Portal lead costs and de-duplication: know what a real lead costs you
The same buyer often reaches you through two portals, a WhatsApp forward and a walk-in. Counting them once is the first step to knowing what your marketing really costs.
Property portals, social ads and listing packages are often the largest marketing line for a brokerage. Yet many owners cannot say what a single genuine buyer cost them last month. The reason is usually not bad maths. It is duplicate leads: the same person counted two, three or four times.
Where duplicates come from
A serious buyer researches widely. In one week the same family might:
- enquire about your listing on two different portals,
- respond to your social media ad,
- message you on WhatsApp after a friend forwards a brochure, and
- walk into a site office and leave their number again.
Each of those creates a "lead". If you count them separately, your lead volume looks healthy, your cost per lead looks low, and your conversion rate looks terrible. None of those numbers is true.
Use the phone number as the key
In India the mobile number is the most reliable way to recognise a returning buyer. Names are spelt differently, email is often missing, but people keep their mobile numbers. The catch is formatting: "98450 12345", "+91 9845012345" and "09845012345" are the same number written three ways.
Normalise every number to one standard format (the international E.164 format, such as +919845012345) before you save it. Then one rule does most of the work: one buyer, one record, per brokerage. When the same number enquires again, update the existing record and note the new source, instead of creating a second lead. RealtyIQ does this automatically, but the principle works in any system, even a spreadsheet.
Decide how to credit the source
When one buyer arrives through several channels, which one gets the credit? There is no perfect answer, but you need a consistent one.
- First touch credits the channel that brought the buyer to you first. It is simple and favours channels that create new demand.
- Last touch credits the channel just before the site visit or booking. It favours channels that close.
- Keep both. Record the first source on the lead and log every later enquiry as an event. That lets you look at the question both ways later.
Work out your real costs
Once duplicates are merged, three numbers tell you most of what you need to know. Use your own figures for a month or a quarter:
- Cost per unique lead = what you paid the channel ÷ unique buyers it brought.
- Cost per site visit = what you paid ÷ site visits from those buyers.
- Cost per booking = what you paid ÷ bookings from those buyers.
The last number is the one that matters. A channel with cheap leads that never visit can cost more per booking than a pricier channel whose buyers are ready to move. Compare that cost per booking with the brokerage you expect to earn, and you will know which packages to renew.
Watch for leads that look real but are not
Some enquiries are other brokers checking your inventory, students, or numbers that are switched off. Do not delete them silently. Mark them with a clear reason ("broker", "wrong number", "not reachable after three attempts") so you can tell each portal's sales team exactly what share of their leads were not genuine buyers when you renegotiate.
Make it a monthly habit
Once a month, take an hour to review each paid channel: unique leads, site visits, bookings, and what you paid. Look at the trend over three months rather than reacting to a single month. Share the summary with your team so brokers understand why some leads get extra attention.
None of this needs advanced analytics. It needs clean phone numbers, one record per buyer, and the discipline to look at the numbers regularly. With that in place, the conversation with portal account managers becomes a lot more productive.