Solar leads UK: what a lead really costs in 2026, by channel

Bar chart of typical UK cost per solar lead in 2026: shared leads £15 to £50, exclusive leads £18 to £150, Meta ads £18 to £80 and Google Ads £80 to £250

The short answer: in 2026 a UK solar installer pays roughly £15 to £50 for a shared lead, £18 to £150 for an exclusive lead, £18 to £80 from Meta ads and £80 to £250 from Google Ads. Those are costs per lead. What matters is cost per installed job, and that depends on how many of those leads were ever going to buy.

Disclosure: I run Solar Mailshot, a direct mail service for solar installers, so I have an interest in this topic. The figures for other channels below come from the published sources listed at the end, which are mostly marketing agencies and lead sellers. Treat them as ranges, not promises.

What each channel costs per lead

Channel	Typical cost	What to know
Shared leads	£15 to £50 per lead	The same enquiry is usually sold to 3 to 5 installers at once.
Exclusive leads	£18 to £150 per lead	Sold to one installer. Budget sellers advertise from £8 to £15, premium providers charge £50 to £150.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads	£18 to £80 per lead	Cheapest per lead online, but quality varies widely.
Google Ads	£80 to £250 per lead	Domestic solar clicks typically cost £3 to £9 each. Budgets of £1,000 to £3,000 a month are common.
Leaflet drops	£40 to £70 per 1,000 delivered	Typical response rates of 0.5% to 2%. Print and design are extra.
Targeted direct mail	£1.30 to £2.50 per letter	Only roofs that pass a viability check are mailed. This is the Solar Mailshot price.

Bar chart showing the range of cost per solar lead in the UK by channel: shared leads £15 to £50, exclusive leads £18 to £150, Meta ads £18 to £80, Google Ads £80 to £250 — Typical UK cost per solar lead by channel, 2026. Ranges taken from the published sources listed below.

Why cost per lead misleads

A lead is just an enquiry. A £20 shared lead that is also sitting in three other installers' inboxes can end up costing more per installed job than a £50 exclusive lead, because you divide your spend by jobs won, not by leads bought.

Here is the arithmetic, with made-up conversion rates to show the method. These are not benchmarks:

Spend £1,000 on shared leads at £25 each and you get 40 leads. If 1 in 20 turns into an install, you win 2 jobs. That is £500 per job.
Spend £1,000 on exclusive leads at £50 each and you get 20 leads. If 1 in 8 turns into an install, you win 2.5 jobs. That is £400 per job.

Change the conversion rates and the answer flips. The only way to know is to track jobs won by source for a few months.

What a leaflet drop really costs

At £70 per 1,000 leaflets and a 1% response rate, you get 10 responses, which is £7 each before printing. At 0.5% it is £14 each, and at 2% it is £3.50. That looks cheap, but an unaddressed leaflet goes through every door on the round, including flats, rented homes, homes that already have panels and roofs that face the wrong way. Most of the cost is spent reaching people who could never buy.

What targeted direct mail costs

Mailing 1,000 homes costs £1,300 to £2,500, which is far more per piece than a leaflet. The difference is who receives it. Every roof is graded from LiDAR data first, and flats, council homes, listed buildings, commercial property and homes with existing solar are removed before you pay. The letter shows the homeowner their own roof from above, with panels drawn on.

The break-even is simple arithmetic, not a forecast. A typical 4kW installation is worth around £7,000, and a system with a battery £10,000 to £14,000, according to FMB and Heatable. At the top rate of £2.50 per letter, one £7,000 install is the revenue from 2,800 letters. Revenue is not profit, so work out your own margin before you plan a campaign.

How Solar Mailshot solves these problems

Each channel above fails in a predictable way. Here is what we do about each one.

The problem	The usual way	With Solar Mailshot
The same enquiry is sold to 3 to 5 installers	Shared leads	It isn't a lead marketplace. You choose your own properties and commission your own campaign, and each home you mail is reserved for you for 6 months and removed from every other installer's search.
You pay per click in a bidding war	Google Ads	There is no auction. You pay per letter, at a price you know before you start: £1.30 to £2.50 per credit, and one credit is one letter.
Most of the spend reaches people who can't buy	Leaflet drops	Every roof is graded A+ to C from LiDAR roof data. Flats, council homes, listed buildings, commercial property and homes with existing solar are removed before you pay.
Cheap enquiries that never turn into jobs	Meta ads	Each homeowner gets a letter showing their own roof from above with panels drawn on, what it could generate and what it could save, so they open it already looking at their own home.
Retainers and a pile of admin	Agencies	We write, print and post every letter under your branding. There is no subscription and no contract, and you only pay for what you send.

There is a trade-off. A personalised letter costs more per piece than a leaflet. That is why the viability check matters: you spend on the roofs most likely to suit solar, not on every door on the round.

If you want the lowest-risk first test, use Tell the Neighbours. After an install, the neighbours have already seen your van and scaffolding. Solar Mailshot posts each of them a letter showing the potential on their own roof, with a happy customer right next door. It is a small spend on a street that already knows your name. Register your solar company and search your territory to see every graded roof before you spend a penny.

How to choose

Track jobs won by source. Ask every customer how they found you and write it down.
Judge channels on cost per installed job, never cost per lead.
Avoid paying for the same prospect as your competitors. That is the main weakness of shared leads and of bidding on the same Google keywords, and the reason Solar Mailshot lets you choose and keep your own properties.
Start where trust already exists. After an install, the neighbours have seen your van and scaffolding. A letter to those homes is the cheapest first test of direct mail.