Campaigns of ours that did not work well:

139 conversations, 32 replies, 2 booked.
546 conversations, 134 replies, 2 booked.
577 conversations, 150 replies, 2 booked.

Campaigns of ours that did:

428 conversations, 165 replies, 9 booked.
473 conversations, 85 replies, 4 booked.
749 conversations, 182 replies, 4 booked.

Every agency you meet will show you the second list and let you assume it is typical.

The honest version is that the range is the product. Some campaigns land on a market inside a buying window and some land on one that is not, and you cannot always tell which in advance.

What you can do is run the check before committing the budget, and kill the ones that come back flat instead of quietly reporting activity.

Ask the next agency that pitches you for their median campaign rather than their best one. Watch what happens to the room.
