Over the last few weeks there has been a few articles about the mortgage lead generation and the mortgage industry bottom, but as of yesterday I believe at least one company has truly hit bottom.
Not sure where to start on this one, so I will jump right in.
First, let me say this, SomeInsider and myself predicted over a year ago that lead generation companies would revert their marketing to less inexpensive strategies, but the example I am going to present to you will leave you speechless and probably outraged.
Late last week, an acquaintance in Houston Texas was looking for a low level admin job that would be suitable to pay the bills while starting college. He cam across this advertisement on Craiglist. Just in case the ad is taken down after this post goes out, here is what it looks like:
After seeing this opportunity he proceeded and I suggest you do too, to send his resume to the Craigs List email address. Later that day he received this email:
Hello,
Thank you for responding to our recent Admin / Office Craigslist job offering. Unfortunately, we get a large number
of virus’s and spam by opening fake attachments from people trying to take advantage of our email.
In order to get around that, we use a third party to verify email addresses.
Please visit http://nbjmp.com/click/?s=
52250&c=95924 and fill in the form. Please keep in mind that you are going through a customer form offering to get information on refinancing.
Make sure you enter the same email you have used to send us this message, otherwise you will be labeled spam and your résumé will be discarded.
On the second page, there will be on option to select a box that you are a job applicant, do so otherwise you will go on the regular customer path.
We MUST verify your email in order for your application to be reviewed.
Please send us your résumé if you have not already done so.
After we confirm and verify your email, we will go over your application and get back to you if we are interested and the job is still open.
We are truly sorry for this inconvenience, and we know you understand that this is the best way to protest ourselves from viruses and spam.
Thank you for your interest and your application, we look forward to speaking with you soon.
Human Resources Department
Yes, read it again and please go ahead and visit the link. How about that for you? “we use a third party to verify email addresses, oh and by the way you are filling out a mortgage form to receive information about refinancing”. Really nice!
I wonder how many people never read past the link?
Following the link they tell you that on the second page you will be able to notify them by checking a box that you are a job applicant. Below are screen shots of the first page and second and there are NO boxes to select that you are a job applicant.
Here is page number two:
A quick click on the bottom link “Join Lender Network” will lead you to here (https://secure.adprofile.net/lrs/77/index.html?CID=110606&xid=0) Just in case they take down the link here is the screen shot:
It even has a nice endorsement from our friend Noel Collins, which brings up another topic about how suppliers quality fluctuates and the horrifying reality of desperation in the mortgage lead generation space . I am sure when Noel gave this endorsement Aderactive wasn’t participating in this “high quality” lead generation strategy.
Wanting to see if they were doing this anywhere else other then Houston I searched through a few other major cities and after going through a few I came across the beautiful state of Hawaii. Yep, they are posting the same ad in Hawaii. I stopped there, but there are probably other job postings similar to this in other cities too. Here is the Hawaii posting:
Sending a resume to this posting will result in the same email above from BlockCityJobs@gmail.com.
So lets start asking a few questions here. What company would ever let this go approved? How low can a company get when generating leads? Frankly, I think this is the bottom.
What do you think??
.
.
.
Lead Critic,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention as we at Adteractive take lead quality VERY seriously.
The highlighted activity has been traced back to a brand new external marketing affiliate (whom we no longer work with), and is in complete violation of our agreement and marketing guidelines. We do not condone this type of marketing and can assure you and our clients that this problem is being addressed.
David Morgan
Vice President
Consumer Finance Group
Adteractive, Inc.
I stopped doing business with Adteractive right around the time the FTC started knocking on their door. According to them the incentivized marketing that they were busted for at that time was never used in the mortgage space…but this just confirms what I thought about them. I won’t be back anytime soon.
Wow! Doesn’t surprise me one bit. Is this how internet leads became sub 1% conversions? The relationship between lead companies and their clients are essential and must be a win-win.
That is what most of them don’t get. Sell the leads max 3x and do not canabalize the data by selling it to live transfer call centers.
I didn’t even know the landing page existed any longer, I did endorse Adteractive years back when they were my largest provider and most positive producer on the ROI side. Interesting stuff, I would suspect this plays along the lines of affiliate management, like we spoke about at LeadsCon, affilate marketing has its drawbacks…
I’m sure if you buy a big enough sample size you’d see they really do produce a quality lead….
Lead Critic this is outstanding revelation. As a former COO of a lead company, I am sick at my stomach when I see this type of business behavior. This shows the lack of integrity that many businesses operate under.
While it seems adequate to blame affiliate partnerships, there must be a strong level of accountability in the lead generation space. What happened to doing research on partners, seeking out credible sources and standing behind the product.
This is almost criminal, and the group getting the shaft is already being beaten up by a down market, lack of consumer trust and rising costs. Full refunds should be a must.
Accountability amongst the masses will create effective change.
I bought quite a bit from them…never saw the quality.
I always like to break it down by ROI, in 04/05 and even 06′ we had good returns, 4 to 1. I cannot speak to what conversion rates look like for 07/08 with them. Does anyone have metrics to report back?
I haven’t bought in quite a while so I won’t quote stats here…They were a bottom performer for us. I am sure some shops had better luck….just not us.
The “nbjmp.” domain is a NeverBlueAds redirect, so it’s one of their shady affiliates. I’m surprised that it’s not an Azoogle (or Epic Advertising as they now like to call themselves) affiliate filling out forms to make an extra couple hundred bucks per month. You should see what Azoogle’s affiliates do to generate EDU leads for TribalFusion / Exponential Interactive. Type in a large city and the word jobs, like “atlanta jobs” or “charleston jobs” and you’ll see fake job sites. These fake job sites make you fill out a form and then they don’t even show you any jobs. Hello University of Phoenix, Kaplan, AIU, Grand Canyon, Westwood, and others!!! Wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
It is an interesting and common ploy among third party affiliates, how do you hold them accountable in lieu of Critics black list.
50/50 say hold a lead provider accountable regardless. I don’t necessarily agree with that premise. What about a pensive time frame… ?
Most lead buyers would not ID a bad provider in less than 5 days, you have to give Adteractive regardless of who ratted out the program benefit for taking action,,, Right?, that is pretty good.
But negative posts attracts naysayers. Even “A Lead Buyer” who purchased leads that didn’t fare well admits that some of us do better with products some of us cannot sell. Is that Adteractive’s fault, or any other lead provider?
Is that the fault of people that do well while others cannot make ice let alone sell it idiots
The bottom line is we as buyers/sellers/critics should have minimums established to call it quits, like a gambler, I call it saying “Uncle”.
“Uncle” needs to be realistic and benefit both parties; I would never automatically stop buying leads from a provider if my call center or LO staff told me the “Leads sucked”. PLEAZE.
To me “Uncle” occurred only after I provided metrics back to the provider of things not working, and what is working.
After a adjustment period of they could not improve things, well then,,,, “Uncle”.
Caleadbuyer has taken the lesson to heart; he is obviously still making ROI from Adteractive D, how are things the lead buy side, any other comments worth reflecting on?
These people will get what’s coming to them. KARMA!!! Misleading people like that! Arseholes.