Canada has more than 155,000 REALTORS working through 61 boards across the country, and a fair number of them get a lead generation pitch in their inbox every single week. Some of those pitches come from real, accountable operators. A lot of them come from someone running $10 a day in Facebook ads off a laptop and calling it an agency. The difference between the two decides whether the next six months of your marketing budget turns into booked appointments, or a spreadsheet of cold names nobody ever called back.
This is the checklist we would want a realtor to run through before signing with anyone, including us. None of it is complicated. Most of it is one direct question, and paying attention to how comfortable the answer sounds.
Quick answer
A legitimate real estate lead generation company will tell you a real cost-per-lead range before you sign, say plainly who owns the ad account and the creative, explain what actually happens between a form submission and a booked appointment, put a lead volume or refund commitment in writing, and let you talk to a client in a market similar to yours. If a company will not show you a sample lead, will not name a cost-per-lead figure, or wants a 12-month contract with no way out, that is your answer.
What counts as a “lead” in the first place
Ask this before anything else: does “lead” mean a name and phone number pulled straight from a Facebook form, or does it mean someone who has already been called, asked a few qualifying questions, and is genuinely open to a conversation? Those are not the same product, and the gap between them is where most of the disappointment happens.
Industry-wide, the numbers explain why this matters. Follow Up Boss, the real estate CRM company, puts the average real estate lead-to-close conversion rate at 0.4 percent to 1.2 percent, meaning even a well-run business converts roughly one to two clients for every 200 leads it works. A company selling you 200 raw, unqualified leads a month and calling that a result is technically correct and still leaving you to do all the actual work. Ask what share of their leads get a call within five minutes, and what happens to the ones who do not pick up the first three times.
Who owns the ad account and the creative
Find out whether campaigns run inside your own Meta Business account or inside the agency’s shared one. This is not a technicality. If the ads live in their account, you leave with no pixel history, no audience data, and no creative library the day you go. If a company resists setting you up with your own ad account “because it’s easier on our end,” that is a company planning for you to stay because leaving is expensive, not because the results are good.
What the real cost per lead and cost per appointment actually is
A legitimate operator can tell you their typical cost-per-lead range for the Canadian real estate market without flinching, usually somewhere between $15 and $40 CAD depending on the city and the offer, and their cost per booked appointment on top of that. If the answer is vague (“it depends,” “we’ll see how it goes”) or the number sounds too good to be true, ask why. With more than 155,000 agents nationally competing for the same buyer and seller attention, a price that looks cheap next to that much competition is usually cheap because the leads are old, shared with other agents, or barely qualified.
Is there an appointment-setting layer, or is it just a spreadsheet
This is the single biggest difference between a lead generation vendor and a company that actually moves your business forward. A vendor hands you names. An operator calls those names, asks whether the person is genuinely thinking about buying or selling, and only puts a confirmed, motivated conversation on your calendar. Ask exactly who calls the lead, how fast, and what “qualified” means in writing, not in a sales deck.
Contract length, and how you get out
Month-to-month, with a real cancellation clause, is the standard to hold anyone to. A 12-month lock-in with no exit only makes sense for the agency, never for you, especially in the first few months while you are still finding out whether leads in your specific market and price point actually convert. Ask what happens in month one if volume or quality is not there. A confident company has a clear answer ready. A nervous one changes the subject.
Ask for a real client’s numbers, not a testimonial
A polished testimonial proves someone was willing to say something nice on camera. It does not prove results. Ask to see an actual, recent, redacted screenshot of ad spend against booked appointments for a client in a market similar to yours, or ask to speak to a current client directly. Any company confident in its own numbers makes this easy. One that stalls, or only offers testimonials from clients you can’t actually reach, is telling you something.
Match the plan to your market and your budget
Lead generation that works in Halifax at $1,200 a month will not automatically work in Toronto or Vancouver at the same spend, because the competition for attention, and the cost of it, is not the same. Ask what monthly budget they consider a realistic minimum for your specific city, not their national average. A company willing to say “that budget probably will not work well in your market” before taking your money is worth more than one that will take any budget you offer.
We would rather you ask us these exact questions than take our word for anything. If you want to see our own cost-per-lead and cost-per-appointment numbers before deciding on anything, that conversation is free.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a realtor budget for lead generation in Canada?
Most Canadian markets need a realistic minimum of $1,000 to $2,000 CAD a month in ad spend before results become consistent, on top of whatever the agency charges for management or appointment setting. Smaller markets can work with less; competitive cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary usually need more. Anyone promising strong results on a very small budget in a competitive city is setting expectations the numbers will not support.
What is the biggest red flag when evaluating a lead generation company?
Vagueness about cost per lead, and unwillingness to let you speak to a current client. Both are simple, reasonable requests. A company that hedges on either one is usually hedging because the real numbers would not close the sale.
Should a realtor use a company that specializes in real estate, or a general marketing agency?
Specialisation matters more in this industry than most. Real estate leads behave differently from leads in other categories: they need fast response, a specific qualification process around motivation, timeline, and ownership status, and campaigns built for a market where the customer might search once every five to seven years. A general agency running the same playbook it uses for e-commerce or SaaS clients will not have any of that built in.