill | Broad audiences, high bill anxiety |
| Subsidy eligibility | Money the government pays | When a scheme is in the news |
| Rooftop suitability | A check, not a pitch | Cold audiences, low awareness |
| Payback period | Investment framing | Commercial and larger residential |
| Panel specification | Brand, efficiency, warranty | Late-stage comparison shoppers |
Most solar advertising opens with the last row. Someone who has not decided whether solar is worth it does not care whose panel it is.
Do not narrow your audience by instinct
In Mahendragarh, an open-targeted ad produced leads at ₹32.69 while a manually narrowed version of the same offer cost ₹53.85 — and could only reach a third as many people. We saw the same pattern in Gurugram.
A tighter audience feels more efficient. In practice it gives the auction fewer cheap placements to find, so you pay more and reach less.
Google Ads does a different job, at a different price
In our Lucknow solar Google account, a search conversion cost ₹339.19 against a 6.67% click-through rate and a ₹15.39 average cost per click. Next to a ₹20 Meta form lead that looks terrible. It is not — it is a different person at a different stage, usually already collecting quotes.
Comparing a Meta cost per lead with a Google cost per conversion is the single most common way solar businesses are misled by agency decks. If someone shows you both in one table without explaining the difference, ask why.
Watch frequency, not just cost
In Kanpur we delivered 12.37M impressions against 3.69M reach — a frequency above three. Past that point, extra budget buys repeat views rather than new people, and cost per lead drifts up no matter what else is adjusted. The fix is new creative, not more money.
In small towns this happens faster. Kannauj hit a frequency of 4.1 while Varanasi stayed at 2.1 — which is part of why Varanasi stayed cheap.
What we would tell a solar business starting today
Pick one city. Fund two creative angles properly rather than six thinly. Run Instant Forms on Meta for volume and add Google Search only once you can handle the enquiries. Track connection rate and site-visit rate alongside cost per lead from week one, because a cheap lead that nobody reaches is not a lead.
And do not extend one market's numbers to the next one. That is the mistake the table above exists to prevent.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead for solar in India?
There is no single figure. Across our 12 markets it ranged from ₹5.86 in Hardoi to ₹63.11 in Delhi NCR, with most Uttar Pradesh markets between ₹20 and ₹40. What counts as good depends on your ticket size and close rate.
Which platform is better for solar, Meta or Google?
They do different jobs. Meta interrupts someone annoyed about their bill; Google catches someone already researching. Most of our solar volume sits on Meta; Google search conversions in our Lucknow account cost ₹339.19 each.
How much budget does a solar campaign need to start?
Our campaigns ran on daily budgets between ₹100 and ₹1,000. What matters more is committing enough for a creative test to finish — usually two to three weeks — rather than spreading a small budget across many untested angles.
How long before solar ads produce leads?
Leads usually appear within days. A trustworthy cost per lead takes two to three weeks, because the creative test has to run long enough for the difference between angles to be real rather than noise.
Does video work better than static for solar ads?
Not automatically. In our Gorakhpur account a static ad produced leads at ₹34.86 while a video variant in the same ad set cost ₹71.35. Video earns its place when the offer needs explaining.
Should solar campaigns be split by city?
In our experience yes. A single national campaign hides which markets are subsidising which. Splitting by city made weak markets visible within the first week.
Performance figures on this page come from selected campaigns and reporting periods in our portfolio records through September 2026. Several screenshots are filtered views of the same ad account, so totals are calculated from distinct accounts only. Results vary with market, budget, targeting, offer, competition and sales follow-up.