Despite Leadbay admitting rises to lead prices in niche sectors, the lead generation firm and paaleads.com have both denied price hikes.
Thomas Reeh, chief executive officer at blackandwhite.co.uk, said he had seen lead generation costs rise over the past year to 18 months, and blamed this on seasonal adjustments and movement in market sectors. He said: “Lead generation costs seem to have increased, and we have seen certain sectors increase, such as the non-conforming market where prices have gone from £45 to £125.
“During the Winter months, leads might be relied on a bit more but as the Summer approaches the pressure on leads starts to reduce.”
Timus Little, director at mmb finance, added: “They have a captive market and it is supply and demand so lead generation firms are able to increase their rates. There is always a desire for leads.”
Simon Baker, operations manager at Leadbay, said: “The cost of internet leads has actually decreased over the past year. This is due to the increase in numbers of clients turning to the internet to source their mortgage advice. We see many seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily trends in the numbers of leads available and the price they sell for. The only significant increase on Leadbay has been in the competitive area of adverse remortgages, where brokers have found they can make large profits.”
Vanessa Blount, head of paaleads.com, added: “It’s odd that there is anecdotal evidence that the price of online leads is on the rise – this is not the case at paaleads.com. In May 2005 we reduced our prices and have had no inclination to increase them.”
