Reallocating a $4,500 Marketing Budget With a Hospital Opening in 90 Days

Cost per lease:

Source	Spend	Leads	Leases	Cost/Lease
Portal A	$2,800	90	6	$467
Portal B	$1,200	40	1	$1,200
Google Ads	$500	25	4	$125
Total	$4,500	155	11	$409 blended

What the lead counts hide:

• Volume is not value. Portal A generates the most leads and the second-worst cost per lease. Doubling it doubles exposure to a mediocre-converting source.
• Attribution lag. Leases close 30–60 days after the lead. A source's leases this month reflect last month's spend - do not judge a source on one month in isolation.
• Lead-to-tour is the missing column. With 40% of all leads never touring, the cheapest lease in the building may be sitting in your own CRM. Ask what the tour rate is by source, not just the lease count.
• Branded search contamination. Part of Google's 4 leases may be people who already knew the community and would have leased anyway.
• Contract risk. Portal A's 60-day notice means a 'double it now' decision is not reversible next week.

Position: agree that A deserves scrutiny for growth, but the decision requires tour rate by source, a 90-day window, and a tracked call line or unique URL before anyone doubles anything.

Work backwards from the opening date. Hospital staff start arriving 4–6 weeks before the doors open for orientation and training, so the relationship has to exist before then.

Days 1–30:

• Identify the right contacts: HR, nurse recruitment, and the relocation or housing coordinator. Ask whether they maintain a housing list or vendor packet.
• Build a preferred employer program with neutral, written criteria (any employee of a qualifying institution gets the same benefit). Document the criteria and apply them identically to everyone who qualifies.
• Prepare a landing page and a source code so hospital traffic is measurable from day one.
• Confirm inventory. Traveling and relocating staff usually want furnished or short-term flexibility and a two-bedroom for a roommate pairing - which happens to be your slowest plan.
• Do a geo-fenced digital campaign and one on-site event; offer to host a housing session at the hospital rather than waiting for them to call.

Days 31–90:

• Deliver welcome packets and a digital flyer to HR; ask to be included in onboarding materials.
• Run open houses timed to orientation weeks.
• Track source-coded leases weekly and report them weekly.

Compliance guardrail: preferred employer discounts must be available to anyone meeting the neutral employment criteria and cannot be limited by or screened on a protected class. Do not ask applicants about family status or disability while promoting the program.

Do not argue with the premise - redirect to the metric and propose a test.

1. Agree on the success metric first. If the goal is leases, the doubling should be judged on leases, not leads. Say that out loud before any money moves.
2. Present the numbers he has not seen: $467 per lease on portal A versus $125 on Google, 40% of leads never touring, and the 60-day cancellation notice that makes a doubling hard to undo.
3. Offer a bounded test instead of a permanent commitment: shift $600 for 30 days from portal B (the worst performer at $1,200 per lease) into portal A, with a dedicated tracking number or URL, and a written success threshold agreed in advance (for example, X leases within 60 days or the budget reverts).
4. Put it in writing with a review date. A short test protects the relationship and the budget, and it produces data either way.

What to avoid: doubling a source on lead volume alone, cancelling portal B on a single month's data without checking its lead-to-lease cycle, or letting the conversation become personal. The answer is not 'no' - it is 'here is the metric and here is the test.'