The reason I occasionally carry on about the (lack of a) comparison rate in advertising isn’t just because it’s illegal, or because it highlights a bigger picture issue with broad business compliance. The reason the bread-and-butter requirement grinds my gears is because the rate is used to deceive consumers. There’s a word for *knowingly* and deliberately deceiving a consumer: fraud.
For the last few years we’ve made attemps to call out illegal, non-compliant, unethical, or offensive financial advertising. Originating mainly from pay-per-lead services, the plethora of deceptive finspam has left a permanent stain on the industry’s underpants. We were fortunate to be asked to provide advice and guidance to various groups over the last year, and it’s great to see
There are a few big-ticket compliance SNAFUs in this ad (the exclusion of the comparison being the most obvious), but usage of the Coat of Arms in a black and white ad designed to emulate a Government document is the focus of this rant. The use of the mark is regulated under federal law, and its use in any advertising
Shad of the Day, 7th November 2024. Just another example of somebody using trickery to bait consumers into a phone call (by failing to disclose a comparison). Note the second comment. The subscription experience celebrates the same commitment to compliance and ethical marketing. It’s probably unfair to point this group out since non-compliance is now the rule rather than the
The company managing the advertising for the group pictured on the right have simply copied Macquarie’s logo, creative, and general formatting. There’s generally no rule against leaning on recognition, but it will always come at the expense of your own brand. It’s always a shame to see such a lazy advertising effort (the copy, landing page, and everything that comes
Every now and again I feel the need to prove a point because there are still brokers and other businesses that are led to believe by the leadgen charlatans that investing in (what is usually non-compliant and/or illegal) pay-per-lead services is a good idea. Paid leadgen services might charge around $18-$20’000 for the pictured 148 leads, while our broker paid
The purpose of sharing this screenshot isn’t because the lead cost is low, because it isn’t, but it is within acceptable limits despite the fact the campaign is performing in the bottom 35% of all those we manage. I see businesses buy individual leads for anything between $80 and $200, and brokers will routinely purchase packs of 50 leads for
This is a reasonable example of what the leadgen charlatans don’t want you to see. There’s a $20 budget assigned to a video ad, and after a few days of its initial run it’s already returning $6.20 leads. Given that it’s a first print, the split and improvements will likely drive the cost to around $3 (CPC still isn’t where
I criticise leadgen charlatans all the time. Usually because they’re a business-debilitating service that’ll do nothing but expose you to non-compliance and illegal advertising. Digital leadgen is easy. A ‘generic’ campaign takes minutes to create and outperforms pay-per-lead and industry-unawares leadgen peckers without exception. If you’re engaging in Facebook advertising, consider the pictured 85 leads at $5.69 (still high, and
We’re big advocates for brokers recording their own ads (rather than using our generic video). It’s easy to do: you pull out your phone and read off a few lines of text. Simple. The personalisation is more likely to engage with your audience, it enhances branding, and it legitimises your operation. You can shoot a little B-roll in the office,
Important note for clients. Over the last few months we’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time reworking the funnel flows for various types of advertising (we’ve had to cater for the ubiquitous illegal advertising that populates various social platforms). Typical leads off *generic* programs are coming in at around $15 (this includes leads delivered by our free plugin), while funnel-focused
Shad of the Day, 12th December 2023. This ad (in multiple forms and pages) comes from a mob called ‘Acquirely’ – they’re clearly a little clueless when it comes to financial advertising. There’s generally no harm in promoting on rate (since it’s considered by almost all borrowers to be the single most important product attribute), but when you advertising 5.39
