Case Studies / Dubai brokerage
Same AED 30,000 a month. Three times the qualified buyers.
A Dubai off-plan brokerage was spending AED 30,000 a month on Meta and getting leads its sales team did not want. IFC rebuilt the acquisition system around buyer segments, qualifying forms, and sales outcomes. On an unchanged budget, cost per qualified lead fell 68% and monthly consultations rose from 16 to 49. The brokerage name is withheld.
Real estate, off-plan residential
Dubai, UAE
Name withheld
2025
Cost per qualified lead−68%AED 586 to AED 186
Qualified leads / month3.2×51 to 162
Consultations / month3.1×16 to 49
The situation
The brokerage sells off-plan residential property across several Dubai developments. Buyers include UAE investors, international investors, buy-to-let purchasers, and a smaller group of end users, from under AED 1 million to well above AED 2.5 million.
About AED 30,000 a month already went into Meta. That produced roughly 244 form submissions a month at AED 123 each. On paper, marketing was working. In the sales office, a large share of enquiries were the wrong budget, had no timeline, never answered, or arrived with no context.
The challenge
The brief sounded like a cost problem. It was a definition problem. Marketing was optimising for a form submission, so Meta delivered form submissions as cheaply as it could. Sales needed a reachable person whose budget matched the inventory, with a reason to buy and a timeline that made the call worthwhile.
Marketing reported cost per lead. Sales reported frustration. Neither number told the owner what a real buyer cost to find.
Cheap leads and useful leads are not the same product. A AED 30 enquiry that never answers the phone costs more than a AED 150 enquiry from a cash buyer with a three-month horizon.
What we found
Before changing campaigns, IFC audited the ad account, the lead forms, the CRM, and the sales team’s notes, and agreed what “qualified” meant for this inventory. Of 244 monthly leads, 21% met that bar and 6.5% reached a consultation or viewing.
- One audience, many buyers — an AED 1 million yield investor and a family buying a home saw the same ad
- Ads sold the building — renders and a starting price, not payment plan, handover, or rental logic
- The form asked for name, phone, and email — sales got a contact, not a buyer profile
- No feedback loop — budget stayed on whatever produced the cheapest form
The strategy
Optimise the path from ad to sales conversation, not the cost of the first click. IFC did not chase the lowest possible cost per lead.
Segment by buyer, not by project
- Investor, under AED 1.5MRental yield, payment plan, entry price, handover
- Investor, AED 2.5M and aboveCapital growth, developer record, location, portfolio fit
- End userLifestyle, community, schools, commute, payment on completion
- International buyerWhy Dubai, remote purchase, ownership, residency only where accurate
Creative sold the decision, not the inventory. The form added budget band, purchase timeline, purpose, and financing. Sales received a profile. Marketing could judge campaigns by the buyers they produced.
From strategy to execution
Media budget stayed at AED 30,000. What changed was where it went.
- Audit and baseline — agree what qualified means, and measure spend through to consultation
- Restructure — campaigns by segment, new creative, qualifying form, landing pages matched to each buyer
- Test — hooks, formats, audiences, and forms judged on cost per qualified lead and contact rate
- Reallocate — spend moved to combinations that produced buyers; the rest were cut
- Close the loop — CRM stages tied back to campaign source, one weekly funnel for marketing and sales
The results
Before the rebuild, against the account after budget had been fully reallocated. Monthly media spend was AED 30,000 in both periods.
Before
- Media spendAED 30,000
- Cost per leadAED 123
- Leads244
- Qualified (21%)51
- Cost per qualified leadAED 586
- Consultations and viewings16
- Cost per consultationAED 1,892
After
- Media spendAED 30,000
- Cost per leadAED 52
- Leads577
- Qualified (28%)162
- Cost per qualified leadAED 186
- Consultations and viewings49
- Cost per consultationAED 612
Lead counts are rounded. Qualification and consultation rates come from the brokerage’s CRM against the criteria agreed in the audit. The qualification rate moved from 21% to 28%. The consultation rate, as a share of qualified leads, stayed near 30%. Sales did not suddenly convert better. They received more of the right people.
| Cost per lead | −58% |
|---|
| Leads per month | 244 to 577 (2.4×) |
|---|
| Qualified leads per month | 51 to 162 (3.2×) |
|---|
| Cost per qualified lead | −68% |
|---|
| Consultations per month | 16 to 49 (3.1×) |
|---|
| Cost per consultation | AED 1,892 to AED 612 (−68%) |
|---|
Commercial impact
The same budget moved from about 16 real sales conversations a month to about 49, each arriving with budget, timeline, purpose, and financing already on the form. Cost per qualified lead is the number the owner now manages by.
Transaction figures are not disclosed. If commission on a typical deal is in the region of AED 20,000 to 30,000, the extra 33 monthly consultations need only a small number of closed sales for the restructure to pay for itself. That is a sensitivity, not a result.