You run an independent estate agency in London. You know your patch street by street, whether that is Clapham, Walthamstow or Ealing, and you know which landlords are unhappy with their current agent and which buyers are about to move up the ladder. Your business depends on two flows: the properties people instruct you on, and the applicants who want to buy or rent them. Both now start online. A landlord who has just inherited a flat in Islington looks for a letting agent he can trust. A seller in Crystal Palace compares local agents before inviting three of them round for a valuation. Many of them also ask an AI assistant which agencies are worth calling.
So you are considering paying to be found, and the obvious question follows: how many new clients does it take to make that pay? The good news is that the answer does not depend on market statistics. It depends on your own numbers.
What a new client is really worth to an agency
In property, clients are not all worth the same, and that is where the reasoning becomes useful.
- The one-off let. It earns a let-only fee, and you may not hear from that landlord again for a while.
- The managed landlord. Often the most valuable client you can win: a monthly management fee, year after year, and quite often a second or third property later. A portfolio landlord who trusts you can be a decade-long relationship.
- The vendor. A sale brings a substantial fee in one go, and a happy vendor often recommends you to friends, family and neighbours on the same street.
Before doing any calculation, sit down with your accountant and agree on the average margin each of these profiles leaves you over a year. Everything else rests on that figure.
The calculation, using the calculator's logic
The calculator on the Traffic Engine page follows a simple line of reasoning: the cost of visibility over the first year, divided by the value of one new client.
Year one includes the setup and twelve monthly payments. With Momentum, the most popular plan, that is a £1,300 setup plus twelve payments of £1,600, which comes to £20,500. With Presence, the entry plan, year one comes to £12,580. With Flood, the intensive plan, it comes to £37,300.
Now picture a few typical situations, without claiming they describe your agency. A lettings-led agency will reason in managed landlords: how many new management instructions over the year cover £20,500, given what one is worth to you? A sales-led agency will reason in completions: how many additional sales does that represent? For many agencies, once they put their own figures in, the answer is a handful of instructions rather than dozens, simply because a managed landlord or a completed sale carries real value.
And the annual calculation leaves out an advantage specific to your business: a management instruction won in March keeps paying next year, with no further sales effort.
Do not judge too early: allow for the ramp-up
Visibility does not do the same work in month one as in month twelve. The first weeks are spent putting your presence in place, early signals follow, and enquiries build with consistency. The calculator models this ramp-up over the first three months so it does not promise you an instant result.
Property adds its own delay. Between a landlord's first enquiry and a signed management agreement, or between a valuation and an instruction to sell, several weeks can pass, and a completion takes longer still. That is why payback is judged on a trajectory, with a measured review at three months, not on the first few weeks.
Checks to make before you invest
The calculation only works if your agency can turn enquiries into instructions. Check three things.
- Response time. A landlord who emails on Sunday evening and hears nothing until Wednesday will have instructed someone else.
- Capacity. Can your property managers take on more units without letting inspections, maintenance or rent collection slip?
- Source tracking. Record how every new landlord, vendor and applicant found you. Without it, you will never know what visibility is earning.
To see the reverse, what being hard to find is costing an agency today, read what it costs a Lagos real estate agency not to be found online; the logic travels well. For the general method, see payback on a visibility investment.
Where Traffic Engine fits
Traffic Engine is Kolonell's service for making your agency visible when landlords, vendors and tenants look for an estate agent in London, on Google and in AI assistant answers, so that it receives qualified enquiries. It starts with a Visibility Audit at £590, with a report within 48 working hours, fully deducted from the setup if you go ahead within 30 days.
Monthly plans run from Presence at £940 to Flood at £3,000, on a 12-month commitment with a measured review at three months. You receive a dated report every week and follow results in your own Search Console. What your plan includes goes live on schedule, or the following month is free. Estate agencies are capped at 3 seats per area, and an agency can lock the sector with an Exclusive plan while no seat has been taken. See the offer and check which seats are still open in London.
Your next step
Open the calculator on the offer page and try two scenarios: what a managed landlord is worth to you, and what a sale is worth. Within a minute you will see how many new instructions you need. And before you sign with anyone, read our guide on how a real estate agency should choose a visibility partner.