The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned adverts from two lead generators offering life insurance quotes for being misleading and operating outside their trade.
The regulator has put the lead generator sector on notice that it is cracking down on its advertising and marketing activities.
It said the rulings formed part of a wider ongoing piece of work on lead generation marketing, identified for investigation following intelligence it had gathered.
Last year it reprimanded CleverKeith for appearing to depict life insurance as a moneymaking scheme and for implying it was an advice firm which could get consumers a “protection payment”.
And it also slammed Pelham Health Ltd which trades as Save Money Market for using “misleading” and “irresponsible” adverts for private medical insurance (PMI) which were likely to cause fear among the audience.
The regulator told Health & Protection that “lead generators have been on our radar for quite a while”, with warning notices issued to the sector along with other markets in the summer.
“This is a long-term project which is still ongoing, and we are continuing to do pro-active work with lead generators,” it added.
The latest firms sanctioned were Peak Performance Advertising which trades as ExpertsInMoney.Co and MPJ Invest which trades as Moneysaving tricks.
Seven issues were investigated across the pair – two against Peak Performance and five against MPJ Invest – with all being upheld and the respective adverts banned from appearing again.
Peak Performance
A display ad for Experts in Money, seen in August 2022, on the Express website targeted “people born 1941-1971” stating they were “due a large surprise this month” with links to its website.
The ASA noted the Experts in Money landing page included a woman holding a cheque, a letter titled “approved” and text including “congratulations”, and “Approved For: £6,100”.
These were accompanied by headline text “Adults over 50 Could Get Approved for up to £10,000 Thanks To A ‘Little-Known’ Policy (If They Do This)”.
It said this would be interpreted by consumers to mean that, if they followed the instructions, they could be approved for a policy and receive up to £10,000 through the post, as demonstrated by the images.
“We considered that the text ‘instant approval policies available’ implied that Experts in Money were capable of providing the policies directly,” it said.
It added: “Because the ads did not make clear they were for a lead generating company, we concluded that the ad falsely implied the marketer was acting for purposes outside their trade, was misleading, and breached the code.”
Peak Performance argued that its relationship with the regulated firm was made clear and that the text “This is an advertorial and not actual news articles, blog, or consumer protection update” supported that.
It also acknowledged that including product details within an ad would have been preferable, but said this was neither the purpose of the ad, nor acceptable in its business role.
It added that the nature of the ad meant it was not possible to carry product details or product particulars without becoming a ‘regulated promotion’.
The ASA rejected these arguments and noted that consumers would understand the ‘surprise’ was a sum of money, but in fact it “appeared to be a life insurance policy that a consumer may have been eligible for, depending on a number of factors”.
“We told Peak Performance Advertising LLC t/a Experts in Money not to claim or imply that they were acting for purposes outside their trade or business and to make clear the commercial intent of their marketing,” the ASA said.
“We also told them to ensure they did not omit material information and that they held evidence to substantiate their claims.”
MPJ Invest
MPJ Invest was investigated for a paid-for Facebook ad and page for its fake blogger Emily Harding and two websites for the firm.
It also claimed its partners were Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised but did not provide any evidence the advisers for Money Saving Tricks were vetted, accredited or regulated by the FCA.
The firm had created the Facebook profile in which the bio section contained the statement “Emily Harding is a professional blogger”.
“However, we understood that the Facebook page and promoted ad had been created by MJP Invest, rather than by an independent financial blogger named Emily Harding. We therefore concluded they were likely to mislead,” the ASA said.
It also made claims in adverts about life cover for parents that “just a few questions and Moneysavingtricks.co.uk find the best life policies in minutes”.
Other claims included “With MoneySavingTricks.co.uk you can get a quick quote within minutes” as well as “It only takes 56 seconds to see the policies you never realized you qualify for”, below which was the claim “Compare quotes from leading life insurance providers” along with a known insurance brand logo.
However, the ASA said it understood the website was operated by a lead generation firm, which instead sold consumers’ details to third parties who had paid to receive leads generated by the ad. “Because Money Saving Tricks misleadingly presented itself as a life insurance quote provider and did not make clear they were collecting personal information for lead generation purposes, we considered the ads falsely implied they were acting for purposes outside their trade, and did not make clear their commercial intent,” it added.
JNB Leads responded for MPJ Invest Ltd and said that in August 2022 it had taken over all the advertising accounts for MPJ Invest, and the company was no longer in the advertising business.
It added that it had reviewed the advertising material highlighted and had withdrawn the ads.
The ASA told MPJ Invest to ensure future marketing communications did not give the overall impression they were written by personal individuals who were independent from their business.
“We told them to ensure they did not falsely imply they were acting for purposes outside of their trade, and to ensure that their future marketing communications made clear that their purpose was to gather consumer’s personal information for lead generation,” it said.
“We further told them to ensure they did not claim their advisers were accredited, approved or vetted by the FCA, and to ensure that they did not make claims that their products had appeared in well-known publications when they had not.”
