What are the key findings?
Key findings
- Ava booked an appointment in 13.1% of the conversations she had with life insurance leads from August 1 to November 2, 2026: 38% with fresh leads and 9.5% with aged leads.
- Fresh leads produced 23 times as many appointments per dial as aged leads: one booking for every 21 dials, against one for every 480.
- New leads that Ava first called within 5 minutes of arriving booked an appointment 8.8% of the time, against 2.9% when the first call came 4 to 24 hours later and 1.2% when it came more than a day later.
- For new leads that arrived during calling hours, Ava's median time to the first call was 4 minutes 15 seconds, but 54% of new leads arrived while calling hours were closed (evenings, early mornings and Sundays).
- 39% of Ava's bookings came on the first call to that lead, and 23% came on the sixth call or later.
- About 1 in 4 of Ava's bookings (27%) came from a lead calling back, not from an outbound call.
- Aged-lead calls placed at noon in the lead's local time booked 3.0 appointments per 1,000 dials, almost twice the rate at 10 to 11 a.m. (1.6) and 5 to 7 p.m. (1.7).
- Aged-lead dials on Monday through Wednesday booked about 40% more appointments per dial than dials on Thursday through Saturday (2.4 against 1.7 per 1,000).
- 6.8% of the conversations Ava had ended with an opt-out request: the lead asked not to be called again.
Each number is a count of Ava's logged call outcomes divided by another count, with the definitions below. Nothing is modeled or projected. Results vary by lead source, list age, state and offer, so treat these as one agency's benchmarks, not a promise.
How often does an AI call to a life insurance lead book an appointment?
Ava booked 13.1% of the conversations she had from August 1 to November 2, 2026. Fresh leads booked far more often than aged ones, per conversation and per dial:
| Lead type | Dials | Booked per conversation | Dials per booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh (new) leads | 8,838 | 38% | 21 |
| Aged leads | 353,766 | 9.5% | 480 |
| All outbound | 362,650 | 13.1% | 313 |
A fresh lead produced 23 times as many appointments per dial as an aged lead. Aged lists take many more dials per appointment, which is why agencies hand them to an AI instead of a person: see how to work aged leads.
How fast should you call a new life insurance lead?
Within 5 minutes, if you can. New leads Ava first called within 5 minutes of arriving booked 8.8% of the time on Ava's new-lead calls. The rate fell with every step of delay:
| Time from lead arrival to Ava's first call | New leads | Booked |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 minutes | 2,781 | 8.8% |
| 5 to 30 minutes | 1,388 | 6.0% |
| 30 minutes to 4 hours | 842 | 3.8% |
| 4 to 24 hours | 3,338 | 2.9% |
| More than 24 hours | 1,264 | 1.2% |
For the 4,304 new leads that arrived during calling hours (9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the lead's local time, Monday to Saturday), Ava's median time to the first call was 4 minutes 15 seconds; 63% were called within 5 minutes and 89% within 15. Most leads that waited hours arrived after hours: 54% of new leads came in while calling hours were closed, 38% on weekday evenings or early mornings and 16% on Sundays. Those leads are called when the window opens, which is part of why a late first call books less. More in speed to lead for life insurance.
How many calls does it take to book a life insurance lead?
Often more than one. Of the 2,474 leads Ava booked on an outbound call (out of 102,647 leads called from April 1 to November 2, 2026), 39% booked on the first call, 65% within three calls and 77% within five. 23% booked on the sixth call or later, and 10% on the tenth or later.
An agent who stops after one or two tries leaves a large share of the appointments on the list. Attempts still have to stay inside your consent, calling-hour and frequency limits; see the TCPA rules.
How many appointments come from callbacks?
About 1 in 4. 421 of Ava's 1,581 bookings from August 1 to November 2, 2026 (27%) came on an inbound call: a lead calling back the number Ava had called from, often after a voicemail or a missed call. Ava answers those callbacks at any hour. A callback that rings an empty desk is a lost appointment.
What is the best time of day to call life insurance leads?
In Ava's aged-lead calls, noon and 3 p.m. in the lead's local time were best, and the late morning and early evening were worst. Aged leads only, so the morning rush of overnight fresh leads doesn't skew the hours:
| Lead's local time | Dials | Bookings per 1,000 dials |
|---|---|---|
| 9 a.m. | 42,885 | 2.3 |
| 10 a.m. | 25,365 | 1.5 |
| 11 a.m. | 25,630 | 1.7 |
| Noon | 28,035 | 3.0 |
| 1 p.m. | 26,862 | 2.0 |
| 2 p.m. | 25,351 | 1.5 |
| 3 p.m. | 36,339 | 2.7 |
| 4 p.m. | 30,047 | 2.4 |
| 5 p.m. | 40,105 | 1.7 |
| 6 p.m. | 59,887 | 1.7 |
Noon and 3 p.m. beat 10 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. in each of the three months. See the best time to call life insurance leads.
What is the best day to call life insurance leads?
Early in the week. Aged-lead dials Monday through Wednesday booked 2.4 appointments per 1,000 dials, against 1.7 for Thursday through Saturday, about 40% more.
| Day (lead's local time) | Dials | Bookings per 1,000 dials |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 50,883 | 2.8 |
| Tuesday | 56,493 | 2.4 |
| Wednesday | 57,662 | 2.1 |
| Thursday | 55,567 | 1.6 |
| Friday | 56,931 | 1.7 |
| Saturday | 63,246 | 1.9 |
Polca does not call on Sundays, so there is no Sunday row.
Do older leads still book?
Yes, at a lower rate. For the 334,140 aged-lead calls whose lead record carried an original lead date (April 1 to November 2, 2026), bookings per 1,000 dials fell slowly with age:
| Lead age when called | Dials | Bookings per 1,000 dials |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | 71,038 | 1.8 |
| 3 to 6 months | 113,963 | 1.5 |
| 6 to 12 months | 94,569 | 1.6 |
| 12 to 24 months | 52,382 | 1.3 |
A lead 12 to 24 months old still booked at about 70% of the rate of a lead under 3 months old. Leads older than 24 months are left out: too few calls to report. See how to reactivate old leads.
How long is an AI call that books an appointment?
Short. 68% of the 3,025 calls that ended in a booking were under 2 minutes, and 94% were under 3. Ava confirms a few basics and offers a time; the agent does the selling on the appointment.
How often do leads opt out of AI calls?
6.8% of the 8,072 conversations Ava had from August 6 to November 2, 2026 ended with an opt-out request: the lead asked not to be called again. Polca's do-not-call detector flags these requests on every call; 82% of them also matched its phrase list. Flagged numbers are suppressed for the agency's future calls, AI and human.
Opt-outs are not a nuisance to minimize. They are the law: Polca gives your agency calling controls; your agency stays responsible for its own compliance. On every call, AI or human, Polca checks your agency's opt-out list at dial time, adds opt-outs it detects on calls (words like “stop”), calls only between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. in the lead's local time and never on Sundays, caps attempts per lead, and gives you a kill switch for all outbound dialing. Polca does not scrub your lists against the National or state Do Not Call registries. AI voice calls need prior express written consent, and your agency certifies that consent for each list before Ava calls it. Polca gives no legal advice and no compliance guarantee. The full rules are in the Calling & AI Voice policy.
How are these numbers defined?
- Dial: one outbound call Ava placed to a lead.
- Conversation: the call connected and the lead or another person spoke with Ava, whatever happened next (booked, not interested, call back later, wrong number). Voicemail greetings don't count.
- Booking: Ava put an appointment on an agent's calendar during the call.
- Fresh lead: a lead new to the agency, called in Ava's new-lead sequence. Aged lead: an older lead called in Ava's aged-lead sequence.
- Time to first call: from the moment the lead was created in the agency's records to Ava's first call. Leads re-assigned from an older record are left out.
- Callback: an inbound call from a lead to the agency's Ava number.
- Opt-out request: Polca's do-not-call detector classified the lead's words as a firm request to stop calling, such as “take me off your list.”
- Local time: from the lead's state. States with two time zones use the zone most of the state is in.
Where does the data come from?
Ava's own call records at the agency Polca was built in, pulled on November 3, 2026. Rates use August 1 to November 2, 2026; the attempt, speed-to-lead and lead-age figures use April 1 to November 2, 2026, because they follow each lead across many calls. Per-dial and per-conversation rates from earlier months are left out: the way Ava dials and classifies calls changed in late July 2026, so they aren't comparable.
Left out before counting: internal demo and house accounts, test calls to staff phones, and calls with no recorded outcome. No names, phone numbers or lead details are published, only totals and rates. Most of the leads were veterans life insurance leads, online and aged, so final expense, mortgage protection and IUL lists may behave differently.
Not published: show rate. About a third of past Ava-booked appointments have no recorded outcome, and agents mark no-shows more reliably than shows, so a show rate from these records would be wrong in a known direction.
This is observational data, not a controlled test. Leads called later are not identical to leads called sooner (many arrived at night, for one), so read the differences as strong patterns, not exact effects. To cite: Polca (polca.ai), “AI calling in life insurance: 2026 data from Ava,” November 2026, https://polca.ai/research/ai-calling-life-insurance-2026.
What does this mean for an agency?
Call new leads in minutes, at any hour you're allowed to. Keep calling: a quarter of bookings come after the fifth try. Answer every callback. Put aged-lead calling where it books, midday and early in the week. And respect every opt-out the moment it's said.
In Polca, Ava does all of that on the agency's own consented leads. Ava calls the agency's leads under the agency's name, confirms the lead's state, coverage need and age band, handles common objections such as “I already have insurance,” and books the appointment on the right agent's calendar. She never quotes prices, never takes applications and never binds coverage.
Per agent on Ava, each month (as of November 2026): 46 appointments booked by Ava, 5 clients signed by the agent (about 11% of booked appointments), and $9,856 in annual premium (AP) written, about $118,000 a year. That is about $10 of AP written for every $1 spent on Ava (9.9×, measured against what the agency pays for Ava). Top agents are on pace for $134,000 to $137,000 a year of AP from Ava-booked appointments.
Ava booked the appointment; the agent signed the client. A signed client counts when the agent signed them within 60 days of the appointment Ava booked; AP counts everything signed. Source: production records of the agency Polca was built in. Individual results vary. Hear real booked calls.
Common questions
How many dials does it take to book a life insurance appointment with AI?
In Ava's 362,650 outbound dials from August 1 to November 2, 2026, one booking for every 21 dials to fresh leads and one for every 480 dials to aged leads: 23 times as many per dial for fresh leads.
What is a good booking rate for an AI appointment setter?
Ava booked 13.1% of the conversations she had: 38% with fresh leads and 9.5% with aged leads. Per dial, that is one booking every 21 fresh-lead dials and every 480 aged-lead dials.
Does speed to lead matter for life insurance?
Yes. New leads Ava called within 5 minutes booked 8.8% of the time, against 2.9% when the first call came 4 to 24 hours later and 1.2% after more than a day.
How many times should you call a life insurance lead?
More than twice. 39% of Ava's bookings came on the first call and 23% on the sixth or later, within the agency's calling limits.
Is this data from one company?
Yes. It comes from Ava's calls for the agency Polca was built in, mostly to veterans life insurance leads. Results vary by lead source and list.
Sources
- FCC Declaratory Ruling FCC 24-17 (AI-generated voices are “artificial” voices under the TCPA), released Feb. 8, 2024
- 47 CFR § 64.1200 (FCC telemarketing and robocall rules)
- FCC Report and Order FCC 24-24 (revoking consent by any reasonable means), Feb. 16, 2024
- Polca Calling & Recording Policy
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