22 September 2026 · 4 min read · Oscar Markham
A lead and an enquiry are not the same thing, and confusing them costs money
Agencies and clients routinely use these words to mean whatever suits the conversation. That vagueness is where a great deal of money goes missing, because the two things have wildly different values.
The distinction
An enquiry is somebody making contact. A lead, properly used, is somebody making contact who is plausibly able to buy what you sell.
A form filled in by a person outside your area, wanting a service you do not offer, at a budget a fifth of your minimum, is an enquiry. It is not a lead, and reporting it as one makes a campaign look twice as good as it is.
Why it matters for what you pay
A report saying forty leads at twelve euro sounds excellent. If half were out of area and a third were the wrong job, you have thirteen real opportunities at roughly thirty-seven euro.
Neither number is wrong. Only one of them lets you decide anything.
What to insist on
Ask for the count of enquiries you could actually serve, and the cost of those. Any agency reporting raw form fills without that breakdown is either not looking or would rather you did not.
It is also the number that lets you compare two channels honestly, which is usually when the comparison becomes uncomfortable for whichever one was producing volume.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.