Most CleanTech paid search accounts are built for one buyer and run against two. A homeowner searching for a home solar installer near me and a procurement engineer researching DERMS software have nothing in common except the ad platform they both typed into. WF builds separate campaign structures, landing pages, and measurement models for each, so your spend stops subsidizing traffic aggregators already own and starts building pipeline you actually control.
The Problem
Two Buyers, One Account, Zero Separation
Search accounts for CleanTech and Energy companies routinely mix commercial solar EPC and battery storage RFP queries with residential home solar installer near me traffic inside the same campaign structure. The algorithm optimizes toward whichever intent converts faster in-platform, which is almost always the cheaper residential click, not the six-figure commercial deal. The result looks efficient on cost-per-click while quietly starving the pipeline that actually pays the bills. Nobody notices until the sales team asks why inbound RFPs have dried up.
Lead-Gen Aggregators Own the Auction
EnergySage, SolarReviews, and similar comparison sites bid aggressively on residential solar and EV keywords because they resell the same lead to five installers at once, so their acceptable cost per click is structurally higher than yours. Going head-to-head on generic terms like solar panels cost or best solar company near me means paying aggregator-level prices for a lead you will split anyway. Marketing teams that do not build a deliberate wedge against this dynamic burn budget chasing impression share they cannot win profitably.
Last-Click Attribution Lies About the B2B Funnel
A commercial solar or battery storage sale can run four to nine months from first search to signed contract, with a procurement committee, an RFP process, and several stakeholders touching the deal before it closes. Standard last-click attribution credits whatever channel touched the account the week the deal closed, usually direct or branded search, and erases the paid campaign that generated the original RFP inquiry months earlier. Finance ends up defunding the exact campaigns that built the pipeline because the reporting cannot see them.
Seasonality Tied to Incentive Deadlines Breaks Static Budgets
Search volume for both buyer types spikes and collapses around ITC step-down dates, state rebate window openings, and utility interconnection deadlines, not around your fiscal quarter. A flat monthly budget either overspends in a dead month or gets outbid during the two weeks when a rebate deadline sends every competitor's bids climbing. Companies that do not rebuild budget pacing around the regulatory calendar miss the exact windows when buyer urgency, and conversion rate, are highest.
How We Help
We start by pulling apart your existing account, keyword by keyword, and tagging every query by buyer type: commercial and B2B terms like DERMS software, commercial solar EPC, battery storage RFP, and microgrid installation versus residential and consumer terms like home solar installer near me, residential battery incentive, and solar panel cost.
From there we build two separate campaign architectures under one account, each with its own bidding strategy, budget ceiling, and negative keyword list, so residential spend stops draining the budget meant for commercial pipeline. This connects directly to the positioning work covered in /services/strategy/, because a paid search account cannot be segmented correctly if the company has not already decided which buyer it is prioritizing this quarter.
Landing pages get split the same way. A homeowner lands on a page built for a fast decision: price ranges, an incentive calculator, and a call button. A utility procurement lead or commercial developer lands on a page built for a slower one: technical specs, references, RFP-ready documentation, and a scheduling link instead of a phone number.
On the residential side, we do not try to outbid EnergySage or SolarReviews on their own terms. We build long-tail and geo-specific campaigns around terms the aggregators do not bother targeting, brand-plus-location, financing-specific searches, install timeline queries, and use exact-match negatives to keep spend off the broad terms where aggregator CPCs make the auction unwinnable.
For the B2B side, we replace last-click reporting with a multi-touch model built through /services/measurement/ that credits the original paid search touch even when the deal closes months and several touchpoints later.
Budget pacing gets rebuilt around your actual regulatory calendar: ITC step-down dates, state rebate window openings, and utility interconnection deadlines, with pre-built bid escalation plans so nobody is manually adjusting budgets the week a deadline hits. We also run pre-deadline campaigns timed to the weeks when search volume and urgency both peak, instead of spreading spend evenly across a year that is not actually flat.
What makes this different from a generalist paid search agency is that we build the account structure around your buyer split first and the platform mechanics second. Most agencies apply the same bidding playbook to a homeowner and a utility engineer because the platform does not force them to separate it.
What we deliver
- Buyer-split campaign architecture (commercial vs residential)
- Aggregator-aware bidding and negative keyword strategy
- Intent-matched landing pages for B2B and residential traffic
- Multi-touch attribution model for long B2B sales cycles
- Seasonal budget pacing tied to incentive and rebate deadlines
If your solar or battery storage paid search account cannot tell you separately how a homeowner and a utility buyer perform, it is not being managed, it is being averaged.
Our Methodology
The first 30 days are audit and rebuild: we split the existing account by buyer type, rebuild campaign structure, and ship the first intent-matched landing pages. You will see commercial and residential numbers separated for the first time, usually revealing which side has actually been underperforming under the blended average.
Days 31-60 are about proving the attribution model and tightening the aggregator wedge: we stand up multi-touch tracking for the B2B pipeline and start testing long-tail residential campaigns against comparison-site traffic instead of competing head-on. By day 60 you have real cost-per-qualified-lead numbers for both buyer types instead of one blended CPL that hides which half of the budget is working.
Days 61-90 lock in the seasonal budget calendar against your state's rebate windows and any known ITC step-down dates, with escalation triggers pre-built so spend ramps automatically instead of waiting on a manual review. By the end of the sprint you have two working, separately measured programs instead of one averaged one.
How We Work
Engagements start with a 90-day sprint: a dedicated paid search lead plus a landing page and creative resource who work directly with whoever owns your CRM or attribution stack, since the B2B measurement work depends on getting deal-stage data out of your pipeline, not just ad platform conversions.
Weekly check-ins cover pacing against the buyer-split budgets and any regulatory calendar changes, a state rebate window closing early, a utility changing interconnection rules, that should shift spend. Monthly reviews go deeper on the attribution numbers, since B2B conversion data lags and a single week rarely tells you anything useful.
You should expect the first month to surface uncomfortable numbers, usually that the commercial side has been underperforming under a blended budget, or that a meaningful chunk of residential spend has been going straight into auctions the aggregators already dominate. That is the diagnostic doing its job, not a sign the account was mismanaged before us.
- Separately measured cost-per-lead for commercial vs residential search traffic
- Reduced wasted spend on auctions dominated by lead-gen aggregators
- Attribution visibility into long B2B sales cycles that last-click reporting misses
- Budget pacing aligned to incentive and rebate deadlines instead of a flat monthly spend
If your cleantech & energy company needs paid search (sem) leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does paid search management cost for a CleanTech or Energy company?
Most engagements run $6K-$15K per month in management fees depending on account complexity and whether you are running both commercial and residential campaigns, separate from media spend. Companies running only a commercial or B2B program, with no residential lead gen, tend toward the lower end since there is one buyer type to manage instead of two.
How long until paid search results show up for a solar or battery storage company?
Residential campaigns typically show directional cost-per-lead data within 30-45 days since the sales cycle is short. Commercial and B2B campaigns take longer to prove out, often 4-6 months, because the RFP and procurement cycle for battery storage or commercial solar deals does not move on a search platform's timeline.
How does WF work with our existing marketing or sales team?
We work directly with whoever owns the ad accounts today, plus whoever has access to your CRM or deal pipeline, since the B2B attribution model needs deal-stage data that does not live in Google Ads. On the residential side we coordinate with whoever handles lead intake, since a fast callback matters as much as the ad itself when a homeowner is comparing three installers the same day.
What is different about WF versus a generalist paid search agency?
Most agencies run one campaign structure and one bidding strategy regardless of whether the traffic is a homeowner or a utility procurement engineer, because the ad platforms do not force that split. We build the account around the buyer split from day one, which changes the keyword strategy, the landing pages, the attribution model, and the budget pacing all at once.
How do you measure ROI when B2B sales cycles run for months?
We build a multi-touch attribution model that tracks a search click through to a closed deal even when there are several months and multiple touchpoints in between, rather than relying on last-click credit that erases early-funnel paid search activity. That means tying ad platform data to your CRM's deal stages, not just conversion events inside Google Ads or Meta.
Is this a good fit for our CleanTech or Energy company?
This is built for companies running paid search against at least one of two buyer types: commercial and B2B (DERMS software, commercial solar EPC, battery storage procurement) or residential and consumer (home solar, residential battery), and especially for companies running both at once. If you are purely enterprise software with no residential lead gen, some of the aggregator-specific tactics will not apply, but the attribution and long-cycle measurement work still will.
