Free tool · 10 min read
By Roman Steer-Love, co-founder of TNW Marketing · published 23 October 2026
Quick answer: the price of a lead is not what a job costs you. Divide what you spend on leads (plus your team's time on them) by the jobs that actually sign, and you have your cost per signed job, also called customer acquisition cost. The most you can afford to pay per lead is the share of leads that sign multiplied by the profit you are willing to spend to win a job. Put your own figures in the calculator below to get both, for raw leads or booked appointments.
Calculator
The boxes start with example figures, change them to yours. They are not industry averages. An empty box counts as zero. Nothing is saved or sent.
What are you buying?
Switching resets the boxes to that option's example figures.
Ex VAT.
Out of every 100 booked, how many happen with the decision maker there.
Out of every 100 surveys, how many sign.
Ex VAT, per signed job.
Before the cost of winning the job.
Calling, chasing, confirming. Leave empty to skip.
What an hour of that time costs you.
Signed jobs a month
2
Surveys a month
8
Cost per signed job
£3,075
Gross profit per job after that cost
£6,925
Spent a month (leads + team time)
£6,150
Return on that spend
225%
Each signed job costs £3,075 to win and leaves £6,925 of gross profit after that cost.
The most you could pay per appointment
To break even on gross profit: £1,985
To keep each signed job at £4,000 or less, pay no more than £785 per appointment.
Working the other way, from the jobs you want to the leads you need? Use the lead calculator: it turns a monthly installation target into the number of surveys and leads it takes. This page is about money; that one is about volume.
When no job signs (a 0% rate, or an empty box), there is no cost per job to show: every pound spent is lost, and the calculator says so instead of dividing by zero. Gross profit here is before overheads, so a positive figure is not the same as net profit. For what moves the price of a lead in the first place, see how much commercial solar leads cost.
Both use the calculator's example figures: a £40,000 job at a 25% gross margin, so £10,000 of gross profit per job, and team time at £30 an hour. They show how the sums work; they are not benchmarks.
Break-even price: £1,985 per appointment. To keep each job at £4,000 or less, pay no more than £785 per appointment.
Break-even price: £315 per lead. To keep each job at £4,000 or less, pay no more than £90 per lead.
The leads are six times cheaper each, yet in this example each signed job costs £4,267 against £3,075 for the appointments, because fewer leads become surveys, fewer surveys sign, and the calling eats team time. For the leads to win each job as cheaply as the appointments do, they would need to cost £55 or less at those rates. Change any one rate and the answer can flip, which is why your own figures matter more than anyone's averages.
Put two quotes side by side: shared leads against exclusive ones, a pay per lead supplier against a pay per appointment one, or this year's supplier against last year's. The contract value, margin and hourly cost are shared, so only the way you buy changes.
Example figures again: option A is cheap shared leads with a low close rate, option B a booked appointment that costs more but signs more often. Change both to the quotes in front of you.
| Result | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| Surveys a month | 10 | 8 |
| Signed jobs a month | 1.5 | 2 |
| Spent a month (incl. team time) | £6,400 | £6,150 |
| Cost per signed job | £4,267 | £3,075 |
| Gross profit per job after that cost | £5,733 | £6,925 |
| Gross profit a month after that cost | £8,600 | £13,850 |
| Break-even price each | £315 | £1,985 |
Option B wins each job for £1,192 less. For option A to match it, each one would have to cost £55 or less at the same rates.
Comparing suppliers? The comparison of UK commercial solar lead companies lists each one's published prices and terms, and pay per lead vs retainer vs pay per appointment explains who carries the risk of a no-show under each model. A retainer has no price per lead at all: divide the monthly fee by what it produced and put that in the price box.
We sell booked appointments, so read this with that in mind. TNW Marketing books pre-qualified commercial solar site meetings for UK installers, one installer per appointment. Pricing: £250 to £1,000+VAT per booked appointment, set by system size and qualification. No retainer, no monthly fee. To check whether that works for you, put a figure from that band in the calculator with your own attend and close rates and see what each signed job would cost.
See available projectsDivide what you spent on leads in a month by the number of leads you got. If you also spend team time calling and chasing them, add that cost first. Cost per lead on its own says little, though: what matters is the cost per signed job, which this calculator works out.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is everything you spend to win one signed job: the leads or appointments you bought plus the team time spent on them, divided by the jobs that signed. Lead spend divided by (leads × survey rate × close rate) gives the lead part of it.
Multiply the share of leads that sign (survey rate × close rate) by the gross profit on a job, then take off the team time each lead costs. That is your break-even price. To keep a margin, use your target cost per job instead of the full gross profit. The calculator shows both.
Only your own numbers can say. An appointment costs more each, but you skip the calling and booking, and more of them become surveys. Put your raw lead price and rates in option A and the appointment quote in option B of the comparison, and compare the cost per signed job.
They are example figures, not industry averages. They are there so the calculator shows something on first load. Replace every box with your own prices, volumes and rates; your CRM or last six months of jobs is the best source.
TNW Marketing charges £250 to £1,000+VAT per booked commercial solar appointment, set by system size and qualification. There is no retainer and no monthly fee, and each appointment goes to one installer only.
Yes. It runs in your browser, needs no sign-up, and nothing you type is saved or sent.
How paying per attended site appointment works, how it compares with pay per lead and retainers, and what counts as an attended meeting.
What commercial solar leads are, what they cost, and 12 UK suppliers compared on price, exclusivity, contract and no-show terms.
What Lead Pronto offers, from its own website, and six alternative UK solar lead suppliers compared on lead type, exclusivity, price, contract and no-shows.
What each costs and why, who carries the no-show risk, how to check a supplier's exclusivity claim, and when shared leads can make sense.
What an in-house appointment setter really costs, line by line, against buying booked appointments, with a cost-per-meeting calculator.
Cost, risk, contract terms and lead quality side by side, and when a retainer can still make sense.
Full-service agencies, lead suppliers and pay-per-booking lead generation compared, the channels that win commercial work, and what to ask before you sign.
How TNW books commercial solar appointments for installers: inbound vs outbound marketing, retainer vs pay per booking, and results from installers.
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How a rooftop or private wire PPA works, the parties and contract terms, which customers qualify, what funders ask for, and the alternatives.
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The VAT rate on commercial jobs, when the construction reverse charge applies, invoice wording, and CIS registration, deductions and returns, from HMRC.
For roofers and solar installers: overclad or re-roof first, asbestos and structural checks, RC62 fire classification, the Part L upgrade, sequencing and tax.
Official UK solar statistics: capacity and installations by size band and region, growth trends, 2030 targets and business energy prices, all with sources.
Year-by-year DESNZ tables since 2010: capacity and installations by size band, the commercial bands month by month, generation and share of electricity, with a CSV.
Win commercial solar site surveys from LinkedIn: who to target, Sales Navigator vs free, example messages, LinkedIn's limits and the UK data rules.
Cold email for commercial solar: who to email, UK rules (PECR, UK GDPR), deliverability set-up, example emails and follow-ups, and what it really takes.
Book commercial solar site surveys by phone: call lists, TPS/CTPS screening, switchboard, opening, qualifying and objection scripts, and the UK rules.
Build a target list before you call: Companies House SIC codes, the EPC and DEC registers, Land Registry ownership data and SECR energy reports.
Video interviews with installers using TNW: site meetings booked, system sizes, deals closed and what changed for their business.
Work out how many site surveys and leads you need to hit your monthly installation target, from your own booking and close rates.
The channels UK commercial installers use to book site surveys, what "qualified" really means and the numbers to track.
What to check before you buy commercial solar leads: exclusivity, qualification, format, pricing and replacements.
Cost per lead vs cost per booked meeting, what drives the price, and how to work out what you can afford to pay.
A five-point checklist and the first-call questions that stop surveyors driving to sites that will never sign.
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