Seniorleads was started in 2003 before the Internet was very
developed.
We started seniorleads based on the findings of a survey
that we did. We email the survey to a
few hundred thousand advisors and agents and receive 33,000 responses. Our question was,” what is your most
challenging business problem?” The
number one problem was gaining new clients.
We therefore focused on solving that problem for advisors and agents.
Because not many people were using the Internet on a very
active basis, Seniorleads was started as a lead service that used print
magazines to reach consumers. We ran ads
in national magazines offering the various retirement financial booklets.
The consumer would see the ad, call a toll-free number, leave
their name and address and the Seniorleads software would send the lead to the
advisor who had registered to receive leads for that zip code. The system worked very well and in fact, the
demand for leads exceeded the supply we could deliver at a reasonable
cost. The number of national senior
publications was not very large so we were not able to generate as many leads
as advisors and agents wanted.
Within 24 months, the
Internet had gained enough traction and Seniorleads able to move the
advertising to Google AdWords. For about
three years, Google AdWords worked very well because it allowed the specific
targeting of zip codes and ads that targeted a specific consumer interest.
We could also run multiple variations of the same ad and
thereby maximize the effectiveness of our copy, graphics and other add
elements. Additionally, we could purchase leads from Google at a price that
allowed us to sell the leads at a very reasonable cost.
Seniorleads was a leader in using Google AdWords and not
many businesses had discovered it. As
more and more businesses discovered the power of Google AdWords, especially
large businesses, the cost per lead kept rising. Google AdWords works on an auction system
such that each business bids for a keyword.
In the early days, Seniorleads could bid a dollar-per-click
on the term such as “financial planning” while now the cost per click for such
a popular keyword is $30. Why? Because
Fidelity, Schwab, Merrill Lynch and other large companies throw money at Google
advertising without regard to profit per lead.
For competitive keywords, the cost of using Google AdWords is beyond the
cost of most businesses.
As Seniorleads phased out advertising on Google AdWords, we
shifted focus to advertising networks.
These networks are similar to large ad agencies that would place our
booklet ads on thousands of websites. Seniorleads
pays a cost per lead with the website owner getting part of that the ad agency
getting and the ad agency getting a part.
Using these networks is a good way to generate leads but lacks
control. We are unable to have direct
contact with the consumer.
Now that Facebook is here, we have a new method for
advertising to consumers at a reasonable cost in generating leads direct from
the consumer. The direct-to-consumer generated
leads are always best because there is no middleman to rely upon. The problem with using unrelated websites for
advertising is always the issue of white
page fraud. While it doesn’t happen
very frequently, it does occur.
Additionally, as younger people leave Facebook for more
trendy options such as Instagram, Facebook doesn’t excellent job of targeting
the more mature investor and insurance buyer, age 40+.
