Why 73% of Purchased Lead Lists Are Wasted (The Data Nobody Shows You)

You buy a lead list. Let's say 1,000 records. You upload it, run the campaign, and here's roughly what happens: 220 numbers are disconnected or invalid. 85 are on the DNC Registry. 140 are landlines in a market that's gone 70% mobile. 110 were sold to 5 other agents in the last 30 days. That's 555 records — over half your list — that had no realistic path to conversion before you dialed the first number.

Some studies put the effective percentage of a typical purchased insurance lead list at 27% — meaning 73 cents of every dollar you spend on lead lists is wasted.^[1]

Where the 73% Goes: Breaking Down the Waste

Disconnected and Inactive Numbers: ~18–22%

The CDC's National Health Interview Survey tracks that U.S. residential mobility runs at about 8.4% annually.^[2] For a list that's 18 months old, that's well over 10% of numbers that have moved. Add in numbers that were wrong at capture, deactivated VoIP numbers, and reassigned numbers — and you're typically looking at 18–22% unusable on data quality grounds alone.

DNC-Registered Numbers: ~5–12%

The National DNC Registry holds 249 million numbers as of 2024. On any given list of insurance prospects (typically adults 45–75, who register at higher rates), expect 5–12% to be DNC-registered.^[3]

Over-Contacted and Burned Leads: ~15–20%

The lead that's been sold to 8 different agents and has heard from all of them. By the time your agent dials, this prospect either has your carrier's prefix on a block list, has already purchased, or has become hostile to insurance calls.

Demographic Mismatch: ~10–15%

If you're selling Medicare Supplement and your list includes 35-year-olds who registered their number 15 years ago, that's wasted dials.

Aged Data: ~10–15%

Data that was accurate 18 months ago has decayed. The person moved. Changed carriers. Changed their mind. The moment of intent is long gone.

What Happens to Your Team on a 27%-Effective List

Your agents don't know which 27% is good. They dial all 1,000 records. They spend 73% of their time on numbers that can't convert. By the end of the week, your best reps are demoralized. Your call-to-conversation rate is in the single digits. Burnout in outbound insurance sales is primarily a data quality problem.

What a Clean List Actually Looks Like

A properly scrubbed and filtered insurance lead list — with DNC removal, active number verification, mobile confirmation, deduplication, and demographic filtering applied — typically returns 60–75% of the original record count but those records represent close to 90% of the conversion potential of the original list.

Fewer dials. More conversations. Higher agent morale. Dramatically lower TCPA exposure.

References

1. LIMRA. (2022). Insurance Sales Lead Quality and Contact Rate Benchmarking Study.
2. U.S. Census Bureau. (2023). American Community Survey: Geographic Mobility in the United States. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/migration.html
3. Federal Trade Commission. (2024). National Do Not Call Registry Data Book FY 2023. https://www.ftc.gov/reports/dnc-data-book