TL;DR—Lead generators should capture fewer fields to increase some of the lost conversion due to one-to-one consent and to stay ahead of potential legal challenges from the CFPB.
Take a step back. How would you define the job of a lead generator? I will stick with consumers only here and not B2B lead generation. A lead generator's job is to find consumers interested in the products or services a business offers and then connect the consumer with a matching company. This might be a click, a data lead from a form, an inbound phone call, a live transfer, etc. Is the consumer just starting to poke around and sitting at the top of the sales funnel, or are they ready to talk to a salesperson and pull the trigger? For a lead generator that could be everything from generating and selling click traffic to a business all the way to handling the entire intake of customer information into that business's back office software. Today, I am focusing on traditional form-filled sales leads, which sit somewhere in the middle of the sales funnel most of the time. My argument is that the businesses buying leads have pushed lead generators too far in demanding which data fields are captured, hoping those leads will be closer to the bottom of the funnel. For legal reasons and conversion rate reasons, it needs to swing back dramatically the other way.
Lead buyers typically want more data fields so they can be picky in which leads they want to buy and do not have to ask the questions again once they get the consumer on the phone (or so they claim). I think we have all experienced the latter, filling out a form and receiving a call, but then we are forced to repeat what we have already entered in the form on the phone. Why ask the questions on the form then? I will start numbering the points here that lead generators should bring up with their buyers.
1. Do you really need all of these fields?
The easiest vertical to pick on here is auto insurance. We have clients whose auto insurance lead type accepts up to five drivers and five vehicles. Here are the questions for one system that combines driver and vehicle information into one set of questions.
Driver_2_Additional_Drivers
Driver_2_Additional_Vehicle
Driver_2_Address
Driver_2_Age
Driver_2_Age_When_First_Licensed
Driver_2_Annual_Mileage
Driver_2_Approximate_Date_1
Driver_2_Approximate_Date_2
Driver_2_Approximate_Date_3
Driver_2_Approximate_Date_4
Driver_2_At_Fault_1
Driver_2_Average_Days_Per_Week_Used
Driver_2_Average_One_Way_Mileage
Driver_2_Bankruptcy_In_Past_5_Years
Driver_2_Birthdate
Driver_2_Cell_Phone
Driver_2_City
Driver_2_Continuously_Insured_Months
Driver_2_Continuously_Insured_Years
Driver_2_Coverage_Type
Driver_2_Credit_Rating
Driver_2_Current_Collision_Deductible
Driver_2_Current_Comprehensive_Deductible
Driver_2_Current_Coverage_Level
Driver_2_Current_Insurance_Company_Months
Driver_2_Current_Insurance_Company_Years
Driver_2_Current_Residence
Driver_2_Damages_1
Driver_2_Date_Of_DUI_DWI
Driver_2_Daytime_Phone
Driver_2_Desired_Collision_Coverage
Driver_2_Desired_Comprehensive_Coverage
Driver_2_DUI_DWI_In_The_Past_5_Years
Driver_2_DUI_State
Driver_2_Education
Driver_2_Email
Driver_2_eNewsletter
Driver_2_Evening_Phone
Driver_2_Filing_Required
Driver_2_First_Name
Driver_2_FullTime_Student
Driver_2_Gender
Driver_2_How_Many_Incidents_In_The_Past_5_Years
Driver_2_Incident_Type_1
Driver_2_Incident_Type_2
Driver_2_Incident_Type_3
Driver_2_Incident_Type_4
Driver_2_Insurance_Paid_Amount_1
Driver_2_Insured_Past_30_Days
Driver_2_Last_Name
Driver_2_License_Status
Driver_2_Licensed_State
Driver_2_Make_Of_Vehicle
Driver_2_Marital_Status
Driver_2_Model_Of_Vehicle
Driver_2_Months_At_Current_Residence
Driver_2_MultiplePolicy_Discount
Driver_2_Occupation
Driver_2_Ownership
Driver_2_Policy_Expiration_Date
Driver_2_Preferred_Contact_Number
Driver_2_Preferred_Contact_Time
Driver_2_Primary_Driver
Driver_2_Primary_Use
Driver_2_Relationship_To_Applicant
Driver_2_Reposessions_In_The_Past_5_Years
Driver_2_Salvaged_Vehicle
Driver_2_Security_System
Driver_2_State
Driver_2_Suspended_Or_Revoked_In_The_Past_5_Years
Driver_2_Tickets_Accidents_Claims_Past_3_Years
Driver_2_Trim
Driver_2_US_Resident_In_The_Past_12_Months
Driver_2_Vehicle_Parking
Driver_2_Vin
Driver_2_Year_Of_Vehicle
Driver_2_Years_At_Current_Residence
Driver_2_Years_In_Field
Driver_2_Zip
This is just crazy. 79 fields per driver.
If I called the insurance lead buyer directly, would they force me to answer 79 questions per driver before they would talk to me? I doubt it. Forcing a lead generator to capture them then does not make sense.
2. Lead generators need to clarify that they are making a connection with somebody who has expressed interest in what the business is offering and NOT guaranteeing the consumer will become a customer. The lead generator should only capture enough information to make (mostly) sure that the company is capable of assisting the consumer. No more.
3. The CFPB seems to be targeting data brokers. I recommend reading this and the source documents linked to it.
Many of the auto insurance fields above should be removed because they are not really needed, and other bunches that are just too sensitive should only be communicated between the consumer and the business once that relationship is established. Date of birth and credit clearly should be removed. The fewer sensitive or personal fields a lead generator can require, the better. When a lead generator runs afoul of the law, the lead buyers are also generally held accountable. Capturing fewer fields puts less of a target on the heads of both the lead generator and the lead buyer.
4. The FCC's one-to-one consent rule is nearly upon us. If you do not know what that means, read through this first.
The extra step of having a consumer pick which business(s) they would like to hear from will cause a drop in conversion rate for the lead generator, and in other words, it will take more website visitors to generate the same number of leads. I have heard the conversion rate drop to anywhere from 10-30%. The bright side of the one-to-one flow is that the consumer will see that business's name before the business calls, which should help get the consumer to pick up the phone, thus leading to a higher sales conversion rate for the business. Lead generators will need more website visitors to generate the same number of leads. That means higher costs for the lead generator on leads that should be converting better for the lead buyer. There clearly needs to be some give and take here.
Lead generators should use this opportunity to dramatically reduce the number of questions they ask on their lead forms. This should increase their conversion rate to help offset the drop in conversion rate from the one-to-one requirement. It should help keep lead prices more stable and reduce exposure to CFPB scrutiny. It is also better for the consumer to have more data floating around where it does not need to be.
Lead buyers need to reduce their field requirements and simplify their lead buying. How often has Vehicle 1 Average One Way Mileage been accurate and used to drive business anyway? Save a field, save a lead.
This is a good opportunity for everyone to make the lead ecosystem better and safer. As we have always held, lead generators must help consumers. Our standard litmus test is always, "Would you let your mother fill out your lead form?" If you are a lead generator and your answer is no, I hope your New Year's resolution is to fix that problem.