Research virtual assistant: cost per lead, per competitor and per brief

On this page

1. Two receipts for one research desk
2. What the VA gathers, what you decide
3. Price per lead, profile and fact-check
4. Calculator: your hours and cost per lead
5. Cost per lead by depth
6. A competitor matrix, priced
7. A market brief, priced
8. A 500-row lead list, priced
9. Contact data, site terms and the rules you set
10. Source rules: what makes a finding usable
11. AI tools and the VA, line by line
12. Subscriptions: not on any receipt here
13. An 80-hour month, priced by block
14. The first year, both ways
15. Yourself, project firm or VA
16. Numbers for the weekly report
17. How the agency example bills
18. A 30-minute test before you hire
19. The first month
20. How to hire one here

Two receipts for one research desk

Business research splits into two kinds of work. One is desk research: reading reports, pricing pages, filings and public data, checking each number at its source and writing it up. The other is list work: prospect lists, CRM records, supplier sheets and data collection. In a US company the job that covers both, with a published government wage, is a market research analyst, so the first slip prices one at the national median and adds what an employer pays on top. The second slip is a dedicated research VA.

Published by Outsourcing Insider, a VA MASTERS company. The agency slip uses VA MASTERS' published research VA rates, shown because they're public; other agencies' prices vary. About us

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 median pay: market research analysts $78,760 a year ($37.87 an hour). Checked Nov 2026.
1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 6. Checked Oct 2026.
2. SHRM, 'SHRM Releases 2025 Benchmarking Reports' press release (Oct 15, 2025). Checked Oct 2026.
3. Agency example: VA MASTERS pricing page, checked Oct 2026.

If the work is mostly list building and data collection, the closer local comparison is an administrative assistant: secretaries and administrative assistants had a US median of $48,310 a year ($23.23 an hour) in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook), before payroll taxes and benefits. Even against that lower wage, the agency slip's $6.50–$10.00 an hour is the smaller number. The trade-off is in the other direction: an in-house analyst can sit in your strategy meetings, run a focus group and own a research budget. A VA works to your brief and hands the decision back.

What the VA gathers, what you decide

Put this table in the first-day guide. It is the cheapest control on the page: it keeps conclusions, money and contact rules with you.

The second row is the one that slips. A VA who has read forty pages on a market will have a view, and a short brief tempts everyone to write it as the answer. Ask for findings and the sources behind them; if you want the VA's opinion, ask for it in a separate, labelled line.

Price per lead, profile and fact-check

The VA's cost is the rate times the minutes. The minutes below are example assumptions for a VA who knows your tools and your customer profile; time your own first month and replace them.

The same verified lead row done by the analyst in the first slip, at the loaded $51.16 an hour, costs about $5.12. The one-page brief, about $247.

What the table can't price is a wrong number that reaches a board deck or a list full of people who left their company last year. This page puts no dollar figure on either. The source rules further down are what keep them rare, and they cost minutes, not hours.

Calculator: your hours and cost per lead

A research VA's month comes from five places: lead rows, competitors you track, briefs, fact-checks and everything else. Put in your numbers to see the hours a month, the cost, and what each lead row costs.

With the defaults (400 verified rows, 10 competitors, 2 briefs and 40 fact-checks a month), the work comes to about 73 hours: $472–$727 a month. That fits an 80-hour block with room for a busy week. Billing is for hours worked, so a light month costs less than the block.

Cost per lead by depth

A lead row has no fixed price because "lead" means different things. The depth you ask for sets the minutes, and the minutes set the price. Minutes are example assumptions.

Rows in 80 hours assume the VA does nothing else that month. Bought data from a list vendor may cost less per row; what you get for the minutes here is a row checked against your profile, with its source.

Pick the depth by what happens next. If a rep calls the list within the week, verified decision-makers are enough. If an account executive writes personal emails to a short list of large accounts, the 30-minute account brief earns its price. Paying for notes on 2,000 rows that nobody reads is money spent for nothing.

A competitor matrix, priced

A matrix is the one research product that keeps paying after it is built, because the monthly refresh is a fraction of the first build. One example, ten competitors:

The weekly change log is the part people use. A line like "raised the entry plan's price, added a free tier, posted three sales roles in a new region", with the date and the link, tells your team more than a fresh matrix every quarter. Ask for it on the same day each week, and have the matrix keep the date of every cell so stale ones show.

A market brief, priced

A brief answers one question you need answered this week: is there a market for a product in a region, what a category usually charges, which suppliers serve a niche. One example, one page:

A vague request is the easiest way to pay for hours you didn't need. "Research the market for X" can take one hour or forty. One sentence of question, the decision it feeds, the sources that count and a time box ("four hours, then show me what you have") cap the bill before it starts. Our SOP template is a good home for that brief once it works.

A 500-row lead list, priced

List building runs on volume, so it is the line to price carefully. One example list, built from your customer profile:

The 20-row sample is the cheapest hour in the list. If the profile is off, you find out after 20 rows instead of 500. Ask for it on every new list and every time the profile changes. A VA who only builds the list costs the rate above; if you want the list called or emailed as well, that is an outreach role, priced on our cold calling VA page.

Contact data, site terms and the rules you set

Prospect lists hold personal data, so they come with rules that depend on where you and your prospects are. Privacy laws such as the GDPR in Europe and state privacy laws in the US govern collecting and using contact data, and CAN-SPAM sets rules for commercial email in the US. This page gives no legal advice: you decide what you may collect and use, check with counsel, and write the answer down for the VA.

• Site and tool terms. The VA follows each website's terms and each data tool's terms of use, and doesn't scrape sites that forbid it or use workarounds to get past limits.
• Business data only, unless you say otherwise. Name, title, company and business contact details; nothing personal beyond what your rules allow.
• Source on every row. Where each record came from and when, so you can answer a "where did you get my details?" email.
• Suppression list first. People who asked not to be contacted are removed before a list reaches sales.

Our guide on giving a VA access to accounts covers logins for the CRM, data tools and shared drives. Keep research files in your own Drive, Microsoft 365 or Notion, so they stay with the business when a role ends.

Source rules: what makes a finding usable

Every finding from a research VA should pass five checks. Write them into the brief once and reuse them:

1. Every number has a source link and a date next to it.
2. Key figures are confirmed in two independent sources, or marked as single-source.
3. Estimates are labelled as estimates; conflicting sources are shown side by side, not averaged away.
4. The summary answers your question first, then gives the evidence.
5. Sources you don't accept (forums, undated blog posts, AI answers without a source) are named in the brief.

Then spot-check. Open three sources a week in the first month and fewer once the standard holds. At ten minutes a check that is half an hour of your week, and it tells you more about the VA than any summary. Literature work follows the same rule: the VA reports what each study says, with its citation, and draws no medical or scientific conclusions of its own.

AI tools and the VA, line by line

AI assistants can draft a first pass of desk research. They are quick, and they can also be wrong, out of date or vague about where a claim came from. Where each side fits, if you allow AI tools in the work:

Say in the brief whether AI tools may be used and on what data. Don't paste confidential material into a tool your company hasn't approved.

Subscriptions: not on any receipt here

None of the slips include research tools, because you pay for them whoever does the work. Prices change and depend on seats and credits, so this page quotes none. Put each line on the budget before you compare totals.

Free sources do a lot of the work: Google Scholar and PubMed for studies, government statistics, company filings, Google Trends. Check whether one more user changes your plan, and read each tool's terms on who may use a seat; give the VA its own login rather than sharing yours.

An 80-hour month, priced by block

Where a part-time research VA's 80 hours might go, and what each block costs at $6.50–$10.00 an hour. Illustrative split; your work decides the real one.

Monthly total: $520–$800. 1,500 verified rows a month at 6 minutes each is 150 hours on its own, which is a 160-hour block.

The first year, both ways

VA year = 160 or 80 hours × 12 months. In-house pay and payroll costs from the analyst slip. The cost per hire is a US average for non-executive roles from the same employer data the slips use. Our outsourcing vs hiring in-house page covers the method.

Yourself, project firm or VA

Three common ways to get research done bill differently, so compare them by the work, not the hourly figure.

The two can work together: a firm runs the one big study, and a VA keeps the competitor file, lists and source library current between studies. Our guide to VA vs freelancer vs agency compares the hiring routes, and part-time vs full-time VA cost helps you pick the block.

Numbers for the weekly report

Ask for one page each week. You set the targets from your own first month; there is no honest industry benchmark to copy.

The last line turns the example minutes on this page into your own. Our VA KPI scorecard has a blank version to adapt.

How the agency example bills

• Billed monthly after the work, for hours worked only
• Nothing to pay before you choose your hire
• 30-day trial with each new hire: end it right away, no notice
• After the trial, 30 days' written notice
• Replacement at no extra cost
• A one-time advance payment once you choose your hire, credited against your first invoices and refundable
• Recruitment, placement or setup fee: None
• Bank transfer in USD: No processing fee
• Credit card or PayPal: 4% processing fee

A 30-minute test before you hire

You are testing care with sources more than speed.

1. Prices (10 minutes): three named competitors' plans and prices in a table, a link and date for each cell.
2. Fact-check (8 minutes): three figures from a sample article. Which hold up at the original source, and which don't?
3. List (8 minutes): five companies that fit a written profile, one decision-maker each, with the source.
4. Summary (4 minutes): a two-page report in three bullet points for a busy owner, answer first.

A good candidate asks a question before guessing and marks what it couldn't confirm. Our interview questions template has more to ask, and the job description templates are a starting point for the brief.

The first month

Our onboarding checklist covers the rest.

How to hire a research VA here

Requests from this site go to our recruiting partner, the agency in the example above, at $6.50–$10.00 an hour for research roles:

1. Tell us the job: the research you do today and how often, the tools you pay for, the output you want and the hours you need covered.
2. Meet a shortlist: candidates with research, list-building or data backgrounds, usually in about 2 business days.
3. Choose and start: nothing is paid before you choose; billing is monthly, after the work, for hours worked.

The trade-offs: an agency costs more per hour than hiring a freelancer yourself, in exchange for screening, payroll handling and free replacement; the first weeks need your time for the brief, the source rules and checking sources.

More: how much a virtual assistant costs and what a virtual assistant costs by country.