The Great Marketing Podcast

73% of pay-per-lead agencies shut down within 18 months. Most people assume it is because they cannot generate leads. The real reason is almost always a contract problem.In this episode, I break down the five specific clauses that the agencies making seven figures all have in common and that most new agency owners completely overlook. I cover how to structure your return policy so buyers cannot come back and wipe out your margins, how to define disqualification criteria so there is no grey area on what counts as a bad lead, why switching from Stripe to ACH for payments can save you thousands of dollars a year, why lead visibility needs to be a contractual requirement and not just a handshake agreement, and how to define your data field standards so both sides agree upfront on what a qualified lead actually looks like.Your contract is your business model. If it is weak, your margins are at risk every single time you close a new deal. This episode will give you the framework to fix that.Check out our website here: ⁠https://www.greatmarketing.ai/⁠

Most pay-per-lead agencies are working with a single buyer per lead, which means they have a fixed price ceiling and no competition driving that price up. There is a completely different model that changes all of that and 90% of agencies have never even heard of it.In this episode, I break down exactly how ping post works, why it is one of the most powerful tools in the lead gen space, and what it takes to actually run it successfully. I walk through the two phase system, what gets sent in the ping versus the post, how the real time auction works in under 200 milliseconds, and why the technology itself is only 20% of what makes this model succeed.The other 80% is your buyer network. I talk about what that looks like, how many buyers you need, what qualities to look for, and how to build a network that creates real competition for every single lead you generate. I also walk through how to set up a ping post campaign inside Lead Distro AI so you can see exactly what this looks like in practice.If you are running a PPL agency and you are still doing direct post with one or two buyers, this episode will completely change how you think about pricing your leads.Check out our website here: ⁠https://www.greatmarketing.ai/⁠

Most people getting into lead generation think there is only one way to do it. But there are actually three completely different business models and the one you choose will determine how much time you put in, how much risk you take on, and how much money you can actually make.In this episode, I break down the broker model, the partnership model, and the full stack model. I cover what each one looks like in practice, the skills you need, the profit margins you can expect, and the real risks that come with each path.I also share a real story from someone doing the broker model who got left in a tough spot when his media buyer went ghost, why the full stack model is what I personally run at my agency, and the progression path that most successful lead gen operators follow as they grow their skills and scale their business.Whether you are brand new and have zero ad experience or you are already running campaigns and want to understand where you sit in the bigger picture, this episode will help you make a smarter decision about which model to build your business around.Check out our website here: ⁠https://www.greatmarketing.ai/⁠

A new PPL agency owner messaged me after spending $2,000 on 10 leads and getting four of them returned as duplicates. That brought his real cost per accepted lead to $333 and wiped out a huge chunk of his profit before he even got started.In this episode, I break down exactly why duplicate leads are one of the most damaging and overlooked problems in a pay-per-lead agency, especially when you are just starting out and every returned lead hits your bottom line hard.I walk through the three fixes every PPL agency owner needs to have in place including asking buyers the right questions upfront, setting clear return rules in your agreement, and using Lead Distro AI to automatically detect and block duplicates before they ever reach your buyer. I also cover suppression lists, fallback campaign routing, and how to give your buyers a simple portal to request returns without turning it into a back and forth email chain.If you are running a PPL agency and you are not handling duplicates systematically, this episode will show you exactly what it is costing you and how to fix it.

One of the biggest things that slows down PPL agency owners is not the marketing, it is the admin work. Chasing payments, manually sending reports, keeping buyers updated on their lead counts. It adds up fast and pulls your focus away from actually growing your agency.In this episode, I walk through the latest updates we just shipped inside Lead Distro AI. This includes a new change log, consolidated email and Slack reporting with scheduled options, automated client lead reports, a new integrations page, a Stripe integration that lets buyers top up and purchase leads directly from their own portal, and a 30% recurring lifetime affiliate program.These updates were built specifically to cut down the time you spend on admin and make it easier for your buyers to stay informed and keep buying from you without any extra work on your end.

Most people getting into lead gen pick a niche based on what sounds cool or what some guru told them online. But not all verticals are the same. Some will let you scale to 100k a month with relative ease and others will give you nothing but headaches.In this episode, I rank 40 lead gen verticals from best to worst using six specific criteria including market size, lead volume, buyer demand, geographic scalability, ad compliance, and lifetime value. I walk through every tier so you know exactly where to put your time and money.I also talk about why picking a demographic within your niche is the smartest way to create a blue ocean instead of fighting everyone for the same generic leads. This is exactly what we did when we decided to focus on Spanish speaking personal injury leads instead of just competing in the same crowded market as everyone else.If you are about to pick a niche or you are second guessing the one you already chose, this episode will give you a clear framework to make the right call.

I built something internally that I wasn't planning on sharing, but after showing it to a marketing friend and watching his jaw drop, I figured it was worth pulling back the curtain:In this episode, I walk through Signalflow AI, our internal ad creative engine built specifically for performance marketers. I show you how we use it to pull top performing creatives directly from our ad account, generate new on-brand static ads using style references and brand colors, write ad copy, launch multiple creatives at scale, and even generate new video scripts based on what is already working.This is not a product you can subscribe to yet, but if there is enough interest, we are thinking about making it available to others. I also talk through what is coming next including AI video ads with custom avatars, creative velocity tracking, and daily campaign briefs that tell you exactly what to optimize.If you have ever felt like creating and testing ad creatives is taking too much of your time, this episode will completely change how you think about the process.

If you run a pay-per-lead agency and you have no clear picture of your profitability or which campaigns are actually converting, this episode is going to show you exactly what you're missing.I walk through the full Lead Distro AI platform from the financial performance dashboard to the AI media buying advisor, visual campaign flowchart, client portal, Meta CAPI integration, and automated reporting. This is what a fully built lead distribution and agency profitability system looks like when it actually works.I also break down how you can use the client portal to track lead outcomes, pull insights from your buyers' sales notes, and feed that data into AI to optimize your funnel and campaigns. If you are still running your agency on a duct tape stack of GoHighLevel, Zapier, and Google Sheets, this episode will show you a much better way to run things.

I ran a retainer agency for years before I realized what was keeping me stuck. Land a client, pour everything into keeping them happy, lose them, start all over. It's a treadmill — and most agency owners don't even realize they're on it.In this episode, I break down exactly why retainer agencies hit a ceiling they can never break through and why the pay-per-lead model flips the whole thing upside down. I cover the real differences in risk, income potential, operations, and scalability — including why running one pixel and one funnel beats managing 20 scattered client accounts.I'm also being fully transparent about the catch — because yes, there is one. When I first started my own PPL campaigns, we were losing money. But once the funnel and ads were dialed in, the upside was unlike anything I experienced in the retainer world.If you're an agency owner feeling stuck, underpaid, or burned out managing client after client, this episode is for you.

From AI-generated pitch decks and YouTube scripts to voice-activated Notion task creation and auto-written SOPs — I'm breaking down exactly how I use Claude Code to automate and supercharge my entire agency. Plus, how it's helping me build and improve Lead Distro AI faster than ever.