From $2,500 to $1,200 Cost Per Contract: How SB Home Buyers Cut Costs by 78% While Tripling Volume
"We used to live at $2,500 a week cost per contract. Now, we're living at half that… Math doesn't lie at the end of the day. The account is performing better than it's ever been."
SB Home Buyers, a nationwide real estate investment company owned by Cristian Fernandez and Clifford Miller, was struggling with crushing marketing costs over $2,500 per contract. After partnering with Bateman Collective, they achieved their best week ever at $562 per contract while dramatically increasing their deal volume. Keep reading to see how we transformed their entire operation.
"We used to live at $2,500 a week cost per contract. Now, we're living at half that… Math doesn't lie at the end of the day. The account is performing better than it's ever been."
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THE CHALLENGE
SB Home Buyers faced multiple critical issues that were killing their profitability:
Crushing Cost Per Contract: Starting at over $5,000 per contract, making deals barely profitable
Terrible Lead Quality: Getting flooded with leads from wholesalers, spam, and irrelevant markets they couldn't service
Wrong Geographic Focus: Wasting money in underperforming markets like Florida and Texas while missing high-opportunity areas
Limited Scalability: Unable to increase ad spend without dramatic cost increases
Failed Agency Partnerships: Worked with multiple agencies who didn't understand real estate investment marketing nuances
With an average annual deal volume of 150 transactions and an average deal spread of $18,000, they needed a marketing partner who could deliver consistent, high-quality leads at scale.
"We used to live at $2,500 a week cost per contract. Now, we're living at half that...this week we spent $9K and got 16 contracts. That's $562 per contract… Math doesn't lie at the end of the day. The account is performing better than it's ever been."
Clifford Miller, SB Home Buyers
Owner
at
SB Home Buyers
How we did it:
Strategic Market Reallocation
Josh and the Bateman team conducted comprehensive analysis of SB Home Buyers' geographic performance and made a shocking discovery: their highest spend markets were their worst performers.
Key Actions:
- Market Analysis: Found Florida/Texas consumed majority of budget but delivered poor ROI
- Geographic Pivot: Shifted focus to Oklahoma, North Carolina, Indiana, and East Coast states
- Bid Optimization: Implemented 10-15% bid reductions in Florida/Texas
- Market Expansion: Added profitable markets including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and specific North Carolina areas
Campaign Structure Overhaul
Campaign Segmentation: Split campaigns by geography for precise spend control Negative Keyword Growth: Expanded from 3,000 to 4,700+ terms to eliminate waste Landing Page Testing: Implemented multiple variants with conversion rates reaching 19-24% Advanced Conversion Tracking: Enhanced tracking to better attribute multi-touch customer paths
The Wide Locations Breakthrough
After testing multiple approaches, we found their game-changing strategy:
Phase 1: Traditional Geographic Targeting
- Started with targeted metro areas in high-value markets
- Tertiary campaign (California, Colorado, Arizona) showed $540+ cost per Lead
- Secondary campaign (East Coast focus) averaged $3,500 cost per contract
Phase 2: Campaign Consolidation
- Paused underperforming tertiary campaign that spent $32K with minimal contract generation
- Refocused budget on proven performers
Phase 3: Wide Geographic Strategy
- Launched statewide targeting approach based on competitor analysis
- "New Wide Locations" campaign achieved 26% conversion rates and sub-$100 cost per lead
- Systematic exclusion of rural areas that didn't meet performance thresholds
The Results
Cost Per Contract
Cost Per Lead
This is what it looks like when your processes are dialed in.
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