A broker typically earns points on the funded amount — commonly around 8 to 15 depending on the lender, the paper grade and whether you are splitting with an ISO. On a $62,000 average funded deal at 10 points that is $6,200. Everything about a lead budget follows from that number, because your maximum sustainable cost per funded deal is a fraction of it.
Most arguments about lead pricing are really arguments about economics that nobody has written down. Once the commission maths is on paper, the lead question usually answers itself.
A broker earns points — a percentage of the funded amount — paid by the funder. The range moves with the lender, the paper grade and whether you are working direct or splitting with an ISO shop.
| Scenario | Typical points | On a $62,000 deal |
|---|---|---|
| Direct with the funder, strong paper | 10–15 | $6,200–$9,300 |
| Direct, weaker paper or heavy competition | 6–10 | $3,720–$6,200 |
| Split with an ISO | Half of the above | $1,860–$4,650 |
| Renewal on an existing file | Often lower | Varies widely |
Those bands are directional and they vary a great deal by relationship — your own lender agreements are the only figures that matter for your own maths. The structure is what to take from the table: your revenue per deal scales with deal size, and deal size is a property of the leads you buy.
Take the average funded amount, multiply by your points, then subtract everything it took to get there. The last part is where most shops stop doing the arithmetic.
Proportions are illustrative and yours will differ — the point is the shape. Lead cost is real but it is rarely the largest slice, which is why optimising it alone moves the total less than people expect.
This is the number that should govern every lead decision, and most shops have never calculated it. A workable rule is that acquisition cost should sit somewhere between a fifth and a third of gross commission, depending on how much of the rest goes to rep pay.
The grey bar is what an actual lead order costs per funded deal at the bottom of the benchmark. It sits under the ceiling in every scenario except the thinnest — which is the whole argument for buying leads, stated as arithmetic rather than as a pitch.
Run your own version with your own points and your own funded average. If the number comes out badly, that is worth knowing before you spend, and it usually points at deal size rather than lead price.
A $10 saving per lead is $500 on an order of fifty. Moving your average funded deal from $45,000 to $62,000 is worth roughly $1,700 per deal at 10 points. The second lever is several times the first and almost nobody pulls it.
Deal size is largely a property of the merchants you talk to, which makes it a lead-selection question rather than a sales-technique one. A feed filtered to a higher revenue floor costs more per record and produces bigger files — that trade is usually worth making if your lender relationships support the larger paper.
Do that once and lead pricing stops being a matter of opinion. You will also find out quickly whether the constraint is your lead spend or your close rate, and those need entirely different fixes.
Brokers earn points on the funded amount, commonly 6 to 15 depending on the lender, the paper grade and whether you are direct or splitting with an ISO. On a $62,000 average funded deal at 10 points that is $6,200 gross, roughly halved if you are splitting. Your own lender agreements are the only figures that matter for your own maths.
A workable ceiling is a fifth to a third of gross commission, depending how much of the rest goes to rep pay. At $6,200 gross that puts the ceiling near $2,000. Fifty exclusive leads at $60 with two funded deals works out to $1,500 per funded deal, which sits under that ceiling in all but the thinnest commission scenarios.
Take your real average funded amount over six months, multiply by your actual points after any ISO split, set your ceiling at a third of that for acquisition cost per funded deal, then divide by your expected funded rate — two per fifty is conservative for exclusive leads. That gives your maximum sustainable per-lead price.
Usually yes, and by a wide margin. Saving $10 a lead is $500 on an order of fifty. Moving your average funded deal from $45,000 to $62,000 is worth about $1,700 per deal at 10 points. Deal size is largely a property of which merchants you talk to, which makes it a lead-selection decision rather than a sales-technique one.
Four things account for most of it. Slow dialling, which pushes down the funded rate that divides every other figure. Budgeting against gross rather than post-split commission. Averaging in your best month instead of using six months. And ignoring rep time, so a cheaper lead that takes four times the dials looks like a saving when the cost simply moved.
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