A little more than 18 months has passed since Experian Interactive acquired LowerMyBills, the top online mortgage banking lead generation firm, for $380 million in May 2005. And, almost a year and a half has passed since Experian Interactive acquired leading education company ClassesUSA. I remember speaking to someone a few months before the LowerMyBills acquisition, and this person mentioned that when it officially launched, Experian Interactive would enter the online advertising world with a bang. It sure did. Not only that, but the two acquisitions gave the company leadership positions in arguably the two largest and most difficult lead generation verticals. Even more important, perhaps, these two companies that Experian Interactive acquired, especially LowerMyBills, were among the savviest in online media buying.
Quite a few companies in the online lead generation space have good offers, i.e. those that convert well across various media types. And an equal number have solid distribution, i.e. the ability to drive traffic to an offer. But, very few companies can do both. In other words, you can build an offer, and often you can distribute offers, but not both. That is why ROI Wise and Think Partnership have acquired the way they have – they buy companies with offers and companies with distribution, looking to link the two to create what LowerMyBills already had. For their vertical, they not only had arguably the best sales side giving them a phenomenally high average revenue per lead; they also had arguably the best busy side / reach on the Internet giving them access to the most traffic at the best rates. To top it off, they also had a solid, albeit not leading edge product team for testing creatives and landing pages. All told, LowerMyBills could monetize traffic, and everyone knew it.
LowerMyBills did one thing and one thing well. They knew the mortgage market. They did not, as other companies have, go across multiple verticals. The question many of us wondered – could they…would they? Looking at the landscape as a whole, companies can have a decent offer in more than one vertical (sales side), or they can distribute offers across more than one vertical, but having the buyers for leads and their own traffic (<25% affiliate), no one has. LowerMyBills couldn’t, but Experian Interactive just might, and it all comes down to the media buying.
Each vertical requires specialized knowledge in order to excel. A mortgage sales or product person cannot become a stellar education person, not quickly at least. They must go deep within their industry to become good, increasing the hurdle to move to other verticals. Media buying on the other hand requires a person to go deep within media buying. Verticalized knowledge helps, but does not have to precede success. LowerMyBills media success didn’t come because its media buyers understood the intricacies of the mortgage banking business. It came because, over time, they and the company learned not only where to buy but received the economies of scale that came from buying a lot of media. Generally, only ad networks who buy for multiple clients see this type of benefit, but they had the volume of some ad networks. LowerMyBills didn’t have the sales side strength in other verticals. Experian Interactive as mentioned, does.
Many might have assumed that LowerMyBills would transform itself into the display media arm for Experian Interactive, becoming a lead generation agency in a way. That didn’t happen right away though. Only insiders know for sure, but LowerMyBills continued growth after the acquisition probably delayed any pressure to diversify. To date, the various companies under Experian Interactive have continued to operate independently – working to hit their targets, but not necessarily working together to leverage the combined strengths. Until now.
It makes sense that a lead generation firm that gains a large enough buying presence can take that media strength and parlay it into other verticals. Ad networks do this all the time, but given the sales hurdle in lead generation, this had yet to happen. Ad networks can add new clients easily. Lead generation companies cannot. Lead generation companies need lots of clients in one vertical to make a media buy work; having many clients across areas doesn’t help them at all. Lead generation companies need coverage. They need to know that they can run large media buys (to take advantage of the lower pricing) and sell as high a percentage of leads as possible for the best rate possible. Lead generation advertisers interact with the customer after the banner occurs, not while the banner shows like ad network advertisers do.
The screenshots below show Experian Interactive leveraging their design and media strengths to help multiple verticals. They are showing the first signs of becoming the new type of CPA ad network.
Figure 1: LowerMyBills banner that directs users to a LowerMyBills landing page
Figure 2: ClassesUSA banner that leverages the LowerMyBills design and site placement
Figure 3: Auto Insurance banner that leverages the LowerMyBills design and site placement
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