Marketing for Mortgage Brokers

What does marketing for mortgage brokers involve?

Marketing for mortgage brokers means building enough reliable sources of new borrowers that your pipeline doesn’t depend on one referrer or one month’s ad spend. It covers referral partners, your existing client book, Google Maps and SEO, Google Ads, and social media. It should be measured in settlements, not leads.

Brokers have a marketing problem most businesses don’t: you’re paid when a loan settles, often weeks or months after the first enquiry, and borrowers who aren’t ready waste hours of fact-find time. Cheap leads that never reach application cost more than they look. So the first job is knowing which channels bring borrowers who settle.

The second job is protecting the book you already have. When a client refinances through another broker, you lose the trail on that loan. Staying in touch with past clients is usually the cheapest marketing a broker can do.

We deliver digital marketing for mortgage brokers: Google Maps, SEO, Google Ads, websites, reviews and email. Networking, events, print and social media content still matter for many brokers. We’ll factor them into the plan, but we don’t produce them.

Where do mortgage broker leads come from?

Mortgage broker leads come from six main places: referral partners, past clients, Google Maps and reviews, SEO, Google Ads, and social media. Referrals and past clients usually settle at the highest rate. Paid channels scale fastest but cost the most per settlement.

Channel	What it brings	Cost type	Settles well?
Referral partners (agents, accountants, planners, builders)	Borrowers already told to see you	Time and relationship upkeep	Usually the best
Past-client book	Refinances, upgrades, investment loans, referrals	Email and CRM time	Very well
Google Business Profile and reviews	“Mortgage broker near me” calls	Mostly time	Well
SEO (loan-type and local pages)	Borrowers researching and choosing a broker	Monthly retainer	Well, after 3–6 months
Google Ads	Borrowers searching now	Management fee plus ad spend	Varies; needs tracking
Social media and video	Recall, trust, first home buyer interest	Time or ad spend	Slower, supports other channels
Bought leads	Volume	Per lead	Often poorly

Referral partners. Real estate agents see buyers who need finance, accountants see self-employed clients who struggle with lenders, and financial planners see clients with changing needs. A short page for partners on your website explaining how you work, how fast you respond and how you’ll keep them updated helps. Check with your licensee how any referral payments must be handled and disclosed.

Your book. Fixed-rate expiry dates, settlement anniversaries and annual reviews are natural reasons to get in touch. Any refinance recommendation still has to meet the best interests duty in section 158LA (licensees) or 158LE (credit representatives) of the National Credit Act, in force for mortgage brokers since 1 January 2021.

For the organic side, including loan-type pages and Google Maps, see our SEO for mortgage brokers page.

How should mortgage brokers run Google Ads?

Run Google Ads on searches where people want a broker, not a lender: “mortgage broker [suburb]”, “refinance broker”, “first home buyer broker” and “self-employed home loan broker”. Send each to a page for that loan type with a short booking form, and track enquiries through to settlement. If an ad states an interest rate, it has to meet the comparison rate rules, so most brokers are better off keeping rates out of their ads.

What makes broker campaigns pay:

• Broker-intent keywords. “Home loan rates” is a lender and comparison-site search. “Mortgage broker Wollongong” is yours. Finance clicks are expensive, so every keyword should be one a client would actually use to find a broker.
• Negatives. Exclude “jobs”, “course”, “how to become”, “salary” and specific lender names you don’t want to pay for.
• Fast response. A borrower who fills in a form is often contacting two or three brokers. A call back within the hour matters more than the ad copy.
• Settlement tracking. Import the outcome back to Google Ads, or at least track it in your CRM by source. A campaign that brings fewer enquiries but more settlements is the better campaign.
• Rate-free copy where possible. Ads about your service, such as “Self-employed? We compare 30+ lenders”, avoid the comparison rate rules entirely, as long as the claim is accurate and you can back it up.

More on campaign setup is on our Google Ads service page.

Is social media worth it for mortgage brokers?

Social media is worth it for mortgage brokers as a trust and recall channel, not as the main source of loan enquiries. Short videos explaining how a fixed rate ends or what first home buyers need help people remember you, and they give referral partners something to share. Few borrowers book a broker straight from a post, so measure social by how often it shows up in the “how did you hear about us” answer.

What tends to work:

• Explainers, not rate posts. A video on “what lenders look at for self-employed borrowers” stays useful for a year. A post with this week’s rates dates in days and brings comparison rate obligations with it.
• Your face and your area. Borrowers choose a person. Posts filmed in your suburb, with local sales or settlement stories told without client details, build more trust than stock graphics.
• Captions and on-screen text that follow the rules. If a rate appears on screen, the comparison rate must appear on screen in text too. The rules below apply to social posts exactly as they do to ads.

Boosting posts can widen reach in your area, but treat it as paid advertising, with the same wording checks and the same settlement tracking as Google Ads.

What advertising rules apply to mortgage broker marketing?

Every ad, social post, flyer, video and email you publish is credit advertising. The National Credit Code sets comparison rate rules, the National Credit Act restricts words like “independent” and requires your licence number on printed ads, and ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 234, reissued in June 2026, sets out how ASIC expects claims, disclaimers and testimonials to be handled.

Channel	Rule	What it means in practice
Any ad with an interest rate	National Credit Code ss160–164 and reg 99 of the National Credit Regulations	Include a comparison rate, labelled as one, no less prominent than the interest rate or any repayment figure, with the loan amount, term and prescribed warning
Video and social video	Code s164(3)	If the rate is shown on screen in text, the comparison rate must also be shown in text. If the rate is only spoken, the comparison rate must be spoken too
Flyers, letterbox drops, print ads	NCCP Act s52 and reg 13	Printed ads must show your licensee’s Australian credit licence number, written out in full words the first time
Any channel	NCCP Act s160B	Don’t describe yourself as “independent”, “impartial” or “unbiased” unless you meet the defence, which most commission-paid brokers don’t
Any channel	RG 234.140–141	Avoid “pre-approved”, “guaranteed acceptance”, “instant approval” and “no credit checks”
In-language ads	RG 234.38	If the ad is in another language, the disclaimers should be in that language too. ASIC’s example is a broker whose Chinese-language ads had English-only fine print
Testimonials and reviews	RG 234.130	Testimonials should be genuine and attributed to the real person
Email and SMS	Spam Act 2003, enforced by the ACMA	Have consent, identify yourself accurately, and action unsubscribe requests within 5 working days

If you’re a credit representative, your promotional material should also make clear that you act for a licensee and name that licensee, as ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 203 (RG 203.89) explains. Your licensee is responsible for your conduct under section 75 of the National Credit Act, so check whether your licensee or aggregator wants to approve campaigns before they go live.

This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. Check with your licensee’s compliance team before a campaign goes live.

How much should a mortgage broker spend on marketing?

Set your marketing budget from your settlement target and what a settled loan is worth to you after your aggregator’s split, not from what other brokers say they spend. Typical Australian market ranges are $1,500–$3,000 per month for SEO for a solo broker in a competitive area, $3,000–$6,000+ for multi-broker firms, and $500–$1,500 per month for Google Ads management, with ad spend separate.

Item	Typical Australian market range
SEO, solo broker in a regional or quieter area	$800–$1,500 per month
SEO, solo broker or small firm in a competitive metro area	$1,500–$3,000 per month
SEO, finance tier: multi-broker or multi-office firm	$3,000–$6,000+ per month
Google Ads management (ad spend separate)	$500–$1,500 per month, or 10–20% of spend
One-off paid audit	$500–$2,500

A hypothetical example: a broker in Hobart keeps around $3,000 in upfront commission per settled loan after the aggregator split, plus trail. If one in three Google Ads enquiries reaches settlement, each enquiry is worth about $1,000 upfront. A campaign costing $2,500 a month in ad spend and management then needs about three enquiries a month that behave like that to break even on upfront commission alone, with trail on top. Use your own numbers, and track settlements, not form fills.

Spread budget so you aren’t relying on one channel. A broker whose pipeline comes entirely from one real estate office is one staff change away from a quiet quarter. For a full breakdown of how SEO is priced, see our SEO pricing guide. Work is month-to-month with no lock-in.

Want to see which channels would bring you the most settled loans? Get a free mortgage broker marketing audit.