Google Ads
for solar.

Someone typing 'solar battery rebate nsw' and someone typing 'battery installers central coast' are at different points. The first wants to know if it's worth it. The second has decided and wants a name. Most solar accounts send both to the same 'Get a free quote' page and wonder why the rebate traffic doesn't convert.

Give rebate searches a page that answers the question properly: the current factor, the date it changes and a worked example. The battery rebate page has the schedule. Give buyer searches a page built to book: licence number, a price guide, real local installs and a short form. Split them into separate campaigns, so each has its own budget and you can see which one is paying.

Then there's everything else in a solar search terms report: people looking for jobs, panel cleaning, camping panels, garden lights, or help with a battery someone else installed. They cost money and never buy.

Paste a month of search terms from your account. Negative keywords exclude search terms from your campaigns, so the sorter builds a starting list from the terms that will never buy an install. Read it before you add it: if you do sell panel cleaning, take that word out.

This is the setting I'd change first. Google's default is Presence or interest: people in, regularly in, or who have shown interest in your targeted locations. For a hotel that's sensible. For an installer on the Central Coast it means paying for a click from someone in Melbourne who once looked up Terrigal.

Switch it to Presence, which reaches people in or regularly in the area. Then target the suburbs and postcodes you actually install in, not a 100 km circle that takes in half the Hunter. If your crews will go to Newcastle but not Muswellbrook, the map should say so.

Read the location report once a month. If clicks come from places you don't service, tighten the targeting rather than adding more budget.

Every ad that quotes the battery discount has a use-by date. Write it into the ad. Google's countdown customizers count down to a set time and automatically stop the ad showing after the end date. Set one to midnight on 31 December and the rebate ad can't run into January by mistake. Have the 5.7 version written and scheduled to start on 1 January.

Keep the rebate figure out of headlines you can't easily change, such as sitelinks and image assets reused across campaigns. One rebate line in one place is easy to update. Twelve copies is how old numbers survive.

Be careful with how close the ad looks to the government. Google treats impersonating or falsely implying affiliation with an organisation as an egregious breach and says it suspends accounts without warning. 'Federal battery discount, installed by us' is fine. An ad styled to look like it comes from a government department isn't worth the risk.

A form fill from a renter, an apartment owner or someone three postcodes outside your area looks exactly like a good lead to Google. If that's what you count, that's what Smart Bidding finds more of. Count calls from ads with a minimum call length so hang-ups don't count, then go further.

Enhanced conversions for leads lets you import what happened after the lead, using hashed customer data to attribute it back to the campaign. For solar, the stages worth sending are site visit booked and quote signed. A solar sale often takes weeks from enquiry to signature, so send the site visit stage too, or the system waits too long to learn.

Ask the question on every call as well: 'How did you find us?'. Since October 2026, many ChatGPT clicks have reportedly arrived in GA4 with no tag and no referrer, so they show as direct traffic. Don't assume your analytics tells you every source.

Run ads when someone can answer. An ad schedule that matches your office hours stops you paying for calls that go to voicemail on a Sunday night. For forms out of hours, a text within minutes saying when you'll call does more than a polished thank-you page.

Then match spend to install capacity. The CER caps claims at two installations per installer per day, so there's a hard ceiling on what any crew can do before a step-down. The solar budget page works backwards from your crews to a daily budget.