28 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
Solar ads that do not look like every other solar ad
Open Facebook in Ireland and the solar ads are interchangeable. A stock photograph of panels on a house that is not in this country, a grant figure in large yellow text, and some manufactured urgency. They all look the same because they were all built from the same template, and the result is that none of them are believed.
The stock photograph is the tell
People cannot articulate why an image looks foreign, but they register it. American-style shingle roofs, Mediterranean light, houses that do not exist here.
A genuine photograph of a real install on a real Irish house — slate or concrete tile, Irish sky, a recognisable style of home — outperforms polished stock consistently. It looks less professional and it works better, which installers find hard to accept.
Show the roof mid-job
Scaffolding, rails going on, two people working. It is evidence that the thing happened, and evidence is what this market is short of.
The finished array is a nice picture. The half-finished one is proof.
Drop the countdown
Manufactured deadlines are everywhere in this trade and Irish consumers have learned to discount them. Worse, they attract the price-led enquiries you least want.
The genuine timing argument — that the grant rate has been stepping down, and that an install booked now happens before winter — is available and true. Use the real one.
Put a person in it
The installer talking to camera on a roof for thirty seconds, explaining one specific thing — why that roof needed a different layout, what shading does — outperforms produced video in this market by a distance.
It is uncomfortable to make and almost nobody does it, which is exactly why it works. It also builds something a competitor cannot copy by hiring the same freelancer.
Be specific about place
'Solar panels in Ireland' is an ad for nowhere. 'This install in Newbridge last month' is an ad somebody in Newbridge stops on.
Naming the town is the cheapest improvement available to a solar ad and it costs nothing but the discipline to make one variant per area.
What to test first
Do not rebuild everything at once. Run the current creative against one honest variant and let the cost per qualified enquiry settle it.
- Your own install photograph versus the stock image
- A named town versus 'Ireland'
- Thirty seconds of the installer talking versus a produced video
- The real grant timing versus a countdown
- Mid-job photograph versus finished array
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.