Life insurance leads in the UK come from seven main sources: shared bought leads, exclusive bought leads, comparison sites and aggregators, your own paid ads, content and SEO, reactivating your existing database, and referrals. They range from a few pounds to close to a hundred pounds each. The number that actually matters is not the price per lead, it is the cost per completed policy after your real conversion rate. On that measure, the leads you already own beat the ones you buy almost every time.
This is a guide to generating and converting life insurance leads, not financial advice. Always follow FCA rules on protection advice and fair treatment of customers, and check your own data and consent obligations before contacting anyone.
Why Most Advisers Buy Leads Backwards
Most protection advisers think about lead generation in the wrong order. They start with the cheapest price per lead they can find, buy in bulk, and then wonder why the phone is full of people who will not answer and quotes that never complete. The cost per lead was low. The cost per policy was brutal.
The right order is the opposite. Start from the sources that convert best and cost the least per completed policy, then spend on the ones where the prospect has never heard of you. Almost every adviser has warm pipeline sitting unused: past enquiries who went quiet, clients due a review, people who started a quote and stopped. Those convert several times higher than a cold bought lead, yet they get ignored in favour of a fresh batch off an aggregator.
This guide walks every source in turn. For each one you get a rough cost, whether it is exclusive or shared, how warm the prospect is, and the honest cost per policy after a realistic conversion rate. Then it ranks them, so you can spend in the order that actually makes you money.
The Seven Sources of Life Insurance Leads
Every life insurance lead an adviser can get falls into one of seven buckets. Some you buy, some you build, and some you already own without realising it. Shared and exclusive bought leads come from third-party generators who sell you a name and a phone number. Comparison sites and aggregators sell enquiries filtered by age, cover type, or budget. Your own paid ads and your own content and SEO produce leads you control from start to finish. Reactivating your existing database and asking for referrals turn people who already trust you into new policies at almost no acquisition cost. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive of these, measured per completed policy rather than per lead, is not small. It is often a factor of ten or more, which is why the order you work them in matters more than the size of your budget.
Here is the honest comparison across all seven, with hedged ranges rather than invented precision:
| Source | Rough cost per lead | Exclusive or shared | How warm | Typical cost per policy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existing clients / referrals | Near zero | Exclusive | Hot | Lowest |
| Reactivating your database | A few pence per contact | Exclusive | Warm | Very low |
| Content and SEO | Low after upfront work | Exclusive | Warm to lukewarm | Low |
| Your own paid ads | £20 to £80 | Exclusive | Lukewarm | Medium |
| Exclusive bought leads | £30 to £90 | Exclusive | Lukewarm | Medium to high |
| Comparison / aggregators | £15 to £60 | Usually shared | Cool | High |
| Shared bought leads | £8 to £30 | Shared | Cold | Highest |
Notice the pattern. The cheapest lead per unit, the shared bought lead, sits at the most expensive end per completed policy. The most valuable pipeline, your own clients and dormant enquiries, costs almost nothing. That inversion is the whole point of this guide.
Shared Bought Leads
Shared leads are the entry point for most advisers because the sticker price is low, usually £8 to £30 each. The catch is in the name. The same enquiry is sold to several advisers at once, so the prospect answers a run of near-identical calls and often stops picking up before you reach them. Speed to lead becomes everything, and even then your conversion sits at roughly 3 to 8 percent from lead to completed policy once you strip out wrong numbers and people who never intended to buy.
Do the maths and the cheap lead stops looking cheap. At £15 a lead and a 5 percent close rate, you spend £300 in lead cost for every policy, before counting the hours your team burned chasing the ones who ghosted. Shared leads can work as a volume filler if your follow-up is fast, but they are the most expensive source per policy for a reason.
Exclusive Bought Leads
Exclusive leads cost more per lead, roughly £30 to £90, but you are the only adviser calling. That single fact changes the conversation. The prospect is not fielding five near-identical calls, so they answer, they listen, and they convert higher, often 8 to 15 percent from lead to policy. When you work the cost per completed policy rather than the cost per lead, exclusive leads frequently come out cheaper than shared ones despite the higher headline price.
The trade-off is trust in the source. Exclusive is only worth the premium if it genuinely is exclusive and genuinely fresh. Ask the provider how the lead was generated, how old it is when it reaches you, and how they define exclusive. A stale exclusive lead is just an expensive shared one with a better label.
Comparison Sites and Aggregators
Aggregators sell enquiries filtered by age, cover type, or budget, usually at £15 to £60. The upside is intent: the person was actively comparing cover when they filled in the form. The downside is that most aggregator leads are shared, and the prospect often expects the cheapest quote rather than advice. Conversion sits between shared and exclusive bought leads. A reasonable middle option, but the cost per policy is still high because rivals are quoting the same person.
Your Own Paid Ads
Running your own Meta or Google campaigns puts you in control. You own the lead outright, you shape the message, and nobody else is calling the prospect. Cost per lead lands at £20 to £80 once you account for the spend that goes nowhere while you learn what works. Because these people responded to your brand, the conversation starts warmer than a bought lead. The catch is that paid ads need real management, a decent landing page, and a follow-up system, or the cost per policy drifts up fast. For advisers willing to invest in the setup, it is a solid medium-cost, fully-owned channel.
Content and SEO
Content and search are slow to start and cheap to sustain. Write genuinely useful pages about the cover people are searching for, rank them, and each lead costs very little after the upfront work is done. These prospects arrive already researching, so they trust you before the first call and convert well. The limitation is time: SEO is a compounding asset, not a tap you turn on this week. But once it is working, the cost per policy is among the lowest of any source, and the pipeline keeps arriving without ongoing spend.
Reactivating Your Existing Database
This is the source most advisers overlook, and it is usually the best value of the lot after referrals. Every adviser has a list of people who requested a quote, started an application, or asked about cover and then went quiet. Most stopped for a timing reason, not a firm no. A database reactivation campaign works that list with a structured message sequence and qualifies responses before a human gets involved.
Because these people already raised their hand once, the conversion rate is far higher than a cold bought lead, and the cost is a few pence of messaging per contact plus the campaign setup. The cost per completed policy comes out a fraction of any bought source. If you have never worked your dormant list, that is the first place to spend, not the last. Our full method is in the database reactivation guide.
Referrals and Existing Clients
Referrals cost almost nothing and convert higher than any other source, because the trust arrives before you do. A happy client who gets a nudge to review or to introduce a friend is the cheapest policy you will ever write. Most advisers under-ask here, worried about being pushy, and leave the single best channel half-worked. A simple, systematic referral ask beats a month of bought leads.
The Maths: Ranking Sources by Cost Per Policy
The headline price per lead is a distraction. What matters is what you pay for a policy that actually completes. Take a worked example and hold the average commission value constant so we are only comparing acquisition cost.
Shared bought leads: at £15 a lead and a 5 percent close rate, that is roughly £300 in lead cost per completed policy, before staff time chasing dead numbers.
Exclusive bought leads: at £60 a lead and a 12 percent close rate, that is roughly £500 per policy in lead cost, though the lower time waste narrows the real gap.
Comparison leads: at £30 a lead and a 7 percent close rate, that is roughly £430 per policy.
Your own paid ads: at £40 a lead and a 10 percent close rate, that is roughly £400 per policy, and you own the lead and the brand lift.
Reactivation: a campaign against 500 dormant enquiries might cost a modest setup fee plus pennies per message. If it produces even 10 to 20 completed policies from people who already knew you, the cost per policy typically lands in the low tens of pounds, not the hundreds.
Ranked from cheapest to most expensive per completed policy: existing clients and referrals first, database reactivation second, content and SEO third, your own paid ads fourth, then exclusive bought leads, comparison leads, and shared bought leads last. The cheap shared lead is genuinely the most expensive way to buy a policy. Spend in the right order and the same budget writes far more business. For a deeper look at the follow-up side of this, see speed to lead and the follow-up problem.
A Note on Compliance
Life insurance and protection sit inside a regulated market. Any lead you buy or generate must have a lawful basis for contact and clear consent under UK data and marketing rules. Ask any provider exactly how the contact opted in, what they consented to, and whether that consent covers a call from you. Keep your own consent records, and follow FCA expectations on fair treatment of customers and clear, non-misleading communication throughout. A cheap lead with murky consent is not cheap once the regulatory risk is priced in.
Where to Go Deeper
Each source deserves its own detail. If you are weighing up providers, our guide on how to buy life insurance leads in the UK covers what to ask and what to avoid. For building your own pipeline rather than buying it, see life insurance lead generation. And for the specific case of protection cover, read protection leads for advisers. All three go a level deeper than the summary here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do life insurance leads cost in the UK?
It depends entirely on the source. Shared bought leads sit at roughly £8 to £30 each, exclusive bought leads at roughly £30 to £90, and comparison site or aggregator leads at anything from £15 to £60 depending on the filters. Your own paid ads typically produce a lead for £20 to £80 once you account for wasted spend, while content and SEO cost very little per lead after the upfront work. The cheapest source of all is a warm one you already own: a referral or a reactivated enquiry from your existing database. The headline price per lead matters far less than the cost per completed policy after your real conversion rate.
Are shared or exclusive life insurance leads better?
Exclusive leads are usually better value even though they cost more per lead. A shared lead is sold to several advisers at once, so the prospect fields a run of near-identical calls and often stops answering before you reach them. Speed to lead becomes everything and your conversion rate falls. An exclusive lead is yours alone, which means a calmer conversation and a higher close rate. When you work the cost per completed policy rather than the cost per lead, exclusive leads frequently come out cheaper despite the higher sticker price. In our experience the buyer who chases the lowest price per lead usually pays the most per policy.
What is a realistic conversion rate on bought life insurance leads?
For shared bought leads, a conversion rate of roughly 3 to 8 percent from lead to completed policy is typical once you allow for wrong numbers, tyre kickers and people who never answer. Exclusive leads tend to convert higher, often in the 8 to 15 percent range, because you are the only adviser calling and the prospect is warmer. Comparison site leads land somewhere in between. These are ranges, not promises, and they move with your speed to lead, your follow-up discipline and the quality of the source. A warm referral or a reactivated enquiry from your own database will usually convert several times higher than any bought lead.
Which life insurance lead source has the lowest cost per policy?
Ranked by cost per completed policy, existing clients and referrals come first because they cost almost nothing and convert at the highest rate. Reactivating your own dormant database comes second: those people already enquired once, so the conversion rate is far higher than any cold source and the cost per policy is a fraction of a bought lead. Your own content and SEO come next once the upfront work is done. Bought and aggregator leads sit at the expensive end, because the prospect does not know you and the same enquiry has often been sold to rivals. Cheap shared leads are frequently the most expensive per policy of all.
Can I reactivate old life insurance enquiries instead of buying new leads?
Yes, and for most protection advisers it is the first thing worth doing. Every adviser has a list of people who requested a quote, started an application or asked about cover and then went quiet, usually for a timing reason rather than a firm no. A database reactivation campaign works that list with a structured sequence of messages and qualifies the responses before a human gets involved. Because these people already raised their hand once, the conversion rate is far higher than a cold bought lead and the cost per policy is far lower. It is the closest thing to free pipeline that most advisers are sitting on.
Do I need to worry about compliance when buying life insurance leads?
Yes. Life insurance and protection sit inside a regulated market, so any lead you buy or generate must have a lawful basis for contact and clear consent under UK data and marketing rules. Ask any lead provider exactly how the contact opted in, what they consented to and whether that consent covers a call from you. Keep your own records of consent and follow FCA expectations on fair treatment of customers and clear, non-misleading communication at every step. A cheap lead with murky consent is not cheap once you factor in the regulatory risk. This is a guide to generating leads, not compliance or financial advice, so check your obligations with a qualified compliance resource.
How Many Policies Are Sitting in Your Old Enquiries?
Levity runs AI database reactivation for protection advisers and financial services firms. We work your dormant list, qualify the responses with AI, and deliver booked calls to your calendar. The warmest, cheapest life insurance leads you have are the ones you already own.
Rees Calder is the founder of Levity, an AI-powered lead generation agency. He builds AI reactivation and outbound systems for financial services and protection clients across the UK. The cost and conversion ranges in this article are drawn from Levity's client campaigns and are hedged estimates, not guarantees.