Regular readers of the blog will know me from my posts about migrating from CJ to LinkShare and my subsequent love of LinkShare. Well I’ve done some migrating of my own to a company called LeadPoint. One of the reasons for my move was an immediate fascination with LeadPoint’s business model and my belief that lead generation is the next frontier for affiliate marketing.
So you are thinking, well here we go, Lee’s just going to push LeadPoint like a spammer pushing Viagra and Rolex watches. All I have to say is hold on a sec and hear me out.
Traditional lead-gen programs work by taking a lead and reselling it a number of times. Take for example, LendingTree, i.e. “When banks compete, you win.” If you are a lead-gen affiliate, take a step back and think about this tagline and ultimately your commissions. LendingTree makes their money by taking your lead and reselling it five times. Some lenders and brokers are willing to pay in excess of $50 for a refinance lead. So quick math says 50 times five is 250 less your commission of X leaves them with a big piece of the pie and you the affiliate a crumb to nibble on.
Now imagine that equation turned around with you the affiliate getting LendingTree’s share of the pie. If you are a smaller affiliate who generates one lead per day, you are thinking that’s impossible, no one will buy my leads other than LendingTree. If you are the affiliate who generates 500 leads a day, you are thinking I have enough leads to sell to a Wells Fargo or a loan broker but then I need to hire a sales staff to chase those guys but I don’t want the overhead to crimp my margins.
Enter LeadPoint. LeadPoint works very much like the NASDAQ or eBay in that we are a real-time trading floor where buyers and sellers – irregardless of size – can meet to trade their wares 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on a real time basis. This means that the small, one lead a day affiliate has access to major lead buyers like Ameriquest and Priority Student Loans and the big affiliate is able to offload as much volume as they can produce without the overhead and hassle of a sales force. LeadPoint maximizes and monetizes each transaction by selling the lead up to four times and charging a small trading fee off the gross revenues. In real terms, this means sellers net 30-50% more than any other lead generation programs. And as a marketplace, you will never be competing against us for ad space.
To help the seller, LeadPoint has come up with some really cool innovations to further monetize your marketing efforts. One of these is a toll-free phone number that will transfer your mortgage lead to a loan officer after the lead is qualified via a series of computerized prompts. Major media conglomerates like the New York Times are leveraging this technology to monetize space in both online and offline channels. But it gets better in that you don’t need to be the New York Times to do this. Can you say cable TV commercials with your phone number and URL advertising your new mortgage company? Or how about direct mail or print advertising? With LeadPoint at your side you can have a home-finance company and never talk to a single customer. The same applies for our other verticals.
By meeting at an exchange like LeadPoint, both the buyers and sellers interests are protected and maximized. The sellers benefit because LeadPoint is able to guarantee payment and maximize their revenue by selling the lead multiple times. The buyers benefit because they are buying leads that have been quality verified and the number of times a lead was sold is controlled. Lastly, everyone benefits because the cost to facilitate this exchange is low. In short, both sides get all the benefits of selling direct with none of the hassles.
So if you have dreams of a new Bentley and a house in the Hamptons swirling in your head, give me a call and I’ll get you going. We are now actively trading leads in home finance (English and Spanish language), debt management, student loan consolidation and some other B2B verticals with payday loans, automotive, and a dozen other service verticals coming by the end of the year.
Lee Gientke
Business Development Manager
www.LeadPoint.com
310/209-8662
lee.gientke AT leadpoint.com
Adam Viener
1. Anonymous on August 20, 2006 1:25 PM writes...
You misrepresented a number of facts in the lead gen space and I simply wanted to set the record straight.
Leading Tree is a marketplace just like Leadpoint, and their public offer to affiliates in CJ is $55 and their sister company GetSmart I think is $45 no matter the loan amount or state the lead is from. Both Get Smart and LendTree buy the lead from the affiiate and sell it multiple times and so does Leadpoint. There is not difference there.
In other words, both Leadpoint and Lending Tree buy leads and selling leads. Both companies have a marketplace and sell leads multiple times.
The difference is Leadpoint has transparency in their marketplace by offering a Rev Share while Lending Tree pays the same for all leads. Each pricing model has their advantages for a publisher since one offers transparency while the other offers a constance price.
For example, for a CA lead, Leadpoint might pay $140 (A lead might be sold 4 times for $35 per lead) but for a low value state like LA, MS, or AR Leadpoint might only pay $9 ($3 per lead and the lead is sold only three times beacause only three lenders want the lead) to the affiliate. LendingTree pays on the average of all states which is $55 a lead whether it’s California or LA. Now any smart affiliate could cherry pick and send the high priced leads to Leadpont and the low priced leads to LeadingTree, but they don’t allow that. Also, Lending Tree I think will pay affiliates for unsolds, while Leadpoint does not. On the other hand, Leadpoint shares more data with affiliates.
Both LeadPoint and Lending Tree’s model offer affiliates various benefits and affiliates need to figure out what works for them and choose their lead partner wisely. Also, what matters in this game is conversion rate and CPA. You don't even mention conversion rate at all. Every player in the mortgage space converts differently and pays a different CPA and as a result, the effective revenue from each player is different for affiliates.
"In real terms, this means sellers net 30-50% more than any other lead generation programs."
That is not really true either and very misleading. Affiliates should test all the players in the game and look at the CPA’s and the conversion rates to see where their effective revenue is greater. Moreover, flat pricing seems to work for some publishers while a Rev Share seems to work for others.
Of course, this is your blog and you can write whatever your like, but it might help you to check your facts before your blog as oppose to pushing your agenda.
Beth
Permalink to Comment2. Ali K on August 24, 2006 1:45 AM writes...
In order to understand what kind of lead would be effective, the data must be tested at good market time like October or November. Either you go lending tree or lead point, market change all the time but lending tree leads problem is lending tree because first day of lead generation lead goes to home loan center. Home loan center is part of lending tree company and they have advantage to get the easy borrower and big loan amounts. So what ever any leads goes out after the first day is your luck.
Permalink to Comment3. Anonymous on September 4, 2006 1:28 AM writes...
Like an agenda's a bad thing?! What, now it's a capital offense to sell something? Give me a break. I guess you would rather he said, "Oh, well, we're really not that unique and you would probably be better off with another provider.". Whatever... I guess I'm just tired of reading these poo-poo posts.
Permalink to Comment4. Beth Kirsch on September 5, 2006 7:07 PM writes...
I was just calling him on the fact he was pretty misleading. Chicken for not posting your real name btw. lol
Permalink to Comment5. Jagger Ramsay on April 16, 2007 6:48 AM writes...
Social networking site MySpace is to block users from uploading copyrighted music to its pages...
Permalink to Comment6. ProspectZone Leads on May 9, 2007 2:25 PM writes...
I'm with Beth on this one. Whatever business model and pricing system is fine, whatever. But sustainable business is built on transparency and accuracy. Winning your customers by hiding data sets them up to leave as soon as they learn more. If customers who know all the relevant data choose your business, they'll be far more likely to stay.
Permalink to Comment7. Alex Bell on October 23, 2007 12:53 AM writes...
Hello agree, Prospect Zone,business is built on transparency and accuracy.The difference is Leadpoint has transparency in their marketplace by offering a Rev Share while Lending Tree pays the same for all leads.
Permalink to CommentAlex bell
8. art on November 14, 2007 8:50 AM writes...
any new companies in this space beside lead point?
Art
Permalink to Comment9. Anonymous on December 10, 2007 1:42 PM writes...
Leadpoint and Lending Tree are both marketplaces as well as Leadpile. The difference here is that Leadpile does not resell the leads but allows the advertisers to set up their price point of comfort zone that they will get per lead. It makes it a Great marketplace for buyers and sellers.
Permalink to Comment