How Charcoal saved thousands by fixing lead transparency
Industry
Insurance
Read Time
3 min
Summary
Charcoal partnered with ActiveProspect to help its insurance clients eliminate wasted spend on low-intent and outdated leads while improving overall lead performance. By implementing TrustedForm Insights, Charcoal gained independent visibility into lead age, origin, and quality—enabling smarter lead-buying decisions and real-time filtering. The result was significant cost savings, higher conversion rates, and more efficient policy acquisition, all without relying on unverifiable vendor claims.
$250,000 saved by blocking unwanted leads in the first year
58.5% increase in lead conversion rate
69.3% more policies sold
31.0% reduction in cost per acquisition
Problem
Charcoal’s insurance clients—including a top 15 insurance carrier—were spending significant time and money on leads that appeared high-intent but had actually expressed interest months earlier. Without a reliable way to validate when a form was submitted or where the lead originated, buyers had to rely solely on the claims of lead partners.
This lack of transparency led to wasted budget, frustrated agents, and lower conversion rates. Charcoal needed a solution that could independently verify lead freshness and source so clients could focus only on real-time, high-intent opportunities.
Solution
By adopting TrustedForm Insights, Charcoal was able to move beyond surface-level lead validation and give its clients actionable intelligence into lead quality. Insights allowed Charcoal to evaluate leads based on key attributes such as timestamp, IP address, and originating domain—enabling them to identify poor-performing sources and aged submissions before they reached agents.
TrustedForm Insights empowered Charcoal to block over $250,000 worth of unwanted leads in the first year alone, with 90% of savings coming from eliminating leads from low-performing domains. The outcome was happier agents, stronger performance, and a far more cost-efficient lead-buying operation.
We’ve saved our clients tens of thousands of dollars in lead costs by being able to scrub leads that are aged or come from websites that do not convert well.”
Kurt Black, CEO
With TrustedForm Insights, Charcoal transformed how its clients evaluate and act on leads—replacing guesswork with independently verifiable data and measurable performance improvements.
Company
Charcoal is a lead management software platform that filters leads, informs pricing and buying decisions, and connects lead buyers and sellers within a single ecosystem—helping companies improve efficiency, transparency, and ROI across the lead lifecycle.
