At the end of July, an agency manager in Almaty opens a report: January leads produced 12 deals, while April has fewer so far. They suggest switching off the April campaign. January's buyers, however, have had time to complete the journey to a contract, while some April buyers are still choosing a property. The marketer first needs to give both groups equal time, or the advertising decision will rest on an incomplete result.
Take an agency that earns a sales commission. All numbers and calculation assumptions below are illustrative. Six months is the observation horizon here; find the purchase delay for your own project in its lead, contract and payment history.
Define the result of advertising
A manager may call a reservation, a signed contract or money received a deal. Choose one reporting definition with sales and finance. In this example, it is a signed contract on which the first payment has arrived. A reservation without payment remains a separate stage.
Someone may enquire about one apartment, view another and return through a broker. Count them once in the new-buyer group. Keep the contact and property-change history in the CRM, following the links between leads and deals. The same buyer's second apartment is a repeat deal, not a new customer.
For each event, store the buyer and contract IDs, property, time, status and evidence. Payment records confirm money received; the employee who conducted the viewing confirms attendance. A note saying "thinking about it" supplies neither a reason for declining nor a date for the next action.
Give each lead the same amount of time
The agency received 100 new unique leads in January and another 100 in April. By 31 July, every January lead has completed its first 180 days. April leads have completed their first 30 days, but not 180. Count from each lead's own date, then aggregate the group.
| New-lead group | Leads | Deals in the first 30 days | Deals in the first 180 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 100 | 3 | 12 |
| April | 100 | 4 | Window still open |
At the same age, April produced 4% and January 3%. That is an observed difference of one deal. A budget decision also needs the mix of properties, prices, availability and sales handling. Buyers in the two periods may have been looking for different apartments.
Leave an unfinished cell unfinished. Zero would say that the time had elapsed without a deal. July sales from January leads belong in July's calendar report but stay with January in the cohort report. Dividing those sales by new July leads mixes the two reports.
Count the agency's money
The apartment price belongs to the property sale. The agency's revenue in this model is its commission. Putting the full value of apartments into the agency's ROAS makes little sense: that money does not stay with the agency.
Suppose acquiring January's 100 leads cost 300,000 ₸. By the end of their 180-day windows, the agency had received 300,000 ₸ commission on each of the 12 contracts. Variable handling costs were 90,000 ₸ per deal, including the associated payments and work. There are no other variable costs in this calculation.
| January group item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Commission received | 12 × 300,000 | 3,600,000 ₸ |
| Variable costs | 12 × 90,000 | 1,080,000 ₸ |
| Contribution before advertising | 3,600,000 - 1,080,000 | 2,520,000 ₸ |
| Advertising | Campaign spend | 300,000 ₸ |
| Remainder after advertising | 2,520,000 - 300,000 | 2,220,000 ₸ |
Ad spend per buyer with a contract is 300,000 / 12 = 25,000 ₸. Contribution per deal before advertising is 210,000 ₸. The 2,220,000 ₸ remainder still has to cover fixed costs and taxes. This calculation covers campaign-linked deals; estimating how many the advertising added needs a separate comparison.
Receipt of commission is an assumption here. If the agency will be paid later, those receipts are absent from the cash calendar at this date. The marketer needs the commission payment schedule when discussing the next budget with the owner. A positive result by month six cannot retrospectively fund month one's expenses.
Watch viewings while contracts mature
Between lead and contract, the team can track contact, a suitable request and a completed viewing. These events help locate problems earlier. Each needs a definition and someone responsible for confirming the result.
The agency might define a suitable request through an available property, a discussed budget range and an agreed next step. If nobody has reached the person yet, their need is unknown. Marking them "unsuitable" conceals a handling problem when the manager simply has not had time to call.
Keep scheduled and completed viewings separate too. A rescheduled appointment retains its link to the same buyer. The marketer finds where the loss occurred: no contact, no suitable property, unacceptable terms or a cancelled appointment. Each calls for different work: adjust the offer, update availability or agree another contact.
Make the ad match the property
Buyers arrive at a viewing with questions: what the price includes, what the space looks like, when it will be available and which payment terms apply. The page and the conversation need to give the same answers.
Label a project rendering as a project image. A photograph of a completed property shows its actual condition. Describe planned infrastructure as a plan and confirm information about existing facilities before publication. A promise of rental returns needs evidence that an attractive rendering cannot supply.
Assign someone to keep each active offer current. When a property sells or its price or timing changes, that person informs marketing and sales. A simple test follows one lead: someone sees the ad, opens the page, calls and receives the same terms. Record any mismatch with the ad version and time.
A late contract may never reach the ad account
Google Ads offline conversion imports have time limits after the associated last click. According to the Google Ads help page (checked 15.10.2026), a regular import will not accept a conversion uploaded more than 90 days after the click, and the limit for enhanced conversions for leads is 63 days. Before setup, confirm the chosen transfer method and current limits in the documentation. The offline conversion transfer setup depends on the selected method.
A contract 180 days after that same click may remain only in the agency's own analytics. Changing the contract date to get it uploaded would leave the CRM and advertising report describing different events.
An earlier signal could be a confirmed suitable request or completed viewing, where the chosen tool and process permit its transmission. Name each for what happened. One person's lead, viewing and contract do not become three sales when the events are added together.
Send only the agreed fields. Buyer documents, negotiation details and the full CRM history are unnecessary for this event. The integration owner keeps the upload result and rejection reason so a late deal missing from the ad account does not look absent from the business.
Exercise: cheaper leads, costlier viewings
For a separate comparison, take two campaigns with 300,000 ₸ spend each and the same completed observation period for viewings. The first produced 100 leads and 20 completed viewings; the second produced 200 leads and 15 viewings. Prepare the calculation for the owner and list what is still missing before reallocating the budget.
The first campaign's CPL is 3,000 ₸ and cost per completed viewing is 15,000 ₸. In the second, CPL fell to 1,500 ₸ while a viewing rose to 20,000 ₸. Leads doubled, but fewer people attended viewings. Start by investigating the request mix, property availability, manager contact and cancellations.
Final economics require comparable contracts and commissions. Keep spend, buyer IDs, group age, completed viewings, contracts and commission receipts in the working report. The owner can then see what is already known, what needs attention now and which decision must wait for the window to close.