The spread is enormous — from eleven cents to a hundred dollars — because the word "lead" covers two different products. Here is what each really costs and the math that decides between them.
A consumer asked about annuities or retirement income online, and that inquiry is sold to several advisors. Warm but contested — speed-to-call wins, and a month of leads can run four figures before a single appointment sticks.
Cold records of households aged 55-70 in affluent census tracts ($75k+ median income floor and up), exclusive to you, sold once and removed. Records run $0.11-$0.26 with a $10 minimum. The 2,000-piece seminar mailer that fills a room costs about $300-500 in data and postage-list terms — the price of a handful of shared leads.
Shared leads convert better per contact; data converts better per dollar at volume. A producer running monthly seminars needs the data lane. One writing off inbound calls needs the lead lane. Most build the pipeline on data and buy leads to smooth gaps. Every county page quotes your exact slice live, with a free sample before any payment.
NestEgg sells public-record affluent-household prospect data for licensed financial professionals. Buyers are responsible for TCPA/DNC compliance on their own outreach.