How heat pump and solar installers get more leads

Stop buying shared leads, and build a website and follow-up system that brings homeowners to you.

That’s how Eco Installer, a heat pump installer near Ely, went from about 15 website enquiries a month to 63 in three months. They now average 60 a month, and most of those arrive without an ad click. The steps below are exactly what we did, in order, with the real numbers.

Why bought leads keep you on the treadmill

Most installers we meet get work from referrals, a directory or two, and a lead-gen platform. The referrals are great but unpredictable, so work comes in feast-or-famine cycles. The bought leads are shared with three or four other firms, so you’re racing to the phone and competing on price with people who’ve never seen your work.

Enquiries that come through your own website are different. The homeowner has already read about you, seen your reviews and chosen to get in touch. They close at a far higher rate, they aren’t shared with anyone, and once the system is built it keeps working month after month.

What happened at Eco Installer

• Genuine website enquiries from about 15 a month in March to 63 in June, three months in
• It’s held: an average of 60 a month from August to October, with 71 in October, their best month yet
• Retrofit heat pump enquiries from 4 or 5 a month to a record 38 in October
• 341 genuine enquiries since March, 150 of them for retrofit
• £1.79m of work quoted from those enquiries, with over £1m still live
• Since June, 3 in 4 enquiries arrived without an ad click
• One guide to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant brought in 65 enquiries on its own

You can read the full story in the Eco Installer case study. Here’s how to get the same result.

1. Decide which jobs you want, and build a page for each

A single “our services” page can’t rank for anything and doesn’t convince anyone. Eco Installer wanted retrofit heat pumps most of all, so retrofit got its own page, and so did air source, ground source, solar and battery. Each page answers the questions a homeowner has about that job, shows real installs, and ends with a clear way to enquire.

One page per job type does two things: Google and AI tools can match it to the search, and the homeowner lands on a page about exactly what they need.

2. Answer the questions homeowners actually ask

Before anyone enquires, they want to know whether they qualify for the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, how much a heat pump costs, whether it will keep the house warm in a cold snap, whether they’ll need new radiators, and how loud it is. Answer those plainly, in your own words, and you become the installer they trust.

This is also how you get recommended by ChatGPT and Google’s AI. They quote clear, direct answers from businesses that obviously know what they’re talking about. Eco Installer’s grant guide alone has brought in 65 enquiries, and myth-busting content, like how loud a heat pump really is, is next on the list.

3. Make it easy to enquire, then reply fast

Short forms, a tap-to-call button on mobile, and an instant reply by text and email that sets expectations. Most buyers contact two or three installers, and the first useful reply usually wins.

Speed matters after the survey too. Eco Installer now turns survey notes into a finished quote in five to ten minutes using AI, instead of hours at the kitchen table in the evening. The quote lands while the homeowner is still thinking about it.

4. Follow up every quote

Most installers send the quote and wait. The ones who win the job check in after two days, five days and ten days, in a friendly, helpful way. A simple CRM does this automatically, and it also tells you where every enquiry came from and which ones turned into work. That’s how you know what’s working.

5. Use ads to fill the gaps, not to carry the business

Google Ads work well for installers, for searches like “air source heat pump installer near me”, as long as you exclude the searches you don’t want and send the click to the right page. But they should top up a system that already works. At Eco Installer, three in four enquiries now arrive without an ad click, which is what makes the growth affordable.

6. Get recommended by Google and the AI tools

Keep your Google Business Profile complete and ask every happy customer for a review. Add a page for each area you cover. Publish the answers from step two. Together, these are what put you in the local results, the AI overviews and ChatGPT’s recommendations, which is where more and more homeowners start.

What it costs, honestly

A website built this way starts from £7,500 + VAT. If you’d rather have the whole system run for you, including the content, the follow-up and the ads, our Enquiry Engine starts from £1,800 + VAT a month. Either way, start with a free Growth Audit: we’ll check your website, your Google rankings and what ChatGPT says about you, then tell you what to do first.

Common questions

Should I buy heat pump leads? Only to plug a short-term gap. Bought leads are shared, close at a low rate, and leave you with nothing when you stop paying. Enquiries from your own website close better and keep coming.

How long does it take? Eco Installer got four times the enquiries in three months. Search rankings keep building for six to twelve months after that.

Does this work for solar and battery installers? Yes. The jobs are different, the method is the same: a page per job, clear answers, fast replies and proper follow-up.

What if I’m a one-van business? Start with your Google Business Profile, reviews, one good page per service and replying within the hour. That alone puts you ahead of most of the trade.

See how we work with trades and installers, or get your free Growth Audit.