Guides for Lead Sellers

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How the pay-per-lead model works, how leads are priced and the words the industry uses.

• What is pay per lead?

  Pay per lead explained: how the transaction works step by step, what counts as a lead, how it compares with clicks, retainers and per-sale deals, and where it breaks.

• Pay-per-lead pricing

  How pay-per-lead prices are set: the buyer ceiling and seller floor, flat price versus bidding, what a lead earns after returns, and worksheets for your own number.

• The pay-per-lead agency model

  How a pay-per-lead agency runs when buyers fund a wallet and bid per lead: what it replaces, the economics, what limits growth, and how retainer agencies add it.

• Pay-per-lead vs. pay-per-call

  Pay per lead versus pay per call: how each transaction works, what each takes to run, where calls get harder, and how to choose the model for your buyers.

• Lead industry glossary

  The working vocabulary of the pay-per-lead industry: terms for how leads move, what is sold, quality and consent, money and who is who.

Seller playbook

Practical questions lead sellers ask most: pricing, routing, testing a new buyer and handling leads nobody wants.

• Selling leads no buyer wants

  How to sell off-spec, wrong-state, out-of-area, overflow and previously sold leads: what buyers reject, who buys the rest, what they require, and how to keep leads sellable.

• How to broker leads

  How lead brokering works: buying leads from vendors and reselling them to your own buyers, where the margin comes from, and how to limit vendor risk on both sides.

• Lead price calculator

  Work out the most a buyer can pay per lead, the least a seller can accept, and whether a deal exists between them. Uses your own figures, with no price benchmarks.

• Tiered lead pricing

  How lead companies price one lead type at several levels by area, qualification, exclusivity, lead age and volume, and how to set up tiers of your own.

• DIY routing vs. software

  Routing leads with general automation tools or a CRM versus dedicated lead distribution software: when DIY is enough, what buyers expect, what you rebuild, and when to switch.

• Speed to lead

  Why contact speed decides whether lead buyers reorder, how lead companies tie returns and exclusivity to follow-up, and what sellers should agree with each buyer.

• Lead pilot orders

  How to run a first test order with a new lead buyer or vendor: size it, prepay it, cap it, write the criteria and return terms first, then measure before you scale.

• Nationwide lead routing

  How to run one lead campaign nationwide and route each lead to the buyer who covers that state or area, fill coverage gaps, set caps, and sell leads no buyer covers.

• Duplicate lead checking

  How lead sellers define a duplicate, pick match fields and a lookback window, use suppression lists, and write duplicates into returns, from what lead companies publish.

How the market works

What lead companies publish about returns, exclusivity, delivery, aging and payment terms.

• Lead return policies

  What the lead companies in our directory publish about returns: credit, refund or replace, the reasons they accept and decline, windows and caps, plus a template.

• What is ping post

  What ping post is, how a ping and a post work, what goes in each, which lead companies actually use it, and what breaks between the ping and the post.

• Exclusive vs. shared leads

  Exclusive vs shared leads across our full directory: who sells each, how caps, territories and time windows work, and why the agreement matters more than the homepage.

• Selling to lead networks

  Which lead companies buy from publishers, how they take traffic, what their programs require, how they pay, and why a network makes a better backup buyer than an only buyer.

• Questions to ask a lead vendor

  A buyer checklist for lead vendors built from what hundreds of lead companies publish: sourcing, exclusivity, screening, consent, returns, pricing, funding and delivery.

• Aged leads

  What aged leads are, who sells them across our full directory, how they are packaged, priced and returned, who buys them, and how to recover leads no buyer took.

• Prepaid vs. invoiced buyers

  How lead buyers pay: prepaid accounts, cards on file and invoices, what each comes with, how it varies by market, and why sellers should take funds first.

• Lead delivery methods

  How lead companies deliver leads: CRM, email, phone transfer, API and webhook, text, portals, files and ping post, which sellers use which, and how to test a delivery.

How to sell leads, by market

One guide per market with enough lead companies to compare: who buys, what to screen for and how to set the market up.