Cost per lead is the wrong number to watch
A $14 lead that closes once in 250 tries costs more per closing than a $220 lead that closes once in 15. This calculator turns each channel’s monthly cost, lead count and close rate into the two numbers that matter: cost per closing and return on spend.
How to read the result
- Cost per closing is cost per lead divided by your close rate.
- Return on spend compares a year of commission from the channel with a year of what it cost.
- Close rate needed to break even tells you how good your follow-up has to be for the channel to pay at all.
Published figures to check your inputs against
- Zillow reports an average cost per lead of $223 in major metro areas and $139 elsewhere.
- WordStream’s 2026 Facebook benchmarks put the median real estate lead at $13.74.
- LocaliQ’s 2026 search benchmarks, which cover Google and Microsoft ads from April 2025 to March 2026, put the median real estate lead at $102.51.
These are figures from vendors and one company’s own reporting, checked in October 2026. Your market will differ. Give a new channel enough months to produce a closing before you judge it. More detail is in what real estate leads cost in 2026.
Questions agents ask
How do you calculate cost per closing?
Divide what you spend on a channel by the closings it produces. Or divide the cost per lead by the share of leads that close: a $50 lead at a 2% close rate costs $2,500 per closing.
What is a good ROI on real estate leads?
There is no standard. A channel pays when a year of commission from it is more than a year of its cost, with enough left over to be worth your time. Compare channels on cost per closing.
How long should I test a lead source?
Long enough for a normal buyer to go from first contact to closing, which is often several months. Judging a channel after a few weeks usually means judging it before any lead could have closed.