Angles that work, in rough order
| Campaign idea | The promise | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Your bill, minus the solar | A number off the monthly bill | Broad cold audiences, high bill anxiety |
| Do you qualify for the subsidy? | Money the government pays | Periods when a scheme is in the news |
| Is your roof suitable? | A free check, not a pitch | Very cold audiences, low awareness |
| What it pays back in | Investment framing | Commercial and larger residential roofs |
| Empty roof, idle asset | Reframes the roof as unused space | Owners with visible flat rooftops |
| 25 years of free electricity | Long-horizon framing | Audiences that respond to a big claim |
| Panel brand and efficiency | Product specification | Late-stage comparison shoppers only |
Most solar advertising opens with the last row, which is a mistake. Someone who has not decided whether solar is worth it does not care whose panel it is yet.
Why the Bareilly test is worth copying
The result was trustworthy because of how it was set up, not because the creative was inspired. Four conditions made it readable:
Identical budgets. All four ads ran at ₹250 a day. Different budgets mean different delivery, and you end up comparing the auction rather than the message.
Two ads per angle. One ad winning proves very little. Two ads on the same angle landing within fifteen paise of each other is a result you can scale on.
Same audience and placements. Change one thing, and make that thing the message.
Let it finish. Each ad needs to exit the learning phase, which took about two weeks on these budgets. Calling a winner on day three is calling noise.
The two losing ads consumed roughly ₹2,760 and produced 30 leads. Against an account that went on to spend ₹73,965+ at ₹24 a lead, that is the cheapest information in the campaign. Read the full breakdown on the Bareilly page.
Static or video?
In Gorakhpur, a static Instant Form ad produced 265 leads at ₹34.86 while a video variant in the same ad set cost ₹71.35 — roughly double, before counting production cost.
Video is not a default upgrade. It earns its place when the offer genuinely needs explaining, such as subsidy eligibility rules or payback maths. When the ask is a phone number, a static creative carrying one clear number usually wins.
Engagement content is not lead content
In a plywood account we ran, post engagements cost between ₹0.02 and ₹0.62 while the single lead campaign produced form leads at ₹12.53. Both are useful; they measure completely different things. A solar page that posts installation photos is building familiarity, not pipeline, and reporting the two together makes results look better than they are.
How often creative needs to change
Faster than most people expect, and faster in small towns. Kannauj reached a frequency of 4.1 — the same people seeing the ads about four times — while Varanasi stayed at 2.1. Once frequency passes roughly three, cost per lead drifts up regardless of budget, and the answer is new creative rather than more money.
Adapt the offer to the state, do not translate it
Subsidy schemes and electricity distributors differ by state. Copy that works in Uttar Pradesh references a different scheme and a different discom from copy in Haryana. Translating the words without changing the references produces an ad that reads as generic to a local buyer — which is exactly what you were trying to avoid.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of solar ad creative performs best?
In our accounts, bill-savings and subsidy-eligibility angles carried the most volume on cold audiences. Product-specification creative performed worst as an opening message.
How many creatives should a solar campaign test?
At least two genuinely different angles, with two ads per angle. Our Bareilly test used four ads and cost about ₹2,760 to identify a winner that then ran at ₹24 per lead.
Is video better than static for solar ads?
Not by default. In Gorakhpur a static ad cost ₹34.86 per lead while a video variant in the same ad set cost ₹71.35, before production cost.
How long should a creative test run?
Long enough for each ad to exit the learning phase — two to three weeks on the budgets we used. Calling a winner earlier usually means calling noise.
How often should solar creative be refreshed?
When frequency passes roughly three. In small markets that happens within weeks; in larger ones it takes longer.
Do engagement posts generate solar leads?
They build familiarity rather than pipeline. Engagement costs and lead costs should be reported separately, because blending them makes results look better than they are.
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.