When it comes to real estate lead generation, nearly every agent is looking for an answer to the same question: What’s the best lead source? In order to thrive in the real estate industry today, you need something that everyone, to some degree, is lacking: knowledge of lead source ROI.

Do you know exactly how many leads came from Zillow compared to Trulia last month, and which leads performed better? If you did, what would you do differently? In order to get the most out of your leads, you need to be able to see the ROI on all of your lead sources so you know where to spend those precious marketing dollars — and where to stop wasting them.

A recent Imprev Thought Leader Survey reported that agents and brokers spent $33 million in the last quarter of 2014 to secure leads from Zillow and Trulia despite the fact that 89% found organic leads to be more valuable, based on lead quality and ROI. Why? It boils down to one crucial step in the process: the nurturing of those leads — from capture to close — is not always adequately embraced by real estate agents.

The majority of agents are spending way too much money on new lead sources without really understanding which sources are performing best and giving enough attention to the leads that are already in their pocket. If you’re setting aside a piece of your marketing budget for 20 different lead sources that aren’t all working for you instead of cutting a bigger piece for the top 5 sources that are, you’re wasting money and likely losing valuable leads.

Real estate lead generation remains a top concern for broker-owners this year as they try to gain better insight into which lead sources they should be investing in. Here are some additional findings from the survey:

– 42% reported that the creation of “systems for more effectively competing against the real estate portals for generating leads” as among their top two technical challenges for 2015.

– 70% of real estate brokers rated social media (primarily Facebook) as having “exceptional” or “reasonable” value for lead generation.

– As far as the ‘Big 3’ real estate media companies, brokers rated Zillow at 58%, Trulia at 49% and Realtor.com at 46% for lead value.

– 32% said Craigslist has “no value” as a lead-generation source, measured by quality or ROI.

– MLS Association ranked low as a lead generator: 22% of real estate brokers said that it had “no value” as a lead-generation source.

When it comes to real estate lead generation, it’s important to keep in mind that a lead source that works best for one agent may not always work best for another. Not all leads are created equal, and not all leads should be treated equal. You can strike gold, but if you don’t know how to mine it, it’s not going to do you much good. Tap into vital reporting and seek out an integrated system that gives you visibility into all of your real estate lead sources so you can better invest your marketing dollars and maximize your ROI.