TL;DR

• TrustedForm helps marketers document and verify consumer consent, reduce compliance risk, and bring more transparency to lead generation.
• Setup typically includes five key steps: Sign up, implement Certify, verify consent requirements, retain certificates, and capture Insights data.
• TrustedForm share URLs make it easy to securely share proof of consent for audits, disputes, or legal review.
• The product suite includes Certify, Retain, Verify, Insights, and Bot Detection, each supporting a different part of compliance, lead validation, and optimization.
• Together, these tools help businesses simplify compliance, improve lead quality, detect fraud, and build a more trustworthy lead gen strategy.

Overview

Today, compliance is no longer a box to check – it’s a business-critical requirement. With rising concerns over data privacy, consent-based marketing has become the gold standard for acquiring leads ethically and legally. That’s where TrustedForm comes in.

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a complete TrustedForm setup, explain TrustedForm’s mechanisms, show you how to create a TrustedForm share URL, and highlight the full suite of TrustedForm products that can strengthen your compliance and lead verification strategy. Let’s get started!

What is TrustedForm and why is it important?

If you’ve ever asked, “Can you explain TrustedForm?” – the short answer is this: TrustedForm is a real-time consent documentation solution developed by ActiveProspect. It helps document and verify consent while providing transparency into the consumer experience, origination and authenticity of leads.

TrustedForm independently captures and certifies proof when a consumer gives permission to be contacted through an online form. This is crucial for complying with regulations like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and maintaining a reputation for ethical marketing.

Every time a user visits a form with TrustedForm installed, the system:

• Records the session details (e.g. time, page URL, IP address, browser).
• Creates a TrustedForm Certificate that can be used as third-party proof of consent.
• Generates a video-like session replay of the consent transaction.
• Assigns a TrustedForm Certificate URL, a unique identifier for the session.

Why a TrustedForm setup is a must for modern marketers

Whether you’re generating leads in-house or sourcing them from third-party vendors, a TrustedForm setup equips you with a powerful framework to protect your business and optimize your marketing efforts.

With a TrustedForm setup, you can:

• Clearly document when, where, and how consumer consent was obtained.
• Evaluate lead quality in real time, right at the point of capture.
• Significantly reduce your exposure to TCPA litigation.

And the best part? It’s easy to implement, highly scalable, and integrates seamlessly with most major CRMs and marketing automation platforms.

Building trust with transparency

Consumers are more privacy-conscious than ever. TrustedForm helps you demonstrate a clear commitment to transparency and ethical data collection. When your brand prioritizes consent and security, customers notice – and they’re more likely to engage and convert.

Staying ahead of compliance

In industries where regulations around data collection are strict, TrustedForm acts as your digital audit trail. It provides concrete, time-stamped evidence of consumer experiences – crucial during audits or legal disputes. With TrustedForm, you’re not just compliant; you’re confidently prepared.

Compliance, simplified

Forget manual checks and inconsistent processes. TrustedForm automates the capture, certification, and retention of consent records, removing the friction from your compliance workflow so your team can focus on driving results.

Step-by-step TrustedForm setup guide

Setting up TrustedForm is a straightforward process, but each step is essential to ensure you’re capturing valid, auditable consent. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Sign up for TrustedForm

To begin, you’ll need an ActiveProspect account. If you haven’t already, sign up and enable TrustedForm features as needed.

Step 2: Start documenting your lead creation

If you’re generating leads in-house, then you need to implement TrustedForm Certify (otherwise, skip to step 3).

This is the software that records user sessions and issues TrustedForm Certificates. Make sure to record the entire lead journey to guarantee you have thorough documentation. Certify will generate a TrustedForm Certificate URL, which should be stored alongside lead data in your database.

Step 3: Check if the lead met standard requirements to give consent

If you’re purchasing leads from a third-party vendor, it’s essential to have a process in place to confirm that the lead generation methods comply with applicable regulations, such as the TCPA, and meet your own business standards.

Once you receive a lead with a Certificate URL, use TrustedForm Verify to conduct a series of checks and due diligence for each lead. Through your lead distribution platform, make an API request to verify that the lead was shown an approved consent language or disclosure that met visibility requirements and used an acceptable opt-in method. This ensures that the notice provided to consumers is clear and conspicuous, helping you mitigate the risk of non-compliance.

Step 4: Store the documentation created for your leads

Once you receive a lead with a TrustedForm Certificate URL, you need to use TrustedForm Retain to save the certificate to your account to prevent it from being deleted.

If all your leads come from your own websites, use the Auto-Retain method to store all your certificates with minimal setup. For leads from other sources, use your lead distribution platform to make an API request to retain the certificates associated with your leads. For one-off cases, you can manually retain the certificate by clicking a button, as long as you do it before the certificate is deleted.

Once stored, you can share a certificate with parties outside your organization by viewing it and copying the special share URL, which doesn’t require authentication to access. This feature is especially useful when responding to demand letters or during active litigation, as it allows you to show when a consumer consented to be contacted or provide evidence to your legal counsel.

TrustedForm share URLs are openly viewable by anyone who receives them, so they should be used cautiously and in accordance with these guidelines.

To obtain the TrustedForm share URL for a certificate, click the “Share” button in the top right corner of the certificate and then click “Copy Share Link” to automatically copy the URL to your clipboard.

Step 5: Store leading indicators of performance

If you want to boost your ROI by identifying high-quality leads, consider using TrustedForm Insights. Use your lead distribution platform to make an API request to retrieve various data points for each lead. Store this information in your CRM or data warehouse for future analysis. 

By correlating this data with lead outcomes, you can pinpoint which attributes are most predictive of conversion and likely to result in a sale.

Overview of TrustedForm products

TrustedForm includes multiple product options designed to help lead buyers and sellers improve transparency, document consent, strengthen compliance, and optimize performance. Here’s a quick summary of the main TrustedForm products, their core features, and common use cases.

1. TrustedForm Certify

TrustedForm Certify is the core product used to document lead events and any consumer consent that was captured. It creates a certificate that can be used as evidence to prove how leads were generated.

With Certify, you can:

• Fulfill the legal requirements of buyers who need to store proof of consent.
• Attract new customers by demonstrating your dedication to transparency and consent-based marketing.
• Review recordings and statistics of your website’s performance to develop new strategies.

2. TrustedForm Retain

TrustedForm Retain stores certificates in your ActiveProspect account and makes them readily available for auditing and sharing as needed.

With Retain, you can:

• Meet the record-keeping requirements set by federal rules and regulations.
• Watch session replays to see how leads were generated.
• Offer a certificate share URL that provides evidence whether expressed consent was given.

3. TrustedForm Verify

TrustedForm Verify checks for prior express written consent to enable use of regulated technology and otherwise restricted actions.

With Verify, you can:

• Mitigate risk by ensuring your requirements for obtaining prior express written consent are met and presented digitally, enhancing your ability to audit at scale.
• Evaluate compliance consistently, reducing the chance of errors that can occur with manual processes, especially when managing multiple vendors.
• Increase productivity by saving time through automated tasks, reducing the need for time-consuming manual TCPA consent language reviews.
• Consolidate the data you need to assess how well multiple vendors are complying with your requirements.

4. TrustedForm Insights

TrustedForm Insights provides key data points, including originating domain, that allows you to make informed decisions to optimize lead-buying strategies and maximize your ROI.

With Insights, you can:

• Easily identify top-performing lead vendors by tracking leads back to their originating sites.
• Pinpoint high-yielding leads using data points that correlate strongly with lead performance, such as Lead Age, Originating Domain, GeoLocation, IP Address, Time on Page, Form Input Method, and Keyword/Page Scanning.

5. TrustedForm Bot Detection

TrustedForm Bot Detection helps buyers and sellers identify non-human lead activity before it creates downstream costs. By surfacing signals associated with automated submissions, it gives teams greater visibility into suspicious traffic and helps them separate legitimate leads from bot-generated ones.

With Bot Detection, you can:

• Detect fraudulent or non-human lead activity earlier in the buying process.
• Reduce wasted spend on leads that do not come from real consumers.
• Prevent bot traffic from polluting CRM data and distorting performance analysis.
• Strengthen source-level accountability with clearer visibility into suspicious traffic patterns.
• Improve optimization decisions by making bot activity measurable, trendable, and actionable.

FAQs

1. How can I retain a TrustedForm Certificate?

You can retain a TrustedForm Certificate in several ways, depending on your setup. 

If you use Auto-Retain, certificates from a verified domain are stored automatically when a consumer submits a form. If you prefer a manual approach, you can retain a certificate through the TrustedForm Retain API by sending the certificate URL along with lead details like phone number or email for validation. 

You can also retain certificates through LeadConduit by adding the TrustedForm add-on to your flow, which automatically sends the retain request when a lead comes in. In some cases, UI-based Click-to-Retain may also be available. By default, retained certificates are stored for up to 5 years.

2. How does TrustedForm pricing work?

TrustedForm pricing is based on how you use each product.

TrustedForm Certify is free, so you can generate unlimited certificates at no cost.

TrustedForm Retain is priced per retained certificate and uses tiered pricing, with lower rates for higher volumes; pricing is also lower for first-party leads from verified domains than for third-party leads from unverified domains. In addition, retained certificates incur a small monthly storage fee per certificate.

TrustedForm Insights is billed per datapoint requested, so each insight such as Lead Age, Domain, IP Address, Geo Location, Page Scan, Form Input Method, or Time on Page is charged individually.

TrustedForm Verify is also priced on a tiered per-lead basis. TrustedForm charges are separate from LeadConduit transaction fees, so TrustedForm usage does not count as a LeadConduit transaction.

Final thoughts

In a time where trust is currency and compliance is non-negotiable, TrustedForm setup offers a proven way to verify consent, reduce risk, and elevate lead quality.

From capturing proof of consent with Certify, to storing records long-term with Retain, to verifying compliance at scale through Verify, and optimizing vendor performance with Insights – TrustedForm provides a full suite of tools to help you take control of your lead generation strategy.

Ready to build a more trustworthy and compliant lead gen program? Book a demo to see it in action. Because when it comes to consent, proof isn’t optional – it’s essential.

The post TrustedForm setup: A step-by-step guide appeared first on ActiveProspect.

In the world of digital marketing and lead generation, ensuring the quality of leads is critical. That’s where ActiveProspect and its innovative product, TrustedForm, come in. 

This guide will cover the basics of ActiveProspect, explain what TrustedForm is, and why a TrustedForm Certificate is so important. We’ll also go over how TrustedForm works and how it can be a game-changer for publishers and advertisers who want to certify and increase the value of their leads.

Who is ActiveProspect?

ActiveProspect is an all-in-one consent-based marketing platform that sits between your lead sources and revenue stack. 

Here’s what we do, in real time:

• Provide transparency into lead origin
• Document consent to contact opt-in transactions
• Route lead data through third-party integrations or add-on services
• Direct prospect data to your sales and marketing systems
• Safeguard you from TCPA risk before outreach

All this helps you convert more and waste less resources. 

ActiveProspect certifies over 1B+ leads/year and is the trusted leader in the industry when it comes to consent-based marketing.

What is TrustedForm?

TrustedForm is the ultimate compliance solution for documenting TCPA consent on digital lead capture forms. It helps you maintain independent proof of consent while gaining performance insights that let you optimize lead acquisition and routing.

TrustedForm offers different products. Here’s how each helps you:

• TrustedForm Certify documents lead events in the form of a TrustedForm Certificate that can be used as evidence to prove how leads were generated. 
• TrustedForm Retain stores certificates and makes them readily available during the statute of limitations for marketing related laws.
• TrustedForm Verify helps check for prior express written consent to enable use of regulated technology and otherwise restricted actions. 
• TrustedForm Insights allows you to make informed decisions to optimize lead-buying strategies and maximize your ROI.

Be aware that TrustedForm Certify only allows you to generate a certificate for each lead coming from a landing page or website that has installed our software development kit (SDK). This free service does not automatically offer TCPA protection, but is the first step toward compliance.

What is a TrustedForm Certificate?

A TrustedForm Certificate is a digital document that captures and verifies the lead generation process. It includes a step-by-step record of the consumer’s interaction with the lead form, including the data submitted, and the timestamp, providing transparency and accountability.

How it works

When a consumer submits a form on a website, TrustedForm captures this interaction in near real time. The Certificate is then generated, providing a comprehensive audit trail that can be shared with partners and clients to provide transparency into how the lead was generated.

Supported for all websites

Generate certificates for any website, enabling widespread use of TrustedForm. Whether you own the site or work with third-party publishers, you can document leads from various sources, ensuring unmatched coverage and transparency.

Enhancing publisher trust

For publishers, TrustedForm Certify is a valuable tool that not only certifies leads but also builds trust with buyers. By providing a transparent and verifiable lead generation process, publishers can enhance their reputation and increase their value in the market.

Capturing every detail

Each TrustedForm Certificate captures the consumer data, time and date of the interaction, and the URL where the lead was generated. This comprehensive audit trail leaves no question about the origin and history of the lead.

How does TrustedForm work?

Step 1: Add TrustedForm Certify to your web forms

In order to use TrustedForm Certify, which is available for free, you need to follow the instructions in the TrustedForm application which includes adding a javascript snippet to your web forms. When TrustedForm Certify is incorporated into a publisher’s lead generation forms, it starts capturing data right away.

This seamless integration is designed to record every interaction, beginning the moment a consumer engages with the form. See the recommended TrustedForm web form integrations available.

Step 2: Near real-time capture

As your potential customer fills out the form, TrustedForm Certify gets to work, capturing each keystroke, mouse click, and action in real time. This meticulous process ensures that every interaction is crystal clear and verifiable.

Step 3: Certificate generation

Once your form is submitted, TrustedForm Certify creates a Certificate. This TrustedForm Certificate includes all the information captured, such as the consumer’s input, the time of submission, and the URL of the lead form. This record is stored securely and is protected against tampering.

Step 4: Distribute the Certificate

You, the publisher, can send the TrustedForm Certificate to your advertisers and partners with ease. The process appends the certificate URL to your leads, so no extra work is necessary. The certificate acts as clear and verifiable proof of the lead’s authenticity and quality.

Step 5: Store the Certificate

Once the TrustedForm Certificate is created for a lead, our platform stores it for 90 days. During this time, you can use TrustedForm Retain to store a copy of it long term. In that case, it will be stored in your account for 5 years, allowing you to have easy access to it in case you need it. If you don’t retain the Certificate within 90 days, it will be deleted forever with no possibility of ever retrieving it.

Step 6: Streamline the process

If you’re buying hundreds or thousands of leads, you can’t possibly check Certificates for each one of your leads. Thankfully, TrustedForm Verify helps you automate the process by programmatically monitoring that your requirements for the disclosures used to obtain prior express written consent are satisfied and presented digitally in a one-to-one manner to scale your auditing capabilities.

Introducing TrustedForm’s bot detection solution

TrustedForm now goes beyond documenting consent with the launch of a bot detection solution designed to identify and block bot-generated leads at the point of submission.

While a TrustedForm Certificate shows how a lead was generated, TrustedForm Bot Detection adds critical context by analyzing whether that submission was made by a real human or automated software. Using behavioral and environmental signals captured within each TrustedForm Certificate—such as interaction timing, typing cadence, scrolling behavior, and execution environment—Bot Detection flags non-human activity that traditional bot detection technology tools often miss. 

This allows publishers and advertisers to filter or reject bot-generated leads before they enter downstream systems, protecting lead quality, safeguarding TCPA compliance, and preventing fake or fabricated consent from creating legal, financial, or reputational risk.

How does TrustedForm help publishers and advertisers?

TrustedForm is the bridge to trust for publishers and advertisers. It offers a clear, verifiable record of lead generation, making it easy to confirm the legitimacy of leads. This, in turn, builds stronger business relationships and bolsters credibility.

Enhancing lead quality

TrustedForm meticulously records lead data, right down to the consumer’s form engagement. This level of detail empowers publishers and advertisers to pinpoint high-quality leads, boosting conversion rates and the overall success of their campaigns.

Simplifying compliance

For publishers and advertisers, adhering to regulatory standards is non-negotiable. TrustedForm streamlines this process by offering a thorough audit trail. This confirms when lead generation efforts are in line with specified rules, minimizing the risk of penalties and audits.

Improving operational efficiency

By automating the lead certification process, TrustedForm saves you time and resources. The real-time capture and certificate generation streamline your workflows, allowing your team to focus on other critical aspects of your business.

Strengthening market position

TrustedForm empowers publishers and advertisers to stand out in the market. The capability to deliver verified, top-tier leads distinguishes them from the competition, enhancing their appeal to clients and partners.

Conclusion

TrustedForm is a game-changer in the digital marketing industry. It allows publishers and advertisers to work together to ensure that every lead has been properly generated, providing a level of transparency that is unmatched by other solutions.

In a world where trust is paramount, TrustedForm offers a straightforward and effective way to certify leads. By integrating this tool, publishers can enhance their reputation and secure better business relationships. Advertisers, on the other hand, have peace of mind that they are abiding by the law and have a way of proving that in case of litigation.

The post TrustedForm Certificate: The ultimate guide appeared first on ActiveProspect.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (PRWEB) MAY 08, 2018–Modernize, Inc. (“Modernize”), the national leader in home improvement lead generation, and ActiveProspect, a SaaS provider of lead acquisition solutions, announced their partnership to offer the Modernize contractor network independently certified web leads using ActiveProspect’s TrustedForm product. The collaboration is the first of its kind in the home improvement space.

TrustedForm protects companies from costly TCPA compliance violations by providing the highest standard of independent proof of consent available. The solution meets a growing need in an environment where companies are increasingly required to document proof of prior express written consent to contact consumers. By implementing TrustedForm, Modernize is providing another layer of quality control for the leads they provide to contractors while extending additional privacy and security measures to homeowners using the platform.

“This partnership is a win-win for everyone who uses our site. Our network of contractors now has a guarantee that the lead they are receiving from us is legitimate and consensual. Likewise, homeowners can rest assured that they won’t be receiving any solicitations or unwanted correspondence from our network,” said Jason Polka, Modernize CEO. “We are pleased to offer the TrustedForm product to our users as a continuation of our commitment to be an innovative leader in the home improvement lead generation industry.”

ActiveProspect created the lead certification category with the introduction of TrustedForm in 2010. TrustedForm issues a unique certificate that is stored with the lead record, and includes a video replay of what the consumer sees and how they interact with the web page when they submit a contact form.

“We are thrilled to partner with Modernize as they continue to demonstrate leadership in the home improvement industry by providing TrustedForm Certified leads to their customers.” said Steve Rafferty, Founder and CEO of ActiveProspect.

Horizon Solar, an early beneficiary of the collaboration, states, “We’ve been using Modernize for four years to grow our business. With the addition of ActiveProspect and TrustedForm, we’re able to more accurately identify viable leads enabling us to spend less time chasing dead-ends and more time converting the leads we receive from Modernize into paid jobs.”

Founded in 2006, Modernize is changing the way homeowners meet and partner with home improvement contractors, helping them compare quotes and source the best contracting service for residential projects.

To learn more about Modernize, register your business or find a contractor near you, please visit www.modernize.com. For a full list of ActiveProspect’s lead acquisition solutions, visit their website at activeprospect.com.

About ActiveProspect

ActiveProspect provides proven technology and expertise for lead acquisition success. Whether trying to acquire highly qualified sales leads or opt-in email subscribers, ActiveProspect provides the tools marketers need to succeed. Our products allow marketers to create event-driven lead flows to capture leads from any source, document consent for TCPA/CASL compliance, filter with rules, enhance with external data, and deliver to any system in real-time. Since inception, ActiveProspect has processed over 1 billion Internet leads for leading brands across a wide range of industries. Our TrustedForm lead certification service captures ten billion user events every month across thousands of websites. For more information go to activeprospect.com.

About Modernize

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Modernize is the largest privately-owned lead generation company in the US. For over 12 years, Modernize has been a leader in the home improvement industry, connecting homeowners with contractors within energy-efficient trades such as Solar, Windows, HVAC, and Roofing. Facilitating over 1.5 million completed home improvement projects each year, Modernize is the market leader in residential lead generation.

The post Modernize and ActiveProspect Partner to Offer Certified Home Improvement Leads appeared first on ActiveProspect.

We created TrustedForm in 2010 as an independent lead certification service to build trust between buyers and sellers of internet leads. Our greatest challenge in this mission has been convincing site owners that it is safe to add our script to their forms. In order to facilitate trust, companies must first trust us. Most companies are reluctant to add a third party javascript snippet on their site and understandably so: it opens up all sorts of possibilities to the owner of the script. Ultimately, you have to trust that the provider of the script will do the right thing.

We believe to maintain the trust of the various companies that add our script to their forms we must be totally transparent about what the script does and, just as important, what it doesn’t do. If you place a 3rd party javascript like TrustedForm on your website you should have 100% confidence in knowing how that script is used. Since ActiveProspect was founded 13 years ago we have worked hard to earn trust by operating in an open and transparent way. In this post I’ll review how we demonstrate this through our actions in four key areas: how it works, your data, our business model, and our history.

How it works

We have always been completely open and transparent about how TrustedForm works and have modified the product over the years to address the needs of our partners. The TrustedForm script issues a unique certificate for every lead. A link to that certificate is captured as an additional data field with the rest of the lead data. We provide a public demo on our website so anyone can see exactly what it does. In addition, the script is openly available on our site and doesn’t require you to have an account with us in order to use it. This allows anyone to try it out anonymously. We provide legal terms in the form of our TrustedForm End User License Agreement (EULA) that describes exactly how the product works. Lastly, people are often concerned about our system performance, so we provide a public web page that displays our system’s current and recent status. All aspects of how the product works are openly accessible.

We let both the buyers and sellers of a lead see exactly what is collected in a TrustedForm Certificate. TrustedForm Certificates are openly viewable by any entity that has access to the TrustedForm Certificate URL for the first 3 days after creation. Simply click on the TrustedForm Certificate URL to view it; there is no need for an account with us to view a certificate during the first 3 days. One reason we do this is so the company issuing certificates can see what TrustedForm collects on their site before they start sending them to their buyers.

We built TrustedForm under the assumption that people would try to trick it (and they have tried). The script doesn’t rely on any vendor reported data. Taking this approach means you can trust the data TrustedForm captures, because it’s impartial and independent.

Your data

Our approach to the data captured by TrustedForm is pretty simple:  it’s your data, not ours. Therefore, we are committed to protecting it. This is the commitment we make to you in exchange for your trust and the privilege of serving your needs.

The same goes for your web traffic. We believe that despite adding our script to your site, we still have no rights to your site visitors. We track what happens, the moment it happens, on the page where our script is placed. We don’t cookie your visitors or track their behavior across the network of other sites where our script is placed. We won’t reveal to another company when someone is visiting your website. We strive to provide value to our customers while protecting the rights of the site owner and consumer privacy.

While we don’t use your proprietary information, we also must protect what you consider to be proprietary from your partners with whom you may share a TrustedForm Certificate. For example, we hide query string data that could reveal search terms or traffic sources. We give control to the lead seller to determine how much information they share with partners. They can specify whether referrer URLs are collected. In addition, account holders can pass masked certificates to their partners, which mask both the origin of the lead (website URL) and the video replay. This allows them to protect source information while still enabling their partners to independently verify TCPA compliance for every lead. With masked certificates, the account holder has total control over if and when they decide to reveal the complete certificate to their partners. And, since we use a universal script that is the same for all accounts and contains no unique identifiers, we can’t track which sites are owned or operated by a particular account.

If TrustedForm Certificates aren’t claimed by a paying customer, we delete them. In other words, if a customer hasn’t specifically asked us to store data on their behalf, we don’t store it. If our customers don’t need their data, there is no point in us keeping it. It only makes sense to incur the costs of storing massive amounts of data if you plan to monetize it in some way – we don’t.

Our business model

The TrustedForm script is used for one product: TrustedForm. We don’t use the script, or the information captured by the script, for any other products or sources of revenue. We believe the data gathered by the script belongs to the site that generated that data and any of their lead buyers with whom they choose to share it.

We charge a transaction fee to claim a TrustedForm Certificate in addition to a separate monthly storage fee. Everything, other than long-term storage, is included in the transaction fee. Capture all the data collected, see a video replay of the form interaction, and scan the page for TCPA disclosure language to verify consent in real-time – all for one price.

We charge for storage separately because it’s important to be transparent about our fees in the event a customer ever wants to stop using TrustedForm. Therefore, a customer can stop using TrustedForm and just pay for the storage fees for the old certificates. They don’t have to keep paying any ongoing subscriptions, and they can store their Certificates with us as long as they want. While breaking these fees apart may seem more complicated, we believe it’s the fairest way to price the service. It makes it easy for customers to stop using the service while still retaining all of their historical data.

Our history

A lot has changed over the years, but the TrustedForm business model hasn’t. We’ve been consistent in our mission and have never used the TrustedForm script for any other purpose. The TrustedForm script is used to certify internet leads. Period.

We’ve grown a great deal over the years, and we currently capture 10 billion user events per month across thousands of websites. TrustedForm is trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world. We’ve made a significant, positive impact on the lead generation ecosystem and we are very proud of that.

We’ve worked hard to dramatically reduce our storage costs and have passed those savings to our customers, literally reducing our storage fees by 99% since we first launched.

While we created TrustedForm as a lead certification service, the reality is that many of our clients now use it for TCPA compliance. We’ve helped protect our customers from numerous consumer complaints and lawsuits.

Our actions illustrate our resolve to be authentically open and transparent, and we will continue to be so. For those of you who have trusted us by placing our script on your websites, thank you for your ongoing support. Our business depends on your trust, and therefore it means everything to us.

The post Lead Certification: It’s About Trust appeared first on ActiveProspect.

TrustedForm is ActiveProspect’s lead certification service that independently verifies the origin and authenticity of Internet leads by capturing information including the timestamp, IP address, browser, source URL, and a real-time screenshot of the web form as seen by the site visitor. Among other things, it allows lead buyers to verify and document proof of compliance on an individual lead basis for regulations such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) or Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Masked certificates are exact copies of full certificates, except the lead source information (site URL and screenshot) has been masked. They still contain essential information about the origin of the lead, so lead buyers can independently verify lead authenticity and compliance with either full or masked certificates. For example, the page scan feature for masked certificates still works even though the page snapshot is not visible. This allows lead buyers to scan the page for TCPA disclosure language or the presence of other required language.

“TrustedForm introduced the concept of independent lead certification to bring trust and transparency to the online lead generation industry,” said Steve Rafferty, Founder and CEO of ActiveProspect. “Masked certificates are an important evolution in lead certification because lead sellers can now decide how much source information they want to share with each of their buyers on a case by case basis. In return, lead buyers can choose to accept masked certificates from some vendors but only full certificates from others. It gives buyers and sellers the ability to directly negotiate the amount of transparency needed for their particular situation.”

The masked certificate feature is available only to TrustedForm account holders. It doesn’t require any changes to the universal TrustedForm Script, which continues to issue full TrustedForm Certificates. When paid account holders claim a full TrustedForm Certificate, they also receive a corresponding TrustedForm Masked Certificate. Masked certificates have their own unique ID that is separate and distinct from the full TrustedForm Certificate ID. Account holders can then decide which buyers receive full certificates and which receive masked ones.

Lead buyers will need to contact their lead sellers if they need to see full certificates. It is the lead sellers’ responsibility to store full certificates, and to provide the certificates at their discretion to lead buyers who request them.

If you’d like to get started with TrustedForm Masked Certificates, contact sales@activeprospect.com.

The post Introducing TrustedForm Masked Certificates for Lead Sellers appeared first on ActiveProspect.

Be one of the first to see a private demo of the all-new, soon-to-be-released LeadConduit and the new TrustedForm Masked Certificate.  Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

Learn how to instantly qualify Internet leads using custom lead flows in the new LeadConduit:

• Create advanced lead processing scenarios for your specific marketing needs;
• Easily integrate any web service into your lead flow;
• Utilize an unlimited number of services in a single lead flow;
• Act on leads in real-time with rules-based decisioning; and
• Identify and block unqualified leads in real-time to reduce call center costs.

TrustedForm Masked Certificates give lead providers more control

LeadsCon NYC will be your first opportunity to see an important new feature in the TrustedForm lead certification service.  TrustedForm Masked Certificates block certain types of lead source information, giving lead providers and aggregators control over how much information they want to share with their buyers.  Masked Certificates still allow lead buyers to independently verify lead authenticity and compliance, including webpage scanning for correct offer and TCPA disclosure language.

If you would like to schedule a private demo of the all-new LeadConduit or TrustedForm Masked Certificates while you’re attending LeadsCon, contact us at sales@activeprospect.com.

You can also stop by and visit us at Booth #900 on the exhibit floor.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The post Join ActiveProspect at LeadsCon New York Aug. 14-15 appeared first on ActiveProspect.

Just a year ago, at LeadsCon Las Vegas 2012, I introduced the concept of independent lead certification at the New Technology showcase when I presented TrustedForm Certified Leads. It is really exciting to see how quickly lead certification has been accepted in the industry – enough to warrant a panel discussion at this year’s LeadsCon.

The panel discussion focused on three major themes:

1) There is value in all types of leads, but buyers need to know what they are buying. 
Lead buyers need to be able to accurately identify what they are buying so that they can properly value it. For example, in the financial markets there are junk bonds and penny stocks. There is a healthy market for these products because they are properly priced for the associated risk. In the world of online lead generation, it’s difficult to value an individual Internet lead without knowing when, where, and how it was generated. Consider two leads with identical fields: one is a $3 co-registration lead and the other is a $30 lead generated from a stand-alone branded website. If you buy the latter one, you may think you are buying a $30 lead when you are actually getting a $3 lead. Lead Certification allows buyers to independently verify what they are buying so they can pay the right price.

2) Bad leads in ecosystem create downward pricing pressure.
Lead buyers have come to accept that a percentage of the leads they buy are junk. As a result, they lower lead prices to compensate for the lower conversion rate. As prices decline, lead vendors have to resort to cheaper ways to generate leads in order to maintain the same margin. This lowers the quality even further, resulting in buyers lowering prices again. The result is a vicious pricing cycle. I was pleased to be able to share the story of one of ActiveProspect’s clients who was able to break this cycle. They required all of their lead vendors to provide leads that have been certified by ActiveProspect’s TrustedForm solution. 100% of their leads are now certified by TrustedForm. By only accepting certified leads, they were able to cut out a lot of the garbage they were buying and thus dramatically increase their effective conversion rate. As a result, they were able to double the payouts for good leads while still improving ROI. This was a win for both the lead buyer and the lead sellers providing quality leads.

3) Industry is facing increased regulatory scrutiny.
It seems like every day there is more scrutiny into the way Internet leads are generated. In September 2012, a group of Senators wrote a letter to the FTC calling for a federal investigation into the practices of lead generators and other third party marketing companies. The letter expressed concerns regarding the aggressive practices of companies generating leads for for-profit colleges. The FCC recently updated the TCPA rules to require prior express written consent for calls to consumers using an auto-dialer. Lead certification services allow a lead buyer to independently identify the origin of an Internet lead. By knowing where the leads originate, they can better control the marketing. In the case of the TCPA rules, ActiveProspect’s TrustedForm solution is a simple way to maintain proof of consent for Internet leads since it captures a real-time screenshot of exactly what the consumer saw when they submitted the form.

I look forward to continuing these discussions at future events.

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