The most common answer to "how much should I spend on marketing?" is "it depends." That's technically true and completely useless. You need real numbers, real frameworks, and a realistic understanding of what different budget levels actually get you.
Let's break it down.
The Baseline: Percentage of Revenue
The standard advice across most industries is 5-10% of gross revenue on marketing. For a loan officer earning $200K in gross commission, that's $10K-$20K per year — or roughly $800-$1,700 per month.
But here's the problem: most LOs don't think of themselves as business owners. They see marketing as an expense, not an investment. So they spend nothing, rely entirely on their company's leads or realtor relationships, and wonder why their income plateaus.
If you earned $3,000 in commission on a single closed loan, and your marketing cost $500 to generate that lead — that's a 6x return. You'd make that trade every single day.
Budget Tiers: What Each Level Gets You
$0-$200/month: The Hustle Tier
At this level, you're investing time instead of money. That's fine if you're just starting out, but understand what you're signing up for:
- Organic social media (2-3 hours/week of content creation)
- Manual follow-up with past clients and referral partners
- Free CRM or basic tools with limited functionality
- Networking events and coffee meetings
This works if you have more time than money. It stops working when your pipeline grows and you can't keep up manually.
$200-$500/month: The Foundation Tier
This is where most solo LOs should start. It covers the essentials:
- CRM + automation platform — $100-$300/month for a proper mortgage CRM with marketing automation
- Basic ad spend — $100-$200/month on Facebook or Google ads
- Content tools — scheduling, basic design (Canva Pro, etc.)
The $300/month Sweet Spot
For most individual LOs, $300/month covers a CRM with automation and leaves room for modest ad spend. That's enough to systematize your follow-up, run drip campaigns, and generate a steady trickle of inbound leads.
$500-$1,500/month: The Growth Tier
This is where marketing starts compounding. You have enough budget to run real campaigns:
- Dedicated ad campaigns — $300-$800/month on paid advertising with proper targeting
- Full-featured CRM + automation — including AI-powered follow-up, SMS marketing, and landing pages
- Content creation help — freelance writer, video editor, or templates
- Retargeting — stay in front of people who visited your site but didn't convert
$1,500+/month: The Scale Tier
This is for top producers and teams who treat marketing as a primary business function:
- Aggressive paid acquisition — $1,000+ on ads across multiple channels
- Professional content production — video, photography, copywriting
- Advanced automation — multi-channel sequences, speed-to-lead workflows, AI chatbots
- Team tools — team management, lead routing, performance reporting
Where to Allocate: The 50/30/20 Framework
Regardless of your total budget, here's how to split it:
- 50% on systems — your CRM, automation platform, and marketing tools. These are the infrastructure. Without them, every other dollar is less effective.
- 30% on acquisition — paid ads, lead generation, content promotion. The fuel.
- 20% on retention — past client marketing, birthday campaigns, referral programs. The compounding engine.
Most LOs get this backwards. They dump money into lead acquisition without the systems to convert and retain. You end up paying for leads that die in a spreadsheet. Fix the systems first.
ROI: How to Know It's Working
Marketing ROI in mortgage is straightforward when you track it. Here's the math:
Cost per lead ÷ conversion rate = cost per closed loan. If your cost per lead is $50, and you close 1 in 20 leads, your cost per closed loan is $1,000. If your average commission per loan is $3,000, that's a 3x return.
The numbers you need to track:
- Cost per lead by source (ads, referrals, organic, database)
- Lead-to-application rate — how many leads become real applications
- Application-to-close rate — your pipeline conversion
- Average revenue per closed loan
- Lifetime value — including referrals and refinances from that client
When you factor in lifetime value — a client who refinances in 3 years and refers two friends — the ROI on marketing gets much more compelling.
The Biggest Mistake: Spending $0
The most expensive marketing budget is $0. You pay for it in missed opportunities, feast-and-famine cycles, and total dependence on sources you don't control — company leads, a single realtor relationship, or luck.
You don't need to spend thousands. But you need to spend something, consistently, on systems that keep your database working for you and your pipeline full. That's not a cost — it's the difference between a job and a business.
Ready to make your marketing budget actually work? Empower LO gives you enterprise-level automation and CRM at a budget that makes sense for individual loan officers.