LEADCRITIC » Lead Verification

eBureau Announces New Lead Verification Solution

Lead Critic — Tue, 25 May 2010 04:38:49 +0000

Today eBureau announced a new way for lead generation companies to verify the quality of their leads prior to sending them to their buyers.

Their new service, which is detailed in the below press release, adds another layer on top of the typical data validation and call verification process many lead generation companies use. By providing a score based on a host of different data points lead sellers can determine with a level of probability that it will be contactable. As many lead generation companies know first hand data validation services will provide a certain number of false positives and as well as a certain number of false negatives. eBureau’s new service claims to reduce this percentage. What I find attractive about eBureau is their eMonitor platform that allows users to view real time results in a web based portal. The ability to have a visual depiction of your lead quality and real time results is something every lead generation company would find beneficial.

Below is the full press release:

ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — May 24, 2010 — eBureau, a leader in predictive analytics for interactive marketers, today introduced a new lead quality management solution for lead providers that goes beyond basic lead verification to deliver predictive scores, demographic insights and real-time monitoring. In working closely with lead providers over the past year, eBureau has combined its industry-leading predictive modeling technology with actual call center results to build the new eVerify Phone Contact Score. This new industry standard predictive score assesses whether an online lead is likely to be contactable on the phone. eBureau’s new solution helps interactive marketers that are generating large volumes of online consumer leads and want to avoid inadvertently throwing away good, contactable sales leads.

Lead providers need a real-time solution that quickly and accurately verifies the contactability of a consumer’s identity gathered through an online sales lead, application, registration process or order transaction. In response to client requests, eBureau has introduced a transparent, easy to use 0-99 eVerify Phone Contact Score that goes beyond basic verification to measure the likelihood that a lead is contactable. eBureau’s complete lead quality management solution identifies contactable leads, automatically repairs phone “miskeys”, provides enhanced demographic and geographic data to further assess lead accuracy and offers a web-based reporting suite that evaluates lead sources and offers instant insight into sourcing and selling decisions.

“In developing this new solution, we worked closely with our clients, analyzing their actual call center performance data, to build a more predictive lead verification solution,” said Jeff Liebl, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, eBureau. “Our new score-based solution results in far fewer “false positives,” which puts additional revenue in our clients’ pockets.”

By providing a granular 0-99 scale, eBureau’s solution allows lead providers to easily tighten or loosen their verification parameters on a client-specific basis, offering more precision, flexibility and control to filter leads. Recent call center tests of leads previously deemed ”bad” have shown that up to 50% could be positively contacted by a call center agent. eBureau’s new eVerify Phone Contact Score enables lead providers to avoid a majority of these “false positives.”

“eBureau’s fresh approach to lead verification gives us more confidence than ever that we’re not throwing away good leads,” said James Walker, CEO of Inadco. “With eBureau, we now know which leads are truly contactable, which ensures our customers are happy with the high level of lead quality they’ve come to expect from Inadco.”

In addition to the new eVerify Phone Contact Score, eBureau provides eTarget, enhanced demographic information that helps lead providers to better understand a lead’s potential fit, qualification and relevancy for a particular product, service or offer. eMonitor, a web-based reporting and visualization interface, allows lead providers to view lead scores and trends in a real-time business intelligence portal. eMonitor provides access to a complete set of self-serve reports and web-based dashboards to track the quality of new campaigns and sources. With eBureau’s total lead quality management suite, lead providers gain unprecedented visibility into the overall quality of their leads.

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About eBureau

eBureau helps consumer-facing businesses find their next customer – more cost effectively – through predictive analytics. Its clients span numerous industries, including higher education, financial services, insurance, automotive, telecommunications and retail. eBureau has designed and built a patented, state-of-the-art data warehouse and real-time predictive scoring system. Since its founding in 2004, the company has received $43 million in funding from its founders: Split Rock Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, and Tenaya Capital. For more information, please visit http://www.ebureau.com.

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New LeadIdentity Brings Transparency and Quality Into Control

Lead Critic — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:37:26 +0000

The industry and all its players, no matter what team you are on, whether it be the lead buying team or the lead generating team have always dealt with fraud and the uncertainty of what happened or what will happen to a lead. As a buyer I was always concerned with how many times a lead was being sold, how it was produced and if it was sent to me in real time. Now that I am on the other side of the table I am still concerned with the same issues. Is there a buyer on my network reselling my leads? Is the data accurate and legitimate or is it fraudulent? The last questions I have answers/solutions for and have a number of different systems in place that decrease those risks. Until yesterday though there were no real solutions/answers that could insure a lead I generated was only being distributed to my customers and no other.

Atul Patel co-founder of the popular LMS LeadROI and former Vice President reached out to me the other day to give an exclusive interview on his new venture, LeadIdentity. Here is the release LeadIdentity put out shortly after the interview.

“The launch of LeadIDentity introduces a genuine opportunity for every stakeholder of the growing lead generation ecosystem,” said Atul Patel, Founder of LeadIDentity. “Rapid growth in our industry has led to declining quality, transparency, and efficiency. For the next cycle of growth and innovation in lead generation, we must collectively and systematically enhance the governance of this marketing channel.”

What is LeadIdentity? LeadIdentity is the first ever third party identification system that allows lead generators, aggregators and buyer’s to self govern their leads. As you can see in the image to the right every participating partner will allow LeadIdentity to attach a LeadID to each lead generated and therefore “tag ” the lead and its source without passing the sensitive consumer data.

LeadIDentity is a neutral third-party that does not participate in the buying and selling of leads. In addition, the service does not require actual lead data or personally identifiable information (PII). “Understanding the sensitivity of the problems LeadIDentity is addressing, we have developed a service that is the least path of resistance to adoption and acceptance,” said Atul Patel. “Many would agree that LeadIDentity will serve as a catalyst for further innovation in lead generation. We look forward to sharing our vision and collaborating with industry leaders as we extend and improve this service.

LeadIdentity will now give buyers a full history of the life of a lead and give a new level of transparency to the market and at the same time decreases fraud and the over selling of leads. It is my opinion that the creation of LeadIdentity is a positive step for the lead generation industry, however it does have one major obstacle to overcome and that is participation. I am guessing that this would not be successful if I was the only company participating. This needs the buyers and sellers to demand it from their partners and to be completely honest, why wouldn’t you? As a lead generator I want to attach an ID to all my leads and as a lead buyer I would want all my providers to attach ID’s to each lead I purchased. If forced each of my providers to attach a LeadID I would be able to instantly find out if a lead was a duplicate, how many times it was sold and what company originated the lead.

“I haven’t been as active in the industry as I used to, but it is that outside perspective that really got me thinking that there must be a simple, non-intrusive way to make the industry more welcoming to new concepts. But you know as well as I, that it will take some self-regulation to get us there. The FTC has taken years to catch on to ring tone advertising. And even when they start looking under the hood across all lead gen, they will see things from the eye of the consumer. LeadIDentity actually can help everyone in the space, except, of course, those that do not want to be, what I call, “sensitively transparent” – not transparency in pricing, lead data, etc., but just enough to self-police our industry.”

I would like to encourage buyers and sellers to support this idea and “Join The Movement” here.

So I think this is a great idea, but what do you think? Do you think lead providers would have the guts to give such transparency? If not, what would that say about the company? Do you think a project like this is beneficial to the industry?

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LowerMyBills Lead Quality? May Depend on Perspective.

Silence Dogood — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:08:31 +0000

Does anyone else find this ironic? (By no means scientific or authoritative, but ironic)

LowerMyBills’ Vendor Perspective:

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ — TARGUSinfo honored LowerMyBills.com, an Experian company, yesterday with the Best in Lead Quality Award at the Online Lead Quality Summit here at the Palms Hotel and Casino. The Summit, sponsored by TARGUSinfo, is dedicated to helping companies drive profits through successful online lead generation and improved lead quality.

LowerMyBills’ Client Perspective:

Does anyone know how i can get out of my contract for lowermybills

It is in my 3rd week with them and probably over 75% have been d/c numbers, they say I have to be with them for 31 days before I can cancel and also after 31 days I have to send a letter of cancelation [sic] that takes another 31 days.

Hmmm…At the very least it demonstrates that long term, "lock-in" contracts are not trust or performance-based. And I am sure, what I am guessing to be a small account, is not threatening to impact LowerMyBills’ strategic media buy forward contracts.

Quin Street Introduces an FHA Qualified Lead

Lead Critic — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:58:24 +0000

Recently there has been a large amount of buzz and news revolving around FHA products and guidelines. Many brokers are beginning to refocus their business and product mix with FHA products. The HUD continues to expand guidelines to be more flexible for borrowers. With all these developments happening many lead buyers are calling for lead providers to accommodate the FHA filters in their products and promote FHA products through their ads. Well it looks as though one company is answering the call.

QuinStreet will be introducing an FHA qualified lead beginning October 2^nd. This is exciting news for a few reasons. One, we have a lead company listening to the demands of their clients and two we have a company that is looking to help brokers put consumers in the best suitable product available.

For so long lead providers simply advertised the lowest possible rate and they still do, it will never go away and that’s okay. I get the feeling that QuinStreet is making the first step towards improving the consumer experience. You may ask, how are they doing that? Well they are simply offering or qualifying consumers and directing them to brokers that can best suit their needs, rather then sending the lead to a option arm cowboy that may put them in a product simply for the large payout.

I don’t have all the details regarding the leads, but you can easily give them a ring to find out more.

To find feed back on QuinStreet leads you can see my opinions and others in the LeadCritic forum. (you may have to register to see the private forum about lead providers) Although, I will tell you now that they are a recommended LeadCritic source and I am in no way compensated for making that statement. Just passing on the good news.

Kudos to QuinStreet.

To Verify or Not To Verify.

Lead Critic — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:33:46 +0000

Inman News posted a video of Dave Wengal of TargusInfo. The video discusses scrub rates, the future of lead-gen and what questions you should ask a lead provider.

Dave states that 15% of leads distributed by typical tier one providers are fake or include false information. The is begs the question, is verifying leads through Targus or any other verification company worth the cost? Also, is it just me, but does 15% seem to be a fairly high estimate for leads with false information? I was thinking more along the lines of 10%, but Targus would have more information to base the estimate than I would.

Real Estate Video by – Real Estate Blogger
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