Solar installer marketing for a market without the homeowner tax credit

Most homeowners meet a solar company at the front door before they search for one, and many have heard about a 30% tax credit that does not apply to any system installed after December 31, 2025. The installer who wins the sale now is the one whose site, reviews and ads say plainly what the system costs in cash, who owns it and what the power bill does next. We build that, and the tracking that shows which leads turn into installed systems.

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Taking on new residential solar installers now

Reviewed by Niomi Ascot on October 3, 2026

Bills set the selling season, and policy dates now set the deadlines

The ratings show how a typical year runs for a residential installer: a weak first quarter, a summer peak and a December that used to be the busiest month of all. The December homeowner credit rush is gone. The dates that matter now belong to utilities, regulators and the business credit that lease and PPA owners claim.

Demand through the year for residential solar installers

January: Slow
February: Slow
March: Steady
April: Busy
May: Busy
June: Peak
July: Peak
August: Busy
September: Busy
October: Steady
November: Steady
December: Busy

January to March: Wood Mackenzie and SEIA describe the first quarter as seasonally weak, with installs rebounding sharply in the second quarter of 2026. Use the quiet weeks for the compliance pass on ads and pages, review requests to last year's customers and a Local Services Ads application, which Google screens in three to four weeks on average.
April to September: Bills climb into summer. The EIA puts the average residential price at 16.42 cents per kWh in the first quarter of 2025 against 17.68 cents in the third. Savings and battery pages, written per utility, should be live before the first high bill lands.
July 4, 2026: Under IRS Notice 2025-42, a solar project that begins construction after this date keeps the 48E or 45Y business credit only if it is placed in service by December 31, 2027. Lease and PPA sellers should know from their financier which signed jobs fall on which side.
October and November: Cooler months, and the time to offer storage and backup to past customers before winter storms. In California, where new systems have been on the Net Billing Tariff since April 2023, the battery belongs in the first quote rather than the second visit.
December 15, 2026: In California, interconnection applications containing solar installation contracts signed on or after this date must include Version 4 of the CPUC's Solar Consumer Protection Guide. Sales packets, e-signature templates and rep scripts need the new version before then.
December 31, 2027: The placed-in-service cutoff for lease and PPA projects that began construction after July 4, 2026. Expect next year's installs to bunch toward it the way 2025 bunched toward the homeowner credit deadline, and pace marketing so the final quarter is not the only full one.

Where solar buyers come from, starting at the front door

Ranked by how much business each usually brings a residential installer. The first is not advertising at all, and it shapes everything after it: most homeowners hear a pitch in person, then go online to decide whether to believe it.

Door-to-door and in-home sales: The CFPB found solar salespeople commonly make first contact through a door-to-door introduction. It is also where trust breaks: 323 of the CSLB's investigated solar complaints in 2022 to 2023 were for misrepresentation or fraud. Whoever knocks, your reviews and your site are what the homeowner reads once the door closes.
Google Search, the map pack and your own site: Across industries, CallRail's January 2025 report found paid Google ads started 37% of calls and texts, Google business listings 23% and unpaid search results 22%. Battery searches, installer-near-me searches and solar cost by city all happen here, and so does the homeowner checking the company that visited on Saturday.
Lead sellers and comparison sites: Quote forms and shared leads fill a calendar quickly and vary widely in quality. In 2023 the FTC finalized an order against HomeAdvisor for deceptive claims about where its leads came from and how good they were, so ask every seller for the origin of each lead and follow each one to an install or a no.
Local Services Ads: Google lists Solar energy contractor as a US category, with the Google Verified badge. Expect Google to ask for general plus professional liability coverage, to look up your state license if your state issues one for this work and to require a public, verified Business Profile; some advertisers also face business and owner checks.
Neighbors who already have panels: A system on the next roof persuades more than any ad, and a past customer with a few months of lower bills is the best referrer an installer has. Ask after the first good bill arrives, not on install day.
AI assistants and review sites: In BrightLocal's 2026 consumer survey, 45% had asked ChatGPT or a similar generative AI tool to recommend a local business, compared with 6% the previous year. Those tools read the same reviews and pages a homeowner does, so a stale tax credit line on your site is a liability there as well.

Why an installer's plan starts with being believed

Most home service plans begin with being found. In solar the homeowner has usually found you already, through a rep, a neighbor or a mailer, and the question is whether what they read next matches what they were told. So trust comes first and new ad spend comes third.

Chosen

Being the one they pick once they have found a few.

Every page and ad still selling the 30% homeowner credit comes down first, replaced by the cash price, the ownership options and the license number. In a trade where the CSLB logged 2,263 solar complaints in a single year, recent reviews and plain numbers are what mark out a local installer.

Clear

Knowing which work produced which jobs.

A lead is worth very different amounts as a cash sale, a loan or a lease, and lead sources vary in quality. Call tracking and a report that follows every source to installed systems, split by ownership type, come before any budget increase.

Found

Being the company that shows up when someone searches.

Google Business Profile cleaned up, the Solar energy contractor category in Local Services Ads with its Google Verified badge, and search campaigns on bill, battery and installer terms. Any campaign that offers a loan is built inside Google's consumer finance limits, which rule out ZIP code targeting.

Kept

Turning one job into the next one and the referral.

Monitoring alerts, service reminders and battery offers to past customers, then a referral ask once the first good bills arrive. The FTC notes a residential system is designed to stay on a home for at least 20 years: two decades of service calls, upgrades and introductions to the neighbors.

Weeks 1 to 2

A compliance pass on every page, ad, profile and sales sheet: tax credit wording, a cash price beside any monthly figure, license numbers where California and Florida require them and, in California, disclosures in the language the pitch is made in.

Weeks 3 to 6

Call tracking by source, a lead-to-install report split into cash, loan, lease and PPA, the Local Services Ads application and a review request to every customer installed in the past year.

Weeks 7 to 12

Battery and ownership pages written for each utility territory, search campaigns on bill and battery terms, and a past-customer program covering monitoring, service and referrals.

Installers who still pick up the phone after the panels are on

California's Contractors State License Board (CSLB) investigated 1,625 solar complaints between July 2022 and June 2023, and 1,232 of them were about workmanship or abandonment. The companies we help most are built the other way around: local crews, a license that matches the work, and someone who comes back when a system stops producing.

The local installer with its own crews

Licensed for the work (a C-46 Solar or C-10 Electrical license in California, a solar contractor license under Florida law), installing with its own people and servicing what it sells. This year it is usually adding leases or PPAs beside cash and loans, and the website still sells the old credit.

The solar-plus-storage specialist

California's Net Billing Tariff has covered new interconnection applications since April 15, 2023 and credits exports at their value to the grid, a design the CPUC said financially incentivizes battery storage. Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia all moved on net metering successors in the second quarter of 2026. Where exports earn less, the battery carries the sale, and the pages have to explain why.

The electrical contractor adding panels and batteries

Years of service upgrades and repair calls have already built the customer list a newcomer to solar would pay for. The work here is a second offer to homeowners who already trust you, sold by your own staff rather than a hired door crew.

The company whose 2025 pipeline ran on the credit

If last year's sales calendar was built on a December 31 deadline, this year needs a different pitch. Wood Mackenzie and SEIA expect residential installs to shrink 23% in 2026. We rebuild the offer around the bill, the battery and an honest choice between owning and leasing.

Who we would point elsewhere. Sales-only door crews that subcontract every install and close on tax credit promises. The rules, the complaint record and the enforcement in this trade make that model a liability, and we would not write its ads. The same goes for anyone who wants a low monthly payment in the headline and the cash price out of sight: the CFPB found dealer fees that can lift a solar loan's principal 30 percent or more above the cash price, and Minnesota's attorney general sued four solar lenders in 2024, alleging they told installers to play down the inflated price and stress the monthly payment.

Local Services Ads, bought leads or the door crew, and the rules attached to each

Three common ways an installer pays for a first conversation with a homeowner. Most use at least two. The rules and checks come from Google, the FTC and California's regulators, and the rest is how each channel usually works. Prices vary by market, so ask each source for its terms in writing.

Question	Local Services Ads	Bought leads (lead sellers, comparison sites)	Door-to-door and in-home sales
How you pay	Google charges for each valid call, message or booking, within a weekly budget	Set by each seller; ask whether the same lead goes to other installers	Rep pay and commission, with no media cost
What the homeowner knows about you	Your name, your reviews and the Google Verified badge before they call	Often only that they asked for quotes somewhere	Whatever the rep said, checked online afterward
Rules that come with it	General and professional liability cover, licensing checked against state records where required, a verified profile	The seller's own terms, and a reminder from the FTC's 2023 HomeAdvisor order that lead descriptions can be deceptive	FTC Cooling-Off Rule: until midnight of the third business day to cancel, two copies of the cancellation form; in California, the CSLB disclosure and the CPUC guide signature
Leads you would not have chosen	Some automatic credits, but none for a job type or area you do not serve	Get the replacement policy in writing first	Cancellations inside the three-day window; in California, no construction should start before it closes
Before you start	Screening of about three to four weeks on average	A contract with the seller and a way to tag every lead's source	Rep training on disclosures, cancellation forms and, in California, the language rule
Best at	Homeowners already searching for an installer or a battery	Volume while your own reviews build, if every lead is followed to an install	Streets where you already have systems to point at

The shift of Local Services Ads into Google Ads started in August 2026, and solar energy contractors were left out of that opening group. Google's schedule puts storefront-free service-area businesses next, in late 2026, and every other category in 2027. When solar moves, the badge and pay-per-lead billing come with it, and manual bidding does not.

No benchmark tracks solar leads, so judge them against the install

Solar has no line of its own in any published lead-cost benchmark. Below are the market figures that matter this year and the nearest lead-cost medians, from LocaliQ's home services report (April 2024 to March 2025) and WordStream by LocaliQ's Facebook data (April 2025 to June 2026). None of them is a Beyaoshy result; they show what the market charges. Against a system that averaged about $25,000, a lead's price only means something next to how many leads install.

995 MWdc

Residential solar installed nationally in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest quarter in five years

Wood Mackenzie and SEIA, September 2026

30%+

How far dealer fees can lift a solar loan's principal above the cash price

CFPB, 2024

18.20 cents

Forecast average residential electricity price per kWh for 2026, up from 17.30 cents in 2025

EIA, September 2026

$25,000

Approximate average cost of a residential solar installation, citing industry data

CFPB, 2024

Median cost per lead in the nearest published categories

Search ads for Doors & Windows Sales, a comparable in-home sale (April 2024 to March 2025)$200.34
Search ads for Electricians & Electrical Contractors, whose C-10 license covers solar in California (same window)$93.69
Search ads across every home service category LocaliQ tracks (same window)$90.92
Home & Home Improvement lead campaigns on Facebook (April 2025 to June 2026)$42.95

Neither report has a solar line. Big in-home sales such as doors and windows sit at the top of the range, nearer to how a solar contract gets signed. Lead forms on Facebook come cheaper but seldom turn into a site survey without a call back first. Sources: LocaliQ; WordStream by LocaliQ.

Our plans are affordable for a local installer running a few crews. We size the work to the utility territories you cover and the ownership options you sell, and you see our first moves on paper, at no cost, before committing a dollar.

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Where a paid-for solar lead can still come apart

Solar is sold over weeks, usually financed and often signed at the kitchen table. Each of those stretches the time between the first click and the install, and each brings its own rule to break or its own silence to fill.

Our setters call and text every lead until they answer

Under the FCC's rules, autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls and texts to cell phones need prior express written consent, and the FCC confirmed in 2024 that a cloned or AI voice counts as an artificial one. A number on the Do Not Call registry can be called only with the person's signed written permission or within an established business relationship, 18 months after a purchase or three months after an inquiry, and that relationship ends the moment the person asks you to stop. Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland add an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. window for solicitation calls and a cap of three in 24 hours on the same subject.

The fix. Put a separate, unchecked consent box on every form that names your company and says calls and texts may be automated, and store the timestamp and the exact wording. Scrub lists against Do Not Call, schedule follow-ups between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the lead's time zone with no more than three attempts in any 24 hours, and honor a stop request on every channel. That schedule meets the three states above; it is not a nationwide safe window. None of this is legal advice; have counsel check each state you sell in.

We advertise no interest for 18 months on the panels

If the loan behind that line is deferred interest, Regulation Z requires "if paid in full" and the period right beside every "no interest" claim, never in a footnote, and a statement near the first one that interest runs from the purchase date if the balance is not cleared in time. A true 0% APR with no interest ever owed is not deferred interest, and the lender can tell you which one you are selling.

The fix. Get the lender's approved copy for each product, use it word for word in the ad and on the landing page, drop the claim anywhere the full wording will not fit, and have counsel check it before launch.

The rep closes at the table and books the install for tomorrow

A sale of $25 or more made at the buyer's home carries the FTC's three-day cancellation right, and the rule bars the seller from passing the buyer's note to a lender before midnight of the fifth business day. In California, homeowners 65 and older get five business days to cancel a home improvement contract signed at home. A loan secured by the house follows Truth in Lending's rescission rules instead.

The fix. Book installs after the cancellation window, give the buyer two completed notices and explain the right out loud, and in California carry the state's statutory forms, the senior version included. Have counsel review the packet for every state and every financing product you sell.

Proposals go out and nobody owns them

A solar proposal often waits on a utility bill review, a spouse or a question about the roof, and in our experience the company that answers those first gets the signature. We have found no published follow-up figure for solar that we would trust.

The fix. Give every proposal one owner. Text the system size and the one question they raised the same day, then make each later contact the answer to one open question, such as shading, roof age or the utility's export rate, rather than a call to check in. When the questions run out, ask outright whether they are still deciding. Text only the leads who agreed to texts.

What a solar ad can honestly say about money now

Through 2025, most residential solar advertising led with one number: 30%. That was the Residential Clean Energy Credit, and the IRS is plain that it is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Its August 2025 FAQ closed the obvious workaround as well: if installation is completed after that date, the spending is treated as made after it, so a deposit paid in December did not carry the credit into a January install.

That leaves three honest stories, one for each way a homeowner can pay.

Cash. The price, the expected production and the bill it offsets. The EIA’s September 2026 outlook puts the average residential price at 17.30 cents per kWh in 2025 and forecasts 18.20 cents for 2026 and 18.59 cents for 2027. Rates differ widely by utility, so a savings claim should use the local rate, never the national one.

Loan. The cash price first, then the monthly figure. The CFPB’s 2024 review of solar financing found dealer fees that can raise principal 30 percent or more above the cash price, and loans built around a prepayment of typically 30 percent. With no homeowner credit this year, a buyer would have to find that prepayment somewhere else, so any loan quoted that way needs rechecking before a homeowner sees it.

Lease or PPA. The installer or a financier owns the system and may claim a business credit. IRS Notice 2025-42 ends the 48E and 45Y credits for solar placed in service after December 31, 2027 when construction begins after July 4, 2026. That credit lowers the owner’s cost. It is not a saving the homeowner claims, and copy that suggests otherwise repeats the old mistake in a new form. The FTC tells homeowners to ask themselves how long they plan to stay in the home, which is the right question for a system it says is designed to stay on a house for at least 20 years, and a fair one for your own FAQ to raise.

Whichever story fits the sale, the safe practice is the same: have your tax adviser approve any sentence that mentions a credit, keep the cash price in view, and update the page the day a rule changes.

Solar sales habits that now cost installs or invite a regulator

"30% federal tax credit" still in the ad: The IRS says the homeowner credit does not cover property placed in service after the last day of 2025, and paying early did not help: if installation finished after that date, the spending counts as made after it. The CFPB had already criticized credit pitches made with a presumption of universality. Sell the bill, the battery and the ownership choice instead, and have a tax adviser approve any credit wording.
A monthly payment with the cash price hidden: The CFPB found dealer fees that can raise a loan's principal 30 percent or more above the cash price, and Minnesota's attorney general alleged that most customers of four solar lenders never learned they were paying up to 36% more for financing rather than paying cash. Put the cash price beside every monthly figure, in ads and in quotes.
A Spanish pitch and an English contract: In California the solar contract must be written in the language principally used in the oral sales presentation or in the marketing material given to the consumer, and the CSLB disclosure document goes on its front page in boldface 16-point type. Spanish ads and Spanish-speaking reps mean Spanish paperwork, start to finish.
No license number on the ad: California's Business and Professions Code section 7030.5 makes a contractor print its license number in every form of advertising, and Florida's statute wants it in each advertisement, whatever the medium. In California that license is a C-46 Solar or a C-10 Electrical. It belongs on every ad, the footer of every page, your Business Profile and the yard signs your crews plant.
Shared leads that nobody follows to the install: A shared lead looks cheap until it is measured against installed systems. The FTC's HomeAdvisor order is a reminder that a seller's description of its leads can be wrong, so tag every lead by source and judge each source on signed contracts and completed installs, never on volume.

What we check for an installer, free, before you decide anything

Any installer who contacts us gets the first consult free, a candid read on how the business looks to a homeowner today and a written plan that is theirs to keep, hired or not. For a residential solar company it covers:

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Where you appear for searches such as "solar installers near me", "solar battery installation" and solar cost in your main cities, and who holds the map pack and Local Services Ads slots, national lease providers included.
Every page, ad and sales sheet read for tax credit claims, a hidden cash price, missing license numbers and, in California, whether the paperwork matches the language of the pitch.
Your reviews beside the two or three installers you meet most often: the count, the last three months, and how your replies handle complaints about service after install.
How calls and web leads are answered, and whether anything follows them to an installed system, split by cash, loan, lease and PPA.
A 90-day order of work set against your utility territories and the policy dates coming up.

What solar company owners ask us in the first call

Can I still advertise the 30% solar tax credit?

Not to homeowners who buy a system. The IRS says the Residential Clean Energy Credit (25D) cannot be claimed for a system placed in service after December 31, 2025. Leases and PPAs are different: the owner of the system may claim a business credit, which IRS Notice 2025-42 ends for solar placed in service after December 31, 2027 when construction began after July 4, 2026. That credit belongs to the owner, not the homeowner, so have your tax adviser approve any wording before it runs.

Residential solar is shrinking. Should I cut marketing?

Cut waste, not visibility. Wood Mackenzie and SEIA put second-quarter 2026 residential installs at 995 MWdc, the lowest quarter in five years, and expect a 23% contraction this year, while Wood Mackenzie's June outlook expects recovery in 2027, supported by third-party ownership and rising retail electricity rates. A smaller market rewards the installers whose tracking shows which leads install.

Can solar installers run Local Services Ads?

Yes. Solar energy contractor is a US category, and its ads carry the Google Verified badge, the single label Google put in place of Guaranteed and Screened in October 2025. Expect insurance, licensing and profile checks that take three to four weeks on average. Solar was not in the opening August 2026 group of accounts shifted into Google Ads. How we run Local Services Ads beside search campaigns.

What does a solar lead cost?

Nobody publishes a solar figure, so a precise quote is a guess. The nearest medians: $90.92 per lead across 16 home service categories on Google search and $200.34 for Doors & Windows Sales (LocaliQ, April 2024 to March 2025), and $42.95 for Facebook lead forms in Home & Home Improvement (WordStream by LocaliQ, data from April 2025 through June 2026). Judge every source on cost per installed system, not cost per lead.

Should we keep door knocking?

That is your call. If you do, the FTC Cooling-Off Rule lets the homeowner cancel up to midnight of the third business day, and the seller must hand over two copies of a cancellation form. In California every sale also needs the CSLB disclosure document, and in PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, BVES, PacifiCorp and Liberty territory the customer initials and signs the CPUC consumer protection guide. Our part is making sure what the homeowner finds online backs up what the rep said.

What changes for California solar sales on December 15, 2026?

The guide version. Interconnection applications containing solar installation contracts signed on or after December 15, 2026 must include Version 4 of the CPUC's California Solar Consumer Protection Guide, and customers must be given time to read it before signing. Swap it into every sales packet and e-signature template before that date.

Can we target financing ads by ZIP code?

Not if Google treats the ad as a credit offer. In the US and Canada, Google bars targeting consumer finance ads such as loans by age, gender, parental or marital status, and ZIP code targeting cannot be used. An ad selling a solar loan may fall under that rule, so we confirm how Google classifies each campaign before building anything around ZIP codes.

Can a local company win against the national lease providers?

On what a national brand cannot show in your town: local reviews, a local license and service after the install. Nearly half of the consumers BrightLocal surveyed in 2026 (47%) rule out a company showing under 20 reviews, and about three in four (74%) weigh only reviews posted in the past three months. Workmanship and abandonment top the CSLB's solar complaint list, so a crew that comes back is worth saying out loud. How we run review requests.

Where do I find local incentives worth advertising?

Start with DSIRE, the incentive database run by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at NC State since 1995, then confirm each program with the utility or agency before it goes in an ad. Programs open, fill and close, and an expired rebate in an ad does the same damage as an expired tax credit.

Do batteries change how we should market?

In California, yes. The Net Billing Tariff, which applies to interconnection applications submitted since April 15, 2023, credits exports at their value to the grid, and the CPUC said the design financially incentivizes battery storage. In states moving to net metering successors, such as Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, check each utility's new rules before writing a savings claim.

How to start a solar installation companyHow to start a solar installation company after 25D: Texas TDLR registration, California C-46 or C-10, the CPUC guide, Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, NABCEP.

Written for residential solar installers

What residential solar installers start with

Reviews & Reputation

More reviews, handled properly

Google Ads

Search and Local Services Ads

Websites & Conversion

Fast sites that turn visits into calls

Find out what a homeowner reads about you after the rep leaves

Tell us your company, the utility territories you install in and how your sales split between cash, loans, leases and PPAs. You get back where you rank for installer and battery searches across those territories, how your reviews compare with the installers you meet most, every line on your site and ads that a regulator or a tax adviser would question, and where we would start.

A free consult. A real conversation about your business, your area and what is not working yet.
An honest evaluation. Where you stand in search, ads and follow-up next to the businesses you lose customers to.
A plan you keep. What we would fix first and why. It is yours whether or not you work with us.

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Sources

The figures on this page come from these published sources, checked on October 3, 2026. Benchmarks are averages across many advertisers; your market will differ, which is what the free plan is for.

Agencies with residential solar installers among their clients: see the partner model.