There's a long-running debate in MCA sales: are aged leads (cheap, contacted-many-times) or fresh exclusive leads (expensive, just-submitted) more profitable per dollar spent? We pulled funnel data from 18 MCA shops we work with to settle it.
The data set
18 MCA shops, ranging from 2-person boutique brokers to 40-closer floors. Each shop ran a mix of aged leads, fresh exclusive leads, and owner-direct contact data over a 6-month period in late 2025. We aggregated their funnel metrics.
Aged MCA leads — the numbers
Average cost: $2.40 per lead. Average contact rate: 8%. Average appointment-set rate (of contacted): 12%. Average close rate (of appointments): 18%. Average commission per funded deal: $2,400.
That math: 1,000 aged leads × 8% contact × 12% appointment × 18% close = 1.7 funded deals. Revenue: $4,080. Cost: $2,400. Net: $1,680. CPA: $1,411.
Fresh exclusive MCA leads — the numbers
Average cost: $85 per lead. Average contact rate (within 5 minutes of submission): 62%. Average appointment-set rate: 35%. Average close rate: 22%. Same $2,400 commission.
That math: 100 fresh leads × 62% × 35% × 22% = 4.8 funded deals. Revenue: $11,520. Cost: $8,500. Net: $3,020. CPA: $1,771.
Owner-direct contact data — the numbers
Average effective cost: $12 per usable record (filtered by industry, state, and revenue band). Average contact rate (multi-attempt cadence over 5 business days): 38%. Average appointment-set rate: 22%. Average close rate: 16%.
That math: 500 records × 38% × 22% × 16% = 6.7 funded deals. Revenue: $16,080. Cost: $6,000. Net: $10,080. CPA: $896.
Plug your contact rate, close rate, and deal value into the cost per lead calculator at /tools/cost-per-lead-calculator to compare any lead source.
What this actually says
Aged leads have the cheapest CPL but produce the worst CPA when you account for closer time wasted on un-reachable contacts. Aged leads only work if you have a low-cost dialer floor (offshore VAs at $5/hr) and pure dial-volume strategy.
Fresh exclusive leads produce the highest contact rate but the worst absolute economics — you pay for speed and exclusivity. They make sense when you have a fast-dial operation with sub-5-minute response time and high-commission closers.
Owner-direct contact data wins on net profit and CPA in this dataset, mostly because cost-per-record is far lower than fresh leads while contact rates remain solid across a multi-attempt cadence (vs aged leads which collapse on the third call).
When to use each
Aged leads: junior closers learning the script, low-touch dialer floors, or as a pipeline-volume booster behind your higher-quality lead sources.
Fresh exclusive leads: top closers, fast-response operations, MCA shops competing on speed.
Owner-direct data: territory-based outbound, mid-tier closers, brokers building a long-term book of named accounts. The compounding value (you can re-call records 90 days later) makes this the highest LTV source.
The Owner Leads Direct Editorial & Research team writes, reviews and maintains every public page on this site. Drafts are produced collaboratively (including AI-assisted drafting) and reviewed by a human editor with relevant subject-matter experience in MCA, commercial lending, B2B data or compliance before publication. Every quantitative claim is cited to a primary source or labeled as internal Owner Leads Direct data. We publish corrections within 72 hours of a verified report.
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