What's a good cost per funded loan?

It depends on the loan's commission or margin. The healthiest benchmark is CPFL as a percentage of commission — aim for CPFL under 40% of commission for a scalable channel.

Should I include rep salaries in CPFL?

For channel-level economics, include the fully loaded cost of rep time attributable to the channel. Media-only CPFL flatters the number.

How does pre-qualification lower CPFL?

By shrinking the number of leads a rep works to fund the same loan volume. Same numerator, smaller denominator, lower cost per unit of rep time — CPFL falls even though media cost is flat.

Should I measure CPFL by source?

Yes. Blended CPFL hides the reality that a few sources subsidize a lot of bad ones. Source-level CPFL is where budget decisions get made.

How is CPFL different from CAC?

CAC is customer acquisition cost — the cost to acquire any customer. CPFL is the cost to fund one loan, which is the loan-level unit lenders actually optimize.

How-To

How to Calculate Cost Per Funded Loan

Cost per funded loan (CPFL) is your all-in acquisition cost divided by loans that actually funded — the single number that tells you whether your channel math is working.

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The Formula

CPFL = (media + lead cost + pre-qual cost + attributable rep cost) ÷ funded loans

Same cohort window on both sides. Wait long enough for time-to-fund to elapse before locking the number.

What Belongs in the Numerator

Media / lead cost: the raw spend to get the lead into the CRM.
Pre-qualification cost: per-lead pre-qual API charge.
Enrichment cost: any third-party data appended pre-decision.
Rep cost: fully loaded hourly rep cost × hours worked on the channel.
Underwriting cost: if you allocate underwriting time to acquisition.

Media-only CPFL is a marketing number. Fully loaded CPFL is a finance number. Lenders that scale profitably tend to plan against the finance version.

Worked Examples

CPFL by product (illustrative)
Product	Cost per lead	Fund rate	CPFL (media only)	Typical commission	CPFL as % of commission
MCA	$40	5%	$800	$2,400	33%
Equipment finance	$55	7%	$786	$1,800	44%
SBA	$80	3%	$2,667	$8,500	31%
Non-QM mortgage	$120	4%	$3,000	$9,000	33%

The Pre-Qualification Lever

Consider the MCA line above. 100 leads × $40 = $4,000 media, 5 funded loans, $800 CPFL. Add pre-qualification at $1.25 per screened lead. 40 leads DNQ, 60 Qualified leads work at a 7.5% fund rate — 4.5 funded loans. Cost stack: $4,000 media + $125 pre-qual = $4,125. CPFL: $917 media-only.

Wait — CPFL went up? Yes, on this cohort. The point isn't the single-cohort math; it's what the reps did with the reclaimed hours. They worked a second cohort of Qualified leads that would otherwise have been left cold, and blended CPFL across the quarter drops materially. The metric that always improves is fund rate per hour of rep time — and that's the one that actually determines whether you can grow.

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on the loan's commission or margin. The healthiest benchmark is CPFL as a percentage of commission — aim for CPFL under 40% of commission for a scalable channel.
For channel-level economics, include the fully loaded cost of rep time attributable to the channel. Media-only CPFL flatters the number.
By shrinking the number of leads a rep works to fund the same loan volume. Same numerator, smaller denominator, lower cost per unit of rep time — CPFL falls even though media cost is flat.
Yes. Blended CPFL hides the reality that a few sources subsidize a lot of bad ones. Source-level CPFL is where budget decisions get made.
CAC is customer acquisition cost — the cost to acquire any customer. CPFL is the cost to fund one loan, which is the loan-level unit lenders actually optimize.