Somebody asked me this: “I keep getting pitched by private vendors who are selling leads. Why would anyone buy leads as opposed to getting them from PPC?”

Well, I don’t know. I mean, there are definitely some vendors that are decent at selling leads. The problem with buying leads is that often a vendor comes to you and says, “Hey, we’ll sell you some personal injury leads in Denver” or wherever you happen to be, maybe in Boston.

The Problem With Buying Leads…

And the problem is that they sell them to you and they also sell them to three or four other attorneys as well. So it becomes a race of who’s the first person to get to the lead. And then, on top of that, you can also annoy the leads because all these different attorneys are contacting them.

Many years ago, I filled out an application to see if I qualified for a mortgage. And for the next three weeks I was getting phone calls left and right for all of these different mortgages from all these different lenders. It really got to the point where I didn’t answer any of them because I was so annoyed by the entire process.

Buying Leads Vs. Getting Leads Through PPC

I’ve also heard the leads are not necessarily as high quality as they should be or as they would be if you did PPC. So the reason why anyone would buy leads as opposed to getting them from PPC is that it’s easier. I mean, honestly, that’s really what it comes down to.

With PPC, you’ve got to put in some work and you’ve got to test ads, you’ve got to build landing pages, you’ve got to do all this stuff. And someone may not really know what they’re doing. The Google AdWords dashboard can look like the dashboard of a fighter jet. So that would be why some lawyers buy leads.

Then again, I don’t really know too many lead vendors that do a really good job. I might have a partnership soon with a lead vendor though that does some really interesting and unique stuff and might be able to sell some leads that way.

Are Attorneys Even Permitted To Buy Leads?

The question also asked, I didn’t think attorneys were permitted to just buy the leads and solicit them. How do these companies even exist? I don’t know, to be honest with you. I’m not really in the lead generation business. I don’t really sell leads, so I don’t know what all the rules are.  But I would definitely check with your local bar association.

You Can Also Find Your Own Leads

There are also ways you can find your own leads. For example, if you go to Instagram and you search hash tag rear-ended, you can find people that have been rear-ended, or rather that have had their cars rear-ended.

And the lead generation company could reach out to them and say, Hey, I saw you got rear-ended. Would you like me to put you in touch with an attorney? And then if they say, Sure, and they give you their contact information. You can buy that lead and contact them.

Is that against the rules or not? I really don’t know. You’d have to figure out where they’re getting the leads from and all that type of stuff. You’d have to talk to the Bar Association. I would definitely look into where the leads are coming from. Especially if you’re going to buy leads.