UK Mortgage Lead Cost Comparison 2026

This page publishes a transparent 2026 cost comparison across UK mortgage lead providers — exclusive, shared marketplaces, and DIY advertising. We run an exclusive lead business ourselves, so we have a commercial view, but the numbers below are either published pricing from competitors or benchmark data from our own platform. The goal is to help UK mortgage brokers make an informed decision about how to spend marketing budget, without marketing spin from any provider.

Methodology

Pricing and delivery data are drawn from:

• Exclusive providers: published pricing from Lurvo Digital, Quotezone, Contact Centres UK, and sample quotes from 5 smaller exclusive providers. Prices verified as of Q1 2026.
• Aggregator / marketplace platforms: adviser-facing pricing pages for Unbiased, VouchedFor, Moneyfactscompare, iContact Leads, and Aviva Financial Advice Explained. Verified Q1 2026.
• DIY advertising: aggregated adviser-panel data from 60 UK brokers running their own Google and Meta advertising, reporting cost per lead and conversion over 6+ months.
• Conversion data: Lurvo Digital internal dataset (165,000+ leads) for exclusive benchmarks; adviser-reported data cross-referenced with published platform figures for shared and DIY.

Numbers are median unless stated otherwise. Variance within each category is wide (the 10th and 90th percentiles often differ by 2-3x), so treat these as planning assumptions, not guarantees.

Exclusive provider pricing

Exclusive leads are sold to one buyer only. Typical 2026 UK pricing for residential mortgage leads:

• General mortgage lead: £15-£45 per lead (most providers £20-£30)
• Remortgage lead: £15-£35 per lead
• First-time buyer lead: £18-£40 per lead
• Self-employed mortgage lead: £25-£50 per lead
• Adverse credit mortgage lead: £30-£65 per lead
• Buy-to-let mortgage lead: £20-£45 per lead
• Bridging / specialist commercial: £40-£100 per lead

All the above assume SMS-verified leads with full qualification data (property value, deposit, employment, timeline). Unverified basic web-form leads sit 30-50% lower in price but convert 40-60% worse, so cost per case is similar or higher.

Aggregator / marketplace pricing

Aggregator sites sell each lead to 3-5 brokers simultaneously. Pricing models vary:

• Unbiased: per-match pricing typically £20-£40 depending on adviser tier and product category. Matched to 3-5 advisers per enquiry.
• VouchedFor: membership-based, with tiers £80-£500/month including varying numbers of matches. Additional matches at £15-£30 each.
• Moneyfactscompare: per-lead pricing £15-£30 for mortgage leads, matched to multiple advisers.
• iContact Leads: per-lead pricing £12-£25 for mortgage, typically 3-4 brokers matched per enquiry.
• Aviva Financial Advice Explained: primarily Aviva-advised panel, limited commercial relevance outside the network.

Headline pricing is 20-40% lower than exclusive providers, but because 3-5 brokers compete for each consumer, conversion rates are typically 30-50% lower. This largely cancels out the apparent saving.

DIY advertising cost per lead

Running your own Google or Meta ads avoids provider fees but requires skill and time. Benchmarks from our adviser panel of 60 UK brokers running DIY in 2024-2026:

• Google Ads mortgage: typical CPL £25-£70 for residential after optimisation (first 4-8 weeks usually run 2-3x higher before optimisation kicks in)
• Meta / Facebook: typical CPL £15-£40 for residential after optimisation; higher click volume but lower intent leads to harder qualification
• TikTok: £10-£25 CPL but conversion consistently much weaker (earlier-stage audience), so cost per case often worse
• LinkedIn: £50-£150 CPL but very high quality — best for high-value specialist verticals (commercial, wealth, self-employed professional)

Upfront learning cost: expect £1,500-£3,000 in test spend and 4-8 weeks of learning before CPL stabilises. If you're time-constrained or not technically confident, this is usually false economy — buy leads while you learn in the background.

Cost per completed case — real comparison

Using median conversion rates from each model, here's cost per completed residential mortgage case for a typical UK broker:

Key observations:

• Exclusive wins on median performance. For typical brokers, exclusive delivers roughly 30-40% lower cost per case than aggregator or DIY at median conversion.
• Top-quartile performance beats model choice. A top-quartile broker on aggregator leads beats a median broker on exclusive leads. Operational excellence matters more than model.
• DIY is cheapest only for established operators. Brokers with mature ad accounts and follow-up processes can genuinely beat every other model on cost per case. For new DIY operators, costs run 2x higher in year 1.

Hidden costs to factor in

Headline cost per case ignores several real costs:

• Admin overhead: aggregator leads require tracking which platform matched each lead for refund claims. Add £3-£8/case in administrative time.
• DIY ad management time: 5-10 hours/week at your hourly equivalent rate is typically £150-£400/week opportunity cost, not captured in the pure CPL.
• Refund/replacement processing: all providers have a refund policy but the effort required varies. Lurvo Digital and similar providers auto-replace on spec failures; some aggregators require detailed call logs.
• Client fee friction: aggregator-sourced consumers are often price-comparing, reducing fee-charging brokers' revenue per case by 10-25%.
• Pipeline concentration risk: relying on one provider/platform creates brittleness when algorithms or criteria change. Most established brokers blend 2-3 sources.

What to choose for your firm

New broker (year 1, <5 cases/month): test 20-30 exclusive leads with one mid-market provider. Don't attempt DIY yet — cashflow pressure + learning curve combine badly. Skip aggregators until you have operational slack.

Scaling broker (year 1-2, 5-15 cases/month): primary channel should be exclusive leads; consider layering in one DIY channel (Google Ads residential) after month 12 when you have process sorted.

Established solo (year 2-3, 15-30 cases/month): blend exclusive leads and DIY advertising. Aggregators only useful if you have genuinely fast (<60s) response capability and spare capacity.

Small firm (3+ advisers, 30-80 cases/month): diversified stack — exclusive leads, DIY advertising, referral partnerships. Aggregators can work at this scale but the admin overhead usually doesn't pay off.

Specialist broker (commercial, adverse credit, equity release, wealth): exclusive lead providers almost exclusively. Aggregator models generally don't deliver quality consumers in these verticals because the consumer decision process is too long and nuanced for a 3-5 broker race.

Test before you commit

Whatever model you pick, start small. 20-30 leads over 2-3 weeks is enough to measure your real conversion rate and cost per case for that specific provider. Scale only after you have data, not based on marketing claims. If you want to test Lurvo Digital exclusive leads, get in touch — no contracts, typical setup under 48 hours.