From Permits to Precision Marketing
When it comes to helping homeowners capture every dollar of solar tax credit available to them, Tactical Rebates doesn’t just wait for interest—they generate it. By leveraging public data in a smart, programmatic way, they’ve carved out a powerful niche in the world of solar energy incentives.
With millions of Americans installing rooftop solar systems in recent years, many are unaware of smaller, time-sensitive tax credits that supplement the federal solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Tactical Rebates exists to close that gap—and now, with the Shovels API, they’re doing it faster, more precisely, and at scale.
The Challenge: Scale, Accuracy, and Timeliness
Tactical Rebates needed access to a rich and reliable source of building permit data to:
- Identify homeowners who had recently installed solar
- Evaluate home value and solar system characteristics to qualify leads
- Build high-performing “lookalike” audiences to fuel machine-learning ad models
Before integrating Shovels, these tasks involved patchy data coverage, manual cleanup, and inconsistent permit formats across thousands of jurisdictions.
Enter Shovels API: Nationwide Permit Data, Instantly Searchable
By plugging into the Shovels API, Tactical Rebates now taps into permit records from over 20,000 cities and counties. With Shovels, they can programmatically retrieve:
- Permits explicitly related to solar installations
- Property addresses and assessor data
- Permit descriptions, contractors, and valuation estimates
“Among all the data providers of solar demographics, Shovels was by far the most comprehensive and accurate. The convenient API access allowed for quick integration with our systems,” Ian explains.
And it’s not just about access—it’s about action.
Turning Permits into Outcomes
Tactical Rebates uses the Shovels API to fuel three core growth levers:
1. Hyper-Targeted Direct Marketing
By identifying homeowners who have installed solar within the last 36 months—the IRS deadline to retroactively claim certain tax credits—Tactical Rebates can reach out directly with personalized offers and education campaigns.
📊 Results: Response rates improved by 400% compared to cold lists.
2. Lead Qualification with Enriched Property Intelligence
Pairing permit data with metadata like estimated system value and home characteristics enables Tactical Rebates to filter high-intent, high-opportunity households—saving downstream sales teams time and budget.
🚀 Teaser: Shovels is currently beta-testing entity extraction on permit descriptions, enabling Tactical Rebates to soon automatically extract solar system size and brand—bringing even sharper segmentation to lead scoring.
3. Training Smarter Advertising Algorithms
With a clean, high-confidence dataset of known solar adopters, Tactical Rebates creates lookalike audiences that are more likely to engage—and convert. Their ML models now ingest permit-sourced features that previously weren’t available at national scale.
📊 Results: CPA dropped by 30% after training ML models on permit-powered lookalikes.
A Nationwide Push, Powered by Real-Time Coverage
Tactical Rebates isn’t standing still. As demand for solar installations continues to rise, they’re scaling their outreach programs across the country—matching the growth in federal and state incentives.
With Shovels continually expanding its permit coverage and pushing toward real-time updates in key jurisdictions, the timing couldn’t be better.
“We’re seeing rising demand across the Sun Belt, the Midwest, and into newly incentivized regions. As Shovels expands its footprint, it’s a win-win: we grow smarter, and faster,” Ian notes.
This alignment of capabilities means Tactical Rebates can confidently move into new markets, supported by fresh, verified permit data—no spreadsheets or scrapes required.
Educating Homeowners About Hidden Credits
Beyond marketing efficiencies, Tactical Rebates is on a mission to boost public awareness of lesser-known solar incentives—particularly Energy Community and Domestic Content bonus credits.
Here’s the quick rundown:
- Energy Community Credit: Provides a 10% bonus to the solar ITC for systems installed in areas historically reliant on fossil fuel jobs or with high unemployment. These communities are identified and mapped by the U.S. Department of Energy.
- Domestic Content Credit: Adds another 10% bonus when the solar installation uses U.S.-manufactured components—such as American-made panels or inverters.
Combined, these add-ons can significantly increase a homeowner’s total incentive—but only if claimed on time. That’s where Tactical Rebates steps in, and why the three-year outreach window is critical.
What’s Next
As Shovels rolls out entity extraction and enhanced property matching capabilities, Tactical Rebates is gearing up to go even deeper—unlocking new targeting layers like system size, brand, and installation type.
“It’s rare to find a data partner that delivers both breadth and precision, but Shovels has become essential to how we operate. We're excited to keep building on this foundation,” Ian says.
📣 Want to See What’s Possible with Permits?
Whether you're in solar, HVAC, real estate, or beyond—if your growth strategy involves understanding where and when things get built, Shovels can help. Talk to us about integrating building permit data into your pipeline.