A California based real estate firm built a trusted model buying distressed homes for cash and helping sellers close and move on fast. But despite heavy quarterly spend across TV, direct mail, and digital, the marketing team lacked clarity on what channels were truly driving results and where to invest next.
The Problem
Without a measurement framework in place, the team was flying blind when it came to:
- Connecting offline and online performance – Radio and TV lived in one world and Direct mail, Google and Facebook in another.
- Budget allocation – Channels that “felt right” got renewed leaving underperforming and saturated channels that weren’t identifiable
- Decision Making – Their CRM tracked leads and media platforms reported their own inflated metrics. No one could see the full picture or prove what was driving real results.
The result was overspending in saturated channels, and a belief that they were leaving revenue untapped. The brand needed a solution that could bring their marketing insights together, provide clarity on ROI, and guide efficient budget allocation.
Their primary goal was clear: Increase qualified lead volume.
The secondary goal: lower the cost (CPL).
Seeing the Bigger Picture
The company turned to Lifesight’s Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) – part of Lifesight’s Unified Marketing Measurement (UMM) solution. Unlike most MMM solutions in the market, Lifesight’s UMM goes deeper. The model doesn’t stop at direct attribution. It factors in saturation curves, ad stock effects, and indirect or mediator variables that influence performance over time – the halo and cannibalizing effects between channels that most teams miss.
This level of granularity helps answer the questions marketers actually need answered:
If we increase (or stop) spending on a channel, will the revenue change be equal to what it was generating? Or greater?
Lifesight not only uncovers this delta, it quantifies it.
Previously, the team focused on visible touchpoints like leads, clicks, and conversions – missing the indirect influences shaping performance. Lifesight’s MMM uncovered these cause-and-effect relationships, showing how every channel, from TV to email, contributed directly or indirectly to outcomes.
With this clarity, the team could finally invest based on true impact, not assumption.
The Causal Truth
Radio: The Underdog
For years, radio was treated like background noise. The brand invested a modest $30K in Q1 2024, more out of habit than strategy as nobody expected much from it.
But the model told a different story – Radio was quietly building awareness, creating familiarity, and setting up future conversions long before people filled out an online form.
Action: Spending increased to $70K in Q2. Lead volume followed.
TV: The Overspender
TV felt like the right move for a top-of-funnel brand play. Big reach, big spend. So the brand leaned in heavily, spending around 350K in Q1.
The data revealed that there was a point of diminishing returns, indicating that awareness had peaked. Leads weren’t growing, but costs were.
Action: Budget pulled back to 250K, freeing up capital for other channels.
Direct Mail: The Saturation Point
Direct mail was the second largest budget line item, with a spend of $240k in Q1. It was held to the same performance expectations of TV, and had always worked, until it didn’t.
The causal MMM surfaced what was being missed: saturation.
The same audience was being hit again and again, and returns had flattened.
Action: Budget pulled back to $114K and savings redirected to channels where efficiency was still climbing.
The Results
45% lower Cost per Lead, 19% Budget Decrease, 14% Lead Volume Increase
| Metrics | Q1 | Q2 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Media Spend | $711k | $574k | ↓ 19.3% |
| Leads | 191 | 218 | ↑ 14.1% |
| iCPL | $16,172 | $8,840 | ↓ 45.3% |
In Q1, the company spent $711K across channels and generated 191 leads. The incremental cost per lead (iCPL), the true measure of efficiency, was $16,172, a number that was negatively impacting profitability.
After MMM-driven optimization and re-direction of spend outlined above, Q2 told a different story.
Despite spend dropping to $574K, leads grew to 218 and iCPL dropped sharply to $8,840 – a 45% decrease quarter over quarter, and a gateway to profitability.
The real estate brand is generating more qualified leads, at a lower cost, with full visibility into what drives them. By partnering with Lifesight, the brand successfully built a system that could be repeated to understand performance, scale with the business and adapt with the market.
Unified measurement turns insight into action, replacing guesswork with data and driving consistent, predictable growth.
To see how Lifesight’s Unified Marketing Measurement solutions can improve profitability for your business, book a demo with us today.
