Annual research · Edition 01 · Australia & New Zealand
The State of Modern Prospecting 2026
How homeowners choose an agent, built from campaign data and eight years of implementation work.
- Observed
- Platform-recorded
- Agent-reported
- Inferred
01 · Method
What this is built from.
First-party data from campaigns run for agent accounts across Australia and New Zealand, and field observation from the implementation work around them. No surveys and no third-party datasets.
Every claim carries one of four labels. Observed means seen repeatedly in the field. Platform-recorded means measured by the ad platform. Agent-reported means supplied by the agent and rounded down. Inferred means our reading of the evidence.
02 · Observation
Five findings.
11–24 mo
The decision forms long before the call.
- Observed
- The range between first observable engagement and an appraisal request across eight years of campaigns. A range, not an average.
- Activity is judged inside a month against a decision that takes far longer to form.
Month 4
Strategy is abandoned just before it compounds.
- Observed
- Where changes of direction cluster in campaigns Jordan has run, set against where enquiry typically begins to move.
- The most common cause of a failed campaign is its age, not its build.
3 of 4
Frequency, not budget, separates the top quartile.
- Platform-recorded
- Three of the four measures separating top and bottom quartiles are frequency, territory size and campaign age. Spend is not one of them.
- A bigger budget is the least available lever and the least predictive one.
1,200–1,500
A narrow territory covered well beats a wide one covered thinly.
- Platform-recorded
- Top-quartile core areas sit at 1,200–1,500 homes. Bottom-quartile areas sit above 3,000.
- Narrowing the territory is usually cheaper than raising the budget.
Week 3
Creative fatigue arrives on schedule.
- Platform-recorded
- Top-quartile rotation intervals sit near three weeks. The bottom quartile rotates ad hoc.
- Fatigue can be planned for before it shows up in the numbers.
03 · Data
Quartile benchmarks.
Platform-recorded
| Measure | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital core area | 3,000+ homes | 1,800 homes | 1,200–1,500 homes |
| Effective frequency (monthly) | 1–2 | 3–4 | 6–8 |
| Creative rotation | Ad hoc | 6–8 weeks | 3 weeks |
| Campaign age at review | Under 4 months | 6 months | 12+ months |
Ranges reflect campaigns in the data set, not a guarantee for any single market.
04 · Implication
What changes for an agent.
Inferred
- 01Lengthen the review windowJudge prospecting over the period in which a decision actually forms, not the month it ran.
- 02Hold a smaller territory longerDepth of coverage predicts enquiry better than audience size.
- 03Schedule creative changeRotate on a calendar rather than in response to a bad week.
- 04Give curiosity somewhere to goEarly intent is private and small. Make it easy to act on without an enquiry.