CTV was built for six-day purchase decisions. Rooftop solar and battery storage sales run on utility territory, incentive eligibility, and a sales cycle measured in months – run it like a DTC channel and the wrong households burn your budget.
The Problem
National CTV buys waste spend outside your incentive-eligible territory
Residential solar, battery, and heat pump companies sell into a market defined by utility territory and state incentive rules, not DMA population. A national buy reaches households who can't get the deal advertised because their utility doesn't offer that rate structure. The wasted impressions also train the platform's optimization toward the wrong households, so performance degrades the longer the campaign runs.
Fifteen-second direct-response creative can't carry a fifteen-year decision
Most CTV inventory is priced for the DTC playbook: a fast hook, a quick CTA, a QR code. Solar and EV purchases involve financing terms and a multi-step quote-to-install process most households have never done. A spot that skips the education and jumps to "call now" reads like the door-knocker sales pitch households already distrust, and it gets skipped.
Attribution built for six-day purchases can't see a nine-month one
Standard CTV attribution measures conversions inside a short lookback window because that is how most CTV advertisers actually convert. Cleantech purchases run through a financed sales cycle – quote request, site visit, financing decision, permitting – often six to nine months to signed contract. Campaigns judged against a seven-day window get killed as underperforming before the household finishes comparing quotes.
One creative can't speak to the homeowner and the facilities VP watching the same show
Cleantech companies increasingly sell two audiences at once: residential households deciding on solar, and commercial buyers – facilities directors, sustainability VPs – evaluating fleet electrification or on-site generation. Both show up in the same streaming inventory. A campaign built around one persona either talks down to the enterprise buyer or talks past the homeowner, and one side of the pipeline goes empty.
How We Help
We start by mapping your addressable market before touching media: utility rate structures, state and federal incentive eligibility, and household signals like homeownership and roof suitability where relevant. For companies with a commercial motion, we build a parallel named-account list mapped to those facilities' media markets. The output is a geo-tier list – which zip codes get budget, which get excluded.
Strategy builds a sequence, not a single spot. Upper-funnel creative runs 30- and 60-second cuts that carry the category education a 15-second ad can't: how the incentive works, what payback looks like, why now. Mid-funnel creative shortens and gets specific to the household's utility. Retargeting moves to a direct offer only after the household has seen the education.
Execution runs a hybrid buy: programmatic CTV for scale plus direct deals with local news and regional streaming apps in top territories, where inventory is cheaper and skews toward engaged homeowners. We pace flights against your call center or quote-form capacity so a spike in interest doesn't outrun your team's ability to book site visits.
Measurement replaces last-click attribution with geo-lift tests comparing quote-request and financing-application volume in exposed versus holdout territories, plus a view-through window long enough to capture a nine-month decision. Exposure ties to CRM stages – quote requested, site visit scheduled, contract signed – so the campaign gets judged on pipeline it can actually be credited for.
What makes this different from a media agency running your CTV line is that we operate as an embedded part of your marketing and sales team. We adjust the geo-tier list when a state changes its incentive structure, and rebuild the creative sequence when a new financing partner comes online, without you carrying three full-time hires for a channel most cleantech teams are still learning.
What we deliver
- Geo-tier media plan mapped to utility territory and incentive eligibility, not just DMA population
- Sequenced creative set: long-form education spots, region-specific mid-funnel cuts, and direct-offer retargeting
- Hybrid programmatic and direct CTV buy across national platforms and regional or local streaming inventory
- Geo-lift measurement framework tied to quote requests, financing applications, and CRM pipeline stages
- Parallel B2B creative and targeting track for companies selling to facilities and sustainability buyers alongside residential households
The same living room watches the same streaming show whether the person on the couch is deciding on rooftop solar for their house or a fleet electrification RFP for their company. Cleantech CTV campaigns that run one creative at both audiences leave one side of the pipeline empty.
Our Methodology
Our CTV build runs as a 90-day sprint before it becomes a standing program. The first 30 days map the addressable market: utility overlays, incentive eligibility by state, and, where relevant, a named-account list for the B2B side. Nothing airs until the geo-tier list and creative sequence are built against that map.
Days 31 to 60 produce and test the creative sequence: the long-form education spot, the region-specific mid-funnel cut, the retargeting version, and the parallel B2B track where it applies. We stand up the geo-lift holdout structure in this window, not after launch.
Days 61 to 90 run the buy at full scale with weekly reviews against geo-lift results and CRM data. Most agencies hold CTV to a seven-day attribution standard built for retail, not a financed nine-month purchase. We build the measurement window around the sales cycle you actually have.
How We Work
Initial engagements run 4 to 6 months – one full geo-lift cycle plus runway to see quote-to-contract conversion on the earliest cohorts. The first 30 days are addressable-market mapping and creative production. Days 31 to 90 run the initial flight with weekly geo-tier optimization. Day 91 on extends into a second flight informed by which territories and creative actually moved quote volume.
Our team includes a media strategist who owns the geo-tier plan, a creative lead who builds the education-to-offer sequence, and a measurement lead who runs the geo-lift tests. From your side we need CRM or quote-management access, call-center capacity data to pace flights, and a contact who can flag incentive or rate changes in your territories.
Weekly reviews track geo-tier delivery and creative performance. Monthly reviews tie CTV activity to quote-request volume, financing-application volume, and eventually contract signatures by territory. Engagement signals show by day 60, quote volume lift by day 90, and full revenue attribution needs a complete sales cycle – typically 6 to 9 months residential, longer for enterprise.
- Quote-request volume from incentive-eligible households
- Reduced wasted spend outside serviceable territory
- Improved consideration-to-quote conversion from education-first creative
- Pipeline visibility on enterprise or B2B deals sourced alongside residential CTV
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Frequently asked questions
How much does CTV advertising cost for a cleantech or energy company?
Most engagements run $25K to $60K per month in media, plus a separate production budget for the creative set, depending on how many geo-tiers you run and whether a B2B track is in scope. That is less than hiring a media strategist, buyer, and creative lead in-house for a channel most cleantech teams haven't run before. Cost scales mainly with territory count and how much local versus programmatic-only inventory you buy.
How long before we see results from a CTV campaign for a solar or energy company?
Geo-tier delivery and creative engagement signals show up within the first 60 days as the campaign settles into territories that actually convert. Quote-request and financing-application lift is typically visible by day 90 through the geo-lift comparison. Full revenue attribution needs a complete sales cycle – usually 6 to 9 months for residential, longer for enterprise deals.
How do you target households that are actually eligible for solar or energy incentives?
We build the geo-tier list from utility rate structures, state and federal incentive programs, and net metering rules in your service area, then layer in homeownership and property signals where relevant, like roof suitability for solar. That list determines which zip codes get budget before any creative goes to air, the opposite of a standard national buy against population.
How does the CTV team integrate with our sales and call center staff?
We pace media flights against your quote-form and call-center capacity so a spike in CTV-driven interest doesn't outrun your team's ability to book site visits. We sit in your sales and ops reviews to watch how CTV-sourced leads move through the funnel. You don't need to staff anything new beyond CRM access and a point of contact for territory or incentive changes.
What makes Winston Francois different from a traditional CTV or programmatic media agency?
Most CTV agencies buy against DMA population and report on the same short attribution window no matter what you're selling. We build the media plan around utility territory and incentive eligibility first, sequence creative to carry education before a direct offer, and measure against a geo-lift and CRM-stage model built for a multi-month cycle. We operate as an embedded part of your team, not a vendor executing a plan.
How do you measure ROI on CTV when the sales cycle is six to nine months?
We run geo-lift tests comparing quote-request and financing-application volume between exposed and holdout territories, which shows a real effect long before a contract is signed. We extend the view-through window to match your actual sales cycle instead of the default seven days most platforms report on. Exposure ties to CRM stages, so pipeline movement is visible well before revenue closes.
What type of cleantech or energy company is the right fit for this service?
Companies with a defined service territory tied to specific utility programs or incentives, whether pure residential or a hybrid residential-and-commercial motion, see the strongest fit. Series A through growth-stage companies in the $5M-$100M ARR range with enough sales or install capacity to absorb a demand increase get the most out of it. The first step is an addressable-market audit to see how much current spend lands outside your eligible territory.
