How to stop paying for enquiries that will never convert – funnel separation, contractual qualification and the 9-to-18-month buyer framework.
Cost per lead is the most quoted and least meaningful number in property marketing. Without an agreed definition of 'qualified', it measures form-fills – and form-fills include students researching, neighbours snooping, and bots. If your agency reports cost per lead without a signed qualification definition, you are buying a number, not a pipeline.
Three criteria, agreed with sales, written into the engagement. Every campaign report then argues about the same number – and pre-sales verification (a human call, scored into the CRM) enforces it before your closers spend a minute.
Off-plan buyers purchase confidence in delivery: developer track record, escrow clarity, milestone proof, exit options. Ready-to-move buyers purchase the specific unit: availability, snag transparency, move-in mechanics. One funnel serving both converts neither – separate the copy strategy, the proof, the nurture length and the qualification questions.
The average buyer takes 9–18 months from first enquiry to purchase. Build the sequence for the real cycle: early-stage education (area, financing, process), mid-stage proof (project progress, buyer stories), late-stage urgency that is honest (release stages, price movements that are true). A five-email sequence built for 30 days loses 90% of the list before the decision window opens.
Portals are a demand channel, not a marketing strategy. Track them as their own source with their own economics; never let portal and direct spend blur into one 'marketing' line. The question to answer each quarter: which channel produced the buyer – not the enquiry.
Write the three-line qualification definition and get sales to sign it. Split one live campaign by buyer type. Audit your nurture length against your real cycle. Or have our real estate practice do it with you – starting with the audit.
30 minutes with a sector strategist plus a written summary – no obligation, no pitch.