Every lead buyer eventually has to decide how leads should reach them. Some teams want every qualifying record pushed straight into a CRM. Others want to bid on each consumer in real time. Others want nothing but a live phone call with a consumer already on the line. These are three different commercial models, not just three technical integrations, and each one changes what you pay for, what you can filter, how consent has to be worded and how quickly your team must act. This guide explains ping-post, direct post and live transfer from the buyer's side of the table, and the questions worth settling before the first lead arrives.
Direct post: the simplest contract
In a direct post arrangement the publisher sends the full lead record to a single buyer, or a short agreed list, the moment the consumer submits. The buyer has agreed in advance on the fields, the filters and the price. There is no auction. If the record meets the filters, it is delivered and billed. If it does not, it should never be sent.
Direct post suits buyers who know exactly what they want and have the capacity to work every lead quickly: a regional insurance agency licensed in four states, a solar installer covering a set of ZIP codes, a law firm taking one case type. Its strengths are predictability and clarity. The consent language can name the buyer directly, the price is fixed, and both sides can reconcile volume against a simple daily count.
The weaknesses are just as clear. A fixed price means the buyer pays the same for a strong record and a marginal one inside the filters. The publisher has no way to route a record elsewhere if the buyer's capacity is full, so caps and hours of operation matter a great deal. And because there is no real-time decision, filtering has to be written down carefully in the insertion order rather than decided on the fly.
Ping-post: a real-time auction
Ping-post splits delivery into two steps. First, the publisher sends a "ping": a partial record with no personal contact details, usually ZIP code, state and a handful of qualifying attributes such as insurance status, loan amount or project type. Buyers connected to the platform evaluate the ping against their own rules and return a bid, or decline. The publisher (or the network running the auction) then sends the "post", the full record including name and phone number, to the winning bidder or bidders, and the sale is confirmed.
The appeal for buyers is control. Each buyer can price different segments differently, bid only when they have capacity, and decline records that do not fit, all without renegotiating a contract. For networks, ping-post is how one consumer submission can be matched with the buyer who values it most. That is why it dominates high-volume verticals such as auto insurance, personal loans and home improvement.
Ping-post has its own risks. The ping contains partial data, so buyers bid before seeing the full record and must trust that the post will match the ping. Mismatches between ping and post data should be treated as a serious quality problem. Shared ping-post, where a record can be sold to several buyers, increases the number of companies contacting the consumer, which affects contact rates and consumer experience. And the consent language must cover every buyer who can win. If a consumer agrees to be contacted by one named company, that agreement cannot quietly be extended to the third-highest bidder.
Live transfer and inbound calls
Live transfer goes a step further. The consumer is on the phone, often after a screening call or an interactive voice response flow, and is connected directly to the buyer's agent. Inbound pay-per-call is similar, except the consumer dials a tracked number after seeing an ad or landing page. In both models the buyer usually pays only when a call meets an agreed minimum duration or qualification outcome.
Calls carry the strongest intent signal of any delivery model, because the consumer is speaking to someone right now. They also demand the most from the buyer: licensed agents must be available during the hours the campaign runs, and dropped or unanswered transfers waste the consumer's time. Buyers should agree how call duration is measured, what counts as a billable call, how repeat callers are handled, and what happens to calls that arrive outside business hours.
Compliance changes shape for calls as well. Outbound screening calls and transfers are subject to the TCPA and state telemarketing laws, and in verticals such as Medicare the rules on what may be said, recorded and disclosed are detailed and specific. Call recordings are often the best evidence a buyer has, so agree in advance who keeps them and for how long.
How the models compare
- What the buyer receives. Direct post: every qualifying record. Ping-post: records the buyer chose to win. Live transfer or calls: a consumer on the line.
- Pricing. Direct post: fixed per lead. Ping-post: set by each bid. Calls: per qualified call, usually with a duration threshold.
- Consent. Direct post: names one buyer or a short list. Ping-post: must cover whichever buyer can win the record. Calls: covers the buyer the consumer is connected to, plus any screening contact.
- Speed to contact. Direct post and ping-post: seconds to the buyer's system, then it depends on the buyer's dialler. Calls: immediate.
- Operational demand. Direct post: stable capacity and clear filters. Ping-post: a bidding engine or a network partner. Calls: staffed agents during campaign hours.
Choosing a model for your team
Start from your sales process, not from the price list. If your team works leads from a queue within minutes and has fixed coverage areas, direct post keeps things simple. If you already run pricing logic and want to buy selectively across many segments, ping-post gives you the control to do it. If you have licensed agents waiting and your conversion depends on a real conversation, calls usually make more sense than forms.
Many buyers combine models: direct post for a core territory, ping-post to fill gaps, and calls for peak hours. That works well as long as each programme has its own caps, its own filters and its own reporting, so you can tell which source is actually producing customers.
Questions to settle before launch
- Which fields will be in the ping, and which only in the post? How will ping-post mismatches be handled and credited?
- Is the record exclusive, or can it be sold to more than one buyer? If shared, how many buyers at most?
- Exactly whose name appears in the consent disclosure, and will we receive the disclosure text and a consent record with each lead?
- What are the daily caps, hours of operation and time zones, and what happens to records outside them?
- What are the return reasons, the return window and the evidence required for a return?
- For calls, what is the billable duration, how is it measured, and how are repeat callers treated?
- What data will we share back (contact, quote, sale) so the source can be tuned?
How Growth Box approaches it
Growth Box supports all three models and agrees the choice in writing before a test begins. Every record carries its source, landing page, disclosure version, timestamp and IP, and the consent language names the buyer or buyers who can receive it. We start every relationship with a capped test so both sides can see how the model performs with real data before anything scales. If you want to talk through which model fits your team, send us a message.
This article is general information about lead delivery models, not legal advice. Consent and telemarketing rules vary by vertical and state; confirm requirements with your own counsel.
