Getting one accredited investor on a booked call usually runs $1,000-$1,500 in ad spend. That's the number I keep hearing from syndicators and from the agencies pitching them.
One phone call. Up to fifteen hundred dollars. And firms pay it.
My real estate client pays about $400 for that same call. His best ad books them at $300.
I want to walk you through the machine behind that number, because the lesson applies to any business that runs ads. I build these systems as a fractional CMO, and it's the same playbook I ran at Filteroff when I took our matchmaking business to a $50K month with me running the ads, the pages, and the calls.
Same ads, different machine
My client runs Facebook ads like everyone else in his space. The ads aren't why his calls cost a third of the average. The machine around the ads is. Four pieces:
1. Qualification before the calendar. Nobody books a call without going through a qualification form first. Accredited or not, ready or not, real budget or not. The calendar only fills with people worth an hour. Most funnels skip this step because founders are scared to add friction. But the friction is what keeps the calendar clean.
2. A webinar that does the educating. Before most prospects get on a call, they've watched him teach for an hour. They show up understanding the opportunity and trusting the operator. The sales call stops being a pitch and starts being a next step.
3. Follow-up on every single lead. A setter follows up with everyone, including the people who only downloaded the deck and never booked. About 220 leads have come through so far, and the show rate runs 30-35%, which is normal for this kind of traffic. Most businesses only work the leads who book themselves. That's leaving most of the list on the table.
4. A full Instagram feed. We grew his Instagram from zero to 1,000+ followers organically, no follower ads, and filled it with content. Now when someone checks out his profile, they see a legitimate company with real content they can dig into. That builds trust before anyone ever gets on a call.
The lesson
Ads are the execution. The system behind them decides what a lead costs and whether it converts.
When lead costs are high, almost everyone rewrites the ad. New hook, new creative, new audience. But the expensive problem is usually after the click: unqualified people booking, cold prospects pitched from zero, no follow-up on the ones who hesitated, nothing online that proves you're real.
One thing to try this week
Divide last month's ad spend by the number of booked calls (or qualified leads) it produced. That's your real number.
Then go hunting for what's dragging it. It could be the offer, the creative, the audience, the copy, the landing page, the follow-up, or a backend that isn't strong enough to pay for the leads. It could be a million things, and that's exactly why you measure first instead of guessing.
And feel free to steal this playbook and build the machine yourself. Everything you need is above.
But if you'd rather have me build it for you, or you just want my eyes on your funnel, hit reply and tell me your number and what you sell. I'll tell you straight which piece of the machine you're missing. I read every reply.
Best,
Zach
The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it. That’s what The Marketing Millennials delivers: real insights, fresh takes, and no fluff. Written by Daniel Murray, a marketer who knows what works, this newsletter cuts through the noise so you can stop guessing and start winning. Subscribe and level up your marketing game.
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