How to Buy Solar Leads in the UK Without Getting Burned (2026)
Type “buy solar leads” into Google and you’ll find dozens of suppliers promising the same thing: quality homeowner enquiries, straight to your inbox. Some are decent. Plenty aren’t. The difference usually costs a few hundred pounds to discover.
Here’s a practical checklist for UK installers: seven checks, in order, that work against any supplier. Including us.
What Should You Decide Before You Buy Solar Leads?
Before you buy solar leads, decide which of three models fits your business: pay-per-lead, where you buy enquiries and do your own follow-up; pay-per-appointment, where surveys are booked into your diary; or an agency retainer, where you fund ad spend plus a monthly management fee. Each suits a different stage.
Step 1: pick your model. Leads are cheapest per unit and give you control of the first conversation, but only work if someone can pick up the phone quickly. Appointments, published from around £130 each, suit installers with no spare capacity to chase enquiries. Retainers make sense for larger firms with serious monthly budgets, almost never for a two-van operation.
Not sure? Start with leads: smallest commitment, fastest learning. We’ve compared the main UK options in our guide to the best solar lead generation companies in the UK.
How Do You Check a Solar Lead Supplier’s Claims?
Three checks separate serious suppliers from lead recyclers: ask whether the lead is ever resold, ask for a published standard defining a billable lead, and read the replacement policy before you pay a penny. A supplier who hesitates on any of these three is telling you something useful.
Step 2: test the exclusivity claim. “Exclusive” is the most abused word in this industry. Ask one question, word for word: “Is this lead resold, to anyone, at any point, ever?” Then a second: “How many installers do you work with in my area?” The strongest answer is one installer per area. Shared platform leads run £15-30 each and go to 3-5 installers, a different product entirely. More on why in exclusive vs shared solar leads.
Step 3: demand a published lead standard. What exactly counts as a billable lead? If a wrong number, a renter, or an enquiry from forty miles away all count, you’re funding the supplier’s failures. A proper standard is specific: real name, full address, working phone, confirmed homeowner, inside your agreed postcodes. If it isn’t written down anywhere public, it doesn’t exist.
Step 4: read the replacement policy before buying, not after. Claim windows are the red flag here. “Report bad leads within 48 hours or pay for them anyway” is a policy designed around your busiest weeks, when you’re on roofs, not auditing spreadsheets. The fair version is simple: any lead that fails the published standard gets replaced free, no claim window. If the policy only appears after you’ve paid, walk.
How Much Should You Pay When You Buy Solar Leads?
Published UK prices range from £8-15 at the budget end to £15-30 for shared leads, £50-150 for premium exclusive providers, and £80-250 per lead if you run your own Google Ads, per Phantom Digital’s figures. But the sticker price tells you almost nothing on its own.
Step 5: work out cost per installation, not cost per lead. The only formula that matters is: lead price × leads per survey × surveys per job. Run it on your own close rate, because a £20 lead can easily cost more per installation than a £60 one.
| Model | Published UK price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Budget lead vendors | From £8-15 | Often aged or recycled data |
| Shared platform leads | £15-30 | Sold to 3-5 installers each |
| Premium exclusive leads | £50-150 | Phantom Digital’s published range |
| DIY Google Ads | £80-250 per lead | Phantom Digital’s published range |
| Booked appointments | From around £130 | Survey booked for you |
PoweredLeads sits at from £45 per accepted lead, exclusive, one installer per area. The full market breakdown is in our solar lead cost comparison.
How Should You Test a New Solar Lead Supplier?
Start with a small block of leads, never a long commitment, and treat the first batch as a paid test of two things at once: the supplier’s lead quality and your own follow-up speed. Then ask the zero question before signing anything: “If I buy nothing next month, what do I pay?”
Step 6: buy small and speed-test yourself. A first block tells you everything a contract would, at a fraction of the risk. While you’re testing the supplier, test yourself too: time your first call on each lead. A good lead called two days late performs like a bad lead, the most common reason installers blame the supplier for a problem in their own diary. At PoweredLeads, leads land by email or straight into your CRM within minutes, so the clock is genuinely yours. How the block model works is published, and first leads usually arrive within three to five working days.
Step 7: ask the zero question. “If I buy nothing next month, what do I pay?” With a retainer, the answer is the full fee. With a contract, it’s whatever the exit clause says. The answer you want is: nothing. No retainer, no monthly fees, no contract means the supplier only earns when they deliver leads you accepted.
Check If Your Area Is Still Open
Run this checklist against us first if you like. Exclusive leads from £45 per accepted lead, one installer per area, every lead verified against the Four-Point Accepted Lead Standard before delivery, and anything that misses it replaced free, no claim window.
Check if your area is still open
One installer per area means postcodes do close. We’ll tell you straight away if yours is open and what your leads would cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to buy solar leads in the UK?
Published UK prices range from £8-15 at the budget end, £15-30 for shared leads sold to 3-5 installers, and £50-150 for premium exclusive providers according to Phantom Digital. Booked appointments start from around £130. Judge suppliers on cost per installation, not price per lead.
What is a claim window on solar leads?
A claim window is a deadline for reporting bad leads, typically 48 or 72 hours, after which you pay regardless. It shifts the cost of bad data onto your busiest weeks. Prefer suppliers who publish a clear lead standard and replace failures free with no claim window.
Should I buy solar leads or booked appointments?
Buy leads if you can call enquiries quickly: you’ll pay less per enquiry and keep control of the conversation. Buy appointments, published from around £130 each, if you have no capacity to follow up. Avoid retainers until your volume genuinely justifies a management fee.
How many solar leads should I buy to start?
Start with a small block rather than a long commitment: enough to test lead quality and your own speed to first call, small enough that a poor supplier costs you little. Judge results on surveys booked and installations won, then scale or walk away.