Lead Operations & Outbound · Proposal for Jon and leadership
We rent our leads. Let's own some.
Every Google Ads lead is rented: the day we stop paying, the leads stop. Bernd's outbound program finds the realtors we want, researches them, and starts the conversation for us. The whole test costs $750, less than nine hours of Google Ads.
Google Ads spend in 2026, estimated live
$587,613.33
Since you opened this page: $0.00Average rate: $85.31 / hour
01 · Where the money goes today
Google Ads costs us $85 an hour and $293 per form lead.
That's $587,613 so far this year. It works, but it's rent: nothing builds up, and the leads stop the day the spending stops.
$587,613
Spent Jan 1 – Oct 14, 2026
2,006
Form leads tracked by Google Ads
$63,013
Average full month (Jan–Sep)
Google Ads spend by month, 2026
Tap a month for detail
02 · Our other paid channel
One trade show cost about $1,500 per lead.
The recent Salt Lake City conference is a useful benchmark: a large spend, a handful of leads, and small deals so far.
$40K – $50K
Sponsorship, booth, travel for 4 people (estimated)
≈ 30 leads
From about 15 real conversations per rep
2 deals
A prepaid bundle and a site, about $4K each
$8K
Closed so far. A few more may follow.
$1.3K–1.7K
Cost per lead
5×
Google Ads' cost per form lead
Figures are estimates shared by Ace and Bernd on the planning call. A Salesforce report with exact spend and leads per event is being cleaned up.
03 · The idea
Find the realtors we want, then go to them first.
Instead of waiting for whoever clicks an ad, we use public sales data to find active, successful agents, research each one with AI, and send a short, personal email that gives them a reason to talk.
04 · How it works
Five steps, from public data to a booked call.
AI does the research and the sending. People handle every real conversation.
The tools behind it
Zillow · Realtor.com · Homes.com→
Apollo (contacts & sending)→
AI research (ChatGPT Pro, Claude Max)→
Salesforce→
Calendly
An AI check-in runs three times a day, reads the inbox and Apollo, and reports what was sent, what's next and who replied. Nobody has to babysit the mailboxes.
05 · Who we go after
Three groups who are ready to hear from us.
Google Ads brings whoever searches. Outbound lets us pick the agents most likely to buy, and say something specific to each.
06 · Protecting the brand
Personal outreach, not spam.
Bernd's playbook puts a check between every step. Nothing is sent until a person has approved exactly who gets it and what it says.
07 · Side by side
The whole pilot costs less than nine hours of Google Ads.
Tap each card to flip it.
Put another way
A $750 pilot is 0.13% of what Google Ads has cost this year, about the price of 2½ Google Ads form leads.
2.6 leads
What $750 buys on Google Ads today
1 deal
A single $4,000 sale pays the pilot back 5×
08 · Try your own numbers
What could one month of outbound produce?
The starting values are deliberately cautious. Move the sliders to test your own assumptions.
Share of contacted agents who reply wanting to talk. Bernd's playbook uses 4% as an example; we start at 1%.
Depends on Ace and Paul's follow-up.
$4,000 matches the two Salt Lake City deals.
Bernd's tools come to about $470 a month, plus a Calendly upgrade. Team time and commissions are not included.
Estimated new revenue per month
$0
0
Interested replies
0
Deals closed
$0
Cost per deal
0×
Revenue ÷ running cost
Cost per raised hand
$292.98
Google Ads, per form lead
$0
Outbound, per interested reply
A month of outbound at this cost equals 0 hours of Google Ads.
This is a scenario, not a forecast. A form fill and an email reply aren't identical, but both are a realtor raising a hand. Outbound hasn't been run at Agent Image yet; the pilot replaces these guesses with real numbers.
09 · The decision
Approve $750. Decide with real data.
A capped test with named owners and a clear point to stop, scale or adjust.
The ask
$750
ChatGPT Pro + Claude Max (AI research)
$300
Apollo (contacts and sending)
$99
10 Google Workspace inboxes
≈ $70
Calendly upgrade and buffer
≈ $281
Ongoing tools come to about $470 a month plus Calendly, if we decide to continue.
Who owns what
BerndBuilds and runs the system: data, AI research, sending, daily reports
PaulFollows up with anyone who replies but doesn't book
JonApproves the budget and the go/no-go at week 6
Pilot timeline (proposed)
WEEK 1Set upAgree target markets and price range, inboxes, Apollo and reply routing.
WEEK 2Research 25 realtorsAI builds scorecards. Ace checks the first 5 by hand before anything scales.
WEEKS 3–6Send and respondStart at 50 emails a day and ramp toward 500 if quality holds. Ace and Paul handle replies.
END OF WEEK 6DecideCompare cost per interested reply and per deal against Google Ads. Scale, adjust or stop.
Agent Image's Google Ads spend was $587,613.33 from January 1 to October 14, 2026, as of the last update at 5:03 p.m. Pacific on October 14.
That's 287 days, or about $2,047 a day ($85.31 an hour). The counter starts from the reported total and adds spend at that average rate.
An estimate for illustration. Actual daily spend varies; October so far is running closer to $1,460 a day.
Ad spend, Jan 1 – Oct 14, 2026
$587,613.33
Form leads ("All conversions" credit)
2,005.62
Cost per form lead
$292.98
Google's stricter "Conversions" count
1,434.28
Cost per lead on the stricter count
$409.69
Both figures use one conversion action: Form Submission (previously named Website Hosted Form Submission). Phone calls, GA4 form events and Salesforce qualification events are not added, because they can overlap.
This is Google's tracked measure, not a count of unique people in Salesforce. Google splits credit into fractions, and recent October credit can still fill in. A true unique-lead cost needs deduplicated CRM records. We use the lower $292.98 to be fair to Google Ads.
Google Ads
Outbound
Leads next month
Stop
Prospect list still there
Data
Stays with Google
Researched profiles we own
Salesforce
Unchanged
Cleaner and richer records
What we learn
Which keywords convert
Which messages and markets work
Price trend
Set by the ad auction
Mostly fixed tool costs
This isn't a proposal to cut Google Ads today. The pilot tests a second channel; the results decide what happens to the budget.
Every channel comes down to customer acquisition cost: what we spend to win one client.
If a lead costs $1,000 and most deals are worth $4,000, the numbers don't work once you account for the leads that never close. Bernd's rule of thumb is that $1,000 leads need projects of about $20,000 to make sense.
Google Ads is cheaper at $293 per form lead, but that's still a real cost on a few-thousand-dollar sale. The cheaper we can start a good conversation, the more of those deals become profitable. That's the gap outbound is built to close.
Google Ads spend, Jan 1 – Oct 14
$587,613
Days in that period
287
Average per hour
$85.31
$750 pilot in hours of Google Ads
8.8 hours
$750 in Google Ads form leads ($292.98 each)
2.6 leads
$750 as a share of YTD spend
0.13%
Sales records on Zillow, Realtor.com and Homes.com are public. We pull agents who have recently closed, filtered by the areas and prices we choose.
Filter
Example
Market
Selected US metros (California first, for example)
Recent activity
Sold a home in the last 30 days
Price point
Above $500,000
Who
One primary agent or team lead per business
Apollo then supplies work emails for those agents, with a spending cap set before any credits are used.
If the agent is…
Then
A current client
Exclude. Never cold-email our own clients.
A past client who cancelled
Move to the win-back campaign, grouped by cancel date
Already in an open deal
Exclude and leave with the assigned rep
Not in Salesforce
Continue to research
Unclear match
Hold for a person to check
Sample only. Jordan Reyes is a made-up agent used to show the format.
Jordan Reyes
Team lead · Harborline Realty Group · San Diego, CA
Closed sales, last 12 months
34
Active listings
6
Average sale price
$1.1M
Current website
Template site from a mass-market provider
In Salesforce?
No
Search visibility
3/10
Site design
4/10
Listings shown
6/10
Fit for Agent Image
9/10
Hook: "You closed 34 homes last year, but searching your name shows your brokerage profile before your own site."
AI does the digging. A person checks the first batch by hand, and anything uncertain is held rather than guessed.
Three emails over about ten days. Each one gives a different reason to reply, and none is a "just checking in."
To: Jordan Reyes (sample)Subject: 34 closings, and a search problem
Hi Jordan,
You closed 34 homes in San Diego last year, which puts you near the top of your market. But when I searched your name, your brokerage profile showed up before your own website.
I put together a quick one-page scorecard of your web presence and two local competitors. Want me to send it over?
[Agent Image rep]
Not interested? Reply "no thanks" or unsubscribe and you won't hear from us again.
Email 1: Something specific about them, plus a free scorecard
Email 2 (day 4): A small, concrete first step we could take for them
Email 3 (day 9): A useful insight about agents in their market
When the agent…
What happens
Wants to talk
Books through Calendly with a few qualifying questions. Ace takes the call.
Replies but doesn't book
Paul follows up personally
Says "later"
Gets a dated reminder in Salesforce
Says "no thanks"
Stops right away and is added to the do-not-contact list
Has moved firms
Held and re-checked
Agreed on the call: replies go to real people, never to an unmonitored inbox.
Who: Agents with a recent sale above $500K in markets we choose.
Angle: "You're doing the volume. Your online presence should match it."
The email leads with something true about them, such as their closing count or how they rank in local search, and offers a free web presence scorecard.
Who: Agents who cancelled, grouped by how long ago they left.
Angle: "A lot has changed since you left. Take a look at what's new."
They already know our work. New themes and products give a natural reason to reconnect, and timing by cancel date lets us speak to where they are now.
Who: Agents whose current provider the research step can identify.
Angle: A comparison focused on what agents tell us they miss: design quality, support and price stability.
We keep these messages factual and respectful. Naming a competitor neutrally is fine; criticising one isn't.
Measure
Why it matters
Emails delivered
The base for every rate
Interested replies
Real people saying "tell me more"
Cost per interested reply
Compared directly with $292.98 per Google Ads form lead
Calls booked
Proof the hand-off works
Deals closed and their value
The number that pays for it
Unsubscribes and complaints
Brand-safety check
Proposed bar to continue: interested replies cost less than a Google Ads form lead, and at least one deal closes or Ace expects one from the booked calls. Open rates are not used; they're unreliable.
Google Ads spend and leads: Agent Image Google Ads account, January 1 – October 14, 2026. Spend as of 5:03 p.m. Pacific on October 14. Leads use the single Form Submission conversion action; October is partial and can still fill in.
Process and safeguards: Bernd's Lead Operations and Outbound Playbook, version 1.0, October 14, 2026, and the accompanying client presentation.
Event figures: Planning call between Bernd and Ace. Event costs are their estimates pending the Salesforce event report.
Pilot budget: Bernd's tool list: ChatGPT Pro and Claude Max ($300), Apollo ($99), 10 Google Workspace inboxes (about $70), with Calendly and buffer bringing the ask to $750.
Calculator: Illustrative assumptions only. The playbook makes no performance claims.
