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Case study · Insurance (P&C)

Cutting cost per lead 49% with a referral program.

Exclusive, high-intent leads instead of resold aggregator ones.

IndustryInsurance (P&C)
RoleStrategy lead
ServicesStrategy · Partnerships
TimelineYear one
Insurance (P&C)Strategy lead
−49%
Reduction in average cost per lead across the agency.
No new ad spend
The challenge

Aggregator leads kept getting pricier, and they weren't even exclusive.

The agency was buying nearly all of its new business leads from aggregator vendors. Each lead was resold to 10+ other agencies all racing to call first and undercut on price, and the cost was creeping up year over year.

What the agency actually wanted was exclusive leads tied to real buying intent. People who were genuinely about to buy a home, not people filling out a price comparison form. That kind of lead does not come from aggregators. It comes from the conversations happening one step earlier in the buying process.

The approach

Build a referral exchange with loan officers.

Most people buy home insurance at the same time they are getting a mortgage, which made loan officers the natural channel to partner with. We built a referral exchange across New Jersey: the agency generated first-time home buyer leads for participating loan officers, and in return those loan officers referred their active clients back to the agency for home insurance quotes.

Both sides got something they actually needed. The agency got exclusive, high-intent prospects from people in the middle of buying a home. The loan officers got warm leads at no cost. I onboarded loan officers into the program directly and managed the relationships as they ramped up.

The shift

It wasn't a pitch. It was a value exchange — and no new ad spend went into the agency's budget to make it work.

The results

Inbound that didn't depend on ad spend.

20+
Loan officers enrolled across New Jersey.
−49%
Reduction in average cost per lead across the agency.
$85K
New business premium generated from the referral channel in year one.

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