It’s easy to find out how many financial enquiries your business gets from Unbiased, but there’s no way to compare your figures with those of other advisers.
Until now.
Thanks to the co-operation of advisers, not only have we been investigating Unbiased’s Response Rating, we have also compiled research into the effectiveness of the system as an enquiry generating tool.
Today we can reveal the results. Including the average number of leads received over the last three months; the timeframe we have used for all the statistics in our research.
Appearance in searches
The average number of appearances in searches was 2,927.
The highest number over the period was 5,257 and the lowest 1,509.
Unsurprisingly, those advisers working in areas with a greater population density, saw higher appearance levels than those in more sparsely populated parts of the country.
Profile views
This is important as it is the first step to making a direct enquiry, rather than asking Unbiased to match you to an adviser.
The average number of profile views is 92; with the highest at 290 and the lowest just 41 (although that profile was only 68% complete).
The really important number is the ‘click through rate’, in other words, the percentage of users who click on your profile after appearing in a search. The average is 3.08%; with the highest at 9.57% (forgive the shameless plug, that was for a Yardstick client, where we set up the profile) and the lowest 1.29% (not a client of ours!).
A ‘click through rate’ of 3.08% i.e. just 3 in every 100 people who see your profile, clicking it, may instinctively feel low. But it compares well to other similar forms of advertising. The comparable figure for financial advertising on Google AdWords is 2.65% and just 0.56% on Facebook adverts (Source: Wordstream).
Number of financial enquiries
The $64,000 question; how many enquiries are advisers getting from Unbiased?
Two things are important here; the quantity and quality of enquiries. The latter we can’t immediately provide an insight into, the former we certainly can.
For the purposes of our research we have defined an enquiry as a call back request, an enquiry email, a telephone call on the number allocated by Unbiased, or an enquiry that has been accepted, following a direct approach on the Unbiased platform or where the consumer has been matched to the adviser by their algorithm.
The average number of financial enquiries per firm, over the past three months is 9.10.
This is broken down as follows:
- Call back requests 0.4
- Enquiry emails 2.53
- Enquiries accepted 5.6
- Telephone calls 0.6
Two firms, both mortgage brokers (final plug, one was a Yardstick client, whose profile we built), were way out ahead. If we strip these out, the average number of enquiries received was 6.79.
At the bottom end, two advisers received no financial enquiries over the past three months; although one of the profiles was only 68% completed though and another had let all their enquiries expire. The moral there? You’ve got to take time to build and then look after your profile.
Website visits
Subscribers to Unbiased with the highest level of membership can add a link to their website.
This is worth doing as potential financial enquiries may wish to do additional online research before making the decision to get in touch. A link therefore makes this easier. Plus, if they subsequently make an enquiry via your website, or simply call you direct, there’s no fee to pay to Unbiased.
The average clicks to an adviser’s website was 5.33, with the highest, 16.
Conclusions
Despite criticising certain aspects of the Unbiased system, I have always believed that for most advisers it will produce a steady stream of enquiries.
Our research proves that point.
There’s no doubt that Unbiased works best as part of a wider online strategy. I’d now add that it is probably more attractive to smaller firms, without huge numbers of enquiry hungry advisers to feed; unless your advisers are in multiple locations and can therefore justify a profile each.
I hope this research is both interesting and useful to you; the key now is to take action. Compare your own numbers and make changes to improve the areas where your profile is under-performing.
Alternatively, if you don’t know where to start, or how to improve your profile, please get in touch. One of our core services is the building of Unbiased profiles and we would be happy to help you with yours.
You can reach us on 0115 933 8433.
PS We need your help
We would like to add more firms to our Unbiased research. All information is treated confidentially and only used on an anonymous basis. But, the more data we have, the more accurate a picture it gives us.
If you could like to increase your financial enquiries, please get in touch or drop me an email to phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk
