Guide to Buying Online Insurance Leads

Insurance is very competitive industry. Finding the right prospects is key to being a profitable and successful agent. As more and more consumers search for insurance products online, it’s crucial to reach out and make contact with them before another agent does. Insurance lead companies help connect consumers with insurance agents and can be a very beneficial and profitable way to acquire new policies and grow your business.

Each lead company has its own unique features that separate it from its competitors. Some excel in some areas more than others and therefore may work very well for some agents while at the same time, offer little to no results for others. Before signing up with an insurance lead company, there are certain features you should look at and decide what is most important to you as an agent.

To help you in your search for the best lead company, we’ve created this insurance lead buying guide to outline a number of features that you should take into consideration when selecting an online insurance lead company.

Lead Information
Most , if not all lead companies provide sample leads that give you an idea of what information will be contained in the leads you buy. The information provided should include:

Basic information (name, age, gender, etc. of those to be insured)
Contact information (phone, email, address, best time to contact)
Personal details based on the type of lead (ie, driving history for auto insurance leads, property information for home leads, etc.)
Type of coverage requested
Additional information (such as if they are requesting quotes for another line of insurance)

Filtering Options
Having the ability to filter your leads increases the overall quality of the leads you receive by pre-qualifying them with the characteristics that most closely reflect the type of prospect you want. Filtering usually come in two main flavors: geographic and consumer based. Any lead company you use needs to have geographic filters and also should have consumer filtering options.

Geographic Filters
Unless you’re a national agency that needs leads from every state, you need to make sure you’re only receiving leads from your target area. Insurance lead companies use varying methods to geographically filter their leads such as by zip code, city, state and area code.
Consumer Filters
Lead companies that offer consumer filtering options for the leads either have preset filters, custom filters or a mix of the two.
- Preset Filters
  Companies using preset filters give you the option to receive leads with certain qualifications. Each lead category usually offers a few filters based on the type of lead. The preset filters give an idea of the overall quality of the leads that you will receive. Categories offering a higher quality lead will cost more but also have a higher chance of being qualified for insurance or lower rates.
- Custom Filters
  Companies offering custom filters usually charge a base price for their unfiltered leads and then charge extra for specifying additional filters. Custom filtering allows you to receive only leads that you specifically want to sell to. If you’re target customer is someone older than 30 with an annual income of $100,000 more, owns their home and has excellent credit, then you will only receive those types of leads.
Additional Filters
There are additional filters that can be helpful to you. These include limiting the number of leads you receive per day/week or limiting the number of agents who also will be sold the same lead as you.

Number of Agents Per Lead (Overselling)
The number of other agents receiving a lead directly affects your chances in selling that prospect an insurance policy. The more agents receiving the lead, the lower your chances will be. We’ve listed the information that we’ve found for each company, but you should also ask a sales representative how many times they resell the lead. Many times you will be given an average number, if this is the case, ask them what the maximum number of times is too.

Lead Sharing Partnerships
A lead sharing partnership is when one lead company partners with another lead company in order to sell excess inventory to the other or to one another. Basically, if one lead company doesn’t have enough agents in a specific geographic area, they will then also sell the lead to their partner lead company. This means that even if a lead is only sold 3-4 times on average, that last sale might go to another company that is also selling the lead 3-4 times making the total number of agents contacting the prospect even higher.

Lead companies form these partnerships so that they can maintain a nationwide presence and can consistently provide leads to any location you request. Companies involved in lead sharing partnerships aren’t necessarily bad, but you may find that it is harder to sell policies with their leads.

Refund Policy
Regardless of the lead company or companies you choose to do business with, you’ll receive leads with fake or bogus information from time to time. A good lead company will also have a fair and simple refund/credit policy for these types of leads. If you notice that you’re receiving an unusually high number of leads with bogus information, then you may want to consider looking for a different lead provider.

Lead Volume
Quality should be the most important factor in determining who you buy leads from, but volume does help if it’s something you need. Using one, high volume lead provider could make it a little easier on you, but if you use 2 or 3 smaller lead companies that can combined provide the same volume with higher quality leads, then you should use the smaller companies as your ROI will be higher.

Cost
Cost structures vary widely between lead companies. While cost should be considered, you also need to consider what you are getting for your money. A lead that costs only $3.00 may look like a deal, but if you don’t make any sales from the 20-30 leads you buy to test the service, then those leads are worthless. On the other hand, if a lead costs you $10.00, but you’re able to close 15%-20% of the leads you receive, then your net return on your investment will be higher.

Billing & Fees
The way a lead company bills its agents can vary from company to company. Below are a few common billing methods:

Initial deposit with automatic or manual charges at certain minimum balances
Issue invoices for charges accrued during the previous month
Charge per lead
Line of credit

There are also some companies that will charge a setup or monthly/yearly fee for using their services. While you shouldn’t automatically exclude these companies from your options, it should be noted that most of the popular lead companies do not charge any setup, maintenance or membership fees.

Lead Delivery
Lead delivery covers two aspects: how the lead will be delivered to you and when the lead will be delivered to you. The when should be “in real time.” Unless you are purchasing aged leads, it’s crucial that you receive the lead in real time because the longer you take to contact the prospect, the higher the probability that another agent has already contacted them or that they’ve found some other place to get a quote. In most cases, insurance leads are delivered by email but some companies have additional options such as delivering the lead directly to a lead management service or delivering it to you via an SMS text message.

Selecting Your Lead Company
As you can see, there are many factors that go into selecting an insurance lead company. Our insurance lead buying guide is just that, a guide. To find the right lead company for you, you need to test them out.

Steps to Take When Selecting a Lead Company

Compare several lead companies

You can use our insurance lead company reviews

Select 2 or 3 to test

Trying more than one company can give you a better overall sense on the quality of internet leads

Determine profitability

After receiving 20-30 leads, you should get an idea about whether or not the lead company can be profitable for you.

If you see success with your first choices, keep the campaigns running but if you’re able to handle more business, don’t stop there. Give a couple of other companies a try - you may find that they provide even better leads at a lower price.

For those of you that sell multiple lines of insurance, you should repeat this process for each line. You might find that one company provides good life insurance leads but another is better for auto insurance leads.