How much should a finance broker pay for lead generation?
There is no market rate to look up. The right budget is whatever a funded deal is worth to you, worked back through the model you buy with.
Nobody can tell you how much to pay for lead generation until you know what a settled deal is worth to you. Begin with the upfront commission on the deals you want more of, decide how much of it you will spend to win the next one, and you have a target cost per funded deal. Each model can then be tested against that number.
This page does that with round, hypothetical figures. None of them are prices: La Vitesse quotes lead pricing on a call, by niche and volume, so the number for your own version of the maths is the one you are quoted.
Three inputs set the budget: the average upfront commission on a settled deal in the niche you want to grow, not your whole book; the share of it you are prepared to spend to win the next deal; and the extra settlements a month you want the channel to add.
A hypothetical, using round numbers that are nobody's pricing: a broker's average settled deal in her target niche pays $8,000 upfront. She decides a quarter of that is acceptable acquisition cost, so her target is $2,000 per funded deal. She wants four extra settlements a month, so her ceiling across all channels is about $8,000 a month.
Leave trail, repeat business and client referrals out of the inputs; they should sweeten a channel that already clears the target, not rescue one that does not.
Pay per lead
Variable. You pay per enquiry that clears the agreed criteria, so spend tracks volume and stops when you stop.
Retainer or managed ads
Fixed plus variable. The management fee is due whether or not the campaign converts, with ad spend on top. Budget for months of learning before you judge it.
Your own ads
Variable spend, hidden fixed cost. No fee, but the landing page, the form, the verification step and the ad account are your hours. Cost them honestly or the number lies.
Aggregator or referral split
Zero up front. A commission split or referral fee is paid at settlement, which protects cash flow. The trade-off is that volume is not a lever you control.
Take the hypothetical broker above with her $2,000 target. Every figure below is illustrative, not a quote.
- Pay per lead. Suppose a lead in her niche costs $200, so ten leads are $2,000. If seven of the ten are reached and one in five of those conversations settles, that is 1.4 settlements and about $1,430 per funded deal, inside target. If one in ten settles, it is about $2,860 and outside it. Same price both times; her conversion decided the answer.
- Retainer. Suppose the agency charges $3,000 a month and she adds $4,000 of ad spend, $7,000 all in. The campaign brings 25 form-fills, 15 with a working number, and at the same one-in-five close rate she settles three: about $2,330 per funded deal, over target. In a month that settles nothing, the $7,000 is still due and the running average moves against her.
- Your own ads. The same $4,000 of ad spend with no agency fee and the same three settlements is about $1,330 per funded deal on paper, the best figure here. Price the twenty hours of her own time that built and ran it at what those hours earn writing deals: unless that is $100 an hour or less, it is over target.
- Referral split. Suppose she gives the referrer a quarter of the $8,000 upfront commission. That is $2,000 per funded deal, on target, paid only when the deal settles, and the one channel with no lever to pull when she wants eight settlements instead of four.
Pay per lead and referral splits land near the target because the cost is tied to a result. Retainer and own ads can beat them, but only after the learning months are paid for, and those months go on the same ledger. The risk side of that choice is in pay per lead vs retainer.
The monthly number is set by capacity, not ambition. Count the new conversations you can call inside the hour each working day without dropping deals in progress, divide by the contact rate the provider will put in writing, and multiply by the quoted per-lead price. That is a ceiling, not a goal.
Hold the budget long enough to read it: funded deals from a full batch, not the first three calls. If the cost per funded deal comes in over target, check the chain in order: were the leads reached, were they called fast, did the conversations convert. Price is usually the smallest lever. The cost per funded deal method covers the measurement, what finance leads cost covers what moves the price, and are lead companies worth it? covers whether to buy at all.
La Vitesse sells on the first model: pay per lead, exclusive, every enquiry sold once, every mobile verified by SMS before it ships, with no lock-in contracts, no setup fees and no monthly retainers. Our published contact rate is 72.5%, and pricing is quoted on a call. If your target does not survive the maths for what you write, we would rather say so on that call; if SMEs are what you write, start with business loan leads.