A useful mortgage lead test begins before the first inquiry arrives. Your brokerage needs to know what it is buying, how the team will work the inquiries, and what evidence would justify continuing.
The price per record is one input. It tells you little about whether the inquiries fit your business, whether you can reach the people who submitted them, or whether those conversations become opportunities your team can pursue.
Use this framework to compare vendors and make your next decision from recorded results.
Define the offer you are comparing
Write down the product offered by each supplier. Include financing purpose, available geography, sharing terms, inquiry age, included information, delivery method, and any minimum purchase or ongoing commitment.
Ask which preferences the supplier can support before a purchase. A record containing a property state does not necessarily mean the supplier lets you select individual states. Likewise, a detailed sample does not establish that every field is present or independently verified in every delivered inquiry.
Keep the current written terms with your test notes. When two offers differ, record the difference rather than assuming the same price buys the same thing.
Decide what counts as a qualified opportunity
Define the stages your team will record before comparing results:
| Stage | A practical definition to agree internally |
|---|---|
| Received inquiry | A purchased record successfully delivered to your team. |
| Successful contact | A two-way conversation with the person who made the inquiry. |
| Qualified opportunity | A contacted prospect whose stated needs fit your team's defined business criteria and who wants to discuss next steps. |
| Application | A prospect who reaches your company's defined application milestone. |
| Funded loan | A completed funding recorded through your normal process. |
Adjust these definitions to your business and use them consistently. A voicemail, email open, or unanswered text should not silently become a successful contact in one vendor's report.
Also record duplicates, missing information, and delivery problems. Those issues help explain outcomes and support specific conversations with the supplier.
Set up a test your team can actually run
Choose a purchase amount and duration that fit your capacity. Assign responsibility for receiving, reviewing, and following up on each inquiry. Record delivery time and first outreach time so you can identify operational delays.
When comparing suppliers, keep the team's process as consistent as practical. Note meaningful differences in geography, product fit, sharing, inquiry age, or the staff handling the records. Those differences can affect the comparison.
A test with inconsistent follow-up can still provide information, but it gives you a weaker basis for attributing the result to the vendor alone.
Calculate the measures that answer your question
Start with three clearly labeled calculations:
- Lead spend per received inquiry: net lead spend divided by received inquiries.
- Lead spend per qualified opportunity: net lead spend divided by qualified opportunities.
- Lead spend per funded loan: net lead spend divided by funded loans from the same group of inquiries.
Define net lead spend consistently, including how you treat refunds and credits. If you include staff time or other expenses, name that broader measure separately so it is not confused with lead spend alone.
When a group has zero qualified opportunities or funded loans, report the spend and zero outcomes directly. Do not present the cost per outcome as zero; there is no positive outcome count to divide by.
Give outcomes time to develop
Group inquiries by their receipt period and continue updating the same group as outcomes develop. A newly received inquiry and one worked for several weeks have had different opportunities to progress.
Early contact and fit results can identify obvious problems. Funding results require observing the sales process over time. Keep open opportunities visible instead of treating every unfinished inquiry as a final failure.
Small samples can move sharply when a single outcome changes. Record the counts behind every percentage and avoid treating an early result as a reliable prediction of future performance.
Review the evidence and choose the next action
At the review, answer three questions: Are the inquiries arriving as described? Can our team work them consistently? Are the resulting opportunities worth continuing to pursue at this cost?
Discuss specific problems using delivery records, agreed definitions, and the supplier's purchase terms. Then choose a practical next step: continue the test, change one part of the process, clarify selection criteria, or stop future purchases under the applicable terms.
Before planning a test, review LeedWallet's sample lead. To discuss your brokerage's requirements and current purchase options, visit LeedWallet and use the buyer inquiry form.
Simple vendor-test worksheet
Use one row per supplier and receipt period. This is a measurement template, not a performance forecast.
| Supplier | Receipt period | Net lead spend | Received inquiries | Successful contacts | Qualified opportunities | Applications | Funded loans | Still open | Process notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter supplier | Enter period | Enter spend | Enter count | Enter count | Enter count | Enter count | Enter count | Enter count | Note delays, fit, and delivery issues |