What Is A Ping Tree?

A ping tree is a is a term used in the online lead generation industry. It applies when live leads may be sold in real-time to more than one possible lead buyer. This can apply when the leads can be sold more than once to different buyers as well as when the leads can only be sold once but the buyers have a chance to peek at some or all of the data fields and answer with an accept or decline with reason.

In the simplest model a lead generator will post leads to its buyers in order of the price its buyers are willing to pay. The lead generator's software will wait some amount of time for a response before moving on to the next lead point in the ping tree.

Experienced online lead generators will go beyond this simple model for ping tree software, for example:

Don't just post in order of price -- the "champagne" model. This creates too much risk and instability in the marketplace.

Monitor whether the consumer is still connected. If not, stop posting leads down the ping tree and inform the buyer currently considering the lead the transaction should be aborted.

Require lead buyers to accept and then wait for a confirmation before the lead is officially sold. This avoids confusion and selling leads too many times under timeout conditions.

For lead buyers that require consumer redirects, require the buyer to acknowledge that the consumer arrived and/or took some action as the final confirmation that the lead is payable.