If you're a mortgage broker thinking about running your own Facebook ads, you're asking the right question. Facebook (Meta) advertising is one of the most effective channels for mortgage lead generation in the UK — but whether you should be the one running the campaigns depends on several factors that most guides conveniently skip over.

We generate leads for a living, so we have a commercial interest in brokers buying from us rather than doing it themselves. That said, we genuinely believe that if you have the time, budget, and patience to learn Facebook advertising properly, it can work out cheaper in the long run. Here's an honest breakdown of what's involved.

What Running Facebook Ads Actually Costs

Let's start with the numbers, because this is where most brokers get surprised. The ad spend itself is only part of the equation.

Ad spend: You'll need a minimum of £20-£30 per day to gather meaningful data. That's £600-£900 per month just on ad spend. During the first 4-8 weeks, consider this learning budget — you're paying Facebook's algorithm to figure out who responds to your ads. Expect to spend £1,500-£2,500 before you have campaigns that consistently deliver leads at a predictable cost.

Landing pages: You need dedicated landing pages with qualifying forms — not just a link to your website homepage. Tools like Leadpages, Unbounce, or ClickFunnels cost £50-£150 per month. You could build something custom, but that adds development costs. A well-designed landing page with a multi-step form will dramatically outperform sending traffic to a generic broker website.

CRM or lead management: You need somewhere for leads to land and a system to track follow-up. Even a basic CRM like HubSpot Free or Pipedrive (£15-£50/month) is essential. Without this, leads will fall through the cracks and you'll have no idea what your actual conversion rate is.

Creative assets: Facebook ads need images or videos. Stock photos of houses perform poorly — consumers scroll past them instantly. You'll either need to create original content (phone videos work surprisingly well) or hire someone to produce creative. Budget £200-£500 for initial creative if you're outsourcing, or invest 3-4 hours making your own video content.

Your time: This is the cost most brokers underestimate. Running Facebook ads properly takes 5-10 hours per week, especially in the first few months. That includes monitoring performance, adjusting targeting, testing new creatives, reviewing lead quality, and staying on top of Meta's constantly changing ad policies. If your time is worth £50-£100 per hour in billable client work, the opportunity cost is significant.

Add it all up and the realistic first-month cost is £1,000-£2,000 in direct expenses plus 20-40 hours of your time. By month three, if things are going well, you might be generating leads at £15-£25 each — but it takes work and patience to get there.

The Special Category Problem

Here's something that catches nearly every broker off guard: mortgage advertising on Facebook falls under Meta's Special Ad Category for credit. This means you cannot target by age, gender, postcode, or detailed demographic interests the way other advertisers can. Your targeting options are severely limited compared to what you might have read in generic Facebook ads guides.

In practice, this means your campaigns rely much more heavily on creative quality and landing page conversion than on precise audience targeting. You're essentially showing your ad to a broad audience and relying on your messaging to attract the right people. This isn't necessarily a bad thing — it just means the learning curve is steeper because you can't rely on targeting alone to reach mortgage-ready consumers.

What a Realistic Timeline Looks Like

Here's what to expect if you're starting from scratch:

Weeks 1-2: Setting up Business Manager, ad account, pixel, landing pages, and forms. Creating your first set of ad creatives. Submitting for approval (financial ads get extra scrutiny and sometimes get rejected — plan for this). Realistically, 8-15 hours of setup work.

Weeks 3-6: Running initial campaigns, monitoring results, and learning. You'll likely generate some leads, but cost per lead will be high (£30-£60+) because the algorithm hasn't optimised yet. Resist the temptation to change everything after three days — give campaigns at least 5-7 days of data before making changes.

Weeks 7-12: Iterating based on data. By now, you should know which ad formats and messages resonate. Cost per lead starts coming down. You're building a rhythm of weekly optimisation. Expect to be spending 3-5 hours per week on management at this point.

Month 4 onwards: If you've stuck with it, you should have campaigns delivering leads at a consistent cost. The work shifts from constant firefighting to regular maintenance — refreshing creatives every 4-6 weeks, adjusting budgets, and monitoring quality.

When DIY Facebook Ads Make Sense

Running your own ads is probably right for you if:

  • You enjoy marketing and are willing to learn a new skill properly
  • You have at least £1,500-£2,000 to invest in testing before expecting a return
  • You can commit 5-10 hours per week, especially in the first three months
  • You're patient enough to wait 8-12 weeks for campaigns to mature
  • You're generating enough revenue from existing clients that a slow start won't put you under financial pressure
  • You want long-term control over your lead generation and are building a practice, not just filling next month's diary

When Buying Leads Makes More Sense

Buying leads from a provider like us (or any reputable competitor) is probably more practical if:

  • You need leads now, not in three months
  • You don't have time to learn and manage paid advertising
  • Your budget is limited and you can't afford £1,500+ in testing before seeing results
  • You'd rather spend your time advising clients than managing ad campaigns
  • You're a sole trader or small team without anyone to delegate marketing to
  • You want predictable volume without the variability that comes with running your own campaigns

There's no shame in this, and it's not a compromise — it's a resource allocation decision. Many successful brokers buy leads precisely because their time is better spent closing business than learning digital advertising.

The Hybrid Approach

A growing number of our clients do both. They buy leads from us to maintain a predictable baseline of enquiries, while simultaneously building their own Facebook or Google campaigns on the side. This removes the pressure of needing your DIY campaigns to work immediately, because you've got purchased leads keeping the pipeline moving while you learn.

Once your own campaigns are consistently delivering at a cost you're happy with, you can gradually reduce your purchased lead volume — or keep both running to maximise pipeline. Either approach is valid.

Our Honest Recommendation

If you have the time and inclination, learn to run your own ads. It's a genuinely valuable skill, and in the long run, it'll likely cost less per lead than buying from us or anyone else. We'd rather have a client who buys from us because they've made an informed choice than one who buys because they didn't know the alternatives.

But be realistic about the investment required. It's not free, it's not quick, and it's not as simple as the YouTube gurus suggest. If you try it and decide it's not for you, we'll be here — no hard sell, no 'told you so.' And if you try it and it works brilliantly, we'll genuinely be pleased for you.

The worst outcome is spending £500 on ads, getting poor results because you didn't give it enough time or budget, and then concluding that Facebook ads don't work. They do work — they just require a proper commitment to get there.