What Is A Buyer? A Breakdown of Buyers in Lead Prosper

A Buyer in Lead Prosper is the any destination where your leads are being sent and delivered to. Every campaign needs at least one Buyer configured before it can distribute leads. Each Buyer operates independently within a campaign — with its own pricing, caps, filters, payload configuration, and response mapping — making it possible to serve multiple clients with different requirements from a single campaign.

Buyer Types

Lead Prosper supports five Buyer types. Each one defines how and where lead data is delivered.

Direct Post — delivers the full lead data to the Buyer's endpoint in a single API request. This is the most common Buyer type.
Ping Post — uses a two-step delivery process. An initial PING request shares limited lead information — often excluding PII — so the Buyer can pre-screen the lead and decide whether to purchase it. Buyers typically respond with an acceptance or rejection status, a bid price, and a unique token or ID that must be included in the subsequent POST request. If the Buyer rejects the PING, the process ends. If accepted, the full lead data is delivered through the POST.
Google Sheets — delivers leads directly into a Google Sheet in real time using Lead Prosper's native integration. Connect your Google account, select the spreadsheet and worksheet, and map your fields to the sheet columns. No Zapier, webhooks, or custom scripts required.
Email — delivers lead data through a plain-text email notification sent to up to five email addresses. You can customize the "From" name, reply-to address, subject line, and email body using dynamic lead field values.

If you need HTML-formatted emails, use a third-party Email Service Provider (ESP) with an API endpoint configured as a Direct Post Buyer.
Store Lead — retains lead data within Lead Prosper without sending it to an external destination. Useful for internal workflows, lead warehousing, testing, reporting, and capturing leads without immediately distributing them.

Google Sheets, Email, and Store Lead Buyers are always considered "Accepted" — leads are delivered unless Buyer-level filters or caps prevent it. All five Buyer types can be used in both Direct Post and Ping Post campaigns. When any Buyer type is placed inside a Ping Post campaign, Supplier PING requests are automatically treated as accepted as long as Buyer-level filters and caps pass. The lead data is only delivered once the Supplier submits the full POST request.

Buyer Configuration

Each Buyer can be configured with the following settings:

Sell Price

The price at which each lead sold to the Buyer is recorded.

Static Pricing — a fixed price applied to every lead sold to the Buyer, regardless of lead data.
Conditional Pricing — multiple price points that are adjusted based on the lead data. You set a default price, then add rules that adjust the price when specific conditions are met. Examples could be a buyer who pays $15 for leads from Florida, $25 for leads from Connecticut, $30 for leads from New York, etc.
Real-Time Pricing — the sell price is determined dynamically from the Buyer's API response. For Ping Post Buyers, the price comes from the PING response and becomes the Buyer's bid price. For Direct Post Buyers, Real-Time Pricing is available based on the POST as long as the campaign distribution method is not highest bidder.

Bid Penalty (Highest Bidder)

A percentage-based adjustment applied to a Buyer's bid price. It reduces the Buyer's effective bid during the highest-bidder sort order without changing the actual price the lead is recorded at. Bid Penalties help account for post-sale costs — like lead returns — that make a Buyer's real-time bid less profitable than it appears. The penalty is applied after margins and affects only the sort order.

Lead Caps

Volume caps that limit the number of leads delivered to a Buyer. Caps can be set by day, week, month, or total, and can also be set for specific days of the week.

Budget Caps

Budget caps that limit the total spend on a Buyer's leads. Like volume caps, they can be set by day, week, month, or total, and can also be broken down by specific days.

Filters

Filters at the Buyer level control which leads are eligible to be delivered to that specific Buyer. They are evaluated after Global and Supplier filters have already run. Each Buyer can have its own set of filters, ensuring they only receive leads that match their criteria. Filters operate in two modes: Allow (only leads matching the criteria pass through) and Block (any lead matching the criteria is rejected for that Buyer).

In addition to standard field-level filters, Buyer-level filtering supports standalone filter types: Day & Hour Parting, Block Calendar Dates, At Least 1 Field Required, and Supplier Filters. Buyer-level API Filters are also available — these send a request to an external API endpoint and make an allow/block decision based on the real-time response.

For a complete reference of all filter types and their configuration options, see the Filters in Lead Prosper: A Complete Guide article.

Buyer Payload

Every Buyer type except Store Lead requires a payload configuration. The payload defines what data is sent to the Buyer's endpoint and how it is formatted.

Payloads can be formatted as FORM, JSON, or XML to match the Buyer's API specifications. You also configure the request type (GET, POST, PUSH), the posting URL, custom Headers, and connection timeouts.

The payload is built using the following field types:

Campaign Fields — the lead data fields defined in your campaign (e.g., first name, email, phone number, state).
System Fields — values generated by Lead Prosper itself (e.g., lead ID, timestamp, campaign ID).
Computed Fields — virtual fields whose values are dynamically generated from existing lead data using a no-code configurator. You can combine multiple fields, apply transformers, and reformat data — for example, merging first and last name into a full name field, normalizing a phone number format, or converting a date format.

Payload Field Transformers

Lead Prosper provides a library of transformers that modify lead data before it is sent to the Buyer. Transformers are applied inline within the payload using the {{field||transformer}} syntax and can be chained together. Common transformers include case conversion, date formatting, phone number formatting, value replacement, encoding, mathematical operations, and conditional value mapping. This is particularly useful in multi-buyer campaigns where different Buyers require the same data in different formats.

For the full list of available transformers and usage examples, see the Payload Field Transformers article.

Response Mapping

After the payload is sent, the Buyer's API returns a response. Response mapping tells Lead Prosper how to interpret that response so the system knows whether the lead was accepted, rejected, or duplicated.

You define response mappings by specifying keys within the Buyer's JSON or XML response and mapping them to outcomes like Accepted/Success, Duplicate, or Real-Time Price. For JSON responses, keys use forward-slash notation to navigate nested objects (e.g., metadata/buyer/id ). For XML responses, keys use XPath-style paths (e.g., /success/bidAmount ).

Properly configuring response mapping is critical — if the mapping is incorrect, leads may be recorded as failed even when the Buyer accepted them, or the system may not capture bid prices or tokens needed for subsequent requests.

Lead Prosper provides a Response Parser Tool that lets you paste a sample response and visually map the fields. Using this tool during setup is highly recommended.

Testing New Buyers

When a new Buyer is created — including cloned Buyers — it is set to Paused by default. This gives you time to configure the payload, test the integration, and confirm everything works before the Buyer goes live.

Use Lead Prosper's Test Buyer Tool to verify the integration. The Test Buyer Tool generates sample lead data that matches your campaign field configuration and sends it to the Buyer's endpoint. You can review the outgoing payload, the Buyer's response, and any debugging messages to confirm everything is set up correctly.

When testing, set any test-specific parameters the Buyer requires (e.g., a test flag in the payload) and make sure to remove them before going live. The Test Buyer Tool provides a "Copy Everything" option that copies all test data — including the full payload, headers, and response — so you can share it with the Buyer for their review.

Once the Buyer confirms the test data looks correct, change the Buyer's status to Resume to activate it and begin receiving live leads. You can pause a Buyer again at any time to temporarily stop lead delivery without deleting the Buyer or its configuration.

Cloning a Buyer

You can clone an existing Buyer within the same campaign or import a Buyer from a different campaign. The cloned Buyer includes all settings from the original: name, pricing, caps, static fields, filters, payloads, and response mapping. After cloning, review the settings and update anything that needs to change — commonly the Buyer nickname and API keys. The cloned Buyer is created in a Paused state, so you can test and verify before going live.

Buyer Portal

Lead Prosper includes a Customer / Buyer Portal — a white-labeled, self-service interface where your Buyers can log in and manage their accounts. Through the portal, Buyers can fund their accounts in real time via Stripe, view lead performance and analytics, export their leads list, pause a campaign that is not performing as expected, and manage or request changes to their caps, pricing, and filters. As the account administrator, you control what Buyers can see and do within the portal. Changes submitted by Buyers can be configured to auto-approve or require your manual review before taking effect. The portal can be deployed on a custom subdomain with your branding, providing a professional client-facing experience.

For a detailed walkthrough of setting up and configuring the Buyer Portal, see the Customer Portal article.

Between the five Buyer types, configurable pricing, caps, filters, payload builder, response mapping, distribution methods, and the Buyer Portal, Lead Prosper gives you full control over how leads are delivered, priced, and managed for every Buyer in your campaigns. Taking the time to configure each Buyer properly — starting with thorough testing before going live — ensures reliable integrations and accurate lead delivery. If you have any questions about setting up or managing your Buyers, reach out to our support team at support@leadprosper.io.