Why Shared Leads Stopped Converting

Key takeaways

• A shared lead divides by the number of brokers it is sold to - your effective cost is the lead price divided by your realistic share.
• Speed became the whole contest, which rewards call centres over advisers.
• Judge a lead source on cost per FUNDED deal, never on cost per lead.
• Exclusive and self-generated enquiries cost more upfront and usually less per settlement.

What is a shared lead and why does the price mislead?

A shared or "co-registered" lead is a borrower enquiry sold simultaneously to multiple brokers. The advertised price - commonly cited in the $80 to $150 range for Australian mortgage enquiries - is the price you pay for the contact record, not the price for the opportunity.

If the same enquiry goes to four brokers, only one of you settles it. Your true cost is not $120. It is $120 divided by your probability of being the one, and that probability is set largely by who calls first.

That is the whole reason the economics moved. Nothing about the borrower changed. The denominator did.

What does a shared lead actually cost per settlement?

Work it through with your own numbers. The pattern below assumes a $120 lead and holds contact and conversion rates constant so the only variable is how many brokers receive it.

The illustration assumes one settlement per twelve exclusive enquiries; substitute your own contact-to-appointment and appointment-to-settlement rates. The shape holds regardless: the cost per settlement scales with the number of brokers on the lead, and the headline price never moves.

This is why two brokers can buy the identical product from the identical supplier and reach opposite conclusions about whether it works. They are not buying the same thing.

What replaces shared leads?

There is no single replacement, and anyone selling one is selling you the next shared lead. What works is a mix where at least part of the pipeline is not resold to anyone.

1. Own the enquiry at the source - suburb and niche content that ranks, a complete Google Business Profile, and a booking path that does not depend on you being the fastest dialler.
2. Referral partners - accountants, planners, conveyancers and agents send one enquiry to one broker. That is structurally exclusive.
3. Your own back book - the cheapest enquiry you will ever get is a past client at their annual review or coming off a fixed term.
4. Buy exclusive, not shared, and measure it on cost per funded deal so the higher unit price is judged on the number that matters.

If you do keep buying shared leads, buy them knowing what they are: a speed contest you are paying to enter. That can still be rational, provided your operation is genuinely built to answer in minutes.

Frequently asked questions

How much do mortgage leads cost in Australia?

Shared mortgage enquiries are commonly cited in the $80 to $150 range, with exclusive leads priced considerably higher. The price you should compare is not per lead but per funded deal, because a shared lead sold to four brokers costs roughly four times its sticker price in effective terms.

Are exclusive leads worth the higher price?

Often yes, on a per-settlement basis, because you are not dividing the opportunity with three other brokers. Test it the same way you would test anything else: run both for a full sales cycle and compare cost per settlement, not cost per contact.

How fast do I need to respond to a shared lead?

Minutes, not hours. On a resold enquiry the practical contest is who makes contact first, which is why call-centre operations outperform individual brokers on this channel. If you cannot answer within the first few minutes reliably, shared leads are a poor fit for your operation.

What is the single best metric for a lead source?

Cost per funded deal. Every other metric - cost per lead, contact rate, appointment rate - is a diagnostic that explains the result, not the result itself.

Related reading

• Speed to Lead: Why the First Five Minutes Decide the Deal
• Broker Market Share Hits 81%: What It Means for Borrowers
• Database Reactivation: Mining Your Own Back Book

Sources

• Quarterly mortgage broker market share reporting — MFAA
• Credit licensing and broker obligations — ASIC