- 10,275
On another thread, preciseleads.com was mentioned regading the consumer being contacted by many brokers.
How To Pick an Online Lead Service
- Thread starter MikeLevy
- Start date
OrlandoSEO
Expert
- 35
I am stuck with something that annoys the crap out of me so someone please help me out here. I posted on another lead generation thread about fairly exclusive non resold leads to about 5 agents, and got people complaining about paying $20 for a given type of lead. Yet many people are trying out lead services for 10 dollars a lead like hometown quotes that resell leads that they can barely verify even exist let alone are viable insurance leads. On top of that, these leads are now cycling through what is most likely every lead generation company out their. Someone make sense of this from the lead buyer side. As I am from the lead generation side I would like to know. I was at an insurance convention at the marrriot world center in Orlando about a month and a half ago and spoke with the guys from hometown. I asked them why they don't sell more exclusive leads that are of better quality. They told me straight up. Insurance agents would rather buy cheap leads of poor quality but more of them than strong leads at a much higher price. People may say it is affiliate marketers fault, but how can you blame someone. Buy direct from a small lead generation system if you really want to gain. Just my two sense. Some please explain this paradox.
- 997
It seems it's because:
A. You're more likely to trust a larger name (which happens to be the ones who resell the leads more times than a used car).
B. The smaller guys who deliver great leads can only take on a finite amount of business to match volume with quality.
- 10,275
Since early in the year, I have noticed a MAJOR change in Internet health leads.
Brokers are not buying as many.
Brokers are getting the message about the games lead companies play
Brokers are holding lead companies on a much shorter leash.
Heck...I have reduced my monthly expenses (purchasing leads) from about $2,000 to $300.
Brokers are not buying as many.
Brokers are getting the message about the games lead companies play
Brokers are holding lead companies on a much shorter leash.
Heck...I have reduced my monthly expenses (purchasing leads) from about $2,000 to $300.
- 997
In regard to reducing monthly expenses you're probably much savvier this year about your own lead generation than you were a year ago.
Yet, you may be on to something; it's possible that brokers on a macro-level are starting to realize that quality lead is an oxymoron in the online shared insurance lead business.
Lead quality started dropping at least 2 years ago. I got off the lead addiction a year ago and never looked back. While it would be nice to have more activity, I see no reason to get back in the lead buying cycle.
Are there any good lead vendors that deliver quality, even at $20 each?
I don't think so.
Paying $20 for exclusive leads MIGHT make sense. (Or to use OrlandoSEO's dictionary, cents). But not for a lead sold up to 5x.
If I knew the leads were sold ONLY to agents like myself, I MIGHT give it a try. But if they are sold to the phone mills, count me out.
When I was buying leads my ROI was 7:1+. I never track closing ratio's but if I had to guess it was probably 10 - 15% of net leads after credits.
Let's say Orlando's leads allow me to close 1 in 5. That put's my acquisition cost at $100 per client which is almost double what I experienced with lower cost shared leads in the past and considerably more than I am paying now.
Current hard cost per lead is probably $3 for an exclusive lead. Most of the stuff I do to promote myself is done during down time so even though my time is worth something, I am not factoring it in.
In all fairness, I didn't factor my time cost in chasing down bogus vendor leads either.
I know the folks in HTQ very well and made a lot of money off their leads once upon a time. But their business model changed (without warning) and we parted ways.
I don't trust any of the lead vendors any more and am very suspicious of the dueling SEO "experts". Not saying their services don't have value, but frankly it seems that a lot of SEO people on this forum want to see who can shout the loudest.
A few of them freely give valuable information which to me speaks volumes but does so sotto voce.
The secret to good leads is to offer a product or service that speaks for itself. I often refer to the retail industry's proven method of generating sales via sampling. I use sampling in my business model and it generates returns way beyond the modest cost to me of handing out freebies.
Are there any good lead vendors that deliver quality, even at $20 each?
I don't think so.
Paying $20 for exclusive leads MIGHT make sense. (Or to use OrlandoSEO's dictionary, cents). But not for a lead sold up to 5x.
If I knew the leads were sold ONLY to agents like myself, I MIGHT give it a try. But if they are sold to the phone mills, count me out.
When I was buying leads my ROI was 7:1+. I never track closing ratio's but if I had to guess it was probably 10 - 15% of net leads after credits.
Let's say Orlando's leads allow me to close 1 in 5. That put's my acquisition cost at $100 per client which is almost double what I experienced with lower cost shared leads in the past and considerably more than I am paying now.
Current hard cost per lead is probably $3 for an exclusive lead. Most of the stuff I do to promote myself is done during down time so even though my time is worth something, I am not factoring it in.
In all fairness, I didn't factor my time cost in chasing down bogus vendor leads either.
I know the folks in HTQ very well and made a lot of money off their leads once upon a time. But their business model changed (without warning) and we parted ways.
I don't trust any of the lead vendors any more and am very suspicious of the dueling SEO "experts". Not saying their services don't have value, but frankly it seems that a lot of SEO people on this forum want to see who can shout the loudest.
A few of them freely give valuable information which to me speaks volumes but does so sotto voce.
The secret to good leads is to offer a product or service that speaks for itself. I often refer to the retail industry's proven method of generating sales via sampling. I use sampling in my business model and it generates returns way beyond the modest cost to me of handing out freebies.
- 14,809
I got off internet leads in around 2007 and starting exclusively telemarketing and local marketing; doorhangers and working my chamber of commerce.
Telemarketing was brutal but no more or less brutal than working leads. Ironically I avoided "interruptive marketing" and bought leads because I didn't want to bother people...which is all I was doing when calling shared leads.
I found quickly I could put in 3 solid deals a week; mostly business owners, mostly families, average age around mid-40's. Much better quality then internet leads. Local marketing ended up netting me another 1.5 deals a week and I was happy as a clam.
Telemarketing is not for everyone....in fact it's really not hardly for anyone. Going forward agents who are going to be successful are going to generate their own leads and also learn how to use social medial.
Study and learn. Right now I downloaded "Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day." If it's one thing everyone should start studying it's SEO and social media.
Telemarketing was brutal but no more or less brutal than working leads. Ironically I avoided "interruptive marketing" and bought leads because I didn't want to bother people...which is all I was doing when calling shared leads.
I found quickly I could put in 3 solid deals a week; mostly business owners, mostly families, average age around mid-40's. Much better quality then internet leads. Local marketing ended up netting me another 1.5 deals a week and I was happy as a clam.
Telemarketing is not for everyone....in fact it's really not hardly for anyone. Going forward agents who are going to be successful are going to generate their own leads and also learn how to use social medial.
Study and learn. Right now I downloaded "Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day." If it's one thing everyone should start studying it's SEO and social media.
I use my free ProspectZone leads and close about 7-10% of them. Other than that, I don't really buy health insurance leads as there isn't very good quality for what you pay as mentioned. We get truly exclusive life insurance leads for $6 under age 40 and $30 over age 40 and have done very well with them over the years. I don't track ROI on paper, but would venture to guess that the ROI is around 10:1 or 12:1. All good things must come to an end though and those prices will be going up to $9 and $45 soon, so we'll have to re-evaluate whether they are worth the extra money. I'm leaning towards yes, but we'll see...
ryeates1
Expert
with information like the above threads, its no wonder lead companies have such a bad reputation
- 10,275
Look who started this thread. I wonder how he's doing.
