How to test an insurance lead company

Agents ask us all the time which lead company is the good one, and the honest answer is whichever one wins a small, fair test in your own agency with your own producers calling. Buy a small order from two or three companies that fit your line. Work every lead the same way and compare what each one cost you per sale. Reviews and averages can’t settle it for you, results swing too much with your line, your territory and how fast you call.

This guide walks through setting that test up.

1. Pick two or three companies that fit

Start with the line you sell and the type of lead you can really work. If you write final expense in three states there’s no point testing a company that mostly sells auto leads in the Southeast, so narrow it down to companies that sell your line in your states in a format you can handle. Our lead company finder filters by line, lead type, sharing and price.

More than three at a time spreads your order too thin and one on its own gives you nothing to measure against.

2. Read the terms before you fund an account

Dig four things out of each company’s buyer terms and return policy before you put a dollar in, it’s a lot easier to find them now than after you’ve funded the account and something goes sideways.

• Minimums and commitments. Some sell by the lead with no deposit, others sell weekly or monthly packages with a minimum term you can’t cancel early.
• Return rules. How many days you get to send back a bad lead, which reasons count and whether you get account credit or a replacement (none of the 23 companies we cover publish a cash refund for bad leads).
• Unused balance. Whether whatever’s left in your account comes back if you stop.
• Auto-rebill. Whether they recharge your card when the balance runs low and how you turn that off.

3. Make the test fair

Results only compare if every company gets the same treatment.

• Same filters. Use the same states, ages and coverage filters where each company allows them.
• Same speed. Call every lead within the same number of minutes. Speed to first call often matters more than the source.
• Same follow-up. Use the same number of call attempts, texts and emails over the same number of days.
• Same person or team. A strong producer working one source and a new producer working another tells you about the producers, not the leads.
• Enough leads. Small orders swing a lot. Plan for enough leads from each company that one lucky or unlucky week doesn’t decide it.

4. Track the right numbers

You need the same numbers from every company or the comparison falls apart pretty quickly. A plain spreadsheet does the job fine, or use your CRM if you’d rather keep everything in one place, just don’t track one company in one and another somewhere else.

Number	Why it matters
Total spent	Every fee you paid, minus whatever came back to you as credit
Leads received	Should match the count you paid for, so check it
Leads returned and credited	How the return policy works once you put it to use (not how it reads on paper)
Contacts	The people you got into a real conversation with
Quotes or appointments	The ones who were really shopping
Sales	What pays for the rest of this list
Commission or premium written	A sale from one source can be worth more than a sale from another

5. Compare cost per sale

Cost per sale settles it. Take everything you spent with a company and divide it by the number of sales its leads turned into, and don’t let a high price per lead scare you off by itself because a lead at three times the price can still come out cheaper per sale if it closes far more often. If you’d rather not do it by hand, the calculator on our lead cost page will do it. It works out cost per sale and break-even from your own numbers.

After that look at what the sales were worth. Fewer sales on bigger policies can beat a pile of small ones.

6. Scale slowly

Once one company comes out ahead it’s tempting to triple the order the next morning. Step it up a little at a time instead. Filling a bigger order can push a company further into its sources and quality has a way of slipping on the way up, so keep tracking the same numbers at every step and you’ll see it when it does, usually in your contact rate first.

Frequently asked questions

How many leads do I need to test a lead company?

Enough that one good or bad week can’t make the call for you. Where that lands depends on your close rate. Say you close one sale for every 20 leads. A 20-lead test would leave you guessing, so size the order from each company so it should produce several sales.

How long should a lead test run?

Give it long enough to work every lead through your full follow-up, which for most agencies means several weeks. Watch the leads that land in the last few days of the test. They haven’t had their full shot yet, so leave yourself room to finish working them before you decide.

Should I test shared or exclusive leads first?

Either one, as long as you’re calling within minutes. Speed matters just as much on an exclusive lead because exclusive only means that seller won’t sell it to anyone else. The shopper may be hearing from other agents too. Exclusive leads cost more and can be worth it if they close more often, but the only way to find out for your agency is to run both side by side. Our guide to shared, exclusive and aged leads goes through the differences.