Real Estate Lead Cost Report for Buyers on Google | Q4 2024 Update

Although the 2024 Google buyer cost per lead was lower than 2023 in its entirety, the fourth quarter CPL climbed a tiny 1% compared to the same quarter of 2023.

Not a lot of activity looking market by market. St. Louis yet again had the lowest cost per lead. It was followed again by Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta, although the order of those was a little different than the third quarter. Looking at all markets, Bangor, ME, repeated with the lowest CPL and Pittsfield, MA, Baton Rouge, LA, and Kingston, NY rounded out the top four.

Typically the first quarter results are better than the fourth quarter CPL. I expect that to continue in 2025, but perhaps we will see some new cities on the top of the leader board.

For all markets, Bangor, ME, Pittsfield, MA, and Baton Rouge, LA were the top 3 markets for lowest cost per lead in our portfolio. 

Several of the top 25 markets saw year-over-year decreases in lead cost in Q4 2024. 

For the 26th-50th largest markets, Indianapolis, IN (44.5% CPL change) Richmond, VA (87.1% CPL change, and New Orleans, LA (35.5% CPL change) saw the largest growth in CPL during Q4. 

Unlike the other big Louisiana city on our list, the state capitol, Baton Rouge, saw the slowest growth in CPL of the 51st to 75th largest markets (-64.3% CPL change). Others with slow growth include Oxnard, CA (-23.1% CPL change) and Bridgeport, CT (-10.9% CPL change). 

For the 76th-100th largest markets Stockton, CA (86.2% CPL change), Winston-Salem, NC (25.9% CPL change) and Boise City, ID (23.3% CPL change) saw the largest growth in CPL in Q4. 

CINC is the leader in online real estate lead generation with more than 50,000 clients. This behind-the-scenes lead cost data is what we were seeing for our portfolio of real estate team and agent clients during Q3 2024. The CINC client marketing team manages almost $30 million in search and social advertising spend annually for real estate teams and agents across the United States and Canada.  If you want to see how CINC can help you find more higher quality hyperlocal real estate leads on Google, request a demo here. 

Additional Google Real Estate Lead Gen Resources from CINC:

With the real estate market shifting, it is more important than ever to be more efficient paying for leads on Google.  Try our free local Google real estate targeting tool here to find hidden pockets of more cost effective hyper-local leads near you.

Watch our recent on-demand real estate lead gen webinar here where we discuss new trends for real estate teams and agents on Google Ads, including a deep dive on Google Local Service Ads (LSA's) for realtors.

Here are links to past historic Buyer Cost Per Lead Reports for Q3 2024, Q2 2024, Q1 2024, Q4 2023, Q3 2023, Q2 2023, Q1 2023, Q4 2022, Q3 2022, Q2 2022, Q1 2022, Q4 2021, Q3 2021, Q2 2021, Q1 2021, Q4 2020, Q3 2020, Q2 2020,  Q1 2020.