The short version
- Meta lead campaigns, which I have managed for 26 months, brought 127 leads a month on average at $13.70 each, 57% under the $32 target.
- Google Ads launched together with the new website in June 2026. By month 3, form leads grew from 4 to 25 a month and cost per lead fell from $134 to $39, right at the $38 target.
- Main levers: Meta and Google given separate jobs in the funnel, SMS verification on Meta lead forms to fix lead quality, and Smart Bidding pointed at completed enquiry forms instead of phone clicks.
The client and the challenge
A developer of luxury sea-view apartments on the Adriatic coast, selling mainly to foreign buyers who want a second home or an investment property. The price per unit is high and decisions take time, so the job of paid ads is to bring the sales team a steady flow of real enquiries, not to close deals online.
Client goals
A predictable flow of buyer enquiries at a controlled price: up to $32 per lead on Meta and up to $38 per lead on Google.
The challenge
The sales team contacted leads not right away but about a day later, so many enquiries had time to go cold.
Where the account started
One channel. Meta instant forms were the only source of leads, so every enquiry depended on one platform and its auction.
No search presence. No Google campaigns and no search data before June 2026.
Markets with different demand. Buyers from Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro search with different terms and face different competition, so one shared campaign would not work.
What was done, and why
Meta already worked, so the goal was to add Google without breaking it: Meta keeps creating demand with lead forms, Google captures people who are already looking.
Lead form campaigns with Turkish-language creatives across Facebook and Instagram. Instant forms let buyers enquire without leaving the app, which made a website unnecessary at the start.
Main lead source for two yearsInstant forms made it easy to enquire, but lead quality was uneven and the sales team spent time on contacts that went nowhere. Every lead now confirms their phone number by SMS before the form is sent. Cost per lead went up by about 30%, and lead quality became excellent.
Higher quality leads, still well under targetBrand Search, non-brand Search in English and Turkish, and Performance Max for Turkey. Enquiry forms, phone and email clicks, brochure downloads and availability requests were tracked from the first day.
First Google leads in month 1DSA was tested to find search terms the main campaigns were missing. It brought no leads, so it was switched off and the budget went back to Search.
The website was bringing in low-quality phone calls, so the call goal was removed from bidding and only the lead form submission was kept as the goal. Smart Bidding then optimised for people who actually sent an enquiry.
Form leads 10 → 21 month over monthMeta well under target, Google on target by month 3
Each channel was measured against its own cost-per-lead target. On Google, only completed enquiry forms count as leads here; phone and email clicks are reported separately.
Google Ads: cost per form lead, first 90 days
June to August 2026, from launch. Dashed line is the $38 target.
On top of form leads, Google brought 130+ clicks to call or email between June and September 2026. They are not counted as leads above, but for a sales team they are often the warmest contacts. In September 2026 the Serbia campaign alone brought leads at $33, under the $38 target, with a 22% click-through rate.
Lead quality, not just lead price. On Meta, SMS verification made each lead about 30% more expensive, but every lead is now a verified phone number the sales team can actually reach, and cost per lead is still less than half the $32 target. Google leads were high quality from the start: people actively searching for property who send a full enquiry from the website.
What didn’t go to plan
Not every market performs the same
Search in Turkey became more competitive over time, while the Serbia campaign brought leads at $33 in September 2026, under the $38 target. Budget follows the market that delivers, not the one that was planned first.
Performance Max was weaker than Search
PMax brought very cheap clicks, but each lead cost about 60% more than on Search. For high-ticket lead generation, Search did most of the work.
Key takeaways for high-ticket lead generation
- Give Meta and Google different jobs. Meta lead forms create demand and make it easy to enquire; Google catches buyers who are already searching and want to check the website first.
- A slightly more expensive lead can be the cheaper one. SMS verification raised Meta cost per lead by about 30%, but the sales team stopped wasting time on contacts that never answered.
- Bid on the lead you actually want. Pointing Smart Bidding at completed forms instead of phone clicks gave Google a cleaner signal and more real enquiries.
Selling property or another high-ticket offer?
If your leads keep getting more expensive, or everything depends on one channel, I’m happy to look at your accounts and tell you what I’d change first.
Free and with no obligation: with read-only access I review your account before the call and bring the main changes I would make first.