The short answer
Average advance size across the market sits near $50,000, but it varies substantially by industry — retail runs well below the mean while construction, transportation and larger service businesses run above it. Since commission is points on the funded amount, industry mix in your leads affects broker revenue more than most brokers account for.
Two brokers buying leads at the same price from the same market can bank very different amounts per funded deal, and the reason is usually which industries their leads happen to contain.
What drives the difference
- Revenue scale. A business doing $400,000 a month supports a larger advance than one doing $60,000, and industries differ systematically.
- Revenue shape. Steady daily receipts support a bigger remittance than lumpy project income at the same annual figure.
- Balance behaviour. Industries that hold cash get better offers than ones that run near zero on the same revenue.
- Existing positions. Some sectors are more heavily stacked than others, which caps what any funder will write.
What to do about it
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Track average funded advance by industry | Tells you which files are worth chasing |
| Ask a vendor about vertical mix | Sets expectations before the order |
| Weight your leads where volume supports it | Possible, within limits |
| Raise the revenue floor | Bigger files, higher cost per lead |
The honest caveat on the third row: leads running off live traffic are a round robin rather than a menu, so weighting is a matter of degree rather than a filter. Any vendor promising pure single-industry leads at volume is describing something they cannot reliably deliver.
The most reliable lever is the fourth — a higher revenue floor produces larger files across every industry, at a higher cost per lead. Whether that trade is worth making depends on your commission structure and whether your funder relationships support the larger paper.