Case Study: BBRG Real Estate
162 listing leads. $569 in ad spend. One self-reported $1.2M sale.
Better Brokers Realty Group. Granite Bay, CA. Growth Partner tier, live on Espo since January 2026. Five agents using the system, 1,991 contacts in the CRM, three agents named unprompted in ChatGPT and Gemini results. Here's the full picture.
Before Espo
Jake runs a growing real estate team in Sacramento. Before Espo, his marketing looked like every other team's: a CRM nobody loved, a website that didn't generate leads, and an ad strategy that consisted of boosting posts on Facebook when he remembered to.
The old stack:
- CRM that agents avoided
- IDX site with minimal traffic
- No ad campaigns running
- Manual follow-up (when time allowed)
- No idea which marketing dollars worked
What we built
We deployed the full Growth Partner stack for BBRG inside the 21-day build window. Everything from the custom website to the first ad campaigns — live and generating leads by launch day.
Campaign by campaign
Six listing campaigns through February 2026. CPL ranged from $1.92 to $5.44 — with an overall average of $3.51.
| Campaign | Leads | Spend | CPL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Listing – Sunset Heights | 42 | $81 | $1.92 |
| Open House – Riverside Estates | 35 | $127 | $3.63 |
| New Listing – Downtown Lofts | 28 | $98 | $3.50 |
| Price Reduction – Hillcrest | 22 | $74 | $3.36 |
| Just Listed – Parkview | 19 | $102 | $5.37 |
| Coming Soon – Oakwood | 16 | $87 | $5.44 |
| Average / Total | 162 | $569 | $3.51 |
Luxury Listing – Sunset Heights
Leads
42
Spend
$81
CPL
$1.92
Open House – Riverside Estates
Leads
35
Spend
$127
CPL
$3.63
New Listing – Downtown Lofts
Leads
28
Spend
$98
CPL
$3.50
Price Reduction – Hillcrest
Leads
22
Spend
$74
CPL
$3.36
Just Listed – Parkview
Leads
19
Spend
$102
CPL
$5.37
Coming Soon – Oakwood
Leads
16
Spend
$87
CPL
$5.44
Average / Total
Leads
162
Spend
$569
CPL
$3.51
CPL range: $1.92 – $5.44. Performance varies by listing type, market, and season.
The $1.2M weekend
One of those 162 leads was Amanda. She clicked on a listing ad for a home in Sunset Heights on a Thursday evening. The system sent her a text within 3 minutes and an email with comparable listings 15 minutes later.
By Friday, she had a showing scheduled. By Sunday, she'd put in an offer — $50,000 over asking. The sale closed at $1.2 million.
The ad that brought Amanda in cost roughly $5. The commission on that sale was worth more than the team's entire annual marketing budget.
~$5
Ad cost
3 min
Response time
$1.2M
Sale price
Self-reported by the BBRG team in their February 2026 campaign report. Ad spend and response time are verifiable in the CRM; the transaction value is pending attachment of a sales contract.
Live now · Apr 20, 2026
Amoruso Ranch — the current campaign
BBRG’s April campaign is an 80-unit new-build community in Rocklin, CA. Launched April 13, 2026. This is what the system is doing in real time, not a case study from last year.
84
leads captured
through Apr 20
$3.04
cost per lead
per Apr 17 snapshot
$50
daily budget
$1,500/mo target
1/6th
of prior CPL
Foreclosure: $19-22
Industry benchmark CPL for real-estate buyer campaigns is typically $20-$50. Amoruso Ranch is running roughly 1/6th of BBRG’s own prior Foreclosure campaign and well below the industry range. Same ad account, same team, different architecture behind the funnel.
The channel everyone is missing
BBRG agents are being named unprompted in ChatGPT and Gemini.
Sellers are starting to ask AI assistants “who is the best real estate agent in my city?” The BBRG website surfaces when that question is asked about Granite Bay or Grass Valley. The pattern is happening now — our job is to be what the AI finds.
Ben O’Lena
Agent · Grass Valley
Three separate people called Ben saying ChatGPT recommended him as the top agent in Grass Valley. Inbound, unsolicited, zero ad spend.
Darla Lyons
Co-founder · Granite Bay
Team-reported sighting in a Gemini result for a Granite Bay query. Her agent page ranks page-1 in Google for trunk queries.
Jake Lyons
Founder · Granite Bay
Team-captured Gemini screenshot recommending BBRG as a top Granite Bay brokerage. Uses the dashboard in recruiting conversations.
Google Search Console — trailing 3 months, Apr 17, 2026
179
organic clicks
3,220
impressions
5.6%
CTR (9.4% mobile)
#1.0
“selling a home in granite bay”
AI-mention counts are team-reported. The GSC numbers are first-party data.See the full AI-discoverability breakdown →
The second flywheel
Five agents on the team. The tooling was the pitch.
When Jake set up Espo in January 2026, the goal was cleaner operations — not recruiting. By April, the team had grown from 1 active producer to 5. Two joined as explicit new hires, one returned to active production because the tooling finally matched her workflow, one onboarded with the stack already running.
Jake Lyons
Founder, VP, Broker
Feb 3, 2026
Set up Espo as the operational backbone. Uses the dashboard on a laptop during recruiting conversations.
Carson Harthun
Agent
Mar 18, 2026
Onboarded with the stack already running. Heaviest AI-assistant user on the team — 858 messages in a month.
Darla Lyons
Co-founder, President, Broker
Mar 31, 2026
Returned to active production partly because the tooling finally supported the way she wanted to work.
Amanda Wilkins
Agent · new hire
Mar 31, 2026
The 5th agent onboarded post-launch. 16% CTR on her team page — highest on the BBRG site.
Ben O'Lena
Agent · new hire
Mar 31, 2026
Now surfacing in ChatGPT results for Grass Valley queries. Three strangers have called saying the AI told them to.
“Everyone has a CRM. Everyone hates it. Yours actually works. My agents don't complain about the tools anymore — they complain about not having enough hours to follow up with all the leads. That's a problem I'm happy to have.”
Video testimonial coming soon
Before and after
Before Espo (the fragmented stack)
- CRM logged into by almost no one
- Ad spend with no ad-to-closing trace
- Agents spinning up manual follow-up sheets
- Template website invisible to AI search
- No single owner of the funnel
With Espo (through Apr 2026)
- 162 listing leads at $3.51 avg CPL (through Feb 2026)
- 84 leads at $3.04 CPL on the current Amoruso Ranch campaign
- 5 agents on the team — 2 as explicit new hires
- 1,991 contacts, 817 deals across 10 pipelines
- 3 agents named unprompted in ChatGPT / Gemini results
- Automated SMS + email follow-up, 20% two-way SMS response rate
- Ad-to-closing attribution live on the admin dashboard
What this means for you
We're not promising $1.92 CPL on every campaign. Some will be higher. BBRG's listing average is $3.51 and the current live campaign is $3.04 — both are a fraction of what most teams pay for comparable lead quality, but your market, price point, and creative will move the number.
What we can promise: every lead tracked, every follow-up automated, and every dollar attributed. A website that surfaces when sellers ask ChatGPT. A listing package your competition can’t match at the kitchen table. Month-to-month after the 21-day build. Your data exportable in 48 hours if you leave.
You'll know exactly which ads produce which leads, and which leads become closings. That's the difference.
See what we'd build for your team.
Free strategy call. Custom roadmap. No obligation.