I find it surprising that people are happy to bid up to £70 for a life lead, i make this comment based on buying life leads for sometime and my understanding of  life convertion rates and cost elsewhere ! my concern is that the current mortgage market has clearly dried up and brokers are turning their attention to different product sets eg: Life Leads.

Nothing wrong with this in a competetive market, i just think some people should do the sums to ensure they are paying prices for their leads that ensure their business is profitable not just make a sale.....

Agreed, bids of this size are simply not cost effective and I would imagine things will sort themselves out shortly with regard to this.

Having spoken to PAA it has been brought to my attention that good weather may well have played a part in the bid price being driven up. There has definitely been a shortgage of leads on to the Moneysupermarket website which is the primary reason for this though.

Am sure things will sort out as soon as the good old British summer weather kicks in!!

Has anyone noticed any difference at all since my last post?

My maximum bid of £45 (which is pretty much the limit I am willing to pay) has seen me receive the grand total of one lead in the last fortnight from PAA.

I appreciate things have been difficult due to the fine weather etc however my alternative lead provider continues to supply leads at or around £30-£35. Their system is nowhere near as user friendly as PAA's at the moment but they are getting my business at present for obvious reasons!!

similar situation here, in so far as I have a budget and theres a limit to the amount I'll spend per lead. I'e had one in a week! Its not helped by people panicking and piushing the bid price up - theres one person bidding £57 across the board at the moment! People see that and push their own bids up as a result.

I've kept mine around the £40/45 mark and have had one lead over the bank holiday weekend. But a technical problem with the website prevented me from logging in to increase my spend, which wwas rather frustrating.

30/35 per lead? Thats a keen rate you're paying. :-) Whats the quality like generally?

It's not too bad at all to be honest mate. Probably not quite as good as PAA for conversions and not quite so straightforward when it comes to payment but certainly more cost effective.

Not sure if the abbreviation *** means anything to you but would rather not advertise their services on PAA's website! They might get a bit annoyed.

Very much worth checking out until things settle down here though. It's just a ridiculous situation at present.

Hi,

I was just wondering who *** are as it does not mean anything to me!!  Would you mind emailing me on ***

Many Thanks for your help

Mark

Hi, I have heard mix reports about conversion rates of life term leads. What is a typical conversion rate you get on these leads guys say out of every 10 you buy?

We have been buying term leads for several months now.  I would say the realistic conversion ratio is about 20-25%.  We do sometimes take a commision sacrifice also to make the premium more competitive-it really does just depend on the customer!!

How is everyone else getting on??

Thats good to know and thanks for being realistic, so in profit terms what is an average commission you earn from your signups (obviously I know this varies greatly depending on the lead & cover they request) just wondering whether I should have a go as mortgages are so slow at the moment.

It really does vary, unfortunately with taking a sacrifice sometimes you may only earn £500 pounds out of a £50 premium.  Obviously you could always just take full commision but with most people looking on moneysupermarket your conversions would probably be lower!  It is easier on life and CI cases as you can advise more then and make the client see that cheapest is not always best!!!

I would say we make about £3-4 for every pound spend, ie we usually spend about 2K a month on leads and would look to write a minimum of 6K.

Hope this helps

Mark

Cheers for that Mark, so your doing well in my books then. The trouble is I have had it so good in the mortgage market that i have not had to worry about this and now I do need to look!! Do you do mortgages as well or are you just IFA's?

Cheers Carl

Hi Balbirnie

 I am also interested who *** is, can you email me also please & thank you!!

We don't do any IFA stuff like pensions and investments, we just refer that on at the moment.  We just do mortgages and term assurance.  But like yourself i have struggled a vit with mortgages lately so probably have written more life cover than anything else!  Lets hope for some decent products soon!!  Do you buy PAA mortgage leads??  What sort of conversion do you get from those??

Cheers

Mark

I buy from many includeding PAA, ***, *** and also appts, I also know a few who use PAA and are getting about 20/25% conversion so the same as term really. I used to find *** was better for me but it variies greatly. I am now just thinking if I stick to this then with term leads & re-mortgage leads (prime) as I used to do so much adverse that I will be back on track with my earnings.

I would like to know who the other *** supplier is as I have looked at lots and not found one at these prices.

Also how do you email someone direct if you want to in here????   Cheers Carl

mark1980:

We have been buying term leads for several months now.  I would say the realistic conversion ratio is about 20-25%.  We do sometimes take a commision sacrifice also to make the premium more competitive-it really does just depend on the customer!!

How is everyone else getting on??

We are seeing pretty similar levels of conversion.  This year has seen conversion as low as 11% (but that was jan and really not that surprised it was so low) to highs of 37% in april - accross the year so far we are running around 25%, against and annual target average of 26% so not too far out.

Difficult when you are spending your hard earned cash, but some times you just have to ride out the rough months.  One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how different things can be in short spaces of time - the conversion rates change month on month.

In my opinion I dont think it is particularly the quality of lead, its just some months people commit straight off and others dither!  Funnily enough I converted a lead yesterday that I had put down as dead after quoting him at the start of April!

What do others do with the leads you buy that dont convert?  We are just embarking on a large marketing campaign with these people to see if there is anything we can get out of them.  Anyone done anything like this and hav and experience/stats to share?