How to Buy SEO Leads as an SEO Agency

Table Of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. What are the Main Sources of SEO Leads
3. Step-by-Step Guide for Buying High-Quality Leads
4. How to Verify SEO Lead Generation Provider Credibility
5. How to Assess SEO Leads Quality
6. How to Measure SEO Leads ROI
7. PROS of Buying SEO Leads From Lead Selling Agencies
8. CONS of Buying SEO Leads From Lead Selling Agencies
9. The Best Way to Find Exclusive SEO Leads Online
10. FAQs

Did you know that lead generation is considered the most challenging task by 61% of marketers while generating high-quality leads for sales teams is the top priority for the majority of companies worldwide? As an SEO agency scaling your sales efforts, where do you buy SEO leads? But most importantly where do you find high-quality and exclusive SEO leads?

Buying SEO leads from third-party providers could be the answer, if you apply the right strategy. But how do you buy SEO leads the right way? Or should you take lead generation in-house? Buying SEO leads can be quicker and easier, but only if you have a bulletproof strategy for sourcing from the right lead generation services. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and money on poor quality data.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Don't overlook industry directories and lead databases as potential SEO lead sources. Directory sites can provide a flow of businesses actively seeking Search Engine Optimization services.
• When buying SEO leads, be sure to rigorously vet lead providers on criteria like data sourcing methods, permission standards, contact accuracy processes, and client referenceability.
• Always run parallel test campaigns with 2-3 prospective lead providers before making long-term commitments.
• If you find a top-performing lead provider, don't be afraid to negotiate better terms like pre-payment discounts, free trial periods, and make-good policies to ensure ongoing lead quality.
• Maximize efficiency by directly integrating your chosen lead provider with your CRM, marketing automation tools, dialers, and sales cadence systems.
• Implement rigorous lead scoring criteria based on firmographics, behavioral signals, permissions, and engagement levels to separate truly qualified SEO leads from poor-fit prospects.
• Track performance metrics like cost per lead (CPL), conversion rates, customer acquisition costs (CAC), and overall ROI to continually measure the return from your various SEO lead sources and providers.

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What are the Main Sources of SEO Leads

For an SEO agency, your lifeblood is a constant flow of qualified SEO leads. Without a healthy pipeline, your SEO business will struggle to close enough deals to hit your revenue targets.

So what's the good news? There are multiple potential sources for mining these SEO leads. The bad news? Not all lead sources are created equal. Some are pure garbage that will just waste your sales team's time.

Let's explore some of the primary ways of generating leads for your SEO business and highlight the inherent pros and cons of each channel:

1. Take SEO lead generation in-house.

One option is to take a DIY approach and have an in-house team responsible for generating leads. This allows you to maintain full control over your lead flow and qualification criteria.

Your in-house team could employ tactics like SEO, content marketing, paid ads, social media marketing, networking events, and even old-school outbound to identify and pursue potential clients. The upside is you get to dictate exactly who gets branded as a qualified SEO lead.

But taking the in-house route also requires significant resources. Both in terms of headcount costs and time/effort invested. You're essentially paying in advance for the privilege of controlling your lead stream.

2. Buy SEO leads from lead generation services.

If you'd rather not deal with the hassle of lead generation yourself, there are third-party lead providers that will sell you their proprietary SEO leads. With this option, you're paying for the convenience of an outsourced solution.

The pros are obvious, it's a turnkey way to get exclusive leads injected directly into your pipeline with minimal work required on your end. When vetting lead providers, just be sure to get sample leads to validate their quality and audience fit first.

The downside is that you're essentially "renting leads". Cheap shared SEO leads that get blasted out to multiple agencies are often a waste of money.

3. Find qualified SEO leads online.

When considering buy SEO leads, you can't overlook the increasing role technology now plays in efficiently identifying SEO leads. There are a number of tools and platforms can help SEO agencies like yours in this pursuit.

These tools can help you leverage data to find your next customers. They can automatically identify ideal targets based on your specified criteria and enrich those leads with real-time insights and activity signals pulled from across the web. You can then use that data to prioritize outreach and get customized cold outreach to break through with relevance.

An agency may find SEO leads using tools like:

• LavaReach
• Apollo
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Of course, tools are just delivery vehicles. You still need the strategy and human element to effectively approach and convert those leads into new customers.

4. Generate leads through referrals and partnerships.

Don't overlook the power of your own network and partner ecosystem as a lead source. This is where you can really strike gold in terms of warm leads.

A few tactics to mine this channel:

• Implement a referral program incentivizing your existing SEO clients to share your info with others
• Partner with complementary service providers (web designers, PPC agencies, etc.) for cross-promotion
• Get listed on relevant affiliate programs
• Leverage your team's personal networks for referrals

These types of leads tend to be higher quality leads since there's inherent trust and credibility baked in. But you also have less control over volume.

5. List your SEO agency in online directories.

There are also a variety of online business directories and databases focused on connecting buyers that are open to purchasing SEO services with service providers and businesses like yourself. An SEO agency may source leads from sites like:

• Clutch.co
• TheManifest.com
• AgencyList.com

The quality can vary wildly across different providers.

At the end of the day, just realize that not all lead sources are equal. The optimal mix will depend on factors like budget, available resources, your target market, and specific growth goals. Most established SEO agencies employ a blended strategy pulling from multiple lead channels.

Step-by-Step Guide for Buying High-Quality Leads

If you've decided that buying SEO leads from a third-party provider is the right move for your SEO company, it's crucial to be strategic and diligent with your approach. Purchasing shared SEO leads that get blasted out to multiple companies is often a recipe for wasted time and money.

Instead, you want to focus on acquiring exclusive SEO leads that match your specific criteria and ideal customer profile. Here's a step-by-step process I recommend:

Step 1: Define your target audience.

Get crystal clear on exactly who fits the mold of a perfect SEO client for your agency.

• What are the key firmographics like company size, industry, location, and revenue?
• What are the behavioral and technographic signals that indicate a need for SEO services?

The more specific and nuanced you can be with this definition, the better. You don't just want any SEO leads. You want qualified SEO leads that are likely to actually convert into paying customers for your SEO company.

Step 2: Vet lead generation services.

There are many companies that sell SEO leads. But they're not all equal in terms of quality and audience fit.

Research the top providers and ask very specific questions about how they source their data:

• What criteria do they use for vetting and qualifying the leads?
• Are they selling exclusive leads or shared leads?
• Can you see sample leads to evaluate if they match your target prospect profile?

It's also a good idea to check online reviews, case studies, and gain clarity around pricing structure, volumes, guarantees, and any other terms.

Step 3: Test multiple SEO lead generation providers.

Don't just pick one lead provider and cross your fingers. Identify 2-3 that seem like a good fit based on your vetting process and run parallel test campaigns with each.

Establish a tracking process to consistently measure and compare metrics like:

• Lead quality scores based on your criteria
• Contact data accuracy rates
• Cost per lead
• Volume of leads delivered
• Conversion rates to qualified opportunity
• Close rates on won/lost deals

It may take some initial investment, but testing will quickly reveal which lead providers are worth continuing to work with for your SEO agency.

Step 4: Negotiate better terms.

If you do find a lead provider that checks all the boxes in terms of lead generation services, quality, audience fit, and downstream ROI, don't be afraid to negotiate for better pricing and terms.

As you likely know from selling services, buyers always have more leverage when committing higher contract values or longer durations. Don't leave that on the table. Use it to your advantage.

See if the lead provider will offer discounts for pre-paying annually instead of monthly. Or potentially a free trial period to further validate their offering before signing a long-term agreement. At the very least, ask for a set number of make-good leads each month if the quality dips below an agreed threshold.

Step 5. Integrate with other tools.

To maximize efficiency with your lead flow, explore integrating your lead provider directly with other tools in your tech stack. For example:

• Push new lead records automatically into your CRM
• Route leads to specific sales reps based on territories or specialties
• Enrich lead profiles with additional third-party data
• Trigger automated marketing sequences and sales cadences

The more you can streamline and systematize your processes around acquired SEO leads, the better you can scale your agency's sales efforts.

Buying SEO leads is a viable growth strategy, but only if you're intentional about securing high-quality prospects from reputable SEO lead providers.

How to Verify SEO Lead Generation Provider Credibility

When vetting potential lead providers to buy SEO leads from, it's absolutely critical that you verify their credibility and legitimacy. There are a lot of shady operators that target the SEO industry space. Many prioritize making a quick buck over providing quality leads.

You don't want to get suckered into paying for a list of outdated, incorrectly permissioned business contacts that multiple other SEO agencies have already spammed to death. A situation like that is the opposite of a qualified SEO lead, it's just wasted time and money.

So how can you verify the SEO lead provider credibility? Here are a few key areas to consider during your SEO lead provider evaluation:

1. Data sourcing methodology.

Ask questions about how the lead provider builds their database. What process do they use to identify and qualify each lead? Are there human checkers involved or is it all automated scrapers?

Shady providers will be vague here, using buzzwords like "proprietary algorithms" as a smokescreen. Credible ones will be able to walk you through their step-by-step vetting process in detail.

2. Permission protocols.

One of the biggest pitfalls when buying SEO leads is not having permission to actually contact those prospects. Make sure the lead provider is explicit about their permission marketing standards.

At a minimum, they should be able to confirm that every single lead has opted-in to receive relevant business communications from third-party partners. Double opt-in protocols with evidenced consent trails are ideal for ensuring compliance.

Look for lead providers that have stringent data privacy and compliance certifications and adhere to industry regulations like GDPR, CCPA, CAN-SPAM, etc.

3. Contact data accuracy.

Arguably the most important factor - how confident can you be that the contact information and lead profiles are up-to-date and accurate? Credible lead providers should:

• Have a process for continually verifying and refreshing their data
• Use an email verification tool and other data hygiene practices
• Be willing to provide accuracy rate guarantees in their contracts

Ask for sample leads so you can audit the accuracy of their data yourself. Nothing in email marketing is more frustrating than deliverable emails bouncing or contacts being perpetually outdated.

4. Client references and case studies.

While you should take marketing collateral with a grain of salt, credible lead providers should be able to provide substantive client references and case study examples upon request.

Reach out to those references and ask the tough questions about lead quality, conversion rates, contract terms, customer support, and overall ROI generated. If the lead provider can't produce solid referenceability, that's a red flag.

At the end of the day, you're entrusting this lead provider with one of your agency's most precious assets, your sales pipeline. Don't cut corners when vetting their legitimacy and ability to deliver qualified SEO leads.

How to Assess SEO Leads Quality

Even after you've thoroughly vetted an SEO lead provider's credibility, the work isn't done. You still need an objective process for evaluating the actual quality of the leads they deliver to your SEO agency.

Remember, not all SEO leads are created equal. There's a massive difference between random business contacts and truly qualified SEO leads that match your ideal client profile and are likely to convert into paying customers.

When assessing lead quality from any source, here are some key criteria I recommend applying:

1. Firmographic fit.

Do the companies in your lead pipeline match the firmographic criteria you've identified for your target market? Factors like:

• Company size and employee count
• Annual revenue range
• Industry/vertical
• Geographic location
• Growth trajectory and funding status

The more leads closely aligned with your targeted firmographics, the higher likelihood those quality leads will be a mutual fit for your SEO company services.

2. Behavioral signals.

Beyond just company characteristics, also look for behavioral signals that indicate the lead has an active need or potential use case for SEO services. For example:

• Are they launching a new website or digital initiative?
• Have they recently hired digital marketing leadership roles?
• Are there signs of poor website performance or traffic?
• Do they publish new content and how often?

These types of real-time triggers can differentiate between "Expressed interested" and "Actively looking" SEO leads.

3. Contact accuracy and permissions.

This one should be table stakes, but verify that all lead contact information is accurate, up-to-date, and there are no permission issues:

• Do emails successfully pass inbox deliverability checks?
• Are phone numbers and mailing addresses also accurate?
• Have all contacts legally consented to be marketed to?

Nothing derails a sales process quite like reaching out to the wrong person or having your emails bounced for lack of consent.

4. Interest and Engagement.

Once you do initiate outreach to potential customers, pay close attention to the level of interest and engagement each SEO lead demonstrates:

• Are they responding to your cadences?
• Do they ask follow-up questions or push for more info?
• Are they willing to commit to a discovery call?

Low engagement is usually a sign that the lead wasn't very qualified to begin with.

Finally, your sales team should define the most important criteria they use for lead scoring and qualification. The goal shouldn't just be "more SEO leads". It should be "more qualified SEO leads" that have a high probability of converting into real paying customers.

How to Measure SEO Leads ROI

Whether you're generating SEO leads through an in-house team, buying them from providers, or finding them using tools like LavaReach, you need to be able to definitively quantify whether the SEO leads you're acquiring are actually translating into paying clients and contributing to revenue growth. Otherwise, you're just throwing money into a black box.

Here are some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) I recommend tracking to calculate your SEO leads ROI:

• Cost Per Lead (CPL) - How much are you paying on average to acquire each new lead? Calculate this by taking your total lead generation costs (e.g. salaries, software, media spend, lead provider fees) and dividing by the number of new leads generated over that same period. For an SEO agency buying SEO leads, this CPL benchmark is especially important for evaluating the ROI of different lead providers. You can compare which ones deliver the lowest CPL while still meeting your quality criteria.
• Lead Conversion Rates - After sourcing SEO leads, you obviously then need to track what percentage of those leads successfully convert through different funnel stages like: Engaged lead, Marketing qualified lead (MQL), Sales qualified lead (SQL), Closed/won customer. Conversion rates will indicate just how qualified and sales-ready those SEO leads actually were out of the gate. If conversion percentages are exceedingly low across multiple lead sources, that could signify a quality issue with your SEO leads provider.
• Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) - Building off the CPL and conversion rates, you can then calculate another critical metric: Your CAC for your SEO clients. This essentially captures the average cost of acquiring a new customer. The CAC formula is: CAC = Total costs of Sales and Marketing / Number of new customers. You'll want to continually benchmark your CAC over time and against industry standards. If it's getting too high compared to the average SEO client lifetime value (LTV), that's a red flag your lead generation efforts need adjusting.
• Return on Investment (ROI) - At the end of the day though, you don't care about leads or even customers themselves - you care about bottom-line revenue and profits. That's why rolled revenue metrics are so crucial: ROI = (Revenue from customers - Cost of acquiring them) / Cost of acquiring them

Other KPIs like payback period, LTV:CAC ratio, and net revenue retention can further enhance your analysis as well.

PROS of Buying SEO Leads From Lead Selling Agencies

For SEO agencies looking to rapidly scale their sales pipeline, buying SEO leads from specialized lead providers can be an extremely compelling option. While there are also potential drawbacks for companies to consider, there are several advantages to this approach.

The most obvious pro, lead selling agencies provide an instantaneous influx of new SEO leads and prospecting opportunities into your funnel. This can be a much-needed jumpstart if you're struggling generating leads of high enough quality on your own through your in-house team's efforts.

The best SEO lead providers don't just blast you random contacts, they should be able to curate tailored prospect lists that match your specific targeting criteria and ideal customer profiles. This allows you to go after qualified SEO leads only rather than wasting time on ill-fitted opportunities.

Another advantage of working with lead selling agencies is that they continually refresh and update the data within their lead lists. They have processes for re-verifying contact details, pruning inactive records, and adding new leads on an ongoing basis.

Arguably the biggest advantage of buying SEO leads is that it allows your sales team to laser-focus all their energy on working the most qualified SEO leads. No more wasted motion chasing unproductive prospects or doing prospecting themselves.

CONS of Buying SEO Leads From Lead Selling Agencies

While buying SEO leads from lead selling agencies can be an effective way to jumpstart your agency's pipeline, it's not a perfect solution. There are some potential downsides and risks to be aware of.

Let's start with the obvious, working with lead selling agencies adds another line item cost to your budget. Compared to generating quality leads through your own in-house team's efforts, you're essentially renting or paying rent for those SEO leads.

Whether it's a flat rate per lead, subscription model, or CPL pricing, you need to crunch the numbers to ensure the ROI still makes sense for your agency. Buying SEO leads is an investment, so you need high enough conversion rates to justify the expenditure.

Here's another one - quality control concerns. No matter how stringent an SEO lead provider's processes may seem, there's always the risk that you end up with lower quality SEO leads than advertised. Lead data can quickly become stale, contacts may be incorrectly permissioned, and poor fit prospects could slip through.

Another pitfall to watch out for is shared leads and it's a big one, in my opinion. If an SEO lead provider is re-selling the same SEO leads to multiple agencies, those prospects could quickly become over-contacted, burned out by the time your team reaches them.

Also, when buying SEO leads from lead selling agencies, you're essentially getting a list of names and contact details. What you likely won't have is much insight into the context and backstory of each lead.

How were they sourced and qualified in the first place? What marketing triggered their interest? What's the prospect's current role, priorities? Without this context, it's an uphill battle trying to personalize your outreach.

At the end of the day, buying SEO leads is a numbers game. For many SEO agencies, the pros of rapidly injecting new prospect fuel into their pipeline can outweigh the cons. But it's still important for digital agencies to be aware of the potential downsides and risks involved with this demand gen approach.

The Best Way to Find Exclusive SEO Leads Online

For SEO agencies tired of resorting to ineffective spray-and-pray tactics or painfully manual prospect research, LavaReach provides a better way. Our AI-powered platform automates the entire process of finding and engaging with the highest quality SEO leads.

Rather than blasting generic emails or spending hours digging for personalization fodder, LavaReach streamlines everything from list building and data enrichment to hyper-personalized multi-touch outreach sequences.

Get SEO Prospects
to Chase You

Provide value throughout your outreach with LavaReach's automated site audits.

Book a Demo

Here's a quick look at how our solution supercharges your SEO agency's lead generation engine:

Intelligent list building

The foundation is identifying your ideal SEO client profile and total addressable market. LavaReach allows you to filter and build targeted prospect lists using precise firmographic criteria like:

• Industry/vertical
• Current website ranking positions
• Company size and employee count
• Revenue range and growth trajectory
• Geographic location and territories

You can further refine based on advanced filters like website performance metrics, SEO keyword opportunities, and other tailored qualifiers specific to your agency's sweet spot.

Automated prospect research

Once you've narrowed your prospect universe, LavaReach does the heavy lifting of researching and enriching each potential SEO lead. Our AI automatically surfaces and appends critical context like:

• Website traffic levels and performance scores
• Organic search visibility and rankings
• Relevant keywords they should be targeting
• Technical website health and user experience data
• Plus any other SEO/website data you need

This real-time business intelligence ensures you go into every engagement equiped with powerful personalization hooks and value propositions. No more manually researching websites yourself.

**Seamless prospect activation **

With prospect lists built and enriched by LavaReach, you're then able to design and automate highly customized outreach cadences at scale. Our AI personalizer automatically populates templates with those unique data points.

For example: "I noticed your website is only ranking #64 for the high-volume keyword 'plumber Atlanta.' Our SEO services have helped other plumbing companies in the area double their organic traffic for terms like this within 6 months..."

You can also leverage LavaReach's multi-channel capabilities to automatically sequence personalized messages, calls, LinkedIn outreach, and any other touches required to break through the noise.

Integrated tech stack

Of course, LavaReach doesn't exist in a silo. Our platform integrates seamlessly with your existing go-to-market tech stack, consolidating all prospect intelligence within your CRM, marketing automation tools, dialers, and more.

We take advantage of APIs from SEMrush, Google Search Console, and other data providers to continuously enrich your entire contact database.

Complete pipeline visibility

Beyond just lead generation, LavaReach also provides full visibility across your entire pipeline of SEO prospects and opportunities. Features like:

• Deanonymizing and capturing website visitor data
• Tracking previous champions and easy retargeting
• Automated meeting booking and confirmation

Ensure you never miss an opportunity to engage with an SEO lead, whether they're an inbound visitor, existing customer going through a job change, or anywhere else in your funnel.

LavaReach combines intelligent automation with human-level insights to help your SEO agency land 2-3 extra new prospect meetings per week, on autopilot. We make finding and securing qualified SEO leads easier than ever. So ditch the outdated methods of spreadsheets, copy/paste prospecting, and shoulders-to-the-grindstone grunt work book a demo today.

FAQs

What are SEO leads?

SEO leads are potential clients who have expressed interest in purchasing Search Engine Optimization services. They are obtained through various channels like digital marketing, email campaigns, and social media marketing. These leads offer opportunities for SEO agencies to convert them into paying clients.

What should you look for in a lead provider?

Look for a lead provider offering quality leads with complete contact details and verified accuracy. Providers should supply exclusive leads to minimize competition and sample leads to gauge their quality. Evaluate the source of leads generated and their relevance to your target market.

What are the risks of buying low-quality SEO leads?

Buying poor-quality SEO leads can lead to wasted resources and lower conversion rates. This can impact your sales pipeline and damage your agency's reputation. It may also increase customer dissatisfaction and result in higher acquisition costs.