The Best Lead Generation Companies for Financial Advisers

As a financial adviser or IFA, you are more than likely gaining most of your business through word of mouth or through repeat business from returning clients.

If this is the case then that’s great, but what if you are just starting out, or your customer base is running low…how are you supposed to get to those all-important clients?

This is where financial adviser lead generation companies might be a good idea for you!

If you carry out a search for lead generation companies, you will quickly realise that they exist for all sorts of different sectors. However, they are particularly popular within the financial planning industry, with many companies specialising in generating leads solely for IFAs, financial advisers, and financial planners.

What is a Lead Generation Company?

Lead generation companies deliver leads (i.e. details of potential clients) to businesses that are looking sign up new clients. By selling leads onto those in need, lead generation companies help these businesses to grow their client base and increase revenue.

Lead generation companies often label their leads as being high quality and qualified, meaning they are sure that the client lead they are selling on to you has expressed and confirmed an interest in your service.

How Do Lead Generation Companies Get Their Leads?

Most lead generation companies have their own websites, and they direct potential clients to these websites via a range of methods, such as targeted advertising on Google or Bing.

The website itself will contain lots of information related to whatever industry it is that leads are being generated for, and visitors will be invited to fill out enquiry forms, stay in touch via newsletters, or book an appointment to discuss their needs further.

Some lead generation companies will phone each lead as soon as they generate it. This call is used to confirm the client’s details, which are then passed onto you via email as a paid lead. Other lead generators may go a step further and actually arrange appointments on behalf of the lead buyer.

In recent years, many lead generation companies have turned to social media and will run targeted marketing campaigns via a range of social media advertising platforms. Potential new customers who have shown an interest in these ads can be invited to fill in enquiry forms with a range of details on a landing page, and these details will be sold on as leads via the lead generation company.

The Cost of Financial Adviser Leads

As mentioned earlier, lead generation companies exist for a range of industries. The ones that focus on leads for financial advisers and IFAs will generate leads to sell to individual sole traders, SMEs and even other lead generation companies. Specific types of leads available include pensions and investments, life insurance, and inheritance tax planning.

Some lead generation companies expect to get your money upfront and others will invoice in arrears. Be sure to check out how companies charge before working with them, to make sure that the payment terms are suitable for you and your business.

Can’t I Just Generate My Own IFA Leads?

As much as the purpose of this article is to highlight lead generation companies for financial advisers to work with, you can of course use your own website to generate leads rather than having to spend money with a third party.

To help you decide which route to take, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of buying IFA leads from a lead generation company.

If you plan your approach and take some time to look at the best methods, it really can be quite easy to start generating leads for yourself via your own website. There are plenty of inexpensive options out there for building your own website, or getting one built for you on a platform such as WordPress.

Be sure to pick a specific niche to market yourself to. Then make sure your website has a good amount of meaningful content and start to drive traffic to it via Google Ads or even Facebook Ads.

Draw people into your funnel with some lead magnets and some engaging email marketing, and you'll be well on your way to generating some decent leads.

Generating your own leads using your own website and lead nurturing system is a great way to keep costs down within your IFA business, and all it needs is a little time and effort to set it all up.

How to Choose an IFA Leads Supplier

As with any purchase, business or personal, there are a few questions you should consider asking any financial adviser lead generation company before you start working with them. This is to ensure that you are a good fit for each other, as well as hopefully giving you some idea of their legitimacy and quality of service. Some of the most import questions to ask are:

• Do you have to purchase a minimum number of leads?
• Do you have to pay upfront or in arrears?
• Is there a set price per lead, or do they run auctions for their lead sales?
• What's their refund policy?
• What information do they provide you for each lead?
• How do they gain their leads?
• Are the leads they offer qualified and exclusive?
• Do they work with affiliate companies?
• Is everything GDPR compliant?
• Do they offer any kind of free trial so you can test a few of their leads?
• Will leads be graded by a dedicated account manager?

UK Financial Adviser and IFA Lead Generation Companies

Here is a list of lead generation companies in the UK whose core business activity is generating and selling leads to financial advisers and IFAs. I have tried to offer a little bit of information for each one to give you an insight into their offering. Not many of them quote prices on their websites but, where they do, I've included the details here.

Echo Ads (aka Advisor Leads)

This company seems to have undergone a rebrand fairly recently. It used to be known as Advisor Leads but the advisorleads.co.uk web address now takes you to an Echo Ads branded website. The business model seems unchanged, though, and is different from how most other lead generators work.

Echo runs Google Ads campaigns on your behalf to drive traffic to their own consumer-facing websites. Any leads generated through "your" Google Ads campaigns belong to you and you pay a cost per lead, plus you have to cover the advertising charges from Google.

Lead Tech

This company creates a targeted plan for you, enabling you to increase your leads and expand your client base. Lead Tech uses multiple marketing channels such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Bing Ads to generate qualified leads for you. They claim to be able to connect you with clients in your area who are actively looking for financial advice.

Prime Direct Leads

This company does not have as much information available on its website as some of the others. However, they do claim to be specialists in high performance finance leads. Their leads are generated via consumer online searches on Google and Bing. Prices are stated as being a fixed fee per lead, with nothing to pay upfront and invoicing in arrears. 

Proconnect Marketing

Proconnect Marketing offers lead generation for specific areas within the financial services sector. These specific areas are funeral plan leads, life insurance leads, pension leads, PMI leads, remortgage leads and will writing leads. Proconnect uses consumer surveys, both online and telephone, to generate and qualify their leads. The site has several testimonials from IFAs who have used them in the past.

Professional Leads

This company uses Google Ads to direct people to their website who are looking for a financial adviser. These consumers are asked to fill out a form and are then matched with a financial adviser in their local area. Unlike some lead suppliers, Professional Leads doesn't tie you into any lengthy contract or monthly subscription.

RMT Direct Leads

RMT has been in business since 2013 and helps independent financial advisers and other finance specialists with their lead generation. They have filled their home page with lots of testimonials from financial advisers who have used their service, giving the feel of credibility.

RMT uses Google Ads to direct people to its consumer-facing website Financial Adviser Direct. There is a fixed fee of £100 per lead, with ‘buy now pay later’ payment plans available. The company is not strictly-speaking a UK lead generation company as it is based in Gibraltar, but I've included them because their services are clearly aimed at the UK market.

Unbiased

Unbiased has been around for many years. Its website started life as not much more than a directory of IFAs. Today Unbiased operates a consumer-facing website which promises to connect people with a financial adviser or mortgage adviser who can help them. IFAs can sign up to buy these leads. There are different pricing options but the most popular package involves paying a monthly fee of £87 plus a fee of £43+ for each lead (all plus VAT). 

VouchedFor

Although it's not primarily a lead generation service, I've included VouchedFor in this list because I know it's an important lead source for many IFAs and financial planners. VouchedFor is a review website (along the same lines as TripAdvisor, etc) where people can leave reviews for IFAs, mortgage brokers, solicitors, and accountants that they have dealt with. Once you have a profile on VouchedFor, you then have the potential to receive financial advice enquiries via the site from members of the public. VouchedFor doesn't charge per lead but there is a £45+VAT monthly membership fee to use the service.

Should You Use a Financial Adviser Lead Generation Company or Not?

As you can see, there's not a huge number of companies that specialise in generating financial advice leads and selling them on to independent financial advisers.

A number of companies that used to provide this service have fallen by the wayside over the years. In some cases, this left a lot of financial advisers out of pocket, as they had paid upfront for leads which didn't get delivered prior to the lead generation company going bust.

It's never a good idea to put all your marketing eggs in one basket. And so, if you are going to buy IFA leads from an external company, I strongly recommend that you also think about how to generate leads from your own website as well.

Leads that you generate this way are likely to cost less because you are cutting out the middle man. Also they tend to be higher quality because the potential client will already have been exposed to your brand by visiting your website, and so they are going to know who you are even before you call them about their enquiry.

If you'd like some free advice on how to develop an IFA marketing strategy for generating pension, protection or investment leads from your own website please leave a comment below or click here to book a call with me.