How We Model Lead Performance
Every close-rate, contact-rate and show-rate range on this site is a planning band — not a measured client result. Here is exactly what that means, where the numbers come from, and what we will and will not stand behind.
The percentage ranges you see across this site — close rates, contact rates, show rates, conversion rates — are published planning bands. They are industry-typical ranges we publish so you can model a budget before you buy, and they are not measured InsureLeads client outcomes. InsureLeads holds no audited buyer-outcome dataset. We publish no customer counts, no case studies and no verified client results, so we have no basis to present any percentage on this site as our record — and we do not. Where a number appears on a product page, it is there to be modelled with, and it links back here.
What a planning band is — and is not
A planning band is a deliberately wide range attached to a lead format: the sort of conversion this market commonly quotes for that product. It is the same kind of number as a rent estimate before you tour the building — useful for deciding whether to keep looking, useless as a promise.
| A planning band is… | …and is not |
|---|---|
| A wide range you can budget against before you buy anything. | A measured average of what InsureLeads buyers achieved. |
| Industry-typical, in the sense that it is the range this market commonly quotes for that format. | A figure taken from an audited study, a carrier dataset, or a controlled test. |
| Wide on purpose — the spread is the honest part. | A forecast of your result, or a number we will hold ourselves to. |
| A planning input, like a rent estimate before you sign a lease. | A guarantee, a promise, or anything you should sign a budget in blood over. |
Where the numbers come from
They are the ranges the insurance lead market commonly quotes for each format — the figures that appear on vendor rate cards, in agent discussions, and in the trade press — rounded outward into bands rather than reported to a precision nobody in this market can support. That is the whole provenance, and it is deliberately unglamorous.
We do not attach a study to them. It would be trivial to bolt a citation onto a range to make it look researched, and plenty of vendor pages do. We will not, because a source we have not audited is a worse signal than no source: it converts a rough planning input into a false precision that a buyer might budget against. If a figure on this site ever carries a source, the source will be named, linked, and checkable.
The corollary applies to everyone else, including our competitors. When a lead vendor quotes you a precise close rate, ask three questions: how many buyers is it measured across, over what period, and does it count leads bought or leads actually worked? A number that cannot answer those is a planning band with the label filed off.
Why we publish them at all
Because cost per lead is not the number that decides anything. Cost per acquisition is, and you cannot get to CPA without a conversion assumption. A buyer comparing a live transfer to an exclusive web lead to an aged record is really comparing three different CPAs, and the conversion assumption is what turns three prices into that comparison.
Publishing nothing would not make this site more honest. It would move the assumption from the page into the buyer’s head, unlabelled, where it is usually more optimistic than anything we would print. A labelled range you can argue with beats a silent one you cannot. Our lead cost calculator exists so you can swap our band for your own number in about a minute.
What actually moves your number
The band is wide because the variance between two buyers of the same lead is wide, and almost all of it sits on your side of the transaction:
| Driver | Why it moves the number |
|---|---|
| Speed to contact | The single largest swing. A lead dialed in the first minutes behaves like a different product than the same record dialed the next day. Two agencies buying identical leads can land at opposite ends of the same band on this variable alone. |
| Lead format | An interest-verified live transfer, an exclusive real-time web lead, a shared lead and a 12-month-old aged record are four different products. Bands are always published per format for this reason — comparing a transfer band to a web-lead band is a category error. |
| Agent experience and script | A seasoned closer and a 60-day-licensed agent working the same list produce different numbers. Bands assume a competent, licensed agent following a structured follow-up process. |
| Follow-up cadence | One dial and a voicemail is not a worked lead. Most of the difference between the bottom and top of a band is how many touches a record gets before it is written off. |
| Vertical and product | A final expense phone close and an IUL case that needs two appointments and an illustration do not convert on the same curve, or on the same timeline. |
| Geography, licensing and carrier mix | State inventory, your carrier appointments, and whether you can offer both simplified and guaranteed issue all move which prospects you can actually place. |
How to use a band without getting burned
- Model at the bottom of the band. If the campaign works at the low end, the rest is upside. If it only works at the top, you are betting on being the best buyer in the market on day one.
- Work in CPA, not CPL. Divide the lead price by your assumed close rate, then compare that to your first-year commission. A cheaper lead with half the conversion is the more expensive lead.
- Buy a small test batch before you buy a campaign. Same vertical, same states, same follow-up you intend to run at scale.
- Replace our band with your measurement. After a few hundred records you have something better than any published range: your own contact and close rate, on your own process. From then on, ours is only a sanity check.
What we do stand behind
The commitments below are inside our control, so they are the ones written into how we sell. None of them is a percentage:
- Exclusivity. A real-time exclusive lead or live transfer goes to one buyer and is never resold. Aged and shared formats are labelled and priced as such.
- Consent documentation. Every web lead carries a TCPA consent record captured at submission — see how we source and verify leads.
- Replacement of invalid contact data. The terms are published in full on our lead replacement policy.
- Published pricing and no contracts. Per-lead and campaign pricing is on the pricing page, month to month.
What we do not publish
No customer counts. No satisfaction scores. No audited compliance percentages. No case studies built from a buyer we cannot name. No close-rate figure presented as our own record. These are the numbers that would most help us sell, which is exactly why we will not invent them — and if you find one anywhere on this site, it is a defect and we want to hear about it.
InsureLeads sells insurance leads, so we have an obvious interest in how conversion is presented on these pages. The bands are wide, labelled, and linked back to this explanation for that reason. Judge the product on the things you can check on a call: the consent record, the exclusivity terms, the replacement policy, and a test batch you measure yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Are the percentages on InsureLeads pages your clients’ results?
No. They are published planning bands — industry-typical ranges for each lead format, published so you can model a budget. They are not measured InsureLeads buyer outcomes. We hold no audited client-outcome dataset, and until we do, we will not present one.
Which study are the bands taken from?
None, and we will not attach one to them. The bands are the ranges this market commonly quotes for each format, rounded outward. Citing a study we have not audited would make the number look more precise than it is — which is exactly the failure this page exists to avoid. If we ever publish a figure with a source, the source will be named and linked.
Why publish the numbers at all, then?
Because a buyer cannot size a lead budget without an assumption. Cost per lead is meaningless on its own; only cost per acquisition tells you whether a campaign pays, and that calculation needs a conversion assumption as an input. Publishing a labelled range lets you run the math with your own numbers. Publishing nothing would not make us more honest — it would just make the decision harder.
How should I use a band when I plan a campaign?
Model at the bottom of the band, not the middle. If the campaign still works at the low end, the upside is free; if it only works at the top, you are betting on being the best buyer in the market. Then run a small test order, measure your own contact and close rate on it, and replace our band with your number — your data beats anybody’s published range.
What performance will you commit to in writing?
Exclusivity, consent documentation, and replacement of invalid contact data. We do not commit to a close rate, a show rate, or a number of policies written, because none of those are inside our control. Any vendor that does commit to them is either quoting a band without saying so or selling you something it cannot deliver.
Will you ever publish real outcome data?
When we have a dataset worth the name — measured, permissioned, and large enough to mean something — we will publish it together with the method used to collect it, and label it clearly as measured rather than planned. Until that exists, the bands stay labelled as bands.