Solar Marketing After the Tax Credit: 7 Channels Ranked, With Prices

Solar company marketing changed on January 1, 2026. The federal tax credit that most residential pitches leaned on no longer applies to a homeowner who buys a system. The ads, the scripts and the website pages built around it are now out of date.

This solar marketing guide is for the independent residential installer with one to four crews. Skill Mammoth, founded in 2023, builds websites and runs marketing for contractors and home service businesses, so read it as a vendor's guide. Every source was read on November 12, 2026 unless another date is given.

The homeowner tax credit ended on December 31, 2025

The IRS page for the residential clean energy credit prints it in one line: "The credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025." The page was last updated on July 4, 2026.

The same credit covered batteries. The page lists battery storage of at least 3 kilowatt hours among its qualified expenses, so the battery credit ended on the same day.

A deposit paid last year does not rescue an install finished this year. An IRS fact sheet from August 21, 2025 says an expenditure "is treated as made when the original installation of the item is completed."

One warning about the IRS page. It still carries an older sentence saying the credit begins to phase out in 2033. The fact sheet settles it: the credit "will not be allowed for any expenditures made after December 31, 2025."

Energy.gov is no help today. Its homeowner's guide to the federal solar tax credit returned a "page not found" error on November 12, 2026. Its general homeowner's guide to solar still describes a 26 percent credit that "expires starting in 2024 unless Congress renews it." Link your customers to the IRS page.

What still applies to leased and commercial systems

A lease or a power purchase agreement works differently, because a company owns the panels and the homeowner pays for the power. The Energy Department's guide tells that homeowner: "you are not entitled to tax benefits since you don't own the solar energy system."

The owner is a business, and a business credit is still on the books. The IRS page for the clean electricity investment credit prints a base rate of 6 percent of the investment. That rises to 30 percent for facilities that meet wage and apprenticeship rules.

That credit now has an end date for solar. An IRS notice says it terminates for a solar facility "placed in service after December 31, 2027" when construction begins after July 4, 2026. Wood Mackenzie wrote in September that the July deadline "has now passed."

EnergySage tells shoppers that lease and power purchase projects "still qualify for the federal tax credit" and that a competitive provider should pass the saving on through lower monthly rates. That is the one federal incentive left in a residential pitch.

None of this is tax advice. Print the IRS sentence in your proposal and send the customer to their own tax professional.

Four customers, and the lease customer is the growing one

Wood Mackenzie, which publishes the US Solar Market Insight report with the Solar Energy Industries Association, counted 995 megawatts of new residential solar in the second quarter of 2026. That is the segment's lowest quarterly total in five years. It expects installs to fall 23 percent this year "before growth resumes in 2027."

Its analysts say installers are "shifting from cash and loans sales to third-party ownership." Third-party ownership is the lease and the power purchase agreement. An independent with one to four crews now sells to four buyers.

The purchase price is EnergySage's. Its solar cost page, updated June 30, 2026, puts the typical home at about 12 kilowatts and $31,135 before incentives.

Its battery page prices 13.5 kilowatt-hours of storage at $15,647 and warns that adding batteries can double the cost of a solar project.

The commercial roof is the slowest of the four. Digital Division, an agency with a solar practice, says commercial projects involve "longer sales cycles and decision-making across multiple stakeholders." Wood Mackenzie reports commercial installs up 11 percent on the year in the same quarter.

The sale takes months, and trust decides it

Valve+Meter, the agency ranking first for this search, describes a sales cycle of 60 to 120 days or more. It says the homeowner reads reviews, runs a calculator and collects three quotes before signing for an install of $25,000-plus.

The federal government coaches that homeowner to be wary. The Energy Department's guide lists red flags, starting with "Don't give in to pushy sales tactics." It points to a consumer advisory on solar scams that three federal agencies issued in August 2024.

The same guide says "it's important to thoroughly read reviews of solar companies." So the buyer arrives suspicious, with a federal checklist in hand, and reads your reviews before your proposal.

Build the proof before you buy the traffic:

• A Google Business Profile with recent reviews that name the town and the system.
• Your license and insurance on the website. EnergySage requires both from its installers, plus over two years of solar experience.
• The IRS sentence on the credit in every proposal, so nobody can say you oversold it.
• A production estimate the homeowner can check in PVWatts, the federal calculator the guide points to.
• No savings or payback figure you cannot trace to the customer's own bills.

What a solar lead costs

Start with the click. DataForSEO's Google Ads data puts the average click on "solar companies near me" at $29.90 and "solar installers near me" at $28.49. LocaliQ's home improvement benchmark for this year is $8.33 a click.

Lead prices are harder to pin down, because few sellers print one. ActiveProspect, a lead-compliance software company, compiled published ranges from two lead sellers on July 31, 2026. It calls them "directional market benchmarks, not fixed rates."

Every row is a seller's number. Elevarus is a performance marketing firm, and it calls its figures "practitioner ranges," published in May 2026. Aged Lead Store's table covers Arizona homeowners who asked about solar up to a year ago.

No one publishes a tracked cost per solar lead from a named set of accounts. Measure your own from the first month.

Seven solar marketing channels, ranked for an independent installer

The order runs from the cheapest signed job to the most expensive, for a company with one to four crews.

1. Referrals and reviews

A finished array is its own billboard. WebFX's solar guide puts it this way: "When one homeowner installs panels, the entire street notices." Ask for the referral and the review on the day the system is switched on.

Valve+Meter says yard signs and door hangers still work "in dense neighborhoods where one install creates curiosity for ten." The neighbor tactics in our roofing marketing ideas guide carry over.

2. Solar SEO

Organic search is the cheapest lead you own and the slowest to arrive. It ranks second because the installer clicks in the chart cost about $25 to $40 when you rent them. The solar SEO section below lists the pages to build.

3. Google Ads and Local Services Ads

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead listings. Google's category list includes "Solar energy contractor" and prints no price for it. Check eligibility for your area first. Our Local Services Ads cost guide explains the bidding.

Regular search ads work at a price. Elevarus puts an exclusive search lead at $140 to $220 in competitive metros. Bid on installer and town terms, send each ad to its matching page and set a monthly cap. The Google Ads cost guide has the budget math.

4. Meta ads

Facebook and Instagram produce cheap form fills and weak follow-through. Elevarus prices a Meta lead form at $40 to $70. It says only 20 to 30 percent of the appointments booked from them take place.

Sending the click to a page with a quote calculator costs more per lead, $80 to $120 in the same data. Roughly 40 to 50 percent of those appointments happen. Our Facebook ads guide for contractors covers the setup.

5. Canvassing

Canvassing means knocking on the doors around a fresh install, where the neighbors can see the work. Bought from a vendor, a door-to-door appointment runs $200 to $400 or more on The Leads Warehouse's estimate. Your own crew with a leave-behind costs wages.

Remember the federal red-flag list. A canvasser who pushes for a signature that night confirms the warning. Leave the proposal and the reviews, and check whether your town requires a solicitation permit.

6. Marketplaces such as EnergySage

EnergySage's homepage promises shoppers they will "save 20 to 30% with multiple quotes from vetted local installers." You are compared on price by design. Its installer page prints no fee, so get the pricing in writing before you join.

7. Shared leads, last

Valve+Meter's page says lead aggregators "sell the same homeowner to four installers." Networx prints $10 to $100-plus for a shared lead across trades. Use a shared source to fill a slow month and nothing more. The contractor leads guide compares the options side by side.

Solar SEO: a page for each buyer and each town

Solar SEO, also sold as SEO for solar companies, is the work of ranking your site and Business Profile for what a homeowner types. These are the searches DataForSEO shows with monthly US volume:

• solar panels for home: 90,500
• solar panel installation: 60,500
• solar companies near me: 14,800
• solar panel cost: 14,800
• home battery backup: 14,800
• solar installers near me: 12,100
• solar tax credit: 3,600
• solar lease: 1,600
• commercial solar installers: 880

Each buyer in the customer table gets a page. The cost page should print your real price per watt, because EnergySage already shows shoppers an average of about $2.60. Add a battery page, a lease page that explains who receives the credit and a commercial page.

Write the tax credit page too. Thousands of homeowners still search for the credit every month. A page that quotes the IRS and gives the date earns the trust this sale depends on.

Then build a page for each town with photos of installs there. On the Business Profile, Valve+Meter names two categories installers choose between, Solar Energy Contractor and Solar Energy Equipment Supplier. Use the one the top installers in your market use.

Expect a slow start. Digital Division and Easy Mode Media both say results show in three to six months, and seo.solar says up to nine. The contractor SEO guide has the page structure and a 90-day plan.

Solar lead generation: count the appointments that happen

Solar lead generation is every channel above plus what happens after the form is filled in. Since the credit ended, the weak point has moved to the calendar.

Elevarus says the share of booked appointments that take place fell from about 75 percent to about 55. The close rate on appointments that did happen held within about five points. The trade calls a kept appointment a "sat" appointment.

That changes what a lead is worth. Its worked example:

• Shared aggregator lead: $65, 22 percent of appointments sat, about $295 per sat appointment.
• Exclusive Google Search lead: $180, 62 percent sat, about $290.
• Meta lead form: $48, 28 percent sat, about $170.

The $65 lead and the $180 lead cost the same once you count the visits that happen. Now carry it to a signed job, using Valve+Meter's own example of a 22 percent close rate on a $25,000 install:

• Cost per sat appointment from search: about $290.
• Close rate in the agency's example: 22 percent.
• Cost per signed job: about $1,320.
• Share of a $25,000 install: about 5 percent.

Both inputs are vendors' examples, so run the same four lines with your own numbers. The steps that raise the sat rate cost little:

1. Call inside five minutes. Elevarus calls this table stakes, because the homeowner has usually filled in other forms.
2. Qualify before the visit. Confirm who decides, the utility bill and the age of the roof.
3. Rewrite the script. Drop any line about a credit that expires. Lead with the payment against the current bill.
4. Follow up for the whole window. Valve+Meter says buyers research for weeks or months.
5. Report by source. Track cost per sat appointment and cost per install, never leads alone.

What a solar marketing agency charges

We read the solar pages of seven agencies ranking on page one for "solar marketing" or "solar SEO", plus two more with solar pages that print a price. Two of the seven print a number. Some call the service solar panel marketing, and the work is the same.

The seo.solar figure comes from its FAQ, which says a comprehensive plan runs to several thousand dollars. WebFX adds that most solar companies put 3 to 8 percent of revenue into marketing.

Hook Agency and The Marketing Agency sit outside page one. Hook's solar form marks revenue under $1 million as "Not a Fit at This Time." The Marketing Agency is Canadian and does not state its currency.

Skill Mammoth's plans start at $350 a month. A website build is $3,000, or $150 a month for 24 months. A solar-only agency brings trade knowledge a generalist has to learn, and that is a fair reason to pick one.

Ask any of them one question before you sign: who owns the website, the ad account and the phone number if you leave.

Three to skip

All three are still being sold to installers this year.

1. The tax credit ad. Any ad, page or script that promises a homeowner 30 percent back on a purchase is wrong on the IRS's own wording. Savings promises you cannot source belong in the same bin.
2. Shared leads as the plan. The same homeowner goes to four installers, and in Elevarus's example only 22 percent of those appointments happen.
3. Aged lead lists as a shortcut. A lead that costs $0.25 to $3.00 is a homeowner who asked up to a year ago, some of them before the credit ended.

Frequently asked questions

Is the federal solar tax credit still available for homeowners?

No. The IRS page for the residential clean energy credit says the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. An IRS fact sheet adds that an expenditure counts as made when the original installation is completed, so a deposit paid earlier does not qualify a later install.

Do leased or commercial solar systems still get a federal credit?

The homeowner with a lease or power purchase agreement gets no tax benefit, because a company owns the system. That owner can use the business investment credit. An IRS notice says it ends for solar facilities placed in service after December 31, 2027 when construction begins after July 4, 2026.

How much does a solar lead cost?

Published prices vary by type. ActiveProspect's July 2026 roundup lists $25 to $100 for a shared marketplace lead, $100 to $250 for an exclusive one and $150 to $500 for a booked appointment. Elevarus puts an exclusive Google Search lead at $140 to $220 in competitive metros.

What is solar SEO?

Solar SEO is the work of ranking an installer's website and Google Business Profile for the searches homeowners make, such as solar companies near me at 14,800 US searches a month. In practice it is a cost page, a battery page, a lease page and a page for each town. Agencies quote three to nine months for results.

Does Google Local Services Ads cover solar installers?

Google's Local Services Ads help page lists Solar energy contractor among its service categories as of November 12, 2026. The listings are pay per lead. Google prints no price for the category and says availability depends on your area, so run its eligibility check before you plan a budget around it.

How much does a solar marketing agency charge?

Of the seven agencies we read on page one for solar marketing or solar SEO, two print a price. The first, seo.solar, starts at $1,500 a month, and WebFX gives a typical range of $1,000 to $10,000-plus a month. Hook Agency lists $3,750 a month for local SEO. Skill Mammoth plans start at $350 a month.