Question 1

How do I sign up for an InsureLeads account?

Accepted Answer

Signing up takes less than five minutes. Visit the /contact page, submit the short form with your name, license states, preferred verticals (Final Expense, Medicare, ACA, Life, Auto, Home, or IUL), and expected monthly volume. A member of our onboarding team reviews the request within one business day, verifies your NPN on the NIPR database for regulated verticals, and emails your account credentials along with a short intake call link. You can also book directly via Calendly. There is no application fee, no long-term contract, and no credit check — billing begins only after your first lead delivery. Agencies with multiple producers can set up sub-accounts so each agent gets their own delivery stream while the owner keeps one consolidated invoice.

Question 2

How quickly can I start receiving leads after signup?

Accepted Answer

Most agents are live within 24 to 72 hours. The exact timing depends on the delivery method you choose. Email and SMS delivery can be switched on the same day your account is funded. CRM webhook delivery typically takes 24–48 hours because we need to coordinate field mapping and run a handful of test posts to confirm data lands in the right columns. Live transfer accounts require a brief calibration call so our floor understands your availability windows, states, and qualification filters — transfers usually begin the next business day. Aged lead orders are fulfilled immediately; you will receive a CSV within minutes of purchase. We recommend funding your first week with a conservative volume so you can tune your scripts before scaling.

Question 3

What does a typical first-week setup look like?

Accepted Answer

Week one is about calibration, not volume. Day 1: account setup, CRM mapping, and a 20-minute onboarding call where we review your filters (state, county, age band, income band where applicable). Day 2: first 10–25 test leads delivered so you can confirm formatting, field parity, and delivery speed. Days 3–5: run your normal dial cadence — we recommend six contact attempts across 14 days using the standard 5-5-5-5 cadence (5 min, 5 hours, 5 days, etc.) and track contact rate, set rate, and close rate by lead source. Day 6–7: review the batch with your account manager and adjust filters, hours, or volume. Skipping calibration is the single biggest reason agents underperform in month one.

Question 4

How are leads delivered — email, SMS, CRM, or phone?

Accepted Answer

You choose. InsureLeads supports four delivery modes and you can combine them. (1) Email: a formatted HTML email with all fields, sent within seconds of form submission. (2) SMS: a short text with name, phone, state, and vertical — useful when your team is in the field. (3) CRM webhook / HTTP POST: real-time JSON or form-encoded post to your CRM endpoint with custom field mapping. We support Salesforce, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Zoho, Radius, AgencyBloc, and any CRM that accepts a standard webhook. (4) Phone / live transfer: the prospect is warm-transferred directly to your line after pre-qualification. Most agents use email plus CRM, with live transfers added as they scale.

Question 5

Do I need an insurance license to buy leads?

Accepted Answer

Yes, for most verticals. You need an active resident or non-resident life and health license for Final Expense, Medicare, ACA, Life, and IUL leads. For Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement specifically, you must also be AHIP-certified for the current plan year and appointed with at least one carrier in each state where you purchase leads. Auto and Home leads require a P&C license. We verify your NPN against the NIPR PDB during onboarding — it takes about 10 seconds and prevents compliance issues later. If your license is pending, we can queue your account and start delivery the day your license clears. Lead generation vendors, call centers, and marketing agencies can buy without a license but must agree not to offer quotes or solicit applications.

Question 6

Can I pause, pace, or change filters on my lead flow?

Accepted Answer

Yes — your account is fully self-serve after onboarding. You can pause delivery (vacation hold), resume, increase volume, decrease volume, change states, change counties, adjust age ranges, or switch verticals at any time. Pacing is controlled in two ways: a daily cap (e.g., max 20 leads per day) and a concurrency cap for live transfers (e.g., max 2 simultaneous calls). Changes to web lead filters apply within 15 minutes; live transfer filters update by the next shift. There is no fee for pausing or changing filters. We strongly recommend starting narrow — one or two states, one vertical — and expanding after you hit your target close rate rather than opening the firehose on day one.

Question 7

What information is included on each lead?

Accepted Answer

Every real-time web lead includes first name, last name, phone number, email, street address, city, state, ZIP, date of birth (for age-gated verticals), timestamp of submission, originating URL, IP address, and consent language snapshot. Vertical-specific fields are added on top: Medicare leads include Medicare eligibility status and Part A/B info; Final Expense includes coverage amount requested and tobacco status; ACA includes household size and estimated income band; Auto includes vehicle year/make/model and current carrier; Home includes dwelling type and approximate home value. Live transfers include the same data plus a pre-qualification summary captured by our intake agent. All data is delivered as a single record, not a lookup — you own the full contact information from the moment of delivery.

Question 8

Is there an onboarding call, and do I need one?

Accepted Answer

An onboarding call is included free with every account and strongly recommended. The call runs 20–30 minutes and covers four things: confirming your license and appointments, mapping CRM fields and webhook URLs, setting your filters (state, county, age, vertical), and walking through our return portal so you know how to dispute a bad lead. Agents who complete the onboarding call have measurably higher close rates in month one because their leads are routed correctly from day one. If you are an experienced buyer who just needs the webhook URL and a test post, you can skip the call and request written setup — email onboarding@getinsureleads.com. Either way, your dedicated account manager is reachable by phone, email, or SMS for the life of your account.

Question 9

How does InsureLeads pricing work — per lead, subscription, or performance?

Accepted Answer

InsureLeads uses a pay-per-lead model with transparent, published rates rather than a subscription or performance-based model. You pay a fixed price for each lead delivered, and that price is set in advance based on vertical and delivery format. Real-time exclusive web leads range from $10–$50 per lead, live transfers from $25–$100+ per connected call, and aged leads from $1–$15 per record. There are no platform fees, no setup fees, and no monthly minimums — if you buy 10 leads, you pay for 10 leads. Volume buyers can move to prepaid package pricing for a 5–15% discount. We do not offer performance-based billing (pay-per-sale) because it creates an incentive to send lower-quality leads; flat per-lead pricing aligns our incentives with yours: deliver the best possible lead every time.

Question 10

Is there a minimum order or monthly commitment?

Accepted Answer

No monthly minimum for standard accounts. Real-time web leads can be ordered in batches as small as 10 leads, and aged lead CSVs start at 100 records. Live transfer accounts have a soft minimum of 20 transfers per month so the intake floor can justify keeping you in rotation — below that, transfers are delivered on a best-effort basis. There is no annual commitment, no cancellation fee, and no clawback. You can pause your account indefinitely and reactivate later without re-onboarding. For volume buyers who want preferred pricing or reserved capacity, we offer optional monthly commitments (50, 100, 250, or 500+ leads per month) that unlock 5–15% discounts and priority support. These are opt-in only and cancellable with 30 days notice.

Question 11

What payment methods do you accept and when am I billed?

Accepted Answer

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, ACH bank transfer, and wire transfer. Billing is prepaid: you fund a lead wallet in your dashboard (minimum reload is $100 for web leads, $500 for live transfers) and each delivered lead is debited from the balance in real time. When your wallet falls below a threshold you set (default $50), we send an auto-reload or a notification email — you pick. Enterprise accounts with $5,000+/month volume can move to net-15 invoice terms after two months of on-time prepayment history. We do not store card details on our servers; all card data is tokenized through Stripe. International wires are accepted but add $25 in bank fees and take 2–3 business days to clear before delivery begins.

Question 12

Do you offer volume discounts or tiered pricing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Volume discounts apply automatically once you cross published thresholds within a calendar month. Example tiers for real-time web leads: 1–49 leads at standard rate, 50–99 leads at 5% off, 100–249 at 10% off, 250+ at 15% off. Live transfers have a similar curve with slightly tighter bands because the unit economics are lower. Aged leads are already priced at deep discounts (80–95% off real-time) so volume tiers apply only above 1,000 records per order. Discounts stack with prepaid package pricing but not with introductory promotions. For agencies running multiple producers under one master account, volume is aggregated across sub-accounts — five producers each buying 50 leads qualify for the 250+ tier together even though none individually hit it.

Question 13

What is your refund and return credit policy?

Accepted Answer

Leads with verifiably bad contact information are refundable for account credit within 72 hours of delivery. Eligible return reasons include: disconnected phone number, wrong number (not the person on the lead), duplicate of a lead you already purchased from us in the last 90 days, consumer under 18 or otherwise outside the agreed age band, or consumer in a state you did not request. Returns are submitted through your dashboard with a short note and, where relevant, a call recording or screenshot; most are processed in under 24 hours. We do not refund leads for conversion outcomes (consumer said no, did not buy, decided to go with a different carrier, etc.) because those are sales outcomes, not lead quality issues. Historic return rates across our book are 4–9% depending on vertical.

Question 14

Are there any hidden fees — setup, platform, or cancellation?

Accepted Answer

No. The published per-lead price is the only price. We do not charge a setup fee, a monthly platform fee, a webhook fee, a CRM integration fee, a cancellation fee, or a reactivation fee. Sales tax is added only where required by the buyer's state of record; most states do not tax lead-generation services. If you require a custom integration that falls outside our standard CRM list — for example, a proprietary dialer or a custom data warehouse — we quote a one-time engineering fee before any work starts and you approve it in writing. Fraud-protection and compliance scrubbing (TCPA Litigator List check, DNC wash for non-SAN accounts, duplicate check) are included at no additional cost on every lead.

Question 15

Can I get an invoice for my accounting or tax records?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every transaction — wallet reload, lead debit, refund, adjustment — generates a PDF invoice in your dashboard under Billing → Invoices. Invoices include our EIN, your business name, billing address, itemized charges, and a running summary so your bookkeeper can reconcile against your bank statement. We can also send monthly consolidated statements to a dedicated billing email; just add the address in account settings. For 1099-heavy structures (independent agents operating as sole props or LLCs), we do not issue a 1099 because we are a vendor to you, not the other way around — your lead spend is a deductible business expense that you self-report on Schedule C or your entity's return. If your CPA needs a W-9 from us, request it in-app and we send it the same day.

Question 16

What counts as a returnable lead?

Accepted Answer

Five categories of lead are returnable for full credit within 72 hours of delivery: (1) disconnected number — the phone line is out of service or rings to an operator intercept; (2) wrong person — the individual answering denies being the lead and did not submit a form; (3) age mismatch — the consumer is outside the age band you filtered for (for example, a 45-year-old on a Medicare order); (4) geography mismatch — the consumer is in a state or county you did not request; (5) duplicate — the same lead was delivered to you by InsureLeads within the prior 90 days. Leads are NOT returnable for "not interested," "said no," "did not qualify for my product," "already has coverage," or "didn't answer after 3 attempts." Those are sales outcomes, not lead quality defects.

Question 17

How do I submit a return, and how long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Returns are submitted through your dashboard in under 60 seconds. Click the lead, click Return, pick the reason from the dropdown, and paste a short note — for wrong-number returns we ask for a screenshot or 10-second audio clip from your dialer. Most returns are auto-approved within 10 minutes using our phone verification API and DNC database; borderline cases are reviewed by a human within 24 hours. Approved returns are credited back to your wallet at the full original price; rejected returns include a short explanation so you can decide whether to escalate. The median approval rate across our book is 78%, meaning roughly 4 out of 5 submitted returns are credited. Chronic abuse of the return system (for example, returning every lead you didn't sell) triggers an account review.

Question 18

How does InsureLeads scrub leads before delivery?

Accepted Answer

Every real-time lead passes through a four-layer scrub before it hits your inbox. Layer 1: phone format and carrier lookup — we confirm the number is a valid US landline or mobile, not a VoIP spam line, using a Twilio lookup. Layer 2: TCPA Litigator List wash — the number is checked against the Blacklist Alliance litigator database to block known bad actors. Layer 3: Federal DNC check for non-SAN buyers and state DNC for state-restricted buyers. Layer 4: deduplication across our last-90-days delivery ledger so you never receive the same lead twice. The total latency of all four layers is under 800 milliseconds, so real-time delivery is still effectively instant. Aged leads are re-scrubbed at the moment of purchase because phone and DNC status can change between original capture and resale.

Question 19

What is the expected return rate, and what is considered abnormal?

Accepted Answer

Across our book, real-time web lead return rates run 4–9% depending on vertical — Medicare and Final Expense are on the lower end, ACA and Auto on the higher end because those consumers shop across many vendors and contact information changes faster. Live transfer return rates are lower (1–3%) because the consumer is on the line at the moment of billing; you can refuse the transfer if the consumer fails qualification and you are not charged. Aged lead return rates are higher (8–15%) which is why they are priced at such a steep discount. If your return rate exceeds 20% in any 30-day window, your account manager will schedule a call to review the returns — usually it is a filter or dialer issue that is trivially fixable, but we want to diagnose before continuing delivery.

Question 20

How do I dispute a rejected return?

Accepted Answer

Rejected returns include a reason code and a short explanation. If you disagree, reply to the rejection email or open a dispute in your dashboard and include additional evidence: a call recording, a dialer log, a screenshot of the disconnected-number message, or a note from the consumer. Disputes are handled by a senior quality analyst — not the same person who reviewed the original return — within two business days. About 30% of disputes are overturned and credited. If a dispute is denied a second time, you can escalate to your account manager for a final review. Persistent, good-faith disputes are never held against you; we track dispute quality and agents who consistently submit accurate returns get faster auto-approvals over time.

Question 21

What makes one lead higher quality than another?

Accepted Answer

Three factors drive perceived lead quality: (1) intent — did the consumer actively search for insurance and fill out a form, or were they incentivized with a giveaway or survey? InsureLeads runs only organic, intent-based funnels; we do not use incentive offers, co-reg, or survey traffic. (2) Recency — a lead contacted within 5 minutes closes at roughly 10x the rate of a lead contacted after 24 hours per MIT Lead Response Management studies, so speed-to-lead matters more than almost anything else. (3) Exclusivity — a lead sold to one agent closes at 2–3x the rate of the same lead sold to four competitors. All our real-time leads are exclusive, generated from intent-driven organic search, and delivered in seconds — that combination is why our close rates run above typical aggregator benchmarks.

Question 22

Do you guarantee a minimum close rate or conversion?

Accepted Answer

No, and any lead vendor that does should be viewed skeptically. Close rate is a function of four factors: lead quality, agent skill, product fit, and speed-to-lead. We control only the first. A great lead handed to a rookie who calls 48 hours later will close at a fraction of the rate of the same lead handed to a veteran who calls in 5 minutes. What we do guarantee is lead exclusivity, data accuracy on returnable fields, DNC compliance, and fast delivery. For benchmark context: live transfers typically close at 15–30%, exclusive real-time web leads at 5–15%, and aged leads at 2–6%. Our internal data shows top-quartile agents beat those bands by 30–50%, usually because they dial within 5 minutes and run a 6-touch cadence.

Question 23

Are InsureLeads leads TCPA-compliant under the 2024/2025 rule changes?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our consent language meets the FCC's one-to-one consent rule that took effect in 2025 — each consumer consents to be contacted by a single, clearly identified seller (you, upon delivery of the lead) rather than blanket consent to "marketing partners." We also collect consent through a logically and topically related web form, as required. Every lead record includes a timestamped snapshot of the consent language the consumer accepted, the URL they were on, and their IP address. That bundle is what a TCPA plaintiff's firm will ask for in a demand letter, so we store it for seven years and hand it over on request at no charge. If the one-to-one rule is later vacated or revised by the courts or FCC (litigation is ongoing), we update consent language within five business days and notify all active buyers.

Question 24

Do I need my own SAN and DNC scrubbing if your leads are already scrubbed?

Accepted Answer

Most outbound insurance agents still need their own Subscription Account Number (SAN) from the Federal Trade Commission and should wash outbound dial lists against the Federal DNC. The reason: our scrub happens at the moment of lead capture, but a consumer can place themselves on the DNC the next day. If you have held a lead for 31+ days before dialing, you are responsible for re-scrubbing. A SAN costs $0 for exempt organizations and roughly $80 per state area code per year otherwise; most agents register once and forget about it. We recommend Contact Center Compliance, DNC.com, or PossibleNOW as vendors for ongoing DNC washes — any of them can wash a list of 1,000 numbers in seconds for pennies.

Question 25

How does the CMS Medicare Communications and Marketing Guide (MCMG) affect Medicare lead calls?

Accepted Answer

The CMS MCMG — updated annually and most recently tightened for plan year 2024 and 2025 — governs how Medicare Advantage and Part D plans can be marketed. Key rules: you must disclose the number of plans and carriers you represent at the start of the call; you cannot cross-sell non-health products during an MA sales call; you must obtain a Scope of Appointment (SOA) at least 48 hours before a formal sales presentation except in limited walk-in scenarios; and all MA marketing and enrollment calls must be recorded in entirety and retained for 10 years. InsureLeads Medicare leads comply with CMS rules at the point of capture — the consumer agrees to be contacted about Medicare options — but the SOA and call recording obligations are yours as the agent. Your FMO or upline can supply a compliant SOA form.

Question 26

What is a Scope of Appointment (SOA), and when do I need one?

Accepted Answer

A Scope of Appointment is a CMS-required form documenting which Medicare product types a beneficiary has agreed to discuss (for example, MA, Part D, Medicare Supplement). You must collect a signed SOA before a formal sales presentation of Medicare Advantage or Part D products. As of plan year 2024, the SOA must be collected at least 48 hours in advance except for (a) walk-ins to your office, (b) SOAs completed at an educational event, or (c) within four days of the end of a valid election period. The SOA can be collected by paper, electronic signature, or a recorded verbal attestation. For Medicare Supplement and non-MA/PDP products, an SOA is not required by CMS but many carriers and FMOs still require one as a best practice. Keep SOAs for 10 years.

Question 27

Do I need to record calls, and for how long must I keep the recordings?

Accepted Answer

For Medicare Advantage and Part D: yes, full call recording is required by CMS as of 10/1/2022 for all marketing, sales, and enrollment calls, and recordings must be retained for 10 years. This applies whether the call is inbound, outbound, in person over an internet connection, or a live transfer. For Medicare Supplement, life, final expense, and health products, call recording is not federally required but is a strong best practice for TCPA defense — a recording of the consent acknowledgement is the single strongest piece of evidence in a TCPA lawsuit. Use a recording platform that generates tamper-evident timestamps (CallRail, Convoso, Balto, Ringba, or your dialer's native recording). Several states (CA, FL, IL, MD, MA, MT, NH, PA, WA, CT) require two-party consent — announce the recording at the start of the call.

Question 28

Are there state-specific rules stricter than federal TCPA?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Several states layer their own mini-TCPA statutes on top of the federal rules. Florida's Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) is the most aggressive — it creates a private right of action for any call or text without prior express written consent and has generated a wave of litigation since its 2021 amendment. Oklahoma passed a similar statute (OTSA) in 2022. Washington State prohibits commercial texts without express consent. Maryland requires two-party consent for recordings. California's CIPA is being used creatively against website chat and tracking pixels. New York requires clear disclosure of the seller's identity in the first 30 seconds of a sales call. Our consent language is engineered to satisfy the strictest of these — including FTSA — so buyers in any state are covered, but you should still familiarize yourself with the state rules where you operate.

Question 29

How do you handle consumer opt-out and revocation requests?

Accepted Answer

When a consumer asks to be removed or replies STOP to a text, you must honor the request within a reasonable time — the FCC's 2024 revocation rule requires most requests to be honored within 10 business days, and the safe harbor is same-day. InsureLeads maintains a shared suppression list: if a consumer opts out with any InsureLeads buyer, that number is suppressed across our entire platform within 24 hours so it cannot be accidentally re-delivered. You should also maintain your own internal DNC list — the FTC TSR requires it — and honor opt-outs for five years. Revocation can be made through any reasonable method (voice, text, email, web form) and cannot be conditioned on filling out a specific form or calling a specific number. Train your agents: "please take me off your list" is a revocation.

Question 30

What documentation should I keep in case of a TCPA demand letter?

Accepted Answer

For every lead you work, keep six artifacts for at least five years (seven for TCPA, ten for Medicare): (1) the lead record as we delivered it, including consent-language snapshot, timestamp, URL, and IP; (2) your dialer log showing date/time of each call, duration, and disposition; (3) call recordings for any consent acknowledgement and — for MA/PDP — the entire call; (4) the SOA if applicable; (5) your suppression list showing the number was not on DNC at time of first call; (6) any application or contract signed. If you receive a TCPA demand letter, forward it to us immediately — we provide the full consent bundle on our end at no charge and, for litigation-grade cases, a sworn declaration. Most demand letters settle for $500–$1,500 if documentation is clean; they settle for $10,000–$50,000 if it is not.

Question 31

Which CRMs does InsureLeads integrate with out of the box?

Accepted Answer

We have pre-built, tested integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Zoho CRM, Radius Agency CRM, AgencyBloc, Agent CRM, NowCerts, Better Agency, Close, Pipedrive, Follow Up Boss, Velocify, and Ricochet360. For any of these, setup is a webhook URL and a five-minute field-mapping session. Beyond that list, any CRM that accepts a standard HTTP POST (form-encoded or JSON) can be integrated — that covers essentially every modern CRM including custom in-house builds. We do not charge an integration fee regardless of CRM choice. The one constraint: we do not push to CRMs that require file-based imports only (uploaded CSVs) because that defeats the speed-to-lead advantage. If you currently import CSVs manually, we will help you switch to webhook delivery and you will see contact rates jump 20–40%.

Question 32

Do you offer a public API or webhook for real-time posting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our lead-post webhook is the primary integration method: when a new lead is generated for your account, we make an HTTP POST to your specified endpoint within 1–3 seconds of form submission. The payload is either form-encoded or JSON (your choice at setup), contains all standard and vertical-specific fields, and is signed with an HMAC-SHA256 header so your endpoint can verify authenticity. We retry failed posts up to 5 times with exponential backoff (30s, 2m, 10m, 1h, 6h). For pulling data in the other direction — return submissions, wallet balance, delivery stats — we expose a read-only REST API with a per-account bearer token. Full developer documentation, payload schemas, and sample code in Node, Python, and PHP are at /developers on our site.

Question 33

Can I connect InsureLeads to Zapier, Make, or n8n?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We support Zapier (native app, listed in the Zapier marketplace), Make (formerly Integromat), n8n, Pabbly Connect, and any other iPaaS tool that can receive a webhook. For Zapier users, our trigger is "New Lead" and it fires on every delivered lead with all standard fields mapped. A common stack: InsureLeads → Zapier → Google Sheets (backup) + Slack (team notification) + your dialer (instant call). This setup takes 10 minutes and is free on Zapier's starter plan if you stay under 750 tasks/month. For high-volume buyers we recommend direct webhook to your CRM instead of routing through Zapier because direct webhooks add zero latency whereas Zapier polling can add 1–5 minutes, and in lead response those minutes matter.

Question 34

Which dialers and phone systems do you integrate with?

Accepted Answer

We push leads directly into most predictive, progressive, and preview dialers: Convoso, Readymode (formerly XenCall), Five9, Vici dial, T-Max, PhoneBurner, CallTools, Kixie, Orum, JustCall, Aircall, and Ringba (for ping-post and inbound). For live transfers, we terminate calls into any SIP endpoint, Twilio phone number, or plain 10-digit DID — no special carrier setup required. For buyers using a CRM with a built-in dialer (HubSpot Sales Hub, GoHighLevel, Close, Salesforce Sales Engagement), the lead arrives in the CRM and your dialer picks it up from there; no separate integration needed. If your dialer is not on our list, send us a field-mapping document and we can usually stand up the integration in 1–2 business days at no charge.

Question 35

Do you support email and SMS automation triggered by new leads?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in two ways. (1) Direct email/SMS delivery of the lead to you: a formatted notification is sent to the email or phone number on your account within seconds of capture — useful if you want a human to triage before it hits the CRM. (2) Automated outreach to the consumer: we do not send outreach on your behalf (you must contact the consumer under your own agent identity for TCPA and CMS reasons), but we push the lead into your automation platform of choice — Twilio, SendGrid, Mailgun, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, GoHighLevel, or HubSpot Sequences — so your pre-built nurture sequence fires immediately. Best practice: a 5-minute SMS, a 60-minute email, and a phone call attempt within 5 minutes. That three-channel approach lifts contact rate from ~30% (phone only) to 55–65%.

Question 36

Can I customize the payload fields or field names we receive?

Accepted Answer

Yes. During integration setup we give you a configurable field-mapping template: every standard field (first_name, phone, email, etc.) can be renamed, reordered, or split into separate fields to match your CRM's schema. You can also request custom tags on each lead — for example, utm_source=insureleads, lead_type=real_time_exclusive, vertical=medicare — which is helpful for attribution reporting in your CRM. For agencies running multiple producers under one master account, we can route-by-rule: leads in TX go to one webhook, leads in FL go to another, Medicare goes to a third. All customization is free. Changes to mapping take effect within 15 minutes. Documentation and a sandbox endpoint (so you can test the exact payload you will receive) are in the developer portal at /developers.

Question 37

What happens if my CRM webhook is down when a lead is generated?

Accepted Answer

We retry up to 5 times with exponential backoff: 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 6 hours. Each retry attempts the same endpoint; if your CRM comes back online within 6 hours the lead lands normally and you receive an in-dashboard notification that the delivery required retries. If all 5 retries fail, the lead is queued in the dashboard for manual download as a CSV and we send an operational email to your account contacts. Lost leads are rare — our 30-day success rate on first-attempt webhook delivery is 99.4% — but the safety net matters. As a redundancy, we recommend configuring a secondary delivery channel (email or a secondary webhook) during onboarding so you have belt-and-suspenders coverage without any extra work.

Question 38

What is a realistic close rate by lead type and vertical?

Accepted Answer

Benchmarks vary widely by format, vertical, and agent experience. Live transfers: 15–30% across verticals, with Final Expense and Medicare on the high end and ACA on the lower end. Exclusive real-time web leads: Final Expense 8–15%, Medicare 10–18%, ACA 4–8%, Life 5–12%, IUL 3–8%, Auto 6–12%, Home 5–10%. Aged leads (30–90 days old): 2–6% across the board. These are averages across hundreds of agents on our platform — top quartile beats them by 30–50% and bottom quartile underperforms by a similar margin. The single biggest driver of where you fall is speed-to-lead: agents who call within 5 minutes convert at roughly 2–3x the rate of agents who call within 24 hours. Script quality and follow-up cadence matter almost as much.

Question 39

What is the typical customer acquisition cost (CAC) per policy?

Accepted Answer

CAC per policy = (cost per lead) / (close rate). Worked examples at mid-range assumptions: Final Expense real-time leads at $22 and a 12% close rate = $183 CAC per policy. Medicare real-time leads at $25 and a 15% close rate = $167 CAC. ACA real-time leads at $15 and a 6% close rate = $250 CAC. Life real-time at $30 and 8% = $375 CAC. Live transfers shift the math: Medicare live transfers at $55 and a 25% close rate = $220 CAC — higher cost per transfer but dramatically higher close rate, so the end CAC is competitive. Compare these to first-year commissions — typically $300–$600 Final Expense, $700 Medicare, $400–$600 ACA, $400–$1,000 Life — to size gross margin. Most profitable agents operate at 2–4x CAC gross margin in year one and much higher on renewals.

Question 40

How long until I see my first sale from a new lead source?

Accepted Answer

For most agents, first sale lands in week 1 or week 2 from real-time leads. Live transfer buyers often close on day 1 because the prospect is on the phone at the moment of billing. Web lead buyers typically close their first in the 20–60 lead range — if you have bought 50 leads and closed zero, something is off and your account manager should run diagnostics with you (common issues: calling speed, script, voicemail quality, or filter too tight). For aged leads, expect first sale in the 100–200 record range given the lower base rates. Time-to-first-commission-check depends on carrier cycle time: Final Expense pays in 1–2 weeks after issue, Medicare pays CMS cycle (roughly 30–45 days after effective date), ACA pays monthly once the policy is in effect.

Question 41

What volume of leads do I need to hit $10K/month in commissions?

Accepted Answer

Rule-of-thumb reverse math: $10K/month commission at $400 avg first-year commission = 25 issued policies per month. At a 10% close rate (typical for real-time exclusive web leads), that requires 250 leads/month. At a 20% close rate (typical for live transfers), 125 transfers/month. At $22 per web lead, 250 leads = $5,500/month spend — gross of $10K commission, net of $4,500, which is an 82% gross margin on lead spend alone (before renewals, overhead, or time). The math is tighter for newer agents: if you are closing at 6% instead of 10% you need 400 leads/month, or $8,800/month spend. This is why we strongly recommend starting at 50–100 leads/month, proving you can hit target close rates, and then scaling — not the other way around.

Question 42

What is a break-even close rate for each lead type?

Accepted Answer

Break-even close rate = (cost per lead) / (first-year commission). Using mid-range inputs: Final Expense real-time at $22 lead cost ÷ $450 avg commission = 4.9% break-even — you need to close 1 in 20 to cover lead cost. Medicare real-time at $25 ÷ $700 = 3.6% — 1 in 28. ACA real-time at $15 ÷ $500 = 3.0% — 1 in 33. Live transfers run higher break-evens (Medicare $55 ÷ $700 = 7.9%) but dramatically higher actual close rates, so they still clear the bar with room. Aged leads at $3 ÷ $450 = 0.7% — break-even is so low that almost any contact rate clears it. These are lead-cost break-evens only; to cover overhead, license fees, office costs, and your own time you typically want actual close rates at 2–3x break-even.

Question 43

How should I scale from 50 leads/month to 500+?

Accepted Answer

Scale in three phases. Phase 1 (0–100 leads/month): prove you can hit or beat our published close-rate benchmarks on your chosen vertical and state. Do not scale until you have two consecutive months at benchmark. Phase 2 (100–300): add a second vertical or a second state, hire your first setter or appointment-setter so your licensed time is spent on closing calls rather than dials, and add live transfers on top of web leads for a higher-margin mix. Phase 3 (300+): move to agency-style ops — multiple licensed producers under one master account, a centralized dialer, a CRM with territory routing, and defined SLAs on lead response time. Agencies that try to skip Phase 1 almost always burn cash; agencies that follow the three-phase path typically hit 10x within 12 months without quality degradation.

Question 44

Do you publish performance data or case studies I can reference?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our /success-stories page includes agent testimonials with named outcomes (close rates, monthly premium written, CAC), and /research contains longer-form reports including the State Insurance Market Report and the Insurance Agent Compensation Survey 2026. For prospective buyers who want specifics before signing up, your account manager can share (under NDA) a redacted performance snapshot from anonymized agents matched to your profile — same vertical, same license states, similar buying volume — so you can see real close rates, return rates, and ROI for agents most like you. We do not publish aggregate averages as "guaranteed" performance because the variance between top and bottom quartile is large enough that an average is misleading for any individual buyer.

Question 45

Which vertical is easiest for a new agent to break into?

Accepted Answer

Final Expense is the most common starting vertical for new agents and for good reason: the product is simple (small whole-life policies, typically $5K–$25K face), the target audience is narrow (seniors 50–85 thinking about burial costs), the close cycle is short (often one call), carriers appoint new agents quickly, and first-year commission is solid ($300–$600 per policy). Medicare is the second most common starting point but requires AHIP certification ($175/year) and carrier-specific product training before you can write a single MA policy, so ramp takes 2–4 weeks. ACA is lucrative during Open Enrollment (11/1–1/15) but has strict seasonality and a more complex product. Life/IUL have the highest commissions but longest sales cycles. For a first-time lead buyer without an existing book, start Final Expense, add Medicare after 60 days.

Question 46

Medicare vs Final Expense leads — which should I buy?

Accepted Answer

Different products, different consumer mindsets, different math. Medicare leads are consumers eligible for or enrolled in Medicare (65+, or 64.5 approaching the 7-month Initial Enrollment Period) looking at Part D, Medicare Supplement, or Medicare Advantage. Higher first-year commission per enrollment ($400–$700+ MA/PDP, $150–$200 Med Supp), strong renewals, but heavy CMS regulation (SOA, call recording, MCMG rules). Final Expense leads are seniors (typically 50–85) seeking small whole-life coverage for burial. Lower commission per policy ($300–$600) but virtually no regulatory overhead beyond standard TCPA, simpler product, faster close cycle. If you are already AHIP-certified and appointed with MA carriers, Medicare leads produce higher lifetime value. If you are new or want a simpler operation, Final Expense is the better on-ramp. Many agents run both year-round and lean into Medicare AEP (10/15–12/7) and OEP (1/1–3/31).

Question 47

How do I prospect IUL (Indexed Universal Life) with purchased leads?

Accepted Answer

IUL prospecting is a longer-cycle, higher-ticket game. The leads we deliver are consumers who indicated interest in tax-advantaged cash-value life insurance, often in the context of retirement planning or college funding. Because IUL is a complex product with significant up-front premium, the first call is almost never a close — it is a fact-find and appointment-set. Typical workflow: 5-minute phone response → 15-minute discovery call → scheduled 45-minute in-depth appointment (often via Zoom) → illustration presentation → application. Close cycle 2–6 weeks, commission typically $1,500–$5,000+ per issued policy depending on target premium. Close rates on IUL leads run 3–8% but commission size compensates. Many IUL-focused agents also buy Life and Final Expense leads to fill the calendar with shorter-cycle revenue while IUL prospects are nurturing.

Question 48

What is an ACA "lookalike" lead, and do you offer them?

Accepted Answer

An ACA lookalike is a consumer who looks demographically and situationally like an ACA Marketplace prospect — under 65, no employer coverage, household income in the subsidy band — but was generated outside a direct ACA form. Some vendors mix these into ACA lead flows to pad volume. InsureLeads does not. When you buy "ACA leads" from us, every record is a consumer who specifically requested health insurance coverage information through an ACA-themed funnel, not a repurposed general-health lead. We do separately offer under-65 health insurance leads for buyers who want the broader pool (includes short-term, hospital indemnity, and private-market health in addition to ACA Marketplace) — that product is clearly labeled and priced differently. Confusing the two is one of the most common complaints agents have about other vendors, so we keep them distinct.

Question 49

Are Auto and Home insurance leads worth buying for a P&C agent?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with caveats. Auto insurance leads run $6–$15 for exclusive real-time and have the largest lead pool of any vertical because the average US driver shops roughly every 3 years. Close rates are 6–12% for real-time exclusive and conversion depends heavily on whether you can beat the consumer's current rate. Home insurance leads are less commoditized — fewer shoppers, but higher intent when they do shop, because they are typically triggered by a new purchase, refinance, or carrier non-renewal. Home close rates 5–10%, commissions per policy typically $100–$250. Best strategy for P&C: bundle auto and home together (average premium lift 15–25%), and treat the auto lead as a door-opener for home, umbrella, and renters cross-sells. P&C retention is the real prize — a 90% retention book at 15% commission compounds for years.

Question 50

Is there significant seasonality in lead volume and quality by vertical?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Medicare volume peaks twice: AEP (10/15–12/7) and OEP (1/1–3/31) — roughly 60% of annual Medicare lead volume lands in Q4. Pricing holds roughly flat but competition for phone time spikes, so speed-to-lead matters more. ACA volume peaks during Open Enrollment (11/1–1/15 in most states) with another surge around tax-filing season when subsidy math becomes salient. Final Expense is relatively flat year-round with a small Q1 bump (New Year financial planning). Life/IUL is flat with a Q4 surge. Auto volume peaks in Q2/Q3 as people drive more and get in accidents, and after major weather events. Home surges in spring/summer alongside real-estate transactions. Plan lead budget to match: most agents over-allocate to AEP and run out of budget in November when conversion is highest; pre-fund the wallet in September.

Question 51

Can I mix verticals on one account, and how do I decide the mix?

Accepted Answer

Yes, one master account can run as many verticals as your license supports, and we recommend most agents run 2–3 rather than specializing in one. The reason is calendar management — a pure Final Expense agent has a lot of daytime phone time but runs dry on evenings and weekends when consumers answer. Adding Medicare during AEP or ACA during OEP soaks up peak-season capacity. For producers new to lead buying, a common starting mix is 70% Final Expense / 30% Medicare during non-AEP months, flipping to 50/50 during AEP. Life-focused producers often run 60% Term/Whole Life / 40% IUL. Avoid running more than 3 verticals simultaneously — each vertical has its own script, objections, and carriers, and cognitive switching between 4+ hurts close rates across all of them.

Question 52

I am a brand-new agent. What is the first $5K/month blueprint?

Accepted Answer

Assume Final Expense at $22/lead, 10% close rate, $450 average first-year commission. $5K/month = ~11 issued policies = ~110 leads/month at benchmark = $2,420 lead spend. Blueprint: Week 1 — buy 25 leads, dial every one within 5 minutes, run a 6-touch 14-day cadence, aim for 2 issued policies. Week 2 — buy 25 more, keep a 48-hour contact-rate target of 60%+, aim for 3 issued. Week 3 — buy 30, build a follow-up list from prior weeks, aim for 3 issued. Week 4 — buy 30, work leftovers, aim for 3 issued. Month 1 target: 11 issued = $4,950. If you miss, diagnose before scaling: speed-to-lead below 5 min? contact rate below 55%? scripts? objection handling? Most misses are speed and cadence, not lead quality. Month 2–3: hold at 110 leads/month until you hit 11+ issued two months in a row, then scale.

Question 53

I have a referral-based book. How do I transition to bought leads without losing productivity?

Accepted Answer

Referral books are usually high-trust, low-volume, high-close-rate (40%+). Bought leads will close lower (10–15%) but at higher volume. The transition risk is psychological — it feels like a drop in conversion even though total revenue goes up. Practical steps: (1) protect 60% of your calendar for referrals during month 1 — don't starve the source that built your book. (2) Commit 40% of the calendar to a pilot lead buy of 50/month, single vertical, single state. (3) Measure CAC per policy not close rate — a 12% close on bought leads at $180 CAC can be more profitable than a 45% close on referrals that took 3 weeks to cultivate. (4) In month 2, ask every closed bought-lead customer for 3 referrals at the moment of issue — this doubles the compound effect. Most referral agents who make this transition see total production rise 40–80% in 6 months.

Question 54

How do I scale from solo producer (1) to a team of 10+ agents?

Accepted Answer

The transition from solo to agency happens in three bottleneck steps. Bottleneck 1 (1→3 agents): hire two appointment-setters before hiring a licensed producer — setters at $15–20/hour are the cheapest way to multiply your licensed hours. Bottleneck 2 (3→5 agents): hire your first licensed sub-producer, pay on a 50/50 split of first-year commission with 100% of renewals to you (or another structure that motivates). Bottleneck 3 (5→10+): build CRM routing rules, lead-round-robin, KPI dashboards, and a sales manager who does not carry a personal book. Key lead-buying implications: at 5+ agents, master-account volume discounts kick in; at 10+, you can negotiate reserved live-transfer capacity; at 20+, many agencies move to custom lead campaigns with dedicated landing pages generating branded traffic. Systematize before scaling — agencies that scale without SOPs lose close rate within 6 months.

Question 55

I have tried leads before and got burned. How is InsureLeads different?

Accepted Answer

The most common reasons agents get burned by lead vendors: (1) leads were shared with 4+ agents — we only sell real-time leads exclusively, one buyer. (2) Leads were from incentivized traffic (giveaways, surveys) with low intent — our leads are from organic search and educational content only. (3) Return policies were restrictive or enforcement was inconsistent — we publish our return reasons and our median approval rate is 78%. (4) Speed-to-lead was slow because the vendor sold the lead and then delivered it — ours delivers in under 3 seconds via webhook. (5) No dedicated account manager — every account gets one from day one. If you have been burned, start with a small 25-lead pilot before committing. We publish data so you can verify benchmarks match ours within 30–60 days, not just trust a sales pitch.

Question 56

I am a captive agent exploring independent work. Should I buy leads before I go independent?

Accepted Answer

Yes, cautiously, and only in a vertical your captive agreement does not restrict. Most captive contracts prohibit writing competing business for the captive's carrier while employed — so an Allstate captive cannot write Allstate auto externally — but usually allow products the captive does not offer (most Allstate agents can write Final Expense, for example, since Allstate does not carry it). Read your contract first. Buying leads while still captive lets you prove you can ramp an independent channel before you lose the captive salary. Target: one vertical, 25–50 leads/month, $500–$1,100 spend, 3–6 issued policies/month = $1,200–$2,700 side income. After 3 months at that run-rate, you know whether independent work is viable at 5–10x that scale. Do not go independent on theory — go independent on proven unit economics.

Question 57

I am a veteran producer already doing $30K/month. Can bought leads 2x my production?

Accepted Answer

Often yes, but the bottleneck changes. At $30K/month you are almost certainly calendar-constrained — your issue is licensed hours, not opportunity. Bought leads without additional labor will burn cash because you cannot dial fast enough to hit benchmark close rates. Two realistic paths to 2x: (1) Hire-and-fund — add a full-time setter at $45K/year and 200–400 bought leads/month; the setter handles dial-and-set, you handle close-and-issue. At 12% close and $500 avg commission, 200 set appointments → 24 issued = $12K new monthly commission (net of ~$5K lead spend and prorated setter cost). (2) Live transfers — 75–100 transfers/month at $55 = $4.1–5.5K spend, at 25% close = 19–25 issued = $9.5K–12.5K new commission. Both paths realistic for a veteran; both require operational discipline that solo producers often underestimate.

Question 58

What is the single biggest mistake new lead buyers make?

Accepted Answer

Slow response time. Data from MIT's Lead Response Management studies and our own internal numbers show contact rate at 5 minutes is roughly 10x contact rate at 30 minutes, and close rate tracks contact rate almost linearly. Most new buyers average 2–6 hours to first dial on a web lead, often because the lead arrives by email and the agent checks email on a schedule rather than setting up a real-time alert. The fix is trivial and free: configure SMS delivery in addition to email, auto-dial via CRM workflow, or literally just keep the tab open during active hours. Beating 5 minutes on 80% of leads will outperform any amount of filter tuning, script polishing, or vendor switching. We track your speed-to-lead in the dashboard — if yours is above 30 minutes your account manager will flag it in week 2 and help you fix it.

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