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What You Should Know About Purchasing Mortgage Leads

November 01, 20238 min read

Many loan officers are familiar with Google Ads. Still, they need help properly setting up their campaigns, which is why they are considering purchasing mortgage leads from lead aggregators.

Purchasing mortgage leads is a good idea, but it is costly. And they stop coming in as soon as you stop paying for them.

What if there was a better way to create leads for your mortgage conversion-optimized website?

We'll discuss how to buy mortgage leads, and what types of mortgage leads are accessible. We will also see how to design your own mortgage sales funnel online to generate your exclusive mortgage leads in this article.

Where can I get mortgage leads?

There are generally three options for producing mortgage leads:

  • Create your own through client referrals.

  • Use a lead generation marketing agency to generate them.

  • Buy mortgage leads from a lead aggregation website.

While client referrals are likely the greatest (and cheapest) way to get high-quality leads, they take more work to scale. You do your best work and hope your clients recommend you.

What you can scale up is your ability to purchase more leads from lead aggregators and generate your leads via your mortgage-optimized website.

While these sites are excellent at producing leads, they are not marketing agencies and will not develop customized lead-generation systems for your organization. 

This is why we advocate contracting a lead generation marketing agency capable of developing a 24-hour referral system that includes:

  • A mortgage conversion website that has been optimized

  • SEO stands for search engine optimization.

  • Content promotion

  • Email promotion

  • Social media administration

  • Paid advertisements (PPC) Branding

When you build your mortgage lead production system, all your leads will be 100% unique to your business. Also, your website will operate around the clock to draw fresh traffic and convert that traffic into new leads.

How to Purchase Mortgage Leads

These lead aggregators have a win-win situation with mortgage lenders. Lead aggregators monetize their traffic with ads & sell the leads they create while providing their audience with something quite valuable—free mortgage quotes.

Anyone Can Start Buying Mortgage Leads From Lead Aggregators. 

For each lead aggregator site, you must first become an exclusive partner or join some form of membership. 

Pricing information is challenging to find on the websites of these lead aggregators. Most of these websites will require you to contact their sales team before they can provide you with additional pricing information.

Many of these lead aggregators will have tiered pricing, delivering the best leads to organizations that pay the most.

Considerations When Purchasing Mortgage Leads

When considering to buy mortgage leads, the first thing you should do is examine the reputation of the lead aggregator site. Read reviews, complaints, BBB reports, and even Reddit to learn about other people's experiences.

When purchasing leads, it is best to exercise caution and learn precisely how they are generated. This is not only to avoid low-quality leads but also because they are "legally" obligated to follow appropriate truth in advertising as the lead generation company.  

Once you've decided that the company is real, delve deeper to obtain answers to these critical questions.

What Is The Source Of The Leads?

This is critical. You want to avoid buying leads that have been recycled, reformatted and resold multiple times. False advertising or fraud from lead generation businesses are undoubtedly possible but are luckily less common in the mortgage industry because of strong FTA advertising standards.

How good is the lead? How are leads rated and ranked?

Inquire with the lead aggregator where their leads come from and what processes they use to check and validate these leads to evaluate their quality.

What kind of lead volume can you expect each month?

If you need help budgeting for leads, ask the company how many leads you can afford to buy in a month.

What is the starting point for purchasing leads?

Many lead aggregators specify pricing for acquiring leads in bulk, frequently hundreds or thousands at a time. But what if you only need a couple of leads at a time to test them out? 

Contact your lead aggregator to determine the lowest price point at which you may begin acquiring leads. Some businesses require a $100 minimum starting point.

Are leads supplied immediately, or must you wait a few days? 

This is a critical stage! Every day you delay contacting a lead reduces your closing ratio significantly. If you're paying top prices for exclusive leads, ensure they arrive immediately so you can call the lead. Otherwise, you're overpaying.

Is it exclusive, semi-exclusive, or shared (non-exclusive) to have the leads? 

Because exclusive leads are more expensive, consider whether they are worthwhile. Be wary of lead aggregators who label shared, non-exclusive leads as complete.

What's the simplest way to find out? Call your leads and see if other loan officers have contacted them.

Learn about the return policy

When processing vast amounts of user-led information in Excel spreadsheets, clerical errors, outdated information, and erroneous data are unavoidable.

Before you spend a fortune on mortgage leads, learn about the lead aggregator's return policy. The last thing you want is to spend money on insufficient data only to be denied a refund.

Leads that are exclusive vs. non-exclusive

You want exclusive leads, but they will cost you more, around 2-3 times the normal non-exclusive charges.

Exclusive leads are sold to one buyer only. If you buy mortgage leads, you will be the first and only loan officer to get them. This significantly increases your closing ratio.

Non-exclusive or shared leads are far more common and less expensive. 

Shared leads, on the other hand, are sold to several companies, which can negate any competitive edge you may have. This means that when you contact a lead, you will almost certainly not be the first loan officer to call them, and you will most likely not be the last.

Another name for exclusive leads sold to 2-3 companies is semi-exclusive lead. These leads are expensive than shared leads but less expensive than exclusive leads. 

You'll still have a competitive advantage because only a few other organizations have this information. Still, you'll need to be quick on the draw to contact your lead before other loan officers.

Real-time leads compared. aged leads

Homebuyers use sites to obtain free and rapid mortgage quotes. These lead aggregators typically promise their subscribers 3-5 quick mortgage quotes.

However, these services occasionally cannot identify enough suppliers to purchase these real-time leads within 24-48 hours. These leads are no longer "fresh" or "current" after two days and are now deemed "aged." 

Lead aggregators are now compelled to offer these outdated leads at a steep discount.

Ideally, you should call your lead on the same day you received it, which is why real-time leads cost more. The sooner you call a lead after they submit their form, the better your chances of closing the transaction.

However, you may find that the price of older leads, combined with their success rate, makes them lucrative, which is why they have gained in favor.

Because aged leads are a fraction of real-time exclusive leads, why not try your luck by purchasing a large volume of aged leads? 

If nothing else, you could provide these old leads to rookie loan officers who need some practice without risking losing an expensive, high-quality lead.

Another thing to consider regarding old leads: folks seeking a mortgage may appear to be in a hurry while, in reality, they are still waiting to be ready to buy another home. 

Because these leads are so inexpensive, you can call more people in a single workday and nurture these leads until they're ready to buy. 

Keeping track of and evaluating your mortgage lead generation activities

It is critical to monitor your lead-generating activities for the mortgage industry. Because you may need to use multiple marketing channels, choose tools with powerful analytics, reporting, and tracking capabilities. 

Rate of conversion

The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who came to your site and completed your specified conversion activity. Visitors who submit their email address, phone number, fill out a form, or book a call so you may contact them directly are examples of this. 

Cost per lead (CPL) 

CPL is obtaining one mortgage lead. So, if you spend $2,000 on advertising and get 20 new leads, your CPL is $100. Knowing your CPL can help you decide whether your lead-generation strategy is productive and allocate the appropriate budget.

Time to Convert

Time to conversion assesses how well your mortgage lead generation efforts contribute to conversions. It is computed by multiplying the total time visitors spend on your website by the total number of leads received. The lower this value, the faster a visitor is converted into a lead.

ROI

ROI metrics for lead generation include lead volume, lead quality, lead conversion rate, and closed business. ROI for your mortgage lead generation means you will close more loan applications over time due to attracting higher-quality leads.

Conclusion

Loan officers can receive new leads for their pipeline by purchasing mortgage leads from companies. Always conduct thorough research on the company before opting for that alternative to buy mortgage leads.

There are numerous mortgage lead-generation tactics available to help you enhance your sales. Schedule a strategy call with Lead Generation Media if you have any queries about your company's best lead generation choice.

Buy mortgage leads

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