There are multiple types of leads coming from diverse channels, sold by countless vendors. Most of these vendors are in the business of selling leads at the highest price possible that won’t lose their customers. They’re trying to maximize their lead business’s income – not yours.
Important: this doesn’t mean the lead price won’t be less than other leads, it means the combination of price and quality could be poor. For example, even if a vendor sold leads for $1, what if it took working 1,000 of those leads on average to close one application (“app”)? That’s $1,000 per app! Even if another vendor charged $30 per lead, 30x the cost of the $1 lead, it could be a much better deal if, on average, those leads closed at 1 app per 8 leads, since you would have only spent $240 for 1 app in that case.
On top of this, the FCC legally requires you to have valid consent from leads to contact them. Many vendors don’t collect this or collect it incorrectly. Even if leads originate with the vendor, you take on the risk. If you contact even just a few dozen leads without valid consent, you and your business could be sued for tens of thousands of dollars.
As you consider potential lead sources, it’s extremely important to:
Judge their performance by your close ratio and understand how many apps you produce for the total cost of leads you buy. Don’t get tempted by low per-lead costs that produce very little.
Make certain any lead source you buy from has proper TCPA consent to avoid legal risk.