Local Services Ads for solar installers: renters, canvassed homeowners and cost per installed system
Local Services Ads put a solar installer in front of homeowners ready to talk, but many callers rent, have shaded roofs or heard solar is free, and some were already pitched by your reps. It pays when job types match what you install and each lead is followed past the signature to install in Enerflo, JobNimbus or OpenSolar.
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Symptoms
What LSA problems look like for solar installers
- 01
LSA cost per lead looks good. Your closers say most of the appointments it sets are renters, shaded roofs, or people who heard solar panels are free.
What it costs
Closers spend appointment slots on homes that could never sign, and the channel is judged on a lead count that includes all of them.
What’s happening
LSA charges for contacts related to your listing. A renter, a condo owner whose roof belongs to the association, or someone asking about a free government program is a valid lead to Google and a disqualification to your sales team.
- 02
A homeowner your door-knocker pitched in the spring searched your company name in the summer and called through the LSA listing.
What it costs
You pay a lead fee for customers you were going to close anyway, and LSA takes credit in the report for a sale your canvassing or a marketplace started.
What’s happening
Canvassing, EnergySage quotes and yard signs all send homeowners to search your name. The LSA listing sits above your own website in those results, so a customer your field team already found arrives as a new paid lead.
- 03
Customers from installs years ago keep calling the listing about inverter errors, the monitoring app, or production that looks low.
What it costs
Your service backlog shows up as lead spend, and the leads-per-month number you use to judge LSA is padded with people who already own your panels.
What’s happening
Google does not charge again for contact from the same number within 15 days, but a system owner calling about service has usually been quiet for far longer. Each of those calls through the listing can be a new charged lead.
- 04
The sales report credits LSA with signed contracts that later cancel at financing, site survey or permitting.
What it costs
The channel looks better than it is, and budget follows contracts that never turned into installed systems or revenue.
What’s happening
In solar the signature is not the finish line. A loan can fall through, the site survey can find a roof that needs replacing first, or the homeowner can cancel during the wait for permits. LSA only knows about the call; your sales platform knows which contracts reached install.
The goal
What a fixed LSA account looks like for solar installers
- Every charged LSA lead followed to an outcome: disqualified with a reason, appointment sat, contract signed, cancelled, installed.
- Cost per installed system and average system value from LSA, next to Search, judged on the quarter the leads arrived.
- Canvassed, marketplace and purchased leads labeled separately, so LSA stops taking credit for customers your field team found.
- Service calls routed to a service number, and service job types switched on only if a crew is there to answer them.
Eligibility
What Google checks before solar installers can run LSA
- 1Owner and business background checks. Google lists these for the Solar energy contractor category, applied to selected advertisers.
- 2A state-level business license and an owner license where local law requires them. Solar work can fall under a general contractor, electrical or specialty license depending on the state, so confirm which one your state expects before you apply.
- 3Proof of general liability insurance, applied to selected advertisers.
- 4A business registration check and a business representative check for selected advertisers, plus a public, verified Google Business Profile, which every Local Services advertiser needs.
Screening for “Solar energy contractor” · 2026-10-24
Job types
LSA job types for solar installers: what to switch on, what quietly costs money
Switch on
Residential rooftop solar installation
The core sale, and the homeowner who calls about it has usually looked at their electric bill and decided to get a quote. Keep it on and judge it on installed systems, not appointments.
Home battery installation, including adding storage to existing solar
Existing solar owners who want backup power are already sold on the technology and own their roof. Worth having on if you hold whatever installer certification the battery brands you sell require.
Solar system repair and maintenance, if you run a service crew
Owners whose original installer has gone out of business look for someone to take over their system. With a service crew these calls become paid visits and sometimes battery or expansion sales; without one, switch them off.
Panel removal and reinstall for a roof replacement
Homeowners replacing a roof need panels taken down and put back, and roofers refer the job out. A good fit if your crews already handle it, and the caller has a deadline set by the roofer.
Switch off, or check first
Commercial and agricultural solar, if you install on homes
Business owners expect production modeling, utility negotiations and a bid process. Each call is charged at the same lead fee whether or not your team can quote it.
Solar water heating and pool heating, unless that is your trade
A different product with different equipment. Callers looking for it expect a specialist, and Google does not credit job types you left switched on.
Off-grid cabins, RVs and small portable systems
Small tickets, often outside your service area, and many callers want equipment advice rather than an install.
Roof replacement, if you do not roof
Solar companies that partner with a roofer sometimes list roofing anyway. Every roofing call is billed to you and handed to someone else.
Bad leads
What a bad LSA lead looks like for solar installers
A renter, or a condo owner whose association controls the roof.
Ask about ownership early in the call and record the reason. If renters keep calling from one part of your area, it often means apartment-heavy ZIP codes are in the service area and should come out.
A caller asking about free solar or a no-cost government program.
Valid to Google, and rarely a buyer once the financing is explained. Record it as a disqualified lead with that reason so the share stays visible; rate it as low quality only if it truly is, since Google can credit low-quality leads automatically.
Lead sellers, canvassing companies and solar sales reps offering their services or looking for an installer partner.
Common in solar, where many sales companies need installers. Rate it as low quality in the LSA inbox and move on.
An existing customer calling about monitoring or an inverter fault.
Not a new sale. Put your service number in the monitoring app, the welcome packet and on the inverter label, so system owners stop finding you through the listing.
Ranking
What moves your LSA position as one of the solar installers in the auction
- 01
Answering the phone
Missed calls can lower your ranking. Solar sales teams are out on appointments most of the day, so LSA calls need an inside sales rep or answering service that can qualify and book a consultation, not a voicemail box.
- 02
Reviews
Rating and number of reviews count toward profile quality. Ask once the system is switched on and producing, not at signing, when the customer is about to wait through permits and utility approval and may review the wait instead.
- 03
Install photos
Google counts high-quality images in profile quality. Photos of your own installs on local roofs say more to a nervous homeowner than a manufacturer's stock image.
- 04
Bid and budget
Google recommends Maximize Leads. Size the budget to the consultations your closers can run in a week; an LSA budget that books more appointments than the team can sit just buys leads that go cold.
- 05
Service area
The location decides which providers are eligible. Keep it to the areas where you know the utility and permitting process and your crews can return for service.
Free LSA + Business Profile lead audit
What the free audit covers for solar installers
- Eligibility for “Solar energy contractor” and the Google Verified badge
- Job types: 4 to switch on, 4 to switch off or check
- Ranking: answering the phone and reviews
- 4 bad-lead patterns, and how to log them
- Whether every lead reaches Enerflo, JobNimbus or OpenSolar
- Business Profile: “Solar energy company” category and suspension risk
How it works
- 1Pick a 30-min slot
- 2Live session with Ariful
- 3Written audit in 24 hours
Free30 minutesNo obligation
How we work
Getting LSA leads into Enerflo, JobNimbus or OpenSolar, with proposals from Aurora Solar where you use it
- 1
What to record
A lead source of Google LSA on the deal or contact when the consultation is set, with the caller's phone number, carried through to the signed contract and the install.
- 2
How to match
Match each charged lead to a deal by phone number and call time, using the lead list from the LSA inbox or the Google Ads API. Then follow the stages your platform already tracks: appointment set, appointment sat, proposal, contract signed, install, permission to operate. In Enerflo that runs from the deal pipeline through the signed contract to install milestones. Judge LSA on contracts that reached install, not on signatures.
- 3
Lead feedback
Rate unusable leads in the LSA inbox and keep the disqualification reason on the deal: renter, association roof, shading, bill too low, already has solar. Keep financing outcomes out of anything shared with an ad platform; record a cancelled-at-financing stage, not the credit decision.
- 4
Monthly check
Monthly for lead quality, quarterly for installs. Count LSA leads from a quarter ago against the contracts they produced, the cancellations, and the systems installed. Keep EnergySage, SolarReviews, purchased leads and canvassed leads on separate rows; they have no click ID and are the leads most often mislabeled as Google.
No accuracy guarantee here: we report the share of LSA leads for solar installers matched to jobs, and the share we could not match.
Channel split
LSA, Search ads and the Business Profile for solar installers
Solar buyers research for weeks and collect several quotes, often through EnergySage or a lead seller as well as Google. LSA catches the homeowner who has finished reading and wants to talk to an installer now. Search ads fit the earlier buyer: a savings calculator or bill-upload form on your own site keeps the click ID, so contracts that reach install can be imported back with their value. The overlap to watch is your own name. Canvassing, yard signs and marketplace quotes all push homeowners to search for you, and when they call through the LSA listing you pay for a customer something else already found.
- Local Services Ads
- Homeowners calling to book a consultation in your core territory, judged on installed systems per lead.
- Search ads
- Solar, battery and savings searches sent to a calculator or bill-upload page, with installed contracts imported as offline conversions.
- Business Profile
- Reviews and install photos that every quoted homeowner checks. Track its calls on their own.
- Marketplaces, lead sellers and canvassing
- Separate sources in your sales platform, measured against installs. None of them carries a Google click ID, so keep them out of any upload to Google Ads.
Google Business Profile
The Business Profile side for solar installers
- Primary category
- Solar energy company
- Secondary
- Solar energy system service
- Suspension risk
- Moderate, elevated when expanding into new markets. Solar companies grow by opening sales territories, and the shortcut is a profile at a rented desk, a virtual office or a sales rep's home in each new market. Those are the locations Google's guidelines exclude. Dealer and installer partnerships add a second risk: duplicate profiles with similar names chasing the same customers.
- Address
- Most installers never receive customers at the warehouse: run a service-area profile with the address hidden and list the counties you install in. Show an address only where customers are actually served during staffed hours.
Honest fit check
When LSA is not worth it for solar installers
- Your install backlog runs months out. New consultations add contracts that may cancel during the wait, and you pay for each lead either way.
- Most of your sales come from door-to-door teams in neighborhoods you already canvass. LSA would mostly charge you for homeowners your reps have already met.
- You are a sales company and a partner installs. Check before applying that your license and insurance match the work you advertise, since screening checks them where local law requires.
- Nobody can answer and qualify calls while the closers are in the field. Missed calls hurt the ranking and are still charged once the caller holds on.
FAQ
Questions solar installers ask about Local Services Ads
Is Local Services Ads worth it for solar installers?
It is worth it when cost per installed system from LSA, measured in your sales platform, beats your other sources. Cost per lead is misleading in solar, where many callers cannot qualify and many signed contracts never reach install.
Why am I charged for renters and people asking about free solar?
Because they contacted you about a service you offer, which makes them valid leads. Qualify ownership early, rate genuinely low-quality leads in the inbox so Google can credit them automatically, and remove apartment-heavy ZIP codes if renters cluster there.
What does Google check before a solar installer can run LSA?
For the Solar energy contractor category Google lists owner and business checks, a state-level business license and owner license where local law requires them, general liability insurance, and business registration and representative checks, applied to selected advertisers. You also need a public, verified Business Profile. Approved advertisers get the Google Verified badge.
How do I track LSA leads in Enerflo or JobNimbus?
Set Google LSA as the lead source when the consultation is booked, keep the caller's number on the deal, and match the LSA lead list to deals by phone and call time. With no click ID this is a match rather than an import, so we report the matched share and do not promise an accuracy figure for LSA.
Should battery and service calls count as LSA wins?
Count them, but on their own rows. A battery added to an existing system and a repair visit are worth very different amounts from a new install, and mixing them makes the channel's cost per sale meaningless.
Free audit
A free LSA and Business Profile lead audit for solar installers
Job types, credits, reviews, and whether calls reach Enerflo, JobNimbus or OpenSolar, with proposals from Aurora Solar where you use it. How we run Google Ads
Free30 minutesNo obligation
- Agency since 202210-person team
- 300+ clients1,000+ projects
- CertifiedGoogle Ads · GA4 · Meta
Sources, checked October 24, 2026
- Google: Getting started with Local Services Ads (US category list)
- Google: Business screening and verification requirements
- Google: About the Google Verified badge
- Google: How leads work (charged and uncharged leads)
- Google: About automated Local Services Ads lead credits
- Google: About Local Services Ads rankings
