What is moving the needle for Australian brokers this year, where paid supply sits alongside search and referral partners, and the compliance layer around all of it.
Figures in this article describe the wider market and are drawn from the third-party sources listed at the end. They are not Lead Foundry results, and nothing here is a projection of what any individual broker will achieve.
Marketing advice for Australian brokers frequently imports assumptions from markets where the broker channel is still winning share. Australia is past that argument, and the tactics that follow from it are different.
MFAA data puts broker share of new residential home loans at 81.0% for the March 2026 quarter, up from 55.3% in the March 2018 quarter, with leading aggregators settling A$124.88 billion in the quarter.
When four out of five borrowers already use a broker, marketing that argues for the channel is spending money on a decision the consumer has made. The job is differentiation between brokers.
| March 2018 quarter | 55.3% |
|---|---|
| March 2026 quarter | 81.0% |
Marketing that explains why to use a broker is arguing a settled point. The contested question is which broker.
ABS Lending Indicators recorded total new dwelling loan commitments falling 6.2% by number and 3.8% by value in the March quarter 2026, with first home buyer commitments down 4.3% by number. Fewer transactions with the same number of brokers means more competition per enquiry.
The research stage is compressing. Pew Research found that when an AI summary appears, users click a traditional result on 8% of visits against 15% without one, and click a link inside the summary on about 1% of visits. Search Engine Land reported US zero-click searches at 68.01% across the first four months of 2026, up from 60.45% in 2024.
For a broker, the practical implication is that content aimed purely at capturing clicks is a weakening investment, while content that gets cited and remembered is holding value. Being the source an answer engine draws on is now a position worth holding.
WordStream's 2026 Google Ads benchmarks, from 13,474 US search campaigns running April 2025 to March 2026, put Finance and Insurance at an average cost per click of US$3.39 with a conversion rate of 2.64%, the lowest of any category measured, against an all-industry average cost per lead of US$66.69.
The dataset is US, so treat it as directional rather than local. The shape of the finding, a cheap click paired with the worst conversion rate in the set, is what transfers.
| Channel | What it is good at | What it is bad at |
|---|---|---|
| Referral partners | High-conversion flow, low cost | Cannot be turned up when needed |
| Bought enquiries | Setting a weekly volume immediately | Conversion, relative to referrals |
| Owned content and search | Compounding position and citation | Returning anything quickly |
| Paid search | Speed and targeting | Cost per enquiry at a 2.64% conversion rate |
| Social | Awareness and recall | Direct enquiry with real intent |
Every one of those channels sits under obligations that apply on contact rather than on spend.
Where Lead Foundry sits, in plain terms: Lead Foundry currently supplies life insurance enquiries in New Zealand. Mortgage supply opens when LoanWatch launches. This is market commentary drawn from MFAA, ABS, Pew and WordStream data rather than an offer of Australian supply.
Differentiation against other brokers rather than arguing for the broker channel, since MFAA data puts broker share at 81.0% of new residential home loans in the March 2026 quarter. Referral partners provide the highest-conversion flow, bought enquiries provide the only volume lever you can set weekly, and owned content provides a compounding position that is increasingly about being cited rather than clicked.
It is fast and targetable, and the economics are harder than the click price suggests. WordStream's 2026 benchmarks put Finance and Insurance at a US$3.39 average cost per click with a 2.64% conversion rate, the lowest of any category measured. That dataset is US, so treat the shape as directional rather than the exact figures as local.
It is compressing the research stage and reducing clicks. Pew Research found click rates on traditional results roughly halve when an AI summary appears, and US zero-click searches reached 68.01% in early 2026. Content aimed purely at clicks is weakening; content that gets cited and remembered is holding value.
The best interests duty under ASIC RG 273, which cannot be contracted out of under section 158T, the financial product hawking prohibition, the Spam Act 2003 and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 for contact, and APP 5 and APP 7 for privacy. ACMA expects consent records showing the method, terms and date and time consent was obtained.