Most solar installers we speak to have bought leads at some point. The pitch is simple: pay per lead, only pay for what you get, no staff to manage. On paper it looks like the cheapest way to fill a diary.
The trouble is that a lead isn't a sale. And the number that actually matters to your business isn't cost per lead. It's cost per sale.
What you're really paying for with shared leads
A lot of bought solar leads are shared. The same homeowner fills in one form and gets passed to several installers at once. That changes everything about how the lead behaves:
- It's a race. Whoever calls first usually gets the conversation. If your team is on a roof when the lead lands, someone else has already called.
- The customer is shopping on price. They know they'll get several quotes, so you're competing on the lowest number, not on trust.
- Plenty never answer. Wrong numbers, people who were only curious, people who already signed with the installer who called first.
- You still need someone to call them. Bought leads don't remove the phone work. They just add a bill on top of it.
So a lead that looked cheap can turn into an expensive sale once you divide the total spend by the jobs you actually win.
How to work out your real cost per sale
You don't need a spreadsheet model. Take any recent month and answer three questions:
- How much did you spend on leads, all in?
- How many of those leads turned into a booked appointment?
- How many of those appointments turned into a signed job?
Total spend divided by signed jobs is your cost per sale. Many installers have never done this sum, and it's often the moment the “cheap” leads stop looking cheap.
Don't forget the hidden cost. Count the hours your salespeople spend chasing leads that never answer. That's time they're not quoting or closing.
What a dedicated caller changes
A dedicated caller works the other way round. Instead of buying names that ten other installers are also calling, you have one person whose whole job is finding and booking appointments for your business.
- The appointments are yours alone. Nobody else is calling the same customer that afternoon.
- They qualify before they book. Homeowner, right area, right property, decision-makers available. Your specialist isn't driving out to a renter.
- They learn your business. Over a few weeks they get to know your products, your offer and the objections your customers raise.
- They follow up. Old quotes, lost leads, people who said “call me after Christmas”. Bought leads rarely come with anyone to chase them.
What the numbers look like on our campaigns
We've booked more than 2,000 appointments for Australian businesses over the last four years, mostly for solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger companies. Two figures from that work are worth knowing:
- Once a caller is trained and ramped up, they typically book 40–50 appointments a month.
- Around 1 in 5 of those appointments turns into a sale.
That's roughly 8 to 10 sales a month from one caller. Put the monthly cost of that caller next to it and you have a cost per sale you can compare straight against your lead spend. Every installer's numbers are different, but this is the comparison worth making.
When shared leads still make sense
To be fair to bought leads, they can work if:
- You only need a handful of extra jobs a month.
- You already have someone in-house who can call every lead within minutes.
- You're testing a new area and want to see if there's demand before committing.
If you need a steady, predictable diary every month, and you're tired of racing other installers to the same customer, a dedicated caller is usually the better deal once you count the sales rather than the leads.
The short version
Cheap leads aren't cheap if they don't close. Work out your cost per sale, not your cost per lead. Then compare it with what one dedicated caller could do for you.
If you'd like to see how the numbers might look for your business, we're happy to talk it through. Have a look at how our solar appointment setting works, or read more about solar lead generation for Australian installers.