Partner with Hardbacon: exclusive Financial Leads for Canadian experts
Hardbacon helps Canadians understand insurance, mortgages, loans and investments. When they want a licensed expert to shop the market for them, we send them to you. One reader, one partner.
Where your Leads come from
More than 45,000 Canadians use Hardbacon every month.
Most of them arrive from a search:
- What car insurance costs in their city,
- Whether to renew or switch a mortgage,
- How a consumer proposal works.
Our pages answer the question as far as a website can. For cards and bank accounts, that is a comparison they can act on. For insurance, mortgages, life, debt and planning, the next step is a licensed expert who can shop the market, and that is where we hand off.
An exclusive financial lead from Hardbacon is a reader who asked to be contacted, from a page about the product you sell, with their answers to the intake questions you chose. How much they read before that varies, and some will still need things explained. What they will not be is cold: they came with a question, and they asked to talk to you.
What working with Hardbacon gets you
We are a small team in Montréal, and we would rather have twenty partners we can vouch for than two hundred we can’t. Here is what we put on the table for the experts we do work with. Pricing for exclusive financial leads is discussed one-to-one, not posted.
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Leads that are yours alone
A reader who asks to be contacted goes to one partner, matched on province and product. We do not resell the same lead to several firms. If shared leads are the reason you stopped buying leads elsewhere, that is the reason to talk to us.
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02
Readers with a real question
Our readers arrive from a specific money question and leave our guides knowing what they need: the coverage, the term, roughly what it costs where they live. What they do not have is the quotes. That is the part they want an expert for. Shorter calls, better fit.
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A form built around your questions
Before a reader reaches you, they answer a short form we build with you: the three or four things you need to know before a first call. Renewal date, coverage type, debt amount, whatever your practice runs on. You get the answers with the introduction.
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Competitive pricing, no surprises
We do not publish rates because they depend on your province, your products and the volume you want. What we can say: the price reflects that the lead is exclusive and pre-qualified, and you will know it in writing before you commit.
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Matched by province and language
Licences stop at provincial borders and so do our introductions. You tell us where you are licensed and which languages you serve clients in; we only send readers who fit. No Ontario mortgage requests landing on a Quebec desk, no French readers sent to an English-only office.
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No long-term contracts
We agree on a monthly volume you can actually handle and we start there. No minimum term, no annual commitment. If it works, you scale up. If it does not, you stop, and we ask only for enough notice to redirect readers cleanly.
Who we are looking for
One condition applies to every profile on this list: you can offer more than one product, so the recommendation follows the client, not the commission. Captive agents who sell a single company’s products are good people, but they are not who our readers are asking for. Independents, licensed in the provinces you serve.
Licensed with the AMF in Quebec, FSRA in Ontario, or your provincial regulator elsewhere. Our mortgage guides send readers who are buying, renewing or refinancing and want a broker to shop lenders for them.
Damage-insurance brokers who quote several insurers. Car and home insurance is where our readers most often ask for an expert to compare insurers for them, especially after seeing how much rates vary by postal code.
Brokers in personal insurance (assurance de personnes in Quebec) who can place term, permanent and critical-illness coverage with more than one carrier, and who explain the difference plainly.
Pl. Fin. in Quebec, CFP elsewhere. Readers come out of our investing and retirement content with a plan-shaped question: RRSP or TFSA first, how much to save, what to do with a windfall.
Licensed counsellors and trustees who can lay out every option, from a budget reset to a consumer proposal, without pushing one. Our debt readers are stressed and want straight answers.
Not buying leads, but want to work together? Experts we can quote in articles, co-built guides or calculators, referral arrangements, speaking to our newsletter readers. Tell us the idea in the form.
How it works, start to finish
Tell us about your practice
Fill out the short form: who you are, where you are licensed, what you offer, and whether you want leads, a collaboration, or both. It takes about three minutes, and a person reads it.
We do our homework
We verify your licence with the regulator, look at your track record and how clients describe working with you. We do this for everyone, including people we already know. Five business days.
We agree on the scope
A call to settle provinces, products, languages, the volume you can handle, pricing, and the questions your intake form should ask. Written up in plain language. Nothing starts until you have said yes.
Readers reach you
Introductions start. You get the reader’s request and their answers to your questions; the reader gets your name, and only yours. We check in after the first month to fix anything off.
What we check before we introduce you
Hardbacon only works if readers can trust who we send them to. So before anyone gets an introduction, we look at four things. Here is exactly what they are.
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Licensing where you practise
What we check: an active licence with the regulator of every province you want readers from (AMF, FSRA, BCFSA, the insurance councils, and so on), with no current restrictions.
Why: our readers assume anyone we introduce is allowed to advise them where they live. We confirm it rather than assume it, and we re-check when licences come up for renewal.
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More than one product to offer
What we check: that you can genuinely shop the market: several lenders, several insurers, several carriers, or, for planners and counsellors, that your advice is not tied to selling one company’s product.
Why: it is the whole reason we say “broker” and not “agent.” The recommendation has to be able to follow the client.
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Track record
What we check: how long you have practised, disciplinary history with your regulator, and what public reviews and references say about how you treat clients, including the ones who did not buy.
Why: a reader who has a bad experience with a partner has a bad experience with Hardbacon. We would rather find out first.
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How you handle the people we send
What we check: after you are on board, we follow up with a sample of readers about response time, clarity, and whether they felt sold to.
Why: an introduction is a promise from us. Partners who treat readers well get more of them; partners who do not are removed, and we will tell you why.
None of this is meant to be a hurdle. Most experts who apply pass it, and the ones who do tell us the vetting is part of why the introductions convert: the reader already knows we looked. If you would rather not go through it, we understand, and this page is not for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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How much does a lead cost?
We do not publish rates. Pricing depends on your province, the products you offer and the volume you can handle, so we quote it to you after the vetting step, in writing, before anything starts. What we can say now: it is priced for exclusive, pre-qualified introductions, and it is competitive with what you are paying today for shared leads.
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Are the leads really exclusive?
Yes. A reader who asks to be contacted is matched to one partner, by province and product. We do not resell or share that request with anyone else. If the same reader later asks for a second opinion, that is a new request and it goes through the same process.
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Can I choose what the reader is asked before I get the lead?
Yes, within reason. During onboarding we build a short intake form with you: the three or four questions you need answered before a first call. We keep it short on purpose, because readers abandon long forms, and a lead you never receive helps nobody. You get the answers with every introduction.
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Is there a long-term contract or a minimum?
No. There is no minimum term and no annual commitment. We agree on a monthly volume you can handle and either side can pause or stop; we only ask for enough notice to redirect readers cleanly. Everything is written down before you commit.
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Which provinces do you cover?
All of them, in principle. In practice most of our readers today are in Quebec and Ontario, with the rest of Canada growing. You only receive readers from the provinces where you are licensed, so list all of them on the form.
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I’m a captive agent. Can I still apply?
For leads, no: our readers are asking for someone who can shop more than one product, and we promise them that. For other collaborations (being quoted as an expert, co-building a guide), yes, as long as the content stays product-neutral. Pick that option on the form.
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Do you send French-speaking readers?
Yes. Hardbacon publishes everything in French and in English, and readers write to us in both. If you serve clients in French, say so on the form and we will route francophone requests to you first.
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What happens after I submit the form?
A person reads it, not a bot. Within five business days you will hear back with either questions or the next step; we use that time to verify your licence and do our homework properly. If we are not a fit, we will say so, and when we can, point you somewhere that is.
Tell us about your practice
A few questions, about three minutes. A person reads every application and replies within five business days. Prefer email? Write to info@hardbacon.ca with “Partnership” in the subject line.
