Agency waffle, translated.

When you sign with On steroids, you are not handed to a faceless team. Here is exactly who is working on your account and what each person is responsible for.

Ross is your Customer Success Manager and primary point of contact. He keeps you updated on performance via your WhatsApp chat and your monthly catch up, and is the person you reach out to with any questions.

On the creative side, Charlotte leads the creative strategy, focusing on what is driving results across accounts and implementing that for yours. Imogen manages the pipeline, briefing ads and making sure new creative is reaching you every week.

Sam is the dedicated media buyer. He launches ads as soon as they are approved and optimises the account based on cost per sale, cost per quote, and cost per lead.

Behind the scenes, the remote team handles the volume. A dedicated tech specialist manages automation, lead delivery, and data flow. Ben, the ad briefing specialist, takes shoot footage and turns it into clear, detailed briefs for the editing team. Those briefs go to 14 full time editors who produce creative on a continuous basis.

On shoot day, the videographer covering your region will be on site. Hugh covers the South, Chris covers the North, and Perry covers Scotland. Hugh also leads production training, meaning every new videographer that comes on board is fully prepared before they visit a client for the first time.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Every person at On steroids works exclusively with renewables businesses.

That alone produces a level of sector knowledge that builds quickly. But we also actively recruit people who already have direct experience in the industry before they arrive.

Imogen spent years at Siegen, one of the largest distributors in the UK. Sam ran his own agency working with renewables installers. That kind of background is not incidental. It is something we look for deliberately.

When someone joins with that foundation and then works exclusively in this sector every day, the depth of understanding they bring to your campaigns is not something a generalist agency can replicate. They know the industry from the inside, and they know what is actually working right now from direct experience.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

A generalist agency will tell you about impressions. Maybe cost per lead.

Those numbers do not tell the full story. An impression does not pay wages. A cost per lead means nothing without knowing what those leads are actually converting into.

Every team member at On steroids works exclusively with clients in this industry. That means the insights they bring to your campaigns come from direct, current experience of what is working in solar right now, not in e-commerce, not in hospitality, not across a spread of unrelated sectors.

We have also built our data infrastructure around what actually matters in this industry. Our back end tracks sales and quotes, and we optimise based on return on investment. That is a fundamentally different objective to optimising for a low cost per lead that never converts.

The focus is narrow by design. And that narrowness is the advantage.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We do not hire generalists and ask them to stretch across multiple functions.

Every team member at On steroids has a dedicated responsibility within the wider system. Sam focuses purely on media buying. Charlotte focuses purely on creative. Those two functions require completely different skill sets, and expecting one person to be excellent at both produces mediocrity in both.

We hire for a specific skill set and keep people in it. That is what specialisation actually looks like in practice, and it is what makes the difference in the quality of what gets delivered on your campaigns.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Consistency at scale does not happen by accident.

Our service is fully systemised and productised. Every client goes through the exact same process, from the moment they sign through to the monthly results and deliverables they receive. The system is the same regardless of who you are, what you spend, or where you are in the country.

Every ad that comes through is also reviewed by a dedicated quality assurance team member before it reaches your WhatsApp. Nothing goes out that has not been checked against the standard we hold ourselves to.

The system is what makes that possible at the volume we operate at.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We currently have 22 team members, a mix of remote and in-office.

By the end of the year we are projecting 50. That growth is intentional and it is paced to make sure service quality does not slip as the client base scales. Every dedicated function needs to be properly resourced, and we will not take on new clients faster than we can staff the roles that serve them.

The split between remote and in-office is also deliberate. For something like video editing, the best talent is not necessarily in one city. A global talent pool gives us access to editors we would not find any other way. The in-office team are the people clients communicate with day to day, kept tight and easy to reach so that nothing gets lost or slowed down.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We are growing quickly. That is not something we hide.

The results we deliver and the quality of service we hold ourselves to have created genuine demand. But we cap how many new clients we take on each month, and the reason is straightforward: the team has to grow at the same rate as the client base.

Taking on more than we can service properly is not something we are willing to do. Every client that comes in needs to be matched by the capacity to look after them properly.

We are projecting over 100 clients by the end of the year. The team to match that will be in place before we get there.

If availability is something on your mind, it is worth having the conversation sooner rather than later.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Standards start before anyone joins the team.

Hiring at On steroids is not purely about ability. It is about ability combined with integrity and a genuine care for client results. That combination is what we prioritise, because it is what every decision eventually flows back to.

We have made plenty of operationally difficult decisions because they were the right ones for clients. That calculus does not change depending on what is easier for us internally.

On the reporting side, there is no marketing jargon and no dressing things up. If a campaign is performing, we will tell you clearly. If it is not, we will tell you that too, and give you specific action points on what we are doing to address it. Plain, honest, direct.

That is the standard we set at the hiring stage, and it is the standard we expect to be held to throughout the relationship.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The case for working with us is not complicated.

We have done this with a large number of clients, at a high success rate, across every level of spend. From the minimum of £2,500 a month all the way through to £10,000, £20,000, £30,000, £40,000 and beyond. We know what the steps look like at each stage because we have already taken them.

That matters because scaling ad spend is not linear. What works at £2,500 does not automatically work at £20,000. The path between those two numbers requires experience that only comes from having walked it before, with real clients, and real budgets.

We do not offer guarantees. Not because we are hedging, but because the results we have already produced are a more honest signal than any promise we could make upfront. And because the outcomes depend on both sides showing up. If you are willing to put the work in, we are too. That combination is what actually drives results.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We are not freelancers. We do not bill by the hour and we do not measure our effort that way.

What we measure is results. That is what we are accountable to, and it is what we would ask you to hold us to as well.

If results are down, more focus goes on your account. If results are good, tinkering for the sake of appearing busy would likely make things worse. The incentive is aligned correctly: we care about what is coming out, not what is going in.

Systems and processes handle the consistency. Results handle the accountability. Hours are not part of the equation.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The best fit clients are already completing at least eight installations per month and are looking to grow significantly beyond that.

The eight installation threshold is not purely financial. It is an indicator of operational readiness. Companies doing fewer than four installations a month rarely have the back end infrastructure to handle the lead and deal flow that a well-run Meta campaign generates. What tends to happen is predictable: the campaign performs as intended, the business becomes overwhelmed, quality slips, and the very thing the installer wanted to protect, their reputation and customer service, takes the hit.

The sales side matters just as much. Without a dedicated person handling leads, whether that is the founder or a sales rep, response times drop, nurturing suffers, and conversion rates fall well below what they should be.

The other factor is ambition. If you are already at eight installations per month but your target is ten, we are not the right fit. We are not set up to move at a pace that incremental. The clients we work best with want to double in a year, or faster. We have clients where Facebook advertising accounts for over 50% of their total sales. That kind of shift requires a business that genuinely wants to move quickly and has the infrastructure to do it.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

To work with us, you need to already be completing at least eight installations per month.

This is not an arbitrary threshold. A paid advertising campaign generates volume. If the operational capacity, the sales process, and the fulfilment side of the business are not already handling a meaningful level of work, adding significant lead flow on top is likely to create problems rather than solve them.

If you are not yet at eight installations per month, the focus should be on building toward that first. When you get there, the conversation makes sense.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We have scaled campaigns from £2,500 per month in ad spend all the way to £60,000 per month.

That is going from what some installers spend in a month to what some spend in a single day. Some campaigns are running at £3,500 per day during peak periods. Those numbers will seem abstract depending on where you are in your advertising journey, but they exist to make one point: the platform and the team can match whatever rate of growth you are looking to achieve.

That said, scaling is not just a question of how much you want to spend. It is a question of what needs to be in place first. If cost per lead starts nudging up, the right move is to hold spend and let the account stabilise before pushing further. If the target is aggressive growth in a tight geographic radius, that is a conversation that needs to happen before budget increases.

The team's job is to be honest about what the next step requires, not to simply increase spend because a client wants to move faster.

We have clients generating 50% to 80% of their total sales directly from Facebook advertising. That is what the channel is capable of when it is managed properly over time.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Referrals are the warmest leads you will ever get.

High trust, high conversion rate, almost no selling required. Nobody is arguing against referrals. The problem is the one thing you cannot control: when they arrive.

Eight one month, two the next. Possibly none the month after that. Building a business around a pipeline you cannot predict makes every significant decision harder. Hiring, premises, investment, growth planning. All of it becomes a guess.

Paid advertising is the opposite dynamic. The leads are slightly colder because you are going out to find interest rather than waiting for it to come to you. But the volume is consistent and predictable. Load a budget into Meta with the right strategy in place, and you can work downstream with confidence: how many leads, how many quotes, how many surveys, how many sales. Real decisions based on reliable data rather than hope.

The referrals do not stop. They keep coming on top, including new ones generated from the clients you close through paid campaigns. You are adding consistency and scalability to something that was already working, not replacing it.

And if referrals have a slow month, ad spend can be increased to cover the shortfall. The channel flexes in both directions based on what the business needs at any given time.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The minimum advertising spend to work with us is £2,500 / month for solar, or £2,000 / month for windows and doors. You pay it to Meta directly, on your own ad account.

The reason is practical. Meta needs conversion data to understand who it is looking for. At £100 / month, the platform sees a handful of leads at best, and possibly none at all in the early stages. That is not enough signal for Meta to identify patterns, find similar audiences, or build any kind of momentum.

At £2,500 / month, that same £100 is being spent in a single day. The platform gets the data it needs to learn quickly, and campaigns have the conditions to actually perform.

There is also a straightforward commercial reason. Our retainer is £2,000 / month once your first deal lands. If the advertising budget is equal to or lower than the retainer, the maths of getting a profitable return becomes very difficult. We would rather be honest about that than take on a campaign that is set up to struggle from the start.

There are exceptions. In genuinely unsaturated markets, the spend required to hit a company's goals can be considerably lower. But for the vast majority of installers in competitive areas, £2,500 / month on advertising is the floor that gives the campaign a realistic chance.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The benchmark we aim for is a 20 times return on ad spend.

In practical terms: if your average system is £10,000, we are looking to acquire that installation for £500 or less in advertising cost. On a profit basis, if you make £2,500 from that install, the same £500 acquisition cost still represents a five times return on profit. That benchmark is hit consistently across the board.

There are outliers in both directions. One campaign is currently running at 150 times return on ad spend. That is not a number we would set as an expectation. It is exceptional, and presenting it as typical would be misleading.

The other thing worth understanding is that the 20 times figure only captures what can be directly attributed to the campaign. Meta does not operate in isolation. It supports other channels, retargets website visitors from Google Ads, nurtures people who found you elsewhere, and plays a role in conversions that never pass through the direct funnel.

Kimble Solar ran a post-sale survey after we had generated approximately £1 million in directly attributed sales. They were able to attribute an additional £400,000 to social media as a contributing source in their conversion cycle. That is 40% on top of what was already tracked.

The 20 times figure is the floor of what we measure. The real impact is consistently higher.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Lead generation starts the moment campaigns go live.

Meta does not need a long warm up period the way SEO or Google Ads do. The platform analyses what has been uploaded into ads manager and has a strong steer on who to target almost immediately, even without prior conversion data to work from.

In practice, the first leads typically come in within the first day. First surveys within the first week. First deals within the first two weeks.

On 5th January this year, we launched six campaigns simultaneously. All six had generated at least one lead within 24 hours.

AJ Renewables closed two deals within their first 24 hours. That is an exceptional result, but it is not an isolated one. A slick sales process and a genuine willingness to hold on price are the factors that tend to separate those early wins from slower starts.

The speed is there from day one. What happens with the leads once they arrive is where the variation comes from.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

It is a monthly rolling contract with 30 days notice to cancel.

No cancellation fees. No minimum term. No lock in.

We went two full years without losing a single client on exactly this structure. That is not a coincidence. We have found that people are more likely to stay when they do not feel trapped, and more likely to leave when they do.

Retention built on results is more durable than retention built on contract terms. That is how we have always approached it.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Most lead generation companies in this space run one system.

One landing page, one set of ads, one ad account. Leads are generated at scale and distributed across whoever has purchased them. It is plug and play, and the cost reflects that. You are one of many receiving the same leads from the same front end.

That is not what we do.

We film at your sites. We build your own ad account inside your own business manager. You own every asset. Every lead generated goes directly and exclusively to you. On top of that, we report on the metrics that actually matter: cost per sale, cost per appointment, cost per survey. Not impressions. Not cost per lead in isolation. The real financial return on the campaign, pulled through from your CRM via specialist APIs we have built specifically for this.

Most agencies cannot show you that picture. We built the infrastructure to make it possible.

Then there is the knowledge base. Working with 40 plus renewables installers gives us a view of the market that no standalone campaign can replicate. When you join, that entire body of learning informs your campaign from day one.

The cost comparison only makes sense when you factor in outcomes. The majority of our campaigns see at least a 20 times return on ad spend. A retainer that is 25% higher than a generalist agency that delivers a fraction of the results is not more expensive in any meaningful sense. It is considerably cheaper.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We do not offer exclusivity arrangements for clients in mainland UK.

What we do instead is carefully manage the number and location of installers we take on, based on population density and the realistic capacity of each area to support multiple campaigns without saturation.

Around London, for example, high population density and strong affluence levels mean more installers can advertise in that area without competing campaigns undermining each other. In more sparsely populated parts of the country, we take on fewer clients and keep spend levels calibrated accordingly.

We also work with national installers, which makes a blanket exclusivity offer impossible.

What we can say is this: if taking on a new client would have a detrimental impact on the results of an existing one operating in the same area, we would turn that client down or put them on a waitlist. That is already happening in a number of areas.

The commercial logic is straightforward. The most expensive part of our service is getting a campaign started. A long term relationship with a client who is already performing, already building a track record, and already close to becoming a case study is worth considerably more to us than a new sign up that damages that existing relationship.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Not every installer is in the right position to get the most out of what we do. That is not a criticism. It is just honest.

Bolting a high performance ad campaign onto a business that is not yet set up to handle the leads is not going to produce the results either side wants. So if you are not quite there yet, here is where to focus in the meantime.

Start with your reputation. Google reviews, Trustpilot, customer testimonials, case studies, installation photos, write ups. Any evidence that demonstrates you are who you say you are and you do what you say you do. That collateral is what converts leads once a campaign is running. Without it, even strong creative will underperform.

Then look at the sales infrastructure. If you are a sole founder, bringing in even one person to handle initial stage enquiries makes a significant difference. Leads that are followed up quickly and handled properly convert at a completely different rate to ones that sit in an inbox waiting for a busy installer to get back to them.

Get those foundations in place first. When you do, the campaign has something solid to land on.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

This is not a sales tactic.

For at least a year, On steroids has been supply constrained rather than demand constrained. There are 22 people on the operations and fulfilment side. Until recently, one person on sales. The demand has never been the limiting factor.

We are looking to take on a maximum of 16 installers nationally. That number is set by what the team can service properly, not by what sounds exclusive.

On a monthly basis, the limit is typically six new clients. In most months that fills within the first two weeks. After that, new enquiries go on a waitlist for the following month.

If being one of those 16 matters to you, the timeline for acting on it is shorter than most people assume.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

This is one of the easiest objections to address once there is 30 seconds to explain it.

The answer is cost.

To match what On steroids delivers for clients, you would need to hire a creative team including shoot brief specialists, an ad briefing specialist, 15 full time editors, 3 graphic designers, and a dedicated QA specialist. You would need to source, manage, and quality check videographers across the country. You would need a media buyer actively managing the account and optimising the funnel day to day. You would need a systems and automations specialist, a developer working on a bespoke API, and a customer success function on top of all of that.

Every one of those roles is a salary. Most of them are senior hires. The fixed cost of building that team is not comparable to what a client pays to access it.

Then there is the track record question. You could attempt to build it yourself and spend 3, 6, or 12 months figuring it out. Or you could have campaigns live within three weeks, already generating a return, and use that same period to actually grow rather than learn at your own expense.

And while you are learning, we are also developing. The gap does not close. It widens.

Unless you are a very large operation, building this in-house is not a realistic path to competing with clients who are already running with us.

If you are large enough that in-house feels viable, it is still worth a conversation. There may be a way to facilitate that process faster than you would manage alone.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The discovery call is booked for 30 minutes.

In most cases that is enough time to cover everything. Occasionally it runs a few minutes over, so it is worth having a small buffer after if you can. But 30 minutes is the expectation, and we work to it.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The discovery call starts with your current situation.

How busy are you? What channels are working? Are you running Facebook and Instagram ads already and not seeing the results you expected? Are you with an agency? The goal is to build a full picture before anything else is discussed.

If you are already running ads, we will look at them on the call. Sometimes the campaigns are actually in reasonable shape and the issue sits elsewhere, on the sales side or in the conversion process. We would rather surface that honestly than jump straight to telling you we can fix everything with better ads.

From there we go into what we do in far more detail than anything on the website. That includes our three core pillars, the foundations that underpin every successful campaign we run, alongside case studies, results from existing clients, and pricing.

The goal is that you leave the call with a complete picture, not a partial one.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

There is no pressure to decide anything on the day.

The discovery call is for information. A proposal review call follows, and that is where the decision gets made. In between, any questions that come up get answered. The two step approach exists specifically to make sure there is enough time and enough information to make a considered decision.

We would actively encourage you to speak to other agencies, explore other channels, and look at other options before committing. When you do decide to go ahead, we want you to be genuinely confident in that choice, not feel like you were pushed into it before you were ready.

A client who arrives already convinced is a very different client to one who arrives with unresolved doubts. The outcome tends to reflect that difference.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Three things make a discovery call genuinely useful. Here is what they are.

Join on a laptop. There are visual materials on the call that are difficult to follow on a phone. This is a small thing that makes a meaningful difference to what you actually take away from the conversation.

Be on time. We will be. If something comes up on our end, we will let you know in advance. The same courtesy goes both ways.

Know your numbers. If you are running any advertising currently, take a look at how those campaigns are performing before the call. Cost per lead, cost per quote, cost per sale. If you can bring those figures to the conversation, we can have a much more specific and useful discussion about what we can realistically do for you and whether we can improve on what you are already seeing.

The goal of the call is an informed conversation, not a scramble to find login details mid-discussion.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

This is not about pressuring anyone into a decision on the first call.

The opposite, actually. We would rather you take your time and make an informed decision. But that informed decision needs to come from hearing it directly, not from having it passed on secondhand by someone who was on the call.

The context gets lost in translation. Expectations drift. And then the campaign suffers for reasons that had nothing to do with the campaign itself.

The most common version of this involves sales directors. Many have already managed teams that dealt with Facebook ad leads and found them to be poor quality. That experience is real and it is valid. But it is also addressable, and we cover exactly why on the discovery call.

If the sales director is not present, what they hear is that the marketing team has signed up with another Facebook ads agency. The reaction is predictable. The sales team's motivation drops before a single lead has come through. Conversion suffers. Everyone concludes it has not worked.

If the sales director had been on the call, they would have understood what is different here and gone into it with a different mindset. That mindset filters down. It changes how leads get handled. And that changes outcomes.

Getting everyone in the room once, at the start, is the simplest way to avoid all of that.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The purpose of a shoot is not to produce one polished video.

It is to build a library of authentic, high performing creative that generates leads and scales over time.

We film primarily at completed installation sites, ideally once scaffolding has been removed so the finished system can be properly showcased. On each site, we capture you walking through the installation, explaining the equipment chosen, how the system works, any challenges you faced, and what it means for the homeowner.

On a first shoot, we always aim to include at least one installation still in progress. That gives us supporting footage that a completed site cannot: your team working, branded vans, equipment being installed, the operational side of the business in motion. From a single visit, it builds a complete visual picture of how you work.

Across a full shoot day, we typically produce between three and five individual ads per site. That volume is the point. The goal is a creative library that can be continuously tested, refreshed, and scaled inside your ad account.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Nobody should be walking into a shoot cold.

Once you become a client, the preparation process starts well before the shoot day itself. It begins with a pre-shoot form, where you provide the sites for the day, the kit installed at each one, and anything else worth knowing going into the creative process.

From there we schedule a pre-shoot call. On that call we confirm the sites, run through logistics and timings, and walk through the concepts we have planned. It is also the right time to raise any questions before the day.

Alongside that, you receive a video preparation course. It covers what to expect on the day, how filming works, and how to approach speaking on camera. For installers who have never been filmed before, it removes the uncertainty before it becomes nerves on the day.

By the time you are on site, everything is already planned. The goal is for filming to feel natural rather than stressful, and the preparation process exists entirely in service of that.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Filming frequency is tied directly to ad spend level.

Under £20,000 per month: once every three months. Between £20,000 and £40,000 per month: twice per quarter. Over £40,000 per month: once every month.

The logic is straightforward. Higher spend pushes creative to more people at greater frequency, which means it fatigues faster. Filming more often is what keeps the account supplied with enough fresh content to sustain that level of spend without performance dropping off.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The more you spend, the more creative you need.

That is not a preference. It is a practical reality. Higher spend levels push ads to larger audiences at greater frequency, which accelerates creative fatigue. The only way to stay ahead of that is consistent creative production.

Throughout the 90 days following a shoot, new ads are being produced and launched into your account continuously. The goal is straightforward: there should always be fresh creative available so that performance never stalls while waiting for new content.

Creative volume and campaign scalability are directly connected. One enables the other.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

A typical shoot day covers five to seven sites.

That volume is what allows us to produce a wide variety of creative from a single day of filming. Different locations, different installations, different visual context. All of it feeds into a more diverse and more durable ad account.

The current record belongs to Jesse Burgess from All Solar Works, who filmed eleven sites in a single day in Worthing. He offered homeowners £250 in exchange for access to their property. Worth noting that many installers reach five to seven sites or more without offering any incentive at all.

Homeowners do not need to appear on camera. The installation itself provides more than enough material. The cable routes, the equipment, the finished system, all of it is valuable content without a homeowner saying a word.

The more sites we can visit, the more creative we can produce, and the more scalable the campaign becomes over time.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

A typical shoot day runs from around 8am to just before 5pm.

That window exists for a reason. It allows enough time to travel between sites, capture sufficient footage at each location without rushing, and cover the full range of services an installer offers.

For installers who offer multiple services, such as solar and heat pumps, we may run shoot days back to back to make sure we have enough content across everything.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

We need a minimum of five working days to schedule a shoot properly.

In practice, booking as early as possible is always the better approach. Videographer availability varies by region and can fill up significantly further in advance than five days, particularly in busier areas.

Leaving it late creates a straightforward problem. If creative runs dry before new footage is ready, campaign performance takes a hit. Planning shoots early keeps the pipeline full and removes that risk entirely.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Most installers we work with have never been on camera before their first shoot.

That is completely normal. Feeling nervous going into it is expected. Our videographers are experienced at guiding people through the process and making them feel comfortable, and the preparation we do beforehand exists specifically to make the shoot feel as natural as possible.

The pre-shoot call, the prompt-based filming approach, the preparation material, all of it is designed so that you are not walking in cold.

The one thing worth being honest with yourself about is willingness. Nerves are fine. But if you are fundamentally unwilling to appear on camera at all, someone else from your business needs to be. The ads require a real person. That is not something we can work around.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Prospects are good at spotting when someone is performing rather than talking.

You do not need to be polished. You do not need to rehearse. The most effective thing you can do on camera is explain what you do the same way you would to a customer standing next to you on site.

Your expertise and familiarity with the work does the heavy lifting. It builds credibility without you having to try. The goal is not to act like someone worth trusting. The goal is simply to be honest and clear about what you do.

That authenticity is what builds trust. And trust is what drives the conversion.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

From shoot day to live ad, we work to a two week turnaround.

That covers everything: footage ingestion and organisation, creative editing and formatting, internal quality control, client review and approval, and final export and deployment into Meta.

For clients who have filmed with us before and have an established creative style and branding, subsequent shoots move considerably faster. There's no rebuilding from scratch. The process is already set.

The reason this matters is straightforward. Campaigns that can refresh creative consistently maintain performance as they scale. Creative fatigue is one of the most common reasons a campaign that was working stops working. A reliable turnaround time is one of the most practical ways to stay ahead of it.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

This is a full walkthrough of how we think about creative at On steroids from the brief, to the shoot, to what goes live in your Meta account.Charlotte leads the creative function here. Her background spans DTC e-commerce, global brand campaigns at THG, and agency work with partners including BBH, Google, Netflix, and Sky Sports. Before any of that, a placement year at Audi, where the standard for what good creative looks like was set early.In this video she covers the full picture: how shoot briefs are built using a 70/30 split between proven concepts and deliberate experimentation, why we pull formats from e-commerce and introduce them into solar before anyone else does, how prompt-based briefing produces more natural ads than scripting ever could, and why the leads that come through video ads are fundamentally different from the ones that come through image ads.There's also a section on creative fatigue, what it is, when it hits, and the three ways we stay ahead of it alongside a look at the handheld installation walkthrough format that's been performing well across both national and local installers.The through line across all of it is the same. Every decision is informed by data. Every concept has a reason behind it. And the goal is always to produce creative that doesn't look like an ad.If you're a renewables installer looking to work with a team that already understands your industry, the next step is straightforward.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Creative fatigue is straightforward. Show the same ad to the same audience too many times and performance drops. Cost per lead goes up, engagement falls, and a campaign that was working starts to erode.

The fix isn't complicated, but it does require consistent effort across three areas: new footage from fresh installations, new messaging concepts, and new creative formats.

At On steroids we're producing around 50 image ads a week across different formats including testimonials, carousels, USP-focused layouts, and formats we've brought in from outside the industry entirely. One of the most effective right now is the handheld installation walkthrough. The installer films a selfie video on site, cable routes, equipment, challenges encountered, essentially the same content as a high production install overview, but shot on a phone with minimal editing. Subtitles, some background music, light B-roll. That's it.

They perform well because they don't look like ads. In a Meta feed full of polished creative, something that feels genuinely unfiltered gets watched. We've seen this work for national installers and local ones alike, which tells us the format travels regardless of budget or audience size.

This is a good example of what we mean when we talk about pulling formats from other industries and bringing them into solar before anyone else does.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

An image ad shows a logo, a panel, a piece of kit.

It doesn't tell a customer who you are, what you stand for, how you run a job, or why your install quality warrants the price you charge. There's no context. No personality. No reason to choose you over anyone else with a similar image and a lower quote.

Video changes that entirely.

A customer who watches your ad and stays to watch it comes out the other side knowing something real about you. Your values. How you work. The quality of what you install. They've begun to build trust with someone who may eventually be working in their home.

The leads that come through from video ads reflect that. They're not shopping for the cheapest quote. They've already self-selected based on what you offer, and they've decided that what you offer is worth it. The conversation that follows is a different one entirely less time spent justifying price, more time spent moving toward a decision.

Image ads attract budget-led buyers. Video ads attract buyers who've already been sold on why budget isn't the only consideration.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

The best performing installer ads don't feel like ads.

They feel like someone walking you through a job explaining what they installed and why, what challenges came up, how they handled them, and what the system actually means for the homeowner on the other side of it.

That's exactly what we encourage on shoot.

Talk about the equipment you chose and the reasons behind it. Walk through the cable route. If there's an EV charger or heat pump involved, explain why solar complements it. And don't shy away from the problems — homeowners who've had any kind of work done on their house know that installations don't always go to plan. Showing how you handled a challenge is more convincing than pretending everything was straightforward.

The financial side matters too. Savings, payback periods, export rates, how a customer can actually earn from their system. A lot of what feels like basic knowledge to an installer is genuinely unfamiliar to a homeowner. Explaining it simply, without condescension, is where trust starts to build.

That trust developed through an ad, before any conversation has taken place is what makes the eventual sale considerably easier.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Messaging decisions aren't made by instinct.

They start with onboarding your USPs, your equipment focus, your reviews, how long you've been operating, the stories that actually differentiate you from the installer down the road. If customers are saying the same things about you across Google and Trustpilot, that's a signal worth building on.

From there, we layer in what we've learned across thousands of ads in the solar industry. We know which messaging angles work and which don't. That knowledge gets adapted to your specific strengths, it's never a straight copy from one client to another, but it's also never starting from zero.

And then we keep testing. Short angles get developed. What works at 30 seconds gets explored at 60. A messaging concept about solar in general gets refined into one about why someone should choose you specifically, then about a specific piece of equipment, then about battery storage, then about panel type.

Every angle informs the next one.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

A scripted ad sounds like a scripted ad.

Customers scrolling through their feed can feel it immediately the stilted delivery, the rehearsed lines, the sense that someone is performing rather than talking. And the moment it feels like that, they're gone.

So we don't script. Instead, every shoot brief is built around prompts questions that guide the topic but leave the answer entirely to the installer. Savings, equipment, company USPs, installation experience, we direct what gets covered, but how it gets said comes naturally from the person on camera.

The cue we give most often on shoot is simple: talk to us like you're walking a potential customer around an install site.

That approach does something the scripted version never can. When a lead eventually meets you or your team, they already feel like they know you. Because in a real sense, they do.

And if you stumble on your words? Good. That's how people actually talk. Our editors are capable, and the ads come out well. Installers are consistently surprised by the end result, not because we've polished them into something they're not, but because being yourself on camera is more than enough.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

High quality leads are not looking for a discount.

They're looking for someone who knows what they're talking about. Someone who can speak to the technicalities of the system, who's honest about the problems they've encountered and how they solved them, and who doesn't come across like they're trying to close a sale on camera.

That's what we encourage on every shoot.

When an installer speaks with genuine expertise about system specifics, about installation challenges, about details a customer wouldn't find in a quick Google search something shifts. The leads that come through are more informed, more serious, and considerably easier to convert. Because they've already self-selected. They care about the things that installer specialises in.

The ad does the qualifying before the conversation even starts.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

There's no guesswork in how we develop creative concepts. It comes from three places.

The first is your onboarding. Equipment you prefer installing, certifications you hold, what your reviews consistently say about you — all of it goes in. If customers are mentioning the same thing across multiple reviews, that's signal. That goes into the brief.

The second is what's already working across our wider client base. When you sign up with On steroids, you're not coming in as a standalone client starting from zero. You're joining a network of 40 plus installers, and the learnings from those campaigns are available to yours from day one.

That's a compounding advantage that takes most agencies years to build if they build it at all.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Every shoot brief we write follows a 70/30 split.70% of the concepts are tried and tested. We know they work because we've seen them work across installers, across regions. If something is performing well in Scotland, there's no reason not to adapt it for Devon.The other 30% is where we push. New formats, new angles. Some flop. Some scale into the best-performing ads in an account. But without that 30%, you're just maintaining. You're never growing.A big part of where those new concepts come from is other industries. E-commerce companies are spending millions on ad spend every year. They've already done the testing. They already know what works. We take those formats, the ones that feel native to a feed, that look like content rather than ads and bring them into solar, where no one has seen them yet.The other side of this is differentiation. Every installer's brief starts with their specific USPs, their positioning, their equipment, their geography. Mentioning a street name or a local estate in an ad isn't a gimmick. We consistently see leads come from that exact area when we do it.What you say on camera and how you say it will be different from every competitor. That difference is what builds trust before the conversation even starts.Website: https://solaronsteroids.com

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

Most agencies talk about creative strategy. Fewer can explain where the ideas actually come from and why each one earns its place in a shoot brief.

Our creative function is led by Charlotte, whose background spans DTC e-commerce, global brand campaigns at THG, and agency partnerships with the likes of BBH, Google, Netflix, and Sky Sports. The through line across all of it has been the same: making sure creative output meets a high standard and that performance data flows back into the work rather than sitting in a silo.

Alongside her is Imogen, who brings something harder to replicate direct experience inside the renewables industry, combined with content creation skills built across influencer campaigns that ran at scale globally.

And then there's the wider team. 20 plus graphic designers, video editors, and QA specialists. A media buyer who has actually run solar ads and knocked doors. Joe and Jude with over two years running campaigns for 40 plus installers.

It is a specific combination. That's the point.

If you're a renewables installer looking to work with people who already understand your industry, send us a message or book a call.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

It's a question that comes up.

Can we just use image ads? Can we skip the video content and still run something that performs?

The short answer is no. And it's worth explaining why.

Image ads have their place. But they can't do what video does. They can't communicate who you are, why a customer should choose you over anyone else, or build the kind of familiarity that moves someone from vague interest to a booked appointment.

When we run campaigns without video, lead quality drops. The people coming through aren't as far along. They convert at a lower rate. That's not a theory, it's a pattern we see consistently.

So we don't do it. Not because we're being difficult, but because we're not willing to take your budget and deliver results we don't believe in.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 5 December 2024, views & strategies may have changed since.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how long it takes to see results from a Meta campaign. The reality is that inquiries can start almost immediately—often as soon as the ads begin spending.

Typically, we see the first leads arrive within 48 hours, and the first surveys are usually booked within the first week. However, turning those leads into deals depends heavily on your own internal infrastructure. Installers with high responsiveness and strong sales processes see results much sooner.

For example, AJ Renewables closed two deals in their first 24 hours with us. If you have a solid quote-to-sale ratio and follow up quickly, the first deals often land within a couple of weeks. If you aren’t seeing that speed, it’s usually a sign that the sales system, not the lead quality, needs adjustment.

Website: solaronsteroids.com

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I often advise our clients to diversify their lead sources where possible, but internally, we’ve made a deliberate choice to master Meta.

The reason is simple: solar is a highly visual product. Homeowners aren't just buying a service; they want to see real installations, real teams, and real homes before they commit. We were among the first in the UK to pioneer detailed install overview content because we saw how strongly people responded to practical, grounded explanations of how solar actually works in reality.

By focusing our ads on the equipment used, the installation process, and the actual financial returns, we’ve built systems where clients are now comfortably investing up to £60,000 per month on Meta alone.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

Deciding which ads to scale and which to kill isn't a matter of gut feeling. It’s about following the data as it matures.

In the early stages of a campaign, I focus primarily on cost per lead. At that point, there simply isn't enough downstream data to optimize for deeper outcomes. However, as the campaign runs, we shift our focus to revenue-driven metrics: cost per quote and cost per sale.

We feed survey and sales data back into the platform. This allows the algorithm to optimize for actual customers rather than just hunting for low-cost inquiries. While we monitor secondary indicators like click distribution and engagement patterns to explain performance, the primary KPIs—inquiry, quote, and sale costs—are what decide if an ad is scaled, maintained, or turned off.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I'm often asked what a "good" cost per lead (CPL) looks like in the solar industry. The reality is that it depends almost entirely on your geography and your level of ad spend.

If you are a national installer covering highly competitive areas, we typically see figures closer to £20 per lead. This sounds counterintuitive, but broader demand and larger audiences give the Meta algorithm more room to optimize for the best result. In contrast, in less competitive regions like parts of Wales or Northern Ireland, we've seen CPLs drop as low as £10.

However, scaling your budget often brings these costs down even further. As installers increase their investment, the average CPL tends to reduce because of the data feedback loops we've built. Currently, across our entire client base, the average CPL sits at approximately £40.

A word of caution: low-cost leads aren't always valuable. You can have a £10 lead that never converts. What actually matters is the cost per quote and the cost per sale. If your inquiries aren't turning into revenue, the initial lead cost is irrelevant.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I’m often asked how scalable Meta advertising is in the long term. From what I’ve seen across our accounts, it is extremely scalable when the execution is right. For most solar businesses, this channel alone is sufficient to double their overall revenue.We have clients consistently generating around 50% of their total monthly revenue directly from Meta. I’ve personally helped scale individual installers to £60,000 per month in ad spend.The process has to be gradual and strategic to avoid efficiency losses. Interestingly, the bottleneck usually isn't the platform itself. The key limiting factor is typically the installer's own operational capacity to handle the additional demand.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I often hear that certain markets are too crowded for Meta ads to work. The reality I see on the ground is different. Competition doesn't prevent success; it just raises the bar for what your creative and attribution systems need to look like.Take Bournemouth as a case study. It has one of the highest solar adoption rates in the UK and a geographically limited targeting area because it’s coastal. It’s objectively one of the most competitive markets you could enter.Despite that, we have clients there running highly profitable campaigns at local spend levels of £6,000 per month. When the market is saturated, the winners are the ones with better optimization and stronger, lived-experience creative.

Book a call: For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I’ve seen how traditional lead generation works in this industry, and it’s a race to the bottom. Most companies sell the same lead to three or four different installers, forcing you to compete on speed and price alone.

We don't operate that way. Every campaign we run is fully branded to your company. The ads run directly from your own Facebook and Instagram pages, and the funnels are built specifically for your business. When a lead submits their details, they go straight into your CRM—not a shared database.

There is no opportunity for these leads to be diverted or resold. This is a fundamental shift in both quality and ownership. Because they have seen your work and your brand throughout the process, these people aren't just looking for a generic solar quote; they have specifically chosen you.

For context, this video was originally recorded on 2 March 2026, views & strategies may have changed since.

I’ve seen a pattern with solar installers who tell me Meta ads don't work for them. Usually, when I look into the ad account, I see the same technical bottlenecks.

Most agencies are still funneling traffic into standard Meta lead forms. It’s a low-friction path, but in 2026, about 8% of Meta accounts are bots, and those bots can fill forms. You can’t use Captcha on those forms, and you can't truly optimize them—there are only three variations available.

We’ve moved entirely to Perspective funnels. They have more friction, typically eight pages compared to three or four, but they allow us to test imagery and headlines properly. I’ve watched conversion rates start at 2% and creep up to 8% after a few imagery and headline tests. Across all our funnels, we’re averaging 5.5% right now.

The other half of the problem is creative volume. Since the Andromeda upgrade last year, creative diversity is non-negotiable. If you’re running one ad, you’re appealing to one type of customer. Running 10 or 20 ads decreases cost per lead because you’re actually resonating with different segments of the market.