Google Ads for San Diego solar companies.

With Google Ads, a solar company pays to appear on the results page when a homeowner searches for an installer, a battery or a quote, and then tracks that click for the weeks it takes to become a contract or not. Compared with Google Ads management for a repair trade, the competition for clicks is different and the result of a click takes weeks to show.

Who you’re bidding against

National installers and sellers of shared solar leads want the same clicks you do. A lead seller’s ad often looks like a comparison service: the homeowner fills out a form, and their details are sold to several installers. That business can spread the cost of a click across every buyer of the lead, which tends to push prices up on broad searches such as “solar quotes”. I don’t try to outbid them there. A local company usually does better on narrower searches where being local is the point, such as a named city or a specific service, and on its own company name.

Searches to pay for, and searches to exclude

“Solar installers in Chula Vista” or “add battery to existing solar” comes from someone close to asking for quotes, and late searches like those are the ones to buy. Early questions about whether solar pays are better served by pages on your site than by paid clicks, because that reader is weeks from deciding.

Then there are searches that contain the word solar and have nothing to do with you: garden lights, do-it-yourself kits, jobs and training, panel cleaning if you don’t offer it. Each goes on a negative keyword list, which tells Google not to show your ad for it. I read the search terms report, the record of what people typed, and add to the list as new ones appear.

One campaign per kind of buyer

A new buyer and the owner of an existing system need different ads and different pages. Someone searching for a battery to add to panels they already have should land on a page about exactly that. I split the search ads into campaigns along those lines, so I can judge each budget separately.

Tracking past the form

Google can’t see a signed contract unless you report it back, and cost per signed contract is the figure I steer by. By default an account counts form submissions and calls. With a sale that takes weeks, steering by form fills rewards whichever searches produce the most forms, including forms from renters and from people outside your area. Google Ads lets you import later outcomes, such as a qualified appointment or a signed agreement, against the original click. That requires your sales records to keep the click identifier, and call tracking for inquiries that arrive by phone.

Claims in the ad

I keep savings figures and incentive claims out of solar ads unless you can support them today. The utility’s current billing rules change, and an ad written last year keeps running until someone edits it. I’d rather advertise things that stay true, such as where you install and who does the work.

Local Services Ads

For some trades Google shows pay-per-lead listings above the other results, called Local Services Ads (LSA). Whether they are available depends on the trade and the area, and Google changes the list, so I check what is currently offered to a solar company before planning anything around them.