Is Social Media Lead Generation Worth It?

For modern mortgage brokers and financial advisers, the search for a steady stream of high-quality enquiries is relentless. But between navigating client cases, and keeping up with industry changes and compliance, finding the time to hunt for new business can be sparse.

Social media lead generation through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are popular due to their relative low-cost and pinpoint client targeting. However, they can take time and effort to maintain, particularly when users expect authentic and consistent content.

While social media provides access to millions of potential clients, we look at whether this is a goldmine for leads, and what the pros and cons are, compared to other lead generation methods.

The benefits of using social media for lead generation

There is no denying that social media holds significant advantages for financial professionals when executed correctly. Here are some of the major benefits it can provide:

Demographic Targeting

Unlike traditional advertising, social media platforms allow you to pinpoint your exact target market. If you specialise in first-time buyer mortgages, you can target users within a specific age bracket, living in certain postcodes, who are actively browsing property apps.

For financial advisers looking for high-net-worth individuals, LinkedIn offers the ability to target by job title, industry, and professional seniority.

Popularity with younger generations

According to Forbes Advisor, 79% of younger investors are seeking financial advice through social media channels. Many Millennials and even Gen X finance customers tend to prefer communicating online, and this culture is only likely to increase as younger generations enter adulthood. In fact, according to Financial Advisor Magazine, 23% of Gen Z adults say they wouldn’t even consider a financial professional who didn’t have a social media presence.

The ability to build trust

Mortgages and finance products are high-emotion, high-trust purchases. People want to know exactly who they are dealing with before sharing their financial history. Social media gives you a platform to showcase your expertise through educational content, videos, and client testimonials.

In an increasingly remote industry, when a prospective client sees your face and hears your advice consistently, they can learn all about you, before they reach out. This gives you the opportunity to build trust, eliminating the ‘cold calling’ element of sales almost entirely. Advisors who successfully gain clients using social media are typically active on their platforms at least 35 times per month. Taking time to react to posts from contributors (and potential clients) can also have a positive impact.

Low upfront cost

Setting up a business page on Facebook or LinkedIn costs nothing. If you have the time to create organic content, such as market updates, remortgage tips, or case studies, you can theoretically generate enquiries without a massive upfront marketing budget.

What are the challenges?

Of course, while there are many benefits, every lead generation method has its drawbacks, and this also applies to social media generation.

Low intent leads

One of the biggest hurdles with social media is user intent. People log into Facebook to see what their friends are doing, or check LinkedIn for industry news. Users are rarely actively looking for a mortgage broker or financial adviser.

Social media tends to work in the same way as a tv advert might do, for example. Connections will see you and become familiar with your brand over time. This usually requires substantial time and nurturing, however.

Time and consistency

Consistency is the lifeblood of social media. To see real results, you need to produce high-quality content multiple times a week, no matter the platform. If you work across multiple platforms this can become incredibly laborious, especially for a solo broker or a small firm.

Compliance risk

Working in the UK financial sector you’ll know that every piece of public-facing content you create is essentially a ‘financial promotion’. This means it must adhere strictly to FCA guidelines. Getting compliance sign-off on reactive social media posts can be difficult, and makes the task even more time consuming.

How to Choose the Right Platform

While multi-platform generation can be more effective, spreading yourself too thin across 6 or 7 social networks is likely to be unsustainable for smaller firms and individuals.

To benefit most it’s important to focus your time and energy on one or two platforms where your ideal clients spend the most time. At the time of writing, these platforms are most likely to provide converting clients, depending on your niche:

• LinkedIn - Great for targeting high-net-worth individuals, corporate professionals, or B2B referral partners

• Facebook - Great for local, community-focused trust, perhaps for a smaller brick and mortar firm. Users tend to be older Millenials, Gen x and Boomers

• YouTube - This network hits differently in terms of users as its unique format appeals across age groups. If you can confidently break down complex financial structures or mortgage processes on camera, YouTube has the potential to build massive, long-term authority

• Instagram - Used by multiple generations but favoured by Millenials, Instagram is used to to share photos and personal, behind the scenes anecdotes, which builds confidence over time

• TikTok - Built for fast-paced, sub-90-second financial myth-busters or quick market insights. This is likely to be most attractive to younger clients and investors, such as Gen Z

• X (formerly Twitter) - This can be helpful if you want to deliver short, sharp microblogs, perhaps on breaking economic news or industry changes. While not as personally reflective as other platforms, this can build educational and knowledge-based authority with your followers

What are the alternatives?

If you don’t have hours to spend filming videos or writing daily articles and posts, there are other lead generation strategies you can use. As these tend to focus on users who are already looking for your services, rather than trying to convince casual scrollers, they can be effective more immediately:

• Paid and Organic Search - Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) put you in front of people at the exact moment they need help. You’ll need at least one website to make use of these types of lead generation, but much of the content can now be created by AI

• Email marketing - This can often be linked to a PPC or SEO strategy. Using the email addresses collected through SEO content allows you to drip feed prospective customers at regular intervals. This is a more formal way to instill long-term trust than social media, but can be challenging as many emails remain unopened

• Lead Generation Marketplaces - Many brokers and advisers don’t have the time or experience to perform their own marketing function, so find outsourcing easier. Using a specialist financial lead generation marketplace like LeadCrowd allows you to buy immediate leads through targeted specific criteria, such as postcodes, lead types, or property value. This allows you to focus on pre-screened leads who are ready to convert, and can be great for new brokers starting out, or firms with a small marketing budget