Guide · Personal Injury Growth
MVA Lead Costs & Benchmarks: what your firm should actually pay
Most firms anchor on cost per lead. The firms that grow anchor on cost per signed case. Here is a clear, honest benchmark guide to MVA lead economics, and how to read the numbers without getting played by aggregators.
By Jacob Medina · 6 min read
Cost per lead is the wrong headline number
A $90–$150 shared lead is not cheaper than a $325 exclusive lead if the cheaper one never picks up the phone. Shared and aggregator leads are often resold to three to five firms, delivered aged, and stripped of source visibility, so a low sticker price quietly turns into a high cost per signed case, racing competitors, and a worse client experience. Exclusive, real-time MVA leads cost more up front because you are the only firm contacting that claimant, and pricing scales with market, accident type, injury severity, timeframe, and how many filters you add.
2026 MVA lead benchmarks
Use these as directional ranges, not guarantees. Your geo, injury mix, intake speed, and follow-up discipline move every one of them.
Exclusive MVA cost per lead
$275 – $450+
Solid, contactable exclusive leads land in this range. Price climbs with market, accident type, injury severity, timeframe, and the more filters and screening questions you require.
Contact rate (fast, exclusive)
65%+
Speed-to-lead is the single biggest driver. Real-time exclusive leads outperform aged, shared, and aggregator data dramatically.
Lead-to-signed-case rate
8% – 15%
Exclusive leads convert toward the top of this range. It depends on intake discipline, follow-up cadence, and source quality, not lead volume alone.
Target cost per signed case
$2,000 – $3,000
The number that actually matters. A higher cost per lead still wins when exclusivity and speed produce more signed cases.
The only formula that matters
Cost per signed case = (cost per lead) ÷ (contact rate × sign rate)
Plug in a $325 exclusive lead at a 65% contact rate and a 17% sign rate (of those contacted) and you land near $2,950 per signed case. A $90–$150 shared lead looks far cheaper, but at roughly a 30% contact rate and a 10% sign rate it lands in the same $3,000 to $5,000 neighborhood. Except now you are racing three to five firms to the same claimant and burning your intake team on dead numbers. Volume alone never grows a firm; contactable, exclusive flow plus disciplined intake does.
How to lower cost per signed case
- Buy exclusive, contactable leads instead of shared aggregator data.
- Reach fresh leads in seconds, not hours. Speed-to-lead drives contact rate.
- Run a disciplined multi-touch cadence across text, email, and phone.
- Track disposition so budget flows to sources that produce signed cases.
- Replace weak sources fast and scale the ones that convert.
See your real cost per signed case
Book a free 15-minute MVA growth review. We'll map your current sources, intake follow-up, and the gaps driving up your cost per signed case.