Earlier this month, the LeadsCouncil, an independent online lead-generation association, announced the Comply badge initiative to help foster trust and transparency between lead buyers and sellers. The program will allow marketers to show their compliance with regulatory guidelines with the help of a grading system and visible on-page badge.
What it is
Comply, powered by PerformLine’s compliance platform PerformMatch, will analyze the page its badge is displayed on, via a JavaScript tag. When clicked, it will display a compliance grade, along with any potential violations (e.g., the use of banned terms) found on the page. A page can earn one of three possible grades: “Good,” “Fair” or “Poor.”
“LeadsCouncil members are united in a common goal of promoting best practices and fostering trust,” says Michael Ferree, executive director of LeadsCouncil. “With the Comply badge, lead sellers now have the ability to show that they are committed to compliance while giving lead buyers the confidence to buy from Comply-monitored sellers.”
“Through Comply we’re excited to provide a lightweight public-facing version of our technology,” according to Alex Baydin, CEO of PerformLine. He added that the badge program is a winning proposition for publishers to prove their compliance to buyers, users and regulators.
Reactions
“As a lead buyer that has seen more than his fair share of fraudulent, incentivized and low-quality leads, I appreciate what the LeadsCouncil is doing with their Comply badge initiative,” says Ryan Hartman, manager of digital marketing and partner revenue for Esurance. “Lead sellers that are willing to place the Comply badge on their sites are obviously confident in the quality of their leads. This ‘putting your money where your mouth is’ approach should ultimately steer buyers towards badge-verified sellers, as they will feel more certain they aren’t buying junk.”
The Comply program also got the support of Erik Josowitz, senior vice president of technology for All Web Leads. “We at All Web Leads are very supportive of the LeadsCouncil’s role in helping to create a higher-quality and better-performing marketplace for lead buyers and sellers,” he says. “As such, we applaud what they are doing with their new Comply badge program. It remains to be seen how this approach can work in the insurance leads market, but we support any initiative that brings trust and transparency to the market.”
Jeff Herz, director of compliance and operations at CUnet, said, “We are very happy when any initiative increases the quality and compliance of inquiries and feel that this is a very positive step for the entire industry.”
“Compliance is a hot topic right now,” said Nick Hedges, president and CEO of Leads360. “The majority of lead buyers and lead sellers genuinely want to be sure that what they are doing is within consumer-friendly guidelines. There is an array of solutions popping up at the moment to help with compliance, but what I really like about the Comply badge is that it is being spearheaded by the LeadsCouncil. As an independent body, LeadsCouncil is in a great position to offer a certification that both buyers and sellers can trust.”
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