Contact databases are erroneously treated by the majority of buyers as sales-ready pipelines, thus paying thousands for just raw data with no guarantees of actual meetings.

Because of this fundamental misunderstanding, agencies can disguise their low performance behind high-volume statistics that never lead to closed revenue.

In this analysis, we will eliminate the false equivalence between raw form submissions and real pipeline growth.

With all marketing claims stripped away, this report provides a clearer understanding of the unique commercial models used by the most successful pay per lead generation companies in the market and what you are actually purchasing from those providers.

The Problem with Standard Lead Markets

A lead cannot be equated to any one specific value; however, the market does treat it as though a simple email form submission is equal to a verified phone call and an executive meeting is treated as if it is the same product.

Simply stated, a lead does not carry a set value.

Most businesses searching for risk-free growth tend to seek vendors who charge only for results. In fact, the truth of the market is much more complicated than that.

The price of a lead is determined exclusively by the economics of the industry it represents.

For example, a consumer who is making inquiries regarding a broken pipe may cost $50 to a local plumbing company, while the same qualified software buyer may cost an enterprise company hundreds or thousands of dollars for taking a meeting.

Agencies know that true performance-based pricing represents a large financial risk for the vendor. Most agencies are compelled to disguise this risk through multiple charging points in their pricing models.

For example, agencies may combine base fees, monthly technology fees, and minimum setup charges into their performance pricing models.

What this does is create a trap wherein if an agency provides a low-cost lead source that has a low qualification, show-up, and close rate, you will pay much more for the lead if you use the service.

To determine your actual value, do not consider the advertised price per lead but instead look at the effective price per held opportunity.

For example, if you purchase 100 basic leads for $75 each, you will spend $7,500; however, if only four leads produce a held opportunity when meeting with your sales team, your actual price per held opportunity is approximately $1,900.

That is why raw volume is a horrible goal to shoot for!

How to Evaluate Pay Per Lead Generation Companies

There are many tools, agencies, and databases on the market that all claim to provide leads, and it is essential to differentiate the true performance networks from the managed outbound agencies and software solutions.

The following is the objective truth surrounding the top ten market entities.

1. Service Direct

Service Direct functions as a true pay-per-lead and pay-per-call marketplace focused strictly on the home services industry. They are one of the few pay per lead generation companies in the industry that provide clear category-based pricing information.

Their model is highly focused. They target companies within industries such as HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, pest control, and water damage restoration and use pricing that reflects the value associated with a job.

For example, a locksmith lead may be priced between $15 and $75, an appliance repair lead between $22 and $85, and as the service value increases, so will the price of the lead.

A roofing lead could cost as much as $550, whereas a water damage restoration lead could range from $500 to as high as $2,250.

The pricing structure here is precise. An account may be created by customers for free, while they are only charged for real leads or calls; customers can also determine their own price ceilings.

Evidence has demonstrated that Mr Rooter and similar companies generated significant revenue and increased their market presence within a few months.

Mr Rooter is a rare instance of a pure performance model without any retainer fees associated with it.

2. Belkins

Belkins is far more than the average lead broker in the sense of their services.

They are a large provider of outbound prospecting and appointment acquisition services to other B2B providers in many industries including software providers, consulting services, cyber-security, and manufacturers.

Belkins' model has a heavy burden associated with it. They continue to provide a pricing structure based on performance where leads are offered for anywhere from $20 to $200 a lead.

At the same time, they maintain a retainer pricing structure that costs from $2,000 to $10,000 per month.

The typical cost of using their initial appointment-setting service is close to $5,000. Appointment-based pricing ranges anywhere from $50 to $500.

There are some reports indicating that Belkins has also charged anywhere from $450 to $650 for each qualified meeting.

The evidence for Belkins is very robust. For example, one of their startup investment platform clients generated 346 appointments in the first 15 months with a nine percent conversion rate and projected pipeline value in excess of $400,000.

Another Belkins client closed 2 million dollars worth of deals based on 56 appointments provided by Belkins.

Belkins produces volume but buyers need to be aware that they are a fully managed outbound agency as opposed to a true no-risk lead supplier.

3. CIENCE Technologies

CIENCE Technologies establishes the infrastructure for an organization to go to market with outbound prospecting, data, and a dedicated sales development representative team.

CIENCE Technologies does not sell raw leads and what they publish as prices indicates that their services require a large upfront expense.

The price of the first month is $7,499, which includes the platform, the team and the setup of the program.

In addition to this, SDR capacity is charged separately with a range of $1,500 to $6,500, based on location and level of seniority, while an initial 5,000 sprint rate charge may also be applied.

Meeting fees are calculated based on an agreed-upon ROI goal that was created for CIENCE clients.

For example, one CIENCE client had 84 qualified appointments with a total cost of less than a third of what it would have cost them to generate the same amount of qualified leads internally.

Therefore, CIENCE acts as a comprehensive alternative to traditional pay-per-lead programs; CIENCE uses a combination of account-based approaches, and true ROI goals based upon agreed metrics to measure success versus internal lead generation costs.

4. Callbox

Callbox is a multi-modal B2B lead generation agency that focuses on account-based marketing and international campaigns. Their focus is on B2B markets such as enterprise technology, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Callbox has a subscription-based model for their services. Each region or language-specific campaign pod typically ranges from $15,000 to $30,000.

Thus, running three separate regions will result in costs of up to $90,000. However, Callbox does not strictly operate on a pay-per-appointment basis.

Callbox maintains a focus on strong operational metrics.

For example, in a recent healthcare campaign, Callbox generated 47 qualified appointments within a 12-week period, effectively doubling the productivity of their internal department during that same period of time.

Callbox also states a 77% qualification rate and less than 12% of appointments were no-shows.

Callbox is designed to be a high-level managed campaign provider requiring extensive budgets and significant long-term commitments.

5. Martal Group

Martal Group provides a service offering of outsourced SDRs and outbound campaigns to mid-market B2B, consulting, and SaaS businesses.

Martal Group does not publish an official pricing schedule. However, based upon market estimates, dedicated outbound pods at Martal Group seem to cost between $5,000 and $12,000 per month.

Furthermore, rates charged under the performance-based model seem to fall between $400 and $1,200 for each held qualified meeting.

Many contracts feature a combination of a basic monthly fee and a per-meeting fee ranging from 300 to 800 dollars.

According to their self-reported material claims, clients using their service can achieve an increase in sales leads by as much as 66%.

However, the proof of this increase is not as detailed and precise as other similar service options on the market.

Therefore, the buyer must rely on Martal as a hybrid provider and define clear rules for the acceptance of meetings.

6. LeadBird

LeadBird manages B2B outbound prospecting to produce meeting-ready leads for agencies and service providers.

Based on their public pricing, LeadBird uses a split-price model. The monthly infrastructure fee can be anywhere from 399 to 599 dollars and an additional monthly charge of 500 dollars is incurred to provide the ability to send up to 10,000 emails to new leads.

The variable cost of actual meetings will be applied at the end of the month.

LeadBird's per-lead price is unknown; while their case studies indicate they have over 100 clients and generate high monthly revenues, this indicates agency scale but not client ROI.

Therefore, it is imperative that buyers request the exact cost of each qualified meeting and verify replacement terms before signing.

7. LeadGeneration.com

LeadGeneration.com operates omnichannel lead generation campaigns using search engines, social media, and SEO channels for clients in B2B, finance, and home services.

LeadGeneration.com does not offer a standard per-lead price; instead, all pricing is fully customizable, taking into account the specific industry, volume, and campaign requirements.

While they position themselves as a performance-based provider, they do not provide any funding for independent proof of a client’s lead count or revenue numbers through general market research.

For the best opportunity with these options for generating leads, the best choice will be determined by the ability of the buyer to require them to provide a valid and transparent quote and evidence of compliance prior to making a commitment to spend their budgets.

8. SalesGent

SalesGent focuses on generating B2B outbound campaigns and payment for each qualified meeting. Their primary audience is B2B, SaaS providers, and consultants selling high-ticket services.

SalesGent's reputation is built around a heavy focus on maximizing personalization, qualification, and the ability to match their clients with the ideal customer persona that fits that company.

Because SalesGent has not provided any publicly verifiable information regarding how many meetings were created, what the conversion rates are, or how much closed revenue was generated, each buyer must verify the accuracy of their claims during the sales process.

9. ViB

ViB is designed specifically to generate B2B webinar leads. They promote B2B events, and use community-based demand generation to help software and technology companies.

ViB does not publish a standard price per lead for lead generation.

However, in addition to providing a demonstration of how they can help companies to increase brand awareness and build attendance for their webinars, they have proven to be particularly successful at providing a substitute for in-person events that have been disrupted due to COVID-19.

ViB is not a full-service lead brokerage; they specialize in demand generation specifically related to events.

For companies focused strictly on generating direct sales appointments, they are not suitable candidates.

10. Leadzai

Leadzai is a customer acquisition platform powered by AI for small and medium-sized businesses. They provide pay-per-performance advertising services.

Leadzai does not publicly post a standard rate.

As an advertising technology startup that is supported by well-known cloud companies, they leverage AI technology to enhance the performance of ad campaigns that are not currently performing well.

While Leadzai may not look like a traditional lead agency or an appointment setting service, they provide an alternative technology platform to the lead generation industry.

According to the author, using a software solution for acquiring customers is not the same as hiring a person to fill that role, but it does highlight the increased popularity of software solutions for customer acquisition.

Determining Actual Value

The biggest mistake a business can make is not defining the commercial unit it is purchasing from vendors.

If you don't properly define what constitutes a billable lead, vendors will define it for you, which is always to the detriment of the purchaser.

To determine what the actual value is, a company must track the entire chain from acquisition to pipeline value.

• Raw Lead: A simple record of contact information that will require considerable internal sorting to separate out intent.

• Qualified Lead: A record of contact information that fits perfectly within agreed-upon demographic, firmographic, and geographic parameters.

• Booked Appointment: A comprehensive record of a meeting created in a sales calendar after having been scheduled, but still has a high level of risk associated with no-show status.

• Held Opportunity: A complete meeting with a qualified buyer who has authority, need, and budget.

The effective cost per held opportunity should be calculated by taking your total lead spend (including any initial setup fees and management fees), and dividing this total by the number of qualified meetings that were actually held.

The results from this calculation completely dispel the myth of low cost per lead.

In addition, the data quality must be of a very high level. You must know the answer to the following questions to properly gauge the quality of the lead:

• Is the vendor selling the same lead to three of your direct competitors?

• What is the length of time you have to return a bad lead for credit?

Finally, ensure you are conducting audits on vendor compliance. If a vendor breaches consent regulations or does not meet minimum standards for protecting your data, your business will bear all of the associated risks.

Final Thoughts on Pay Per Lead Generation Companies

The market for partnership growth is a highly fragmented industry where the best vendor is ultimately based on the user-defined success metric.

If you are operating a local service-based business, such as high-profit margin repairs, and require immediate phone calls to obtain clients, Service Direct is the best-known service to use.

By using the only performance-based marketplace, and displaying their pricing transparently, Service Direct set the bar to be so localized, it is the model of choice for local business acquiring through SEO.

On the other hand, if you are a B2B/SaaS business that is trying to sell enterprise products or services, you cannot purchase just leads without first signing a contract to engage in a retainer with that vendor.

Companies like Belkins, CIENCE, and Callbox lead the market for lead generation, but they do so by offering managed sales development services.

Therefore, you must pay a base fee, a setup cost, a cost for the vendor's infrastructure, and then an added cost every time you meet with a client, in addition to the meeting costs.

When working with these vendors, it is critical to force them to distinguish between their claims regarding marketing effectiveness and the terms of their contracts.

The term high quality is arbitrarily defined.

A term in the contract that guarantees that any duplicate, invalid, or out-of-market records will not be billed is of utmost importance.

Stop buying leads in raw volume and begin purchasing held opportunities.

How to Understand Your Lead Pipeline

How Do Hybrid Retainer Models Create Confusion in the Cost Per Lead?

Hybrid retainer models provide a false sense of the actual cost of acquiring new customers.

Due to this lack of transparency, if you are being charged a base fee of $5,000 plus $500 per meeting by a vendor, a performance-based model of this nature can lead to an unacceptable amount of losses for marginally performing companies.

If ten meetings are delivered, then your cost per meeting would amount to $1,000.

The base fee represents insurance coverage for the agency and transfers the complete risk of unsuccessful campaign results back onto your budget.

You must calculate the breakeven amount of meetings that justifies service fees based on the fixed monthly fees.

Which Contract Rules Separate Good and Bad Sales Chances?

A contract must outline the exact reasons to reject leads. For example: if a prospect does not attend, if they don't have adequate funds, if they are not in the correct title, or if they are in your CRM, the contract must indicate that the lead is invalid.

Most vendors will provide a period of 48 to 72 hours to review and reject bad leads, and without these provisions, the vendor will charge you for every booked meeting even though the prospect might not attend or qualify, causing your budget to burn through useless prospects.

Why Do B2B Appointment-Setting Campaigns Struggle to Grow?

Campaigns struggle to scale because they run out of viable prospect data.

The agency usually begins with solid performance by reaching out to the important top-of-funnel prospects for your business; after the initial list has been worked through, the quality of results drops significantly, with the agency depending on generic outreach that damages your domain's reputation and produces lower-quality meetings for clients.

Scaling requires consistent refreshing of targeted engaged prospect data and continual testing of new messaging angles, and many agencies fail to execute these tasks after acquiring their monthly retainers.

Who Owns the Leads When You Leave Your Vendor?

Lead ownership is a significant trap when working with an outsourced campaign.

Most agencies keep control of the data, the LinkedIn profiles they were using to contact prospects, and the email domains being used for outreach.

When you decide to terminate your contract with the vendor, you lose access to all your warming pipeline records and history associated with the data.

Ensure that the contract stipulates that you own all the data, any responses to outreach done, and the campaign assets, and that all of these will be transferred into your CRM upon termination, or you are renting a pipeline, not building a long-term asset.