Opta

Opta (opta.io) helps performance marketers create, optimize, and scale their paid lead gen campaigns. If you're looking for a modern lead disitribution platform, let's chat.

GM & Cofounder

SparkLoop

Helped the best email newsletters in the world grow & monetize. Clients included Mark Manson, Morning Brew, The Hustle, MarketBeat, Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, and 300+ more.

Head of Accounts

Junto Media

Helped media brands & creators operate profitable newsletter businesses. Grew a personal finance newsletter to 10K readers in 9 months and a profitable b2b creator newsletter to 500.

Owner

Tiburon Media Group

Helped b2c advertisers use consent-based lead generation to attract new customers. Clients included Williams Sonoma, Empire Today, Norton LifeLock, NakedWines, TheHustle, and 400+ more.

Senior Account Executive

Account Executive

Associate District Manager

Enterprise Fish Company

Restaurant Manager

Belami eCommerce

Marketing Intern

Lead buyers and sellers don’t need complicated workflows. They need a lead distribution system that makes setup fast, partner management effortless, and optimizations easy.

Pricing should be easy to understand and support should take minutes not hours.

That’s where Opta comes in.

We help brands, publishers, and agencies automate lead distribution, reduce wasted spend, and scale faster—without the headaches of outdated platforms.

   ✅ Automate lead flow across all partners and campaigns
   ✅ Easily optimize with real-time reporting
   ✅ Manage buyers and sellers with partner portals

If you manage lead buying or selling and want a smarter way to optimize performance, let’s talk.

👉 DM me or book a demo here: https://opta.io/demo

Before Opta, I worked with top creators and media brands like Morning Brew, TheSkimm, Mark Manson, Tim Ferriss, and hundreds more. At SparkLoop, I helped them scale audience growth with paid ads and proprietary ad-serving tech.

I've also built and run multiple newsletters:

→ Junto (Personal finance) – 10K readers in 9 months
→ Leather Apron Club (Newsletter growth) – 500+ readers, $1K MRR
→ Cole’s Newsletter (Current) – Read by 2.6K weekly

Earlier in my career, I led ad sales at Tiburon Media, generating $15M+ in revenue for brands like The Hustle, Norton LifeLock, and NakedWines.

I love connecting with marketers, founders, and operators. Shoot me a note!

Cole Bridge

Co-founder at Opta | Helping Lead Buyers & Sellers Earn More

Sometimes the reason you're not closing deals isn't because of the lead quality.

It's because of how you're working the leads.

Asked my friend Noel Land from Convertros what kills lead conversion rates.

She sees the same 5 mistakes all the time:

❌ Not registering your branded phone number

One team told her flat-out: “We didn’t even know you had to do that.” 

So they’ve been getting marked as spam left and right without realizing it.

If your phone numbers aren’t properly registered, or if they don’t show a trusted brand name on caller ID, your leads either ignore you or never see the call in the first place.

❌ Only calling 9-5 M-F

If you're not calling evenings and weekends, you're missing when people actually answer.

They're home, not in meetings, kids are settled - these are your best windows. 

But most teams treat lead follow-up like a 9-5 job.

❌ Still believing the “5-minute rule”

Noel hears this all the time: “We aim to call within five minutes.”

But the real number is 20 seconds or less.

Even with exclusive leads, that person is still holding their phone, actively searching. If you wait, they’re gone.

❌ Vague confirmation flows

It’s not enough to say “You’re booked.”

The lead needs to know exactly what’s happening next.

Will they get an email? A confirmation call from a sales rep? A calendar invite to verify the time?

If you leave it ambiguous, don’t be surprised when the lead disappears.

❌ Zero rapport building

This one’s subtle, but it works. Just be a caring human.

At work? 

"I'll be quick - how's 6pm tomorrow after you're off?"

Baby crying? 

"I've got kids too, I'll make this fast."

Takes 5 seconds. Keeps them on the line.

***

Next time you're reviewing your sales process, check for these mistakes.

And if you'd prefer to leave it to the pros, I highly recommend you reach out to Noel Land and her team to learn more.

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⚡️ Webhooks just went live in Opta.

Now you can easily capture leads from:

✅ Landing pages

✅ Quiz funnels

✅ Meta lead forms

(or anywhere else)

without needing Zapier or Make in the middle.

Setup takes 2 minutes:

1. Create your webhook url
2. Paste it in your form tool
3. Map your fields

That's it.

Really excited about this one - if you want to see it in action, drop me a DM.

And there's much more coming soon 👀

A lot of you who are selling leads haven't heard about lead distribution platforms.

I hear ya.

Here’s your crash course:

You’re running paid lead generation to capture opt-ins: from Facebook, Google, native, whatever.

Right now, you’re probably sending those leads straight to a single buyer.

When they hit cap, reject leads, or want to pause, you’re stuck. 

That either means unsold leads and lost revenue, or you just have to pause your ad spend while you get new clients.

Here's how a lead distribution platform changes that dynamic.

If a buyer hits cap, pauses, or rejects a lead, a lead distribution platform automatically moves on to the next available buyer (usually at the next highest price).

That means more revenue per lead, fewer unsold leads, and no more juggling caps or spreadsheets.

Want to sell one lead to the highest bidder? Easy.

Want to split traffic across multiple buyers? Done.

Want to add a new buyer without rebuilding funnels? Plug and play.

Without a platform in place, you’re leaving money on the table.

So if you’re generating paid leads, looking to earn more per lead, and want to reduce unsold inventory, let’s talk.

I’d love to show you what we’re building at Opta and how it helps sellers scale smarter.

Quick story about how I was completely wrong.

When we launched multi-buyer functionality in Opta, I thought agencies would absolutely eat it up, but brands wouldn't care much.

Turns out brands are using it just as heavily.

One franchise brand is routing leads to 10+ locations, each with:

→ Different zip code targeting
→ Their own daily budgets
→ Unique business hours

Another home services brand splits leads between 8 different locations, each with their own set of sales reps waiting on leads.

Meanwhile, agencies are using it exactly how I expected - routing to different clients based on their pricing and targeting criteria.

So yeah, I was totally wrong.

But sometimes your users see possibilities you completely miss.

And honestly? That's the best part of building something people actually use.

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li_at

Talks about #emailmarketing, #audiencebuilding, #emailnewsletters, #newslettergrowth, and #newslettermonetization

Be honest...

When was the last time you shared conversion data with your lead vendors?

Last week? Last month? Never?

When I sold leads I saw this all the time, despite telling new clients:

"My best customers give us disposition reporting at least once a week."

If you're working with quality vendors, they want to know what's working and what's not.

Sometimes what's not working is really easily fixed. Like same day, few clicks easy.

But without reporting, nothing changes.

Then eventually you pause the vendor for poor performance (and lose out on their good leads).

It's really simple to start:

Send your vendors a list of converted leads once a month. Share your target CPA.

Even better? Run the analysis yourself and send simple instructions:

"Pause traffic source A, run ads only 9-5 M-F, remove these three states."

Good vendors will adjust immediately.

Your vendors want to send better leads. Give them the data to do it.

new feature droppin this week 👀

landing pages → Opta

quiz funnels → Opta

lead forms → Opta

Just because you have a low CPA, does not mean you're not wasting budget.

Hear me out.

I've seen campaigns with $120 CPAs lose money on every sale. 

Why? 

Average deal size was $180.

I've also seen $900 CPAs print money because deal size was $10K.

The difference? Looking beyond CPA to ROAS.

CPA shows efficiency → how cheaply you acquire customers.

ROAS shows profitability → whether those customers actually make you money.

Many marketers optimize for cheap acquisition without asking "what's the return?"

Here's the reality check:

(Deal Size × Close Rate) - CPA = Profit per customer

If that number is negative, your "great" CPA is killing your business.

Pull your last 30 days of data. Compare CPA to ROAS by traffic source. Your "expensive" sources might be your most profitable.

What metrics do you track beyond CPA?

A lot of people think that company values are BS.

But they couldn't be more wrong.

You've probably seen this throughout your career:

• "This keeps confusing people."
• "This process is slow and makes no sense."
• "I don't think we should do it this way."

Cool, so what?

This is why one of Opta's company values is:

"I will always propose solutions when I raise a problem."

Adopting this value completely changes the way you work.

Instead of drive-by complaints, you get ownership. Instead of pushing the work on to someone else, you get immediate momentum towards a solution.

Look at the difference:

"This keeps confusing people, so I think we need to update it. We can do either Option A, Option B, or Option C. Here are the tradeoffs for each and here's why I think we should do Option A."

Even if you don't have the perfect answer, you bring something. Maybe it's three possible approaches. Maybe it's data on what's actually broken. Maybe it's examples of how others solved it.

You're not just outsourcing the problem to someone else. 

You're creating momentum, pushing the situation closer to a fix.

Shared values like this only work when everyone's bought in. That's why everyone at Opta signed our company values document.

And here's what actually happens when everyone operates this way:

Problems get solved 10x faster.

People feel empowered to get sh*t done without waiting for permission.

One of my absolute favorite questions to get on a demo:

"What's your support like?"

✅ 2 minute response time (we literally race to answer first)

✅ You get real humans - just me and Rahul Richhi - not some outsourced team reading scripts

✅ We'll hop on a call, record custom videos, whatever helps you get unstuck

✅ Every feature request gets tracked. The good ones ship within weeks, not "someday"

The difference?

❌No long wait times

❌No lost tickets

❌No frustration

Just two founders who genuinely care if you succeed.

Our support philosophy is simple:

Help you win, however we can.

Head of Product at Opta | Creating software for the lead generation industry

Another week, another Opta customer saving *thousands of dollars* in wasted spend on duplicates & low-quality leads in their first month ✅

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

If I had to start over as a lead vendor today, here’s exactly how I’d do it:

1. Pick one vertical

I like legal, home services, or financial services. Strong payouts, consistent demand, and open to testing new vendors.

Picking one vertical would allow me to develop expertise in that niche and know exactly what clients are looking for.

2. Talk to buyers & learn

Before building anything, I’d have real conversations with 5+ buyers. 

I’d ask about their qualifications and how their best lead vendors are targeting/qualifying leads.

3. Line up 2+ buyers

I’d pitch the buyers from my research calls to run a test with me. Obviously more is better, but this gives me enough to start. 

I’d also set up an affiliate network or lower-cost buyer to take whatever my premium buyers don’t want.

4. Build a quiz funnel

I’d use single-question, survey style and keep it at 5 steps or less. 

Every question would serve a specific purpose from my buyer research calls. 

I’d test load speed and make sure it’s mobile optimized.

5. Automate routing

I’d route every lead into Opta using highest-price routing with waterfall. 

Opta would check the highest-priced eligible buyer first, then roll down until the lead sold. 

That way I maximize revenue per lead and minimize unsold leads.

6. Start with Meta ads

I’d run Meta ads that convert on my own site, not native forms. That way I control the experience and collect full data. Early on, the goal is testing, not scale.

7. Scale, scale, scale

I’d scale Meta ads as far as I could. Then I’d layer in Paid Search and scale that as far as I could. After that, I’d run smaller tests with affiliates to add volume without jeopardizing quality.

8. Protect buyer relationships

I’d respond immediately to buyers and provide regular performance reviews. Fast, thoughtful service is one of the biggest differentiators in lead generation.

--

What do you think?

Drop a comment below.

An agency owner I spoke with last week had their paid social and native media buying *absolutely dialed.*

Then they had to turn it off.

Why?

Because they had one buyer and that buyer hit their quarterly budget.

He could have spent 7x more profitably. 

Instead, he had to pause everything.

The math is simple:

One buyer = single point of failure

More buyers = no single point of failure

When buyer #1 hits their cap at noon, buyer #2 takes the leads. When buyer #2 slows down, buyer #3 is ready. And so on.

Your campaigns keep running and the revenue keeps flowing.

So:

✅ Set up multiple buyers before you "need" them

✅ Use your current results as proof to bring in more

✅ Build the routing rules so adding new buyers is plug and play

Because when you finally find that campaign that prints money, you don't want buyer limits holding you back.

With the right setup, shifting from one buyer to the next is automatic. No downtime, no scrambling.

No more pausing profitable campaigns.

Too many lead buyers think they need to choose: 

Buy from vendors OR run your own media

That's like asking if you should have sales OR marketing.

Here's why I like both:

I've watched companies with great internal campaigns get CRUSHED when Facebook changes their algorithm overnight. CPMs spike 300%, volume dies, pipeline empty.

I've even seen people get locked out of their ad accounts with no explanation.

That's why I love the idea of splitting budget between vendors and internal media buying. 

You've got built-in redundancy.

But here's what pure vendor strategies miss: zero exclusivity, no brand building, and you're paying someone else's margin forever.

Go with vendors if you need volume fast. One call, predictable cost, leads flowing tomorrow.

Run internal campaigns for the margins and control. Your leads, your data, your brand.

The companies crushing it right now run both.

They use vendors for predictable volume at a predictable price (and protection against platform changes). 

They run their own campaigns to build their brand, generate truly exclusive leads, and have complete control over user experience.

You don't have to pick sides (and probably shouldn't).

Ran the numbers for a *different* Opta user and we saved them EVEN MORE in their first 30 days...

Goodbye to $7.9K in wasted ad spend 👋

Ran the numbers for a new Opta user and we saved them $3.8k in wasted ad spend in their first month 🔥

Was on a call with a new customer last week and got a helpful reminder.

These folks are in home services, but the idea is universal.

They track a few different metrics throughout their funnel:

→ Cost per appointment set
→ Cost per appointment attended
→ Cost per sale

Why that's smart:

If you're *only* tracking cost per sale and it's too high, what do you need to fix?

Lead quality?

Speed-to-lead?

Talk tracks?

Having these three metrics allows them to pinpoint any issue exactly.

These exact metrics may not matter to you, but you surely have some top-of-funnel metrics you can use.

Track a few different metrics throughout your funnel and optimizing gets a whole lot easier.

Taplio

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