How to Choose a Life Insurance Lead Provider in Australia

To choose a life insurance lead provider, check six things before you buy: whether every lead is exclusive to you, how each lead is qualified, whether the phone number is verified, how fresh the lead is on delivery, what the replacement terms are, and whether you can size or pause your order to match your capacity. A provider that answers all six plainly, in writing, is worth a small test order. One that stays vague on any of them is telling you something about the process behind the leads.

What should you check first when choosing a life insurance lead provider?

Check exclusivity first: ask whether the lead you are buying is ever sold to another adviser or practice, at any point. An exclusive lead is delivered to one adviser only and is never shared or resold. A shared lead goes to several advisers at once, who then race each other to the prospect.

Exclusivity comes first because it changes the call you are about to make. If one adviser is calling, you can run a proper discovery conversation about the prospect's circumstances and what they want to protect. If four advisers are calling, the prospect is often guarded by the time you get through. The full comparison is covered in exclusive vs shared life insurance leads, but the buying rule is simple: get the exclusivity commitment in writing, and treat any hedging as a no.

How should a provider qualify life insurance leads before delivery?

A provider should qualify every lead before it reaches you, using a form that screens out unsuitable enquiries and a verification step that confirms the contact details are real. Qualification means the lead has already been tested against criteria before delivery, rather than being handed over as a raw name and number for you to sort out.

Ask three specific questions here:

1. How many questions does the enquiry form ask, and does it use conditional logic (follow-up questions that change depending on earlier answers)? 2. Can a consumer who gives a disqualifying answer still submit the form, or are they stopped at that point? 3. Where does the lead come from, and what does the consumer see before they enquire?

Astra's own form asks around twenty-five questions with conditional logic, and a consumer who answers in a disqualifying way is rejected immediately and cannot submit. A form that takes a few seconds and asks for little more than a name and number is built for cheap volume, and that cost shows up later as a lower share of leads you can actually turn into an application for cover.

What does SMS verification of a life insurance lead actually prove?

SMS verification proves that the phone number on the lead is live and that the person who entered it can receive a text message on it. The consumer is sent a one-time code and must enter it before the lead is accepted, which is the direct answer to a concern about fake or mistyped numbers.

It does not prove intent, health, insurability or that the prospect will pick up when you call. That distinction is worth understanding before you rely on the label, and it is set out in full in what SMS verification of a lead actually proves. When comparing providers, ask whether every lead is verified or only some, and whether verification happens before the lead is counted as billable.

How fresh should delivered life insurance leads be?

Delivered leads should arrive in real time or the same day, with an upper limit of the previous night. A stale lead is one that was generated days ago and has been sitting in a list or a queue before being sold to you.

Freshness matters because a prospect who has asked about cover may well have enquired with more than one provider, and the adviser who calls first usually has the advantage. The detail of why speed matters so much is in how fast you should call a life insurance lead. Ask a provider two things: how long between a consumer submitting the form and the lead reaching you, and whether leads older than a day are ever sent to clients. Astra delivers leads from the previous night, that day, or in real time, and does not send stale leads.

What does a fair lead replacement policy look like?

A fair replacement policy is written down, says which problems qualify for a replacement, and is reasonable to both sides. It should not depend on how persuasive you are on the day or on the provider's mood.

Some cases are clear-cut. If a lead's stated details are completely different from reality, or the lead cannot be contacted at all, replacing it at no cost is the fair outcome. Other cases are less clear, such as a prospect who answered the phone and changed their mind, and those are better handled as a conversation than as an automatic credit. Ask any provider you are considering:

• Which situations qualify for a free replacement?
• How quickly do you need to report a problem?
• Who makes the final call, and is the policy written in your order terms?

A provider with no replacement policy at all, or one that refuses every claim, is not a safe supplier. Equally, you should not expect a refund because a prospect decided not to proceed with cover.

How many life insurance leads should you order, and can you change it?

Order the number of leads you can personally call and follow up properly, not the number your budget allows. Capacity is the real limit for most advisers, and a good provider will help you size an order to it rather than pushing you towards a larger volume.

Illustrative example: the figures below are hypothetical.

Suppose an adviser can properly work two new leads a day alongside existing clients and referrals, and there are twenty working days in the month. That is forty leads a month of real capacity. Ordering one hundred leads would leave sixty of them with a slow or rushed first call, and you would have paid for them regardless.

Then check how flexible the arrangement is. You should be able to start small, change volume as you learn what you can handle, and pause when life gets busy. Astra lets an adviser pause an order for a month and pick it back up when ready, with no penalty, and runs pay per lead rather than on retainers. A retainer asks you to commit before you know whether the leads work, which shifts the risk onto you.

Is it better to buy life insurance leads or run your own ads?

It depends on whether you have the time and ad budget to run campaigns properly, which for most solo advisers and small practices is a real constraint. Running your own ads means managing creative, targeting, a landing page, a form and the optimisation of a small budget, all on top of the advice work that earns your income.

A provider that pools many advisers' budgets into one centralised campaign gives the ad platform far more data to learn from than any single small campaign can. The reasoning is that a larger, steadier campaign is optimised better, and each adviser benefits from that learning without carrying the whole cost. Either way, the number that decides it is cost per policy written, which you can work out using how to tell if a lead source is profitable.

How does Astra Finance Leads answer these questions?

Astra Finance Leads is an Australian pay-per-lead provider of exclusive, SMS-verified life insurance leads. Every lead goes to one adviser only and is never shared or resold, every lead passes the qualification form and an SMS check before delivery, and leads arrive in real time or from the previous night at a pace you choose.

Pricing depends on volume, so it is not listed here. The table below sets out the six checks from this post and what a good answer looks like.

| Check | A good answer | A red flag | | --- | --- | --- | | Exclusivity | Every lead goes to one adviser, in writing | "Mostly exclusive" or answers that shift | | Qualification | A long form with conditional logic that rejects unsuitable consumers | A short form built for volume | | Verification | Every lead SMS-verified before delivery | Verification only on some leads | | Freshness | Real time or same day, never stale | Leads held for days before sale | | Replacement | Written, specific and fair to both sides | None, or discretionary only | | Flexibility | Pay per lead, sized to capacity, pause allowed | Retainer or lock-in before testing |

Also ask any provider how it captures consent to be contacted, because you will be the one making the call. The legal position is covered in is it legal to call a purchased life insurance lead.

---

Want to check these answers against a real process? Ask for a walkthrough of how a life insurance lead is qualified, verified and delivered before you order.