8:44
How to use animations without hurting solar website conversions
Tonight’s video is about micro-interactions and animations on solar websites.
This came up because a lot of developers applying for our Framer role lean heavily into animation — which makes sense. Framer makes it easy to build beautiful, fluid interactions.
The problem is that animation without restraint usually works against conversion.
In this video I walk through how we think about animations on live client sites: what we animate, what we don’t, and why attention, performance, and accessibility always come before visual flair.
Animations should support the user journey — not compete with it.
If your website feels busy, slow, or distracting, this is probably why.
For context, this video was originally recorded on 9 January 2025, views & strategies may have changed since.
Featuring
Video transcript
Good evening. Tonight we’re going to talk about micro-interactions and animations for your solar website. This is particularly relevant if you already have a solar website you’re looking to improve, or if you’re planning to develop a new one.
The reason this topic has come to mind is that a lot of developers applying for our Framer position put very significant emphasis on animations. And that makes sense, because Framer allows you to do some really fantastic things quite easily and quite quickly. It’s super fluid, and you can build complex, interactive elements that tell a story.
The problem is that when you overload a page with animations, no matter how good they are, you introduce a few issues. If they’re extensive or complex, you slow the page down, which impacts SEO and overall user experience. You also create distraction for the user and, in some cases, even elements of motion sickness or accessibility issues for people with more complex needs. And finally, you take attention away from the calls to action and the things you actually want people to do when they come onto your website, like calling you, getting a quote, or emailing you.
I’m going to take you through a few examples of animations that we use in a tasteful, conversion-considerate way. Hopefully there are a few designers watching who are currently in our application process, because this is something that’s super important to us. While a lot of you have fantastic skills using Framer animations, we’ve got to put user experience and client conversion first.
This is Infinite Energy’s website. Right off the bat, you can see that the only thing moving on the page is the main button. And funnily enough, that button is the one we really, really want people to click, because it goes straight through to the quote tool, which we’ve found has the highest conversion rate across the site and the strongest buy intent from users.
There are other small animations as well. For example, subtle micro-interactions that give you a little more information and encourage a click. You can hover over elements to reveal extra text, which makes the page feel clean and simple until the user actually wants more information. These are tooltip-style interactions that reduce clutter but still provide depth.
There are sections where you can have a bit more fun, as long as it doesn’t take away from conversion goals. In some sections where there are no calls to action, we’re not too concerned about distraction. In those cases, you might see a playful animation, like an element moving across the screen, just to make the site feel more alive and fluid. But this is intentional. If there were a call to action in that section, we wouldn’t do it.
Another example is where Infinite Energy is an official battery partner. We really want to emphasise that, so we’ve used a more noticeable hover animation with a flicker effect. It draws attention deliberately. If we didn’t want to emphasise that partnership, we wouldn’t animate it at all, because it does add load time and it does pull attention.
You’ll also see subtle animations designed purely to encourage clicks. The cursor might turn into an arrow when hovering over case studies. Project cards reveal a simple “view project” state. Buttons shift slightly or change colour on hover. Location lists highlight smoothly from left to right. Nothing flashes, nothing jumps, nothing shifts the layout around. It’s all very controlled.
Less really is more with this stuff. You might notice tiny details, like an arrow nudging slightly to the right or a button changing colour. These small interactions make the site feel responsive and modern without overwhelming the user.
One of my favourite examples is a very subtle green highlight that animates around a headline on one of our pages. It draws attention, makes the site feel alive, and shows that thought has gone into the design. But it doesn’t stop anyone from clicking the big green button that we really want them to click. It doesn’t interfere with the primary action.
I see far too many websites packed full of animations. Every section slides in, headings animate separately, and elements are constantly moving. It becomes overwhelming very quickly. If you’re looking to get a new website built and your web developer or agency can’t stop talking about clever animations and fancy effects, you should probably raise that as a concern. Their primary objective should be winning you business.
As much as I love animations, pretty effects don’t win you business unless they serve a clear purpose.
That’s all for tonight. I hope you found that valuable. If you already have a website and you want me to take a look and tell you which animations I’d keep and which ones I’d scrap, I’m more than happy to do that at no charge. I genuinely enjoy this kind of thing. I’ll love you and leave you for this one, and I’ll catch you in the next video.
Other resources
1:26
Can I pay via commission?
2:22
What kind of installer is the right fit?
0:16
What is the minimum installation volume required to work with you?
1:27
What growth can I expect from you?
1:46
Why run ads if we have referrals?
1:43
How much does it cost to work together?
1:31
Why is your minimum ad spend £2,500 per month?
2:30
What ROI should I expect from our campaigns?
1:24
How quickly should I expect results?
0:42
What is your contract structure / notice period?
3:12
Why do you cost more than other agencies?
1:31
Do you offer locational exclusivity?
1:15
What do I do if I'm not ready to work with you yet?
0:17
How long does a discovery call take?
1:09
What do we cover on a discovery call?
1:07
Do I need to make a decision on the discovery call?
1:08
How do I prepare for our call?
1:47
Why does every decision maker need to be on the call?
1:11
Do you really have limited capacity?
3:15
Why can't I just do this in-house?
2:08
Who actually works on my account?
0:44
How deep is your experience in renewables marketing?
0:41
What makes you different from my local, generalist agency?
0:31
Why does each one of your team members have a dedicated role?
0:29
How do you deliver consistent results?
0:50
How is your team structured and how will it grow?
0:21
Why do you limit how many clients you take on each month?
0:53
What standards do you hold yourselves to?
0:46
Why should I trust you with my growth?
0:31
Why do you not track hours / bill by the hour?
1:00
What do you actually film on a shoot day?
0:53
How should I prepare for my shoot?
0:15
How often do you need to film new ads?
0:23
Why do higher spenders need more ads?
0:41
How many sites do you film in one day, and why so many?
0:19
What does a shoot day look like?
0:25
How far in advance should I plan my shoot?
0:31
What should I expect if I've never been on camera before?
0:32
Why do you put more emphasis on authenticity than scripting?
0:26
How fast can you turnaround the content from the shoot?
25:21
Who works in your creative team?
3:09
How do you combat creative fatigue?
1:19
Why do you push video ads over image ads?
1:21
What do I actually need to say on camera?
1:25
How do you decide on the messaging for my ads?
2:11
Why do you not script the shoots?
0:56
How do I make sure I get good leads from my ads?
0:47
How do you come up with ad ideas?
4:30
How do you know an ad idea will actually perform?
6:39
Who is on your creative team?
0:26
Why won't you run a campaign without video ads?
1:18
How fast do solar ads actually work?
1:10
Why do Facebook Ads work so well with Solar?
1:13
How do you decide which ads to scale?
1:21
What cost per lead will I get?
0:51
How scalable are Facebook Ads?
0:45
Do Meta Ads still work in competitive areas?
2:40
Are the leads exclusive to us?
4:56
Why your Meta ads are failing in 2026
5:56
How small funnel changes are cutting solar lead costs in half
4:57
What actually happens on a Solar on Steroids discovery call
9:21
Why low production solar ads are outperforming everything else
3:45
How to choose which solar and battery products to sell
8:18
Why speed decides whether Meta solar leads close or disappear
3:59
Why you do not need to be entertaining for solar ads to work
4:57
Why solar installers get better on camera over time
1:12
Solar on Steroids 2025 mastermind event
14:10
Why authenticity beats scripts in solar ads
11:46
The four ad types that actually work for solar
18:04
Breaking down a high performing solar ad, frame by frame
15:21
Why solar installers need to niche down to win
12:58
How we avoid failed solar video shoots
14:32
Why most Meta ad accounts collapse over time
18:41
What it’s actually like working with us (start to finish)
17:02
Why our clients stay (and why we barely lose any)
1:13
We’re hiring videographer / director hybrids (UK-wide)
13:41
Why educational solar ads drive £15k average deals
15:04
Why this solar ad worked immediately after launch
11:22
What I actually do on solar video shoot days
12:18
Why this local solar ad converts so well
14:26
What actually happens on a solar video shoot day
13:12
How to stand out with video ads (even if you do it yourself)
09:48
Why we covered client ad spend and nearly broke ourselves
06:09
Why attribution massively underreports Meta ads impact
04:46
Why I’m not allowed in our clients’ ad accounts
05:12
Why creative testing decides long-term Meta ads success
11:03
Why video-first marketing doesn’t kill differentiation
10:41
Why we haven’t lost a client in almost two years
08:36
Why we charge a setup fee for Meta ads
07:58
Why cost per lead is a misleading metric in solar
08:27
Why multi-channel marketing outperforms single-channel ads
08:11
Why speed to lead changes solar sales performance
06:54
Why dynamic headlines change funnel conversion rates
09:02
Why always booking a follow-up improves solar close rates
03:18
How leveraging bigger brands improves ad engagement
07:46
Why our Meta ads campaigns perform before they even optimise
5:06
Should you call solar leads in the evening?
9:12
Why great service is the real driver of solar reviews
4:09
Why following up more often isn’t being annoying
6:18
How conditional logic improves solar lead quality
3:41
Why local solar installers win by being relatable
8:57
UTM parameters explained for solar installers
6:42
Why Meta ads should nurture solar leads, not just generate them
3:58
The funnel question that filters serious solar buyers
2:46
The solar growth document we’ve spent 50+ hours building
4:32
Where to send Meta ads if you want higher-quality solar leads
11:18
Why systems have to come before scaling solar leads
10:56
Why solar ROI should be shown before the quote
18:27
How i’d start solar marketing from scratch in 2025
12:41
Time in the market beats timing the market for solar
9:52
Why location pages work so well for solar installers
14:08
You don’t need much traffic to make solar websites profitable
11:34
Why we changed the first question in our solar funnels
6:21
UK solar demand Is about to spike (this changes everything)
7:58
How to stop blocking your solar leads from converting
10:14
What actually converts above the fold for residential solar
14:32
A tour of the biggest residential solar website we’ve ever built
06:48
How we hire using the same funnel we use for lead generation
07:36
Meet solar buyers where they already spend time online
06:12
The one-star review strategy that builds instant trust
09:12
Why being yourself works better than “performance” in solar ads
06:58
Why solar installers should collaborate, not compete
08:58
Why multi-touchpoint marketing beats better ads
05:06
Why “free” ruins solar lead quality
09:21
How to score commercial solar leads (properly)
11:11
Why top-of-funnel solar ads can produce cheaper leads long-term
07:54
Solar installers: your reviews are hurting you
09:47
Why entry-point installs beat solar-first sales
10:18
Why video is the most reusable sales asset in solar
09:12
Why solar case study pages convert better than service pages
08:26
Residential vs commercial solar intent isn’t what you think
11:02
Why most solar proposals kill deals before they’re read
08:41
Why solar websites don’t convert (and it’s not the forms)
07:58
The simplest funnel change we’ve ever made
09:34
Speed to lead is why social solar leads don’t convert
47:18
What we’ve actually been doing to generate solar demand