Verified vs. Unverified Leads: What You Are Actually Buying

You can buy 10,000 B2B leads for $500 from a dozen providers. You can also buy 250 verified leads for $500 from VerifiedByTed. On the surface, the first option looks like a better deal. It is not.

What Unverified Leads Look Like

A typical unverified lead list from a major data provider includes:

• Company name and industry (usually accurate)
• Employee count (often 6-12 months stale)
• Revenue range (frequently estimated, sometimes wildly inaccurate)
• Contact name and title (current at time of database entry, which may have been years ago)
• Email address (format-guessed or collected, rarely SMTP-verified)
• Phone number (main switchboard more often than direct line)

The data was accurate at some point. The question is when. With 30-40% annual decay, a list compiled six months ago has already lost 15-20% of its accuracy.

What Verified Leads Look Like

A verified lead from VerifiedByTed includes:

• Company name, website, and industry (confirmed active this week)
• Employee count (cross-referenced from multiple current sources)
• Revenue range (validated through independent indicators, not self-reported)
• Contact name and title (confirmed as currently in this role)
• Email address (SMTP-verified as accepting mail within 7 days)
• Phone number (direct dial or mobile, validated as active)
• LinkedIn URL (confirmed matching)
• ICP match score (1-100, based on your specific criteria)
• Confidence scores for each data point

Every data point has been individually checked. Every lead has been verified within the past week.

The Real Cost Comparison

Unverified list (10,000 leads at $0.05/lead = $500):

• Usable after bounce cleanup: 7,000-8,000
• Correct title/company: 6,000-7,000
• Matching ICP after review: 3,000-5,000
• Time spent cleaning: 15-25 hours
• Domain damage from bounces: significant risk
• Effective cost per ICP-matched, deliverable lead: $0.10-$0.17
• Plus 15-25 hours of labor and domain risk

Verified list (250 leads at $2.00/lead = $500):

• Usable: 242+ (97%+ deliverability)
• Correct title/company: 242+ (individually verified)
• Matching ICP: 242+ (scored and matched before delivery)
• Time spent cleaning: 0 hours
• Domain damage risk: near zero
• Effective cost per ICP-matched, deliverable lead: $2.07
• Plus zero hours of labor and zero domain risk

The unverified list looks cheaper per lead. The verified list is cheaper per outcome. Every time.

When Unverified Data Makes Sense

To be fair, there are use cases where volume matters more than verification. If you are running awareness campaigns, doing market research, or building a broad universe for phone-based outreach where bounces do not affect domain reputation, unverified data can be cost-effective.

But if you are sending email, verified data is not a luxury. It is a requirement. The cost of domain damage from a single bad campaign exceeds the cost difference between verified and unverified leads by an order of magnitude.