Sales · 7 min read · Published 25 Mar 2026
9 lead sources every Indian solar installer should be on
Where the people who actually buy solar in India are looking for vendors right now — ranked by conversion potential based on industry data.
Most solar installers we meet are obsessed with one or two lead sources — usually JustDial and word-of-mouth. The result is feast-or-famine: some months your phone won't stop ringing, other months you wonder if the industry has died. Diversifying across the 9 sources below is the single highest-leverage thing you can do to smooth your sales pipeline.
1. JustDial
Best for: Tier-2/3 cities, residential 3–10 kW.
Cost: Pay-per-lead, ₹50–250 depending on city and category.
Conversion: 3–8% (low — buyers are price-shopping across 5 vendors).
Still the volume king. Treat it as a top-of-funnel firehose, not a closing channel. Respond within 2 minutes — JustDial leads expire fast because the same lead is sent to several vendors simultaneously.
2. IndiaMART
Best for: Commercial & industrial (C&I) 25 kW to 1 MW, factory rooftops.
Cost: Subscription, ₹15k–60k/year + per-lead fees.
Conversion: 8–15% on B2B leads, much higher value per project.
IndiaMART buyers tend to be procurement managers running RFQs. Have a clean PDF capability deck ready to send within 30 minutes of the enquiry.
3. Google Ads (Search)
Best for: Capturing high-intent searches like "solar installer in Coimbatore", "PMSG vendor near me".
Cost: ₹15–80 per click, ₹400–1,200 per qualified lead.
Conversion: 10–20%.
The most consistent paid channel. Build separate campaigns for residential PMSG and commercial. Use call-extension ads for mobile — most Indian solar searchers want to call, not fill a form.
4. Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram)
Best for: Awareness in residential markets, especially when subsidies change.
Cost: ₹6–20 per click, ₹200–800 per lead via lead-form ads.
Conversion: 4–8% (lower-intent than Google).
Run lead-form ads with a "free site survey" offer. Good for filling the top of the funnel cheaply, but expect to call every lead 3–4 times — Meta leads ghost more than Google.
5. WhatsApp business catalog + click-to-WhatsApp ads
Best for: Tier-2/3 markets where customers prefer chat over phone.
Cost: Click-to-WhatsApp ads cost ₹10–25 per click.
Conversion: 12–25% (highest of all paid channels).
The Indian customer's preferred medium. Set up a WhatsApp Business profile with a product catalogue (1 kW, 3 kW, 5 kW system bundles with prices) and run Meta ads that open WhatsApp directly. The friction is minimal.
6. Walk-ins / hoardings
Best for: Visible high-traffic locations, brand recall.
Cost: ₹15k–50k/month for a hoarding in a tier-2 city.
Conversion: Hard to attribute, but high quality when they do walk in.
Underrated. A physical office with a working solar setup on the roof is the single best advertisement. Customers who walk in with their last electricity bill in hand are the easiest to close.
7. Referrals from existing customers
Best for: Long-term sustainable growth.
Cost: A small referral fee (₹1,000–5,000) per closed project.
Conversion: 30–50% — by far the best.
The cheapest, highest-converting source — yet most vendors don't have a formal program. After every install, ask the customer for 3 names. Pay them when those names sign. Track this religiously inside your CRM.
8. Google My Business (organic local search)
Best for: "near me" searches in your service area.
Cost: Free. The investment is in reviews and consistent updates.
Conversion: 15–25%.
Get your GMB profile to 4.5+ stars with at least 50 reviews and you become the de-facto first option for anyone searching "solar near me" in your city. Photo updates of recent installs help enormously.
9. Channel partners (electrical contractors, real-estate, builders)
Best for: New construction, commercial property, repeat volume.
Cost: 5–10% commission on closed projects.
Conversion: 25–40% — these are warm intros.
Long-game. Build relationships with 5–10 electrical contractors and real-estate developers in your city. They send you projects that never see a JustDial listing. Pay commission promptly and they'll send more.
The point of using SolarIonix
SolarIonix has all 9 of these sources baked into the lead capture form. When a sales rep enters a new lead, they pick the source from a dropdown — and 90 days later your dashboard tells you which channels are converting to actual paid projects, which are generating noise, and where to spend your next ad rupee.
Most installers we onboard are spending money on JustDial and IndiaMART without knowing whether either is profitable. Six weeks of clean source-tracking usually reveals one channel they should double down on and one they should cut entirely.