Solar installers advertising in Pennsylvania pay 75% more per Google Ads click than the national price for the same keywords, while Georgia pays 64% less. Nationally, a solar click costs $9.35 on average, 14% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, but searches for an installer cost two to six times that.
Analysis of 84 solar keywords · Google Ads Keyword Planner, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.Solar advertisers in Pennsylvania pay 75% more per Google Ads click than the national price for the same keywords, while Georgia pays 64% less.
- 2.A click on a solar Google Ads keyword costs $9.35 on average, 14% less than the $10.82 average across 23 industries, placing solar 13th of the 23.
- 3.The most expensive solar Google Ads keyword, "solar leasing companies", costs $54.35 per click, followed by "solar panel installer near me" at $33.37.
- 4.Solar Google Ads keywords containing "near me" cost $20.87 per click on average, about two and a half times the $8.46 for other solar keywords.
- 5.A click on a solar keyword costs $3.41 on Microsoft Ads against $10.19 on Google Ads for the same keywords, about 66% less.
Summary
Two solar installers run the same Google Ads campaign, one in Philadelphia and one in Atlanta. The keywords are identical, the ads are identical, and the Pennsylvania installer pays far more for every click. Where a solar company sells decides its advertising costs more than almost anything else.
Cost per click, or CPC, is what an advertiser pays each time someone clicks its ad in Google's search results, whether or not that person requests a quote. For a solar installer, it decides how many homeowners a monthly budget can reach. A national benchmark hides how much that price moves from one state to the next.
Solar advertisers in Pennsylvania pay 75% more per click than the national price of the same keywords, while Georgia and Louisiana pay 64% less. Nationally, a solar click costs $9.35 on average, 14% less than the $10.82 average across 18,477 keywords in 23 industries, but searches for an installer cost two to six times that.
What we measured
In September 2026 we collected Google Ads Keyword Planner prices for 84 solar power keywords with a cost per click above zero, each searched at least 3,600 times a month in the US. They cover searches about buying, installing, financing or running a solar power system: solar panels, installers and solar companies, home batteries, inverters and portable solar generators, and research on how solar energy works. For those keywords we calculated the average, median and spread of cost per click, and compared solar with 18,477 keywords across 23 industries. We also collected state-level prices for the 25 largest US states, and Microsoft Ads prices for the 63 keywords priced on both platforms.
Cost per click is Google's estimate of the average price an advertiser pays for one click on an ad shown for that search. The median is the middle keyword: half cost less, half cost more. The volume-weighted average counts each keyword by how often it is searched. Each state is compared with the national price of the keywords priced in that state, so a state's percentage shows how much more or less a local installer pays for identical searches.
Pennsylvania pays 75% more, Georgia 64% less
Among the 25 largest states, Pennsylvania is the most expensive for solar clicks, 75% above the national price of the same keywords, followed by Colorado (53% above) and New Jersey (41% above). At the other end, Georgia and Louisiana are both 64% below, and Indiana 60% below. In the cheapest states, a solar click costs about a third of the national price.
| State | vs national price |
|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | +75% |
| Colorado | +53% |
| New Jersey | +41% |
| Indiana | -60% |
| Louisiana | -64% |
| Georgia | -64% |
Solar prices follow the local market. Where more installers compete for homeowners, they bid up the same searches; where fewer do, the searches stay cheap. A single national bid will overpay in some states and lose auctions in others.
Installer searches cost two to six times the average
The most expensive solar keywords come from homeowners ready to hire: "solar leasing companies" at $54.35, "solar panel installer near me" at $33.37, "solar panel companies" at $33.33, "solar energy companies" at $28.43 and "solar companies" at $27.65. Solar keywords containing "near me" average $20.87 a click, about two and a half times the $8.46 for other solar keywords.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 84 solar keywords · Google Ads Keyword Planner, September 2026
| Keyword | CPC | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|
| solar leasing companies | $54.35 | 3,600 |
| solar panel installer near me | $33.37 | 8,100 |
| solar panel companies | $33.33 | 4,400 |
| solar energy companies | $28.43 | 12,100 |
| solar companies | $27.65 | 22,200 |
| installing solar system | $26.62 | 3,600 |
| solar installation | $25.74 | 22,200 |
| solar servicing | $24.97 | 3,600 |
| solar installers near me | $23.60 | 12,100 |
| solar panel installers near me | $22.43 | 9,900 |
| solar panel installers | $22.24 | 22,200 |
| solar installation company | $21.38 | 18,100 |
A home solar installation is a large purchase, so each customer is worth a lot to an installer, and the searches that name a company or an installer carry that value. Searches for equipment people buy themselves cost far less: "solar generator" costs $1.29 a click and "solar inverter" $1.24, which is why the median solar keyword costs $6.91.
Solar clicks cost a little less than the cross-industry average
Solar ranks 13th of 23 industries by average cost per click. The median solar keyword costs $6.91, and the middle half cost between $1.48 and $12.49 a click. The most common price band is $5 to $10, with 25 keywords, and 31% of solar keywords cost $10 or more, while the most expensive 10% start at $23.25. Weighted by how often each keyword is searched, the average is $9.09.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 84 solar keywords · Google Ads Keyword Planner, September 2026
| CPC range | Keywords | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1 | 8 | 9.5% |
| $1 to $2 | 19 | 22.6% |
| $2 to $5 | 6 | 7.1% |
| $5 to $10 | 25 | 29.8% |
| $10 to $20 | 14 | 16.7% |
| $20 to $50 | 11 | 13.1% |
| $50 to $100 | 1 | 1.2% |
Microsoft Ads charges about 66% less for the same searches
For the 63 solar keywords priced on both platforms, a click on Microsoft Ads, which shows ads on Bing search, costs $3.41 on average against $10.19 on Google Ads, about 66% less. The same budget buys about three times as many visits on Bing.
What this means for solar installers
Bid by state. With prices ranging from 64% below to 75% above the national figure, set budgets and bids from the prices in the states you serve, not from national averages. An installer in Georgia or Indiana can afford to cover far more searches than one in Pennsylvania or Colorado for the same money.
Spend on the searches that name an installer. "near me", "company" and "installer" searches cost more, but they come from homeowners ready to get a quote. Watch broad match closely: it can easily spend on the wrong audience, such as people searching for a solar eclipse. Review your search terms report every week and add off-topic words as negative keywords. Then copy your best campaigns to Microsoft Ads, where the same keywords cost about 66% less.
A google ads agency that sets bids state by state keeps a solar budget from overpaying in expensive markets.
Need help with this? See our PPC management.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/solar-google-ads-cpc">Solar Google Ads Clicks Cost 75% More in Pennsylvania Than the National Price - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). Solar Google Ads Clicks Cost 75% More in Pennsylvania Than the National Price. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/solar-google-ads-cpc
Solar Google Ads Clicks Cost 75% More in Pennsylvania Than the National Price - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/solar-google-ads-cpc
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