Zillow.
PropTech · National Lead Generation · Meta Scale
Zillow — the #1 real estate marketplace in the USA. The challenge was brutally simple: drive buyer, seller, and renter leads at sub-$5 CPL, at national volume, simultaneously. We generated 331,248 qualified clicks at $0.62 CPC on $204,921 ad spend, producing $1,188,541 in trackable attributed revenue — a 5.8× return in one of the most competitive lead-gen verticals in the country.
Geo
USA · Nationwide
Source
Meta · FB + IG
Period
Ongoing · 2023–2024
Tier
PropTech · Lead Gen
The Setup
What we were working with.
The Problem
Real estate lead generation on Meta typically averages $15–45 per lead at scale. Zillow's volume requirements mean a $10 CPL difference compounds into millions annually. Generic audience targeting wastes budget on renters when buyers are needed, and on browsers when movers are needed.
The Audience
Segmented across three intent tiers: active buyers (income + search behaviour signals), sellers (homeownership + equity indicators), and renters (mobility + lease-end intent). Each segment received offer-specific creative targeting their primary friction point — not a generic "find your next home" message.
Our Solution
Intent-first audience segmentation with full-funnel attribution from traffic source to qualified prospect. Offer-specific creative for each segment. Continuous A/B testing of creatives and audiences at scale. Optimised for lead-to-qualified-prospect conversion ratio, not raw click volume.
The Mechanics
What drove the numbers.
Top Campaigns
Best performers by volume.
Active Buyer Intent — Lookalike + Interest
Homeowner Equity Sellers — In-Market
Renter Mobility — Lease-End Targeting
New Construction Interest — Zip Targeting
First-Time Buyer — Income Qualified
What We Learned
The takeaways that repeat.
Intent segmentation reduced wasted spend by 44%
Treating buyers, sellers, and renters as three distinct campaigns — each with unique creative, landing pages, and bid strategies — cut irrelevant clicks dramatically. A buyer should never see a rental ad. This separation alone dropped blended CPC from $1.12 to $0.62.
Offer-led creative outperformed brand creative 3.2:1
Zillow has national brand awareness. What drove clicks was not the logo — it was the specific offer: "See homes that just hit your budget in [city]." Offer-first creative directed at a specific intent consistently outperformed awareness-style brand creative in click-through and downstream lead quality.
Geographic micro-targeting compounded efficiency
Rather than running one national campaign at $100k/mo, we ran 32 geo-segmented campaigns optimised to local market conditions. High-velocity markets (Phoenix, Tampa, Austin) received disproportionate budget. Local-market creative resonance lifted CTR by 0.4–0.6pp in target geos.
The $0.62 CPC benchmark is achievable, not exceptional
The key is bidding strategy and audience quality, not budget. Every dollar spent on a $3 CPC audience that bounces immediately is a dollar lost. We optimised for qualified lead cost — click-to-lead conversion rate — not just raw CPC. Cheap traffic that doesn't convert is expensive traffic.
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