Tips for Working With a Paid Leads Vendor

Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz about Personal Injury firms working with lead generators to buy leads. These vendors advertise for Personal Injury services without listing a specific firm. Then, they send the contact information and case information at a set fee per lead. 

It is important to remember that you are paying per lead, not for signed cases. So, you’ll be paying the same amount for leads without qualified cases as you are for leads with qualified cases. For this reason, if you choose to work with a paid lead vendor, you need to be fanatical about tracking each and every case that comes in, the quality of the case, and whether or not you are able to get the qualified cases to sign up. 

Choosing a Lead Vendor

There are dozens of options available to your firm if you do choose to work with a paid lead vendor. Not all of these options are effective at producing high quality leads. Additionally, a vendor that produces fantastic leads at a good cost in one market may provide mediocre leads in a different market. Therefore, we suggest that you try out multiple vendors, ask around for reviews before committing to a vendor, and do thorough research on each and every vendor. Here are some tips we recommend that you follow for vetting a paid lead vendor:

1. 1. Understand how they are generating the leads: Make sure you know where exactly these leads are coming from. Are they advertising on TV or web? Is their advertising in line with how you like to represent your firm? 
   2. Require approval of ads to ensure they are bar compliant: If you work with a lead vendor that is running non-compliant ads, you could be on the hook. You should independently ensure that all of their advertising follows your state’s bar rules. 
   3. Do they understand the PI industry?: Some vendors see the Personal Injury industry as an opportunity to make quick cash but don’t know anything about what it takes to work a PI case or run a PI law firm. These companies may not provide good leads or enough information for you to make decisions about cases.
   4. If doing paid digital or PPC, ensure that they are not buying your firm name to capture leads that are already looking for you: Not only is this a sign that you are working with a vendor that is operating in bad faith, but also shows that your firm’s advertising may be more effective at producing leads than a vendor can be.
   5. Ask for referring firms from other markets: While vendors may perform differently in different markets, references from other firms are a great way to determine which vendors are good to work with, have a history of delivering good results, and are familiar with the way that Personal Injury firms function. 
   6. Have a test period, don’t commit a large sum of money for a long period of time: Some lead vendors may try to convince you to sign on for six months to a year before you’ve tested their service – this is a bad sign. We recommend that you try out a one-month test with an option to go week to week for an additional four weeks. 
   7. Measure, measure, measure!: Have your marketing or intake team calculate the cost-per-lead and cost-per-case on a weekly or monthly basis. A significant number of leads can be coming in consistently, and then suddenly fall off. Unless you are measuring them constantly, you could end up paying an extraordinarily high cost-per-lead or cost-per-case for too long. 

Need More Information? We Are Here to Help 

If you find a paid lead vendor that provides quality leads at a reasonable price, buying leads can be a great way to get cases in the door quickly without requiring extra effort by your marketing team. It is important to remember, though, that this should not be used as a replacement for traditional advertising. While advertising for your firm on TV, web, outdoor, etc., might take longer to truly take hold in your market, it also has a residual impact whereas buying leads does not. The minute you stop paying for leads from a vendor is the minute that they stop coming in. This makes buying leads a great option for firms who are just getting started in a new market and hope to get cases in the door before they start generating leads from their own advertisements or for firms with a consistent advertising plan hoping to use paid leads as a supplemental source. 

The cj family of personal injury firms is a great source of recommendations for lead vendors that have been vetted in various markets across the country. If you are interested in working with paid lead vendors and would like to learn more, or if you have been working with paid lead vendors and would like an analysis on their productivity, please reach out to your brand strategist or to askus@cjadvertising.com