MediaAlpha gives State Farm agents the high-quality insurance leads and top-flight customer service they need to quickly and efficiently scale their businesses. In order to maximize the potential of our solution, it’s important to make sure you’re reaching the right shoppers, purchasing the right number of leads, and implementing a lead-buying schedule that works for your business.
The MediaAlpha for Agents platform offers a range of campaign settings that you can use to tailor your lead buying to your agency’s customer acquisition goals. Here are four tips for making the most of these tools and optimizing your lead buying with MediaAlpha for Agents.
1. Think about what you want to get out of your lead-buying—and keep an open mind
The first step to crafting an effective lead-buying strategy is deciding what your agency’s goals are. After all, each agency operates inside its own unique set of business conditions, and a successful strategy for you might look much different from what works for another agent on our platform.
What kinds of consumers do you want to pursue? How many leads are you hoping to purchase each week? In what areas are you looking to reach consumers? If you have a big agency with a large number of producers to whom you want to send leads, you’ll likely want to target an expansive group of consumers to ensure you’re getting enough volume. Meanwhile, a smaller agency might opt for a narrower, more finely targeted approach.
As a reminder, agents in the State Farm subsidy program can purchase one or both of two categories of consumers—Premium and Preferred—and price varies based on your tier in the subsidy program. We suggest for agents to keep an open mind about what kinds of shoppers will help them grow their businesses.
2. Choose the geographic areas in which you’ll purchase leads
Next, you’ll want to think about the locations where you want to target shoppers. MediaAlpha for Agents enables you to target leads by zip code, and you can do this on the Settings page of the platform.
While agents sometimes keep things close to home, many of our clients have had success selling policies to consumers in areas outside their immediate geographic footprints. Since many consumers no longer desire a sit-down meeting with an agent before they purchase a policy, there’s no reason to limit yourself to the immediate vicinity of your office.
We also sometimes hear from agents who avoid buying leads in metropolitan areas, for fear of too much competition. Instead, we recommend finding the parts of the city that work best for you, and making sure you’re buying leads there—this way, you don’t miss out on getting the lead volume you need to scale your business.
3. Schedule your leads for when you’re available to work them
Additionally, it’s important to use the Settings page of the platform to designate the times at which you want to buy leads. Sometimes, agents stick to only purchasing leads during normal business hours Monday through Friday. This way, they can call the leads from their office the moment they’re generated.
However, many of our agents enjoy additional success purchasing leads on nights and weekends. In some instances, agents or their producers will work a few extra hours on a weekday evening or weekend afternoon to connect with shoppers who are looking for insurance during these times. Others buy leads generated overnight and then make a point of calling them first thing in the morning. It’s up to you to find the schedule the drives the best results for your business.
4. Implement daily caps to optimize your lead-buying volume and efficiency
Buying the right number of leads is a key component of any successful customer acquisition effort. If you don’t purchase enough, you won’t have the volume you need to continue generating new policy sales at scale. If you purchase too many, you might wind up having more leads than you have the capacity to work, making your spending less efficient.
In order to avoid these challenges, you can use the Settings page of the platform to set daily or weekly caps on the number of leads you purchase. If you need any help deciding where to set yours, you can always schedule a meeting with your client success manager.
Want more best practices for online insurance leads? Check out our State Farm Agent’s Guide to Online Leads.
By implementing the right settings for your lead-buying efforts, you’ll put yourself in the best possible position to scale your business with speed and efficiency.
For more information on how to maximize your lead-buying performance, we recommend reading our State Farm Agent’s Guide to Online Leads. This resource provides insight into the best practices for buying and converting online leads, all the way from the beginning of the lead-buying process to the end.