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Round Robin

Round Robin lead distribution in Lead Distro AI — rotate leads equally across every eligible buyer. Best for fair distribution when buyers have similar capacity and pricing.

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What is Round Robin Distribution?

Round Robin rotates leads equally across every eligible buyer in a campaign. Lead 1 goes to Buyer A, Lead 2 to Buyer B, Lead 3 to Buyer C, then back to A — and so on. Over time every buyer receives the same share of leads (modulo caps, paused buyers, and filter mismatches).

It's the simplest distribution method and the right default when you're just getting started, when your buyers pay the same price per lead, or when fairness is more important than profit maximization.

When to Use Round Robin

  • You're getting started and don't yet have data on which buyer converts best — Round Robin gives you a fair baseline to compare buyer performance over time.
  • Your buyers pay the same price per lead, so there's no economic reason to favor one over another.
  • Your buyers have similar capacity — none of them need significantly more or fewer leads than the others.
  • Fairness matters for the relationship — e.g., partner agencies who would see uneven distribution as preferential treatment.

How to Configure

  • Go to your Campaign and open the Distribution settings.
  • Set Distribution Method to Round Robin.
  • Add buyers to the campaign — they're automatically included in the rotation.
  • (Optional) Set per-buyer daily caps so a buyer pauses when it hits its limit and the rotation skips it.
  • (Optional) Add state filters or zip filters per buyer — leads are only rotated among buyers whose filters match the incoming lead.

How Round Robin Handles Edge Cases

ScenarioWhat Happens
Buyer hits daily capBuyer is skipped for the rest of the day. Rotation continues among remaining eligible buyers without losing turn order.
Buyer is pausedBuyer is skipped. Rotation evenly spreads leads across remaining buyers — paused buyers no longer cause uneven distribution.
Buyer's filters reject the leadBuyer is skipped for that specific lead but stays in the rotation for the next eligible lead.
Traffic spikeRotation maintains even distribution even under high concurrency. No two leads in a row go to the same buyer.
New buyer added mid-dayJoins the rotation at the next lead. Caches don't need to fully reset — over the next 10-20 leads it averages back to fair.

Round Robin vs Weighted

Round Robin is equal split; [Weighted distribution](/docs/distribution-weighted) lets you set custom percentages (60/40, 50/30/20, etc.) when buyers have different capacities or you want to deliberately tilt distribution toward higher-paying buyers without going full waterfall.

Most agencies start with Round Robin for the first 30 days to gather buyer performance data, then switch to Weighted or Priority based on which buyers have the highest revenue and acceptance rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Round Robin send two leads in a row to the same buyer?
No. The rotation explicitly tracks the most recent buyer assigned and skips them on the next lead, even under high-concurrency traffic spikes. This was a real bug in earlier versions and was fixed — Round Robin now strictly enforces no-back-to-back assignment within the same campaign.
If a buyer is paused, does Round Robin still skip its turn?
No — paused buyers are removed from the rotation entirely. If you have 4 buyers in the rotation and you pause one, the remaining 3 split leads evenly, not 3 leads then a skip. This avoids uneven distribution caused by 'skip turns.'
What happens when all buyers hit their daily caps?
The lead is marked UNMATCHED and held in the dashboard. You can manually route it to a buyer, archive it, or set up a fallback automation that sends UNMATCHED leads to a default buyer with no cap. UNMATCHED leads don't generate revenue or cost — they're suspended until a buyer's cap resets or you take action.
Can a buyer in Round Robin still have its own price?
Yes. Round Robin only controls *which* buyer gets the next lead — each buyer still has its own price-per-lead, daily cap, state filters, custom field filters, and delivery method. Round Robin is about turn order; the buyer-level settings still control eligibility and revenue per lead.
How does Round Robin interact with state filters and zip filters?
Filters are checked first to determine which buyers are *eligible* for each lead. Round Robin then rotates only among the eligible buyers for that lead. So a lead from Texas is rotated only among buyers whose state filter includes TX (or who have no state filter); buyers configured for other states are skipped for that lead but stay in the broader rotation.
Is there a way to slightly favor one buyer in Round Robin?
Not within Round Robin itself — by design it's equal split. If you want proportional bias, switch the campaign to [Weighted distribution](/docs/distribution-weighted) and set percentages (e.g., 40/30/30) to favor a specific buyer. If you want one buyer to always be tried first, switch to [Priority/Waterfall](/docs/distribution-priority) instead.

Related Articles

Weighted
Weighted lead distribution in Lead Distro AI — assign percentages per buyer (60/40, 50/30/20, etc.) so buyers with more capacity or higher prices get a larger share of leads.
Priority (Waterfall)
Priority (Waterfall) lead distribution in Lead Distro AI — try the highest-priority buyer first, overflow to the next when caps fill or filters reject. Best for maximizing revenue from your top-paying buyer.
Ping-Post Guide
How ping-post lead distribution works in Lead Distro AI. Supplier-side and buyer-side flows, real-time bidding, partial data pings, post-acceptance payloads, and pricing negotiation for competitive lead verticals.

If you have any questions, send us an email at support@leaddistro.ai

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