Leadpile’s Blog

The lead-gen, as many knows it so far, refers to the generation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business’ products or services – generating a lead. The characteristics of lead-gen are changing, and same as the web, it has certain phases, which makes it evolutionary. 

In the beginning of 2000, the lead-gen has become more popular in the online channel, and with it, more and more companies started to allocate a certain budget for lead-gen, finding it as a good alternative or addition to their own advertising channels. 

A GP Bulhound Research report states that from 2006-2007, the online lead generation market grew 71% YTY. That’s more than twice as fast as the online advertising market. 

The growth, it’s of course, determined by the increasing demand for leads, but also the effectiveness and low costs offered by Lead Exchanges compared to the SEM. 

The Lead-gen 1.0 is considered as being a fragmented, not scalable, where the pricing for leads and volume needs to be artificially managed in order to create profit. 

Leadpile, has started as being a lead generation company, and by knowing the ins and outs of this industry, created a unique Exchange where the price and volume are market driven. The platform has arrived to a mature state, and that’s due to the years of experience and being on the right track from the start. And so, the Lead-gen 2.0 is here. Below you will see certain tools available in the Leadpile Exchange, making it a true Lead Marketplace/Exchange with the technology to be considered Lead-gen 2.0: 

1. Real Time leads and Cherry pick leads:

- the ability to choose between real time delivered leads (Lead Direct) and cherry picking the leads (Self Select)

When it comes to Real Time leads – you can choose the preferred price, volume, schedule and any other filters you want. 

A true lead-gen platform would also enable you to filter the sources of leads (producers/lead sellers): 

No matter how small or big your company is, a true lead-gen platform would also allow you to receive the leads in your own way, that can be from the most complexed integration to the most simple delivery method, like email. 

Of course, you need to have the freedom to receive the leads whenever you want to: 

Also, a complete lead-gen platform would allow you to “talk” to your consumers as soon as they finish the application. That’s where the confirmation page, or redirect to your site, comes handy and really crucial when it comes to customer acquisition:

We are sure that more lead-gen companies will come along, as they already did, following our model. That’s the beauty of this business! We are all working together and we will inspire each other in order to create a better business model for everyone. Leadpile, as the first company to launch a real integrated system for buyers and sellers of leads, will never stop to grow and improve. Out motto is and will always be: “The Impossible is our Expertise”. 

We look forward to your comments and suggestions – We Need You!

I just finished reading that The House is expected to pass a $300 billion housing rescue bill aimed at aiding homeowners in trouble and help them avoid foreclosure and supporting mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If the Senate passes the bill and Bush signs it, thousands of borrowers will be able to refinance their unaffordable old mortgages into new, low-cost fixed-rate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.  

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 400,000 borrowers with $68 billion in loans may benefit from the program. The bill will only allow as many as 1 through 2 million borrowers to participate in the program.

Some of the qualifications for these loans are as followed:

• Prior loan issued during Jan 2005 – Jun 2007
• Have an up to date mortgage or in default
• Once loan is reissued you will not be able to take home equity from your home for 5 years unless used to pay for up keeps on home.

This will definitely help the mortgage industry.  More loans officers will start focusing on purchasing mortgage leads from lead exchanges as they will now be able to help the consumer. 
 

As I mentioned last month in the post “Lead Generation – An added value”, the B2B marketers are increasing their budgets for the lead-gen (lead exchange) companies. A survey has been carried out last month by BtoB and the Sales Lead Management Association, and they found out that almost half (45.4%) of the 273 corporate marketers that responded plan to increase their budgets during the Q3 and Q4 of 2008. The increase in budgets seems to reach 20% of their current spent in the lead-gen.

It is going to be seen how these companies will choose between all the lead-gen companies out there (lead exchanges). If the choice is going to target the exchanges capable of producing their own leads, the ones that have built an infrastructure of serious affiliates with a good control of the lead generation process, I can foresee a success for the both parties involved, and a positive effect towards this growing industry.

Lead buyers – reallocating their advertising budgets from PPC into the lead-gen… because it works. 

You can have your money spent on PPC and try to compete with the big budget companies over the first 10 or 15 placements, or you can choose a lead-gen company that will send you the leads you desire for a lower price. If you will start working with a Lead-gen company, ask them if they produce their own leads. The value and power of a lead-gen company resides in its knowledge of generating their own leads and the ability to increase their CVR while improving the lead quality.

Spending less for a quality lead it’s just one of the advantages of choosing to work with a lead-gen company. Another tremendous advantage will be the option you have in filtering your leads. A Debt Settlement company, for example, can filter your leads by the consumer’s debt amount, or a mortgage company can filter the leads by LTV, loan amount and even credit score. If you choose to advertise on the paid search, the same lead could cost you 3 times or more, and unfortunately, you will also be paying for leads you can’t use. 

Why a lead-gen company can deliver you the same quality leads for a lower price than producing the leads yourself? It’s all about the supply. The webmasters are choosing working with a network or a lead exchange due to the fact that they have a higher acceptance rate for their leads. This brings to the Lead Exchange a larger supply of leads for the buyers (advertisers) and more money for the sellers (publishers). 

Leadpile, producing leads in over 30 verticals for the last 7 years, has improved constantly the process from a click to a complete application, resulting in an increased CVR and a lower price per acquisition for its buyers. We wouldn’t be here if our work wouldn’t have been valuable, considering that Leadpile had no outside funds and the Lead Exchange was built entirely on the profit from producing its own leads.

Since we opened up the Lead Exchange, our publishers can use the same technology that makes the lead-gen a better alternative to the traditional affiliate networks. Instead of crowding their pages with banners, they choose to place a form on their site that will give them an instant access to the entire network of buyers. 

The lead-gen space its just in its infancy, and it’s here to stay.