How Lead-to-Sale Matching Works
Measuring lead ROI means connecting every policy you bound back to the lead that brought the customer in. Doing that in a spreadsheet is painful. Doing it automatically across thousands of leads is why AgencyIQ exists.
In this guide:
- What lead-to-sale matching is and why you need it
- The 4 signals AgencyIQ uses to match
- What to do when a match needs your eyes
- How to fix a wrong match
Time to read: 6 minutes Best for: Anyone responsible for lead ROI decisions.
What is lead-to-sale matching?
Matching connects a bound policy back to the lead that brought the customer in.
Example. Jane Smith fills out a QuoteWizard form on April 3rd. Two weeks later she binds an auto policy with your agency. Matching ties those two records together. Now QuoteWizard gets credit for Jane's premium when you look at provider ROI.
Without matching, you know how much you spent on leads and how much you wrote in policies, but you can't answer the question that matters: which lead sources made money?
What signals does AgencyIQ use to match?
Four things the system looks at:
| Signal | Strength |
|---|---|
| Phone number (after cleaning up formats) | Very strong — almost always right |
| Email (exact match) | Strong |
| Customer name (fuzzy — handles small spelling differences) | Medium |
| Date window (policy bound within a reasonable window after lead) | Filter |
How confidence works
AgencyIQ checks all four signals at once. If phone matches AND the date window fits, that's very high confidence — matched automatically. If only the name matches and there's no phone, that's lower confidence — you get a prompt to confirm.
About 85–92% of real matches happen automatically. The other 8–15% need a quick look from you.
What does the match review look like?
When AgencyIQ isn't 100% sure, it puts the pair on a review list. You see them side by side — lead on the left, sale on the right — with a confidence score in the middle.
Click Confirm, Reject, or Different Lead. AgencyIQ remembers what you decided.
Time to review: 5–10 minutes per week for most agencies.
The system gets more accurate as it learns your patterns. First month: more reviews. After 60 days: much fewer.
Why does the sale have to be within a window after the lead?
Because leads have a natural conversion timeline.
- Most leads bind within 30 days
- 80% bind within 60 days
- 95% bind within 120 days
Beyond 6 months, a new policy usually came from a totally separate inquiry — not the old lead. So AgencyIQ draws a line.
AgencyIQ uses a 180-day window by default. For personal lines this matches industry norms; commercial agencies sometimes think of the window as closer to 12 months.
What if a customer came in through two different leads?
Happens all the time with shared leads.
Jane might show up as a QuoteWizard lead in April (didn't close), come back through EverQuote in July, and bind. Both leads match the eventual sale. You paid for both.
By default, AgencyIQ credits the more recent lead — since that's usually the one that actually converted. You can override that manually.
Worth watching. A shared-then-exclusive pattern from the same provider means you paid twice. AgencyIQ surfaces that so you can negotiate a credit.
What about walk-ins and referrals?
They're tracked as a $0-cost provider.
Call it "Referrals" or "Walk-ins" in your lead providers list. When a customer binds who didn't come through any lead, flag the sale as coming from that $0 provider.
Referrals almost always beat paid leads on ROI — but you need the comparison to actually make the case when deciding where to spend.
How do I fix a wrong match?
Click the sale in the Sales Log, open the Lead Attribution section, and reassign.
Your ROI page updates the moment you save.
Common reasons a match goes wrong
- Two customers with similar names, both had leads in your pipeline
- A customer came through a walk-in but matched to an old paid lead
- A producer-sourced sale got tagged to a cold paid lead
Fixing these teaches the matcher. After 30–60 corrections, accuracy on new data rises noticeably.
Do renewals count toward the lead's ROI?
Year 1 renewals, yes. Year 2 and beyond, no.
Year 1 renewals on a policy that started as a lead get credited to that lead source — that's how you calculate the 18-month retained-policy ROI.
Year 2+ renewals are considered organic. The lead did its job in year 1. What keeps the customer after that is your producer and your service.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast does matching run after I upload new sales?
Right away. When you upload a sales file, the matcher checks each sale against your leads within seconds. The ROI page shows the new matches immediately after they're confirmed.
Do I have to do anything to turn matching on?
No — it's automatic. You only have to step in when the system prompts you to confirm an ambiguous match.
Does matching work the same for commercial lines?
Yes, but commercial takes longer to close (often 3–6 months from lead to bind). You may want to widen the default match window for commercial.
How do I see every sale that came from one lead provider?
Open the provider on the Internet Leads page and scroll to the Matched Sales table. Every policy tied back to that provider is listed with date, premium, and the original lead info.
Can I turn off matching and do it all by hand?
You can reject every automatic match and do it manually, but the system is faster and more accurate for most agencies. Manual review is best used for edge cases, not the default flow.
Stop guessing which leads became sales
AgencyIQ is free during beta for Founding Members. Every policy traced back to its lead source, every provider ranked by actual ROI — no more guessing.
Founding Members get grandfathered pricing when we launch paid tiers later this year.
Last updated: 2026-04-18