Quick answer: A successful Medicare AEP for an affiliate comes down to three things: prep before October 15, send qualified inbound calls during the Oct 15–Dec 7 window, and stay compliant with CMS marketing rules. Line up your advertiser before the season starts, build intent-rich call traffic you can scale fast, screen callers so they qualify, and follow the TPMO disclaimer and call-recording rules from the first call. Do that and you earn through the busiest seven weeks of the Medicare year.
What the numbers look like for AEP calls
These are figures from Aragon Advertising's own network, not industry guesses. As an affiliate, the cost-per-call rate is what the advertiser pays per call – your payout is funded out of that:
- Representative cost per call for Medicare runs about $20. The rate moves with caller quality and how many qualified calls the buyer can absorb during the window.
- Across our insurance portfolio, the billable-call → policy-sold conversion rate averages roughly 20% on Medicare. That conversion is why advertisers fund call payouts that clicks and form fills never reach.
- We've acquired more than 15 million paid calls for advertisers over the past decade, so the demand on the buy side is real and durable – and it spikes hard during AEP.
- Industry-wide, only about 5–10% of calls are ever manually reviewed. Affiliates who consistently send qualified Medicare callers stand out, because most call content goes unexamined.
Independent research from BIA/Kelsey has long shown what our own data confirms: inbound phone calls convert at far higher rates than web or data leads, because someone who picks up the phone about their Medicare coverage is usually ready to act. During AEP, that intent is at its highest point of the year.
What is AEP and why does it matter for lead gen?
The Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) runs October 15 to December 7 every year. It's the window when people on Medicare can switch, drop, or join Medicare Advantage and Part D plans for the coming year. For an affiliate running pay-per-call, it is the single most concentrated demand event in the insurance calendar.
Two things happen at once. Consumer intent surges because beneficiaries are reviewing plans and reacting to coverage changes, and advertiser demand surges because carriers and agencies have a hard deadline to hit enrollment targets. That combination means more qualified calls available to send and buyers willing to pay for every one that converts. If you've never run the Medicare vertical, start with how to make money with pay-per-call and the top pay-per-call verticals for where it fits.
How do you prep before AEP starts?
The affiliates who earn most in the window do their setup in September. Trying to stand up a Medicare campaign on October 15 means burning the first week of the season on testing you should have finished. Work through these steps before the window opens:
- Lock in your advertiser early. Confirm the offer, payout, qualifying criteria, and daily call caps with your network well before October 15. Capacity gets tight fast once the window opens, so secure your spot. (Join Aragon's network.)
- Read the qualifying criteria closely. Medicare offers define what a billable call is – usually a minimum duration plus caller eligibility (age, location, sometimes a question or two answered). Knowing exactly what qualifies tells you what traffic to buy.
- Build and test your call path. Get your tracked number with dynamic number insertion (DNI), build a mobile-first landing page or call-only ad, and run a small test before the season so your funnel is proven, not guessed.
- Get your compliance house in order. Confirm the buyer's TPMO disclaimer language, call-recording setup, and consent handling are ready to go from the first call (details below).
- Set your daily targets and budget pacing. Decide what call volume you want to hit per day and how you'll ramp spend without outrunning quality.
For the full tactical foundation behind these steps, the ultimate guide to pay-per-call marketing covers tracking, qualification, and call-flow setup end to end.
How do you scale call volume during the window?
Once the window opens and your campaign is converting, scale deliberately rather than flooding spend on day one. Seven weeks is enough time to compound a proven setup – it is not enough time to recover from a blown budget in week one.
- Ramp the winning source first. Increase budget on the traffic that produces qualified calls, watching call duration and qualification rate, not just raw call count.
- Lean into dayparting. Medicare callers convert best during daytime hours when agents are staffed to answer. Concentrate spend where calls actually connect and qualify.
- Watch your advertiser's caps. Buyers set daily caps during AEP. Pace your traffic so you're not generating calls the advertiser can't take – calls that don't connect don't pay.
- Add sources one at a time. Bring on a second or third traffic source individually so you can attribute performance cleanly and cut what underperforms.
- Hold quality as volume grows. Tighten screening as you scale so your qualified-call rate doesn't drift down. Volume without quality just spends faster.
Because advertisers manually review only about 5–10% of calls, the affiliates who keep sending callers who genuinely convert earn the reputation that unlocks better rates and higher caps – often mid-season, when buyers are hunting for quality supply.
What are the best traffic sources for AEP?
The highest-quality Medicare calls come from intent-rich, mobile-friendly sources. During AEP the searcher pool is larger and warmer than any other time of year, so match the source to how ready the audience is to talk:
| Traffic source | Why it works for AEP | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google call-only campaigns | Searcher is actively looking; the only action is to call, so intent is high | High-intent qualified calls |
| "Call Now" social ads (Facebook/Meta) | Reaches beneficiaries before they search; broad consumer appeal | Volume + mid-intent reach |
| Native advertising | Warms up mid-intent audiences who need context first | Scaling volume |
| SEO and content | Slower to build but compounds; pulls organic high-intent visitors | Long-term, year-over-year |
The principle that matters most is match traffic intent to the offer. High-intent search traffic produces calls that qualify; cheap, low-intent traffic produces calls that don't, and during AEP those wasted calls cost you the most because the window is short. One note on timing: SEO and content won't move the needle if you start it on October 1 – it's the source you build in the off-season so it's working for you when the next window opens.
What are the compliance rules for Medicare calls?
Medicare is one of the most tightly regulated verticals in pay-per-call, and AEP is when scrutiny is highest. Two separate frameworks apply, and they move at different speeds – verify current requirements with your advertiser before you run, because the rules change.
CMS marketing rules (strict, and the ones that bite during AEP): CMS regulates how Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are marketed. If you market on behalf of a plan, you may fall under the Third-Party Marketing Organization (TPMO) rules. In practice that means the standardized TPMO disclaimer has to be presented within the first minute of a sales call, sales calls must be recorded and retained (currently a 10-year retention standard), and the caller's consent has to be handled correctly at the start of the call. These rules exist to protect beneficiaries, and CMS enforces them. Most affiliates handle the call-handling side through the advertiser or call center taking the transfer – but you are responsible for knowing where your traffic and disclosures sit in that chain. Confirm with your buyer exactly what your campaign needs to display and capture.
TCPA consent (recently loosened, but don't get comfortable): The TCPA's one-to-one consent rule – which would have forced a consumer's consent to apply to a single seller at a time – was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit in early 2025 and then formally eliminated by the FCC in September 2025. That removed a compliance burden lead generators had been bracing for. But "prior express written consent" under the TCPA still applies, and it is independent of the CMS rules above. Loosened TCPA consent does not loosen Medicare marketing rules – those stay strict.
Compliance is not optional housekeeping. In a regulated vertical, a violation gets affiliates removed from offers and can carry penalties. For the advertiser's view of why call compliance and quality matter so much in insurance, see 5 reasons your insurance company should use a pay-per-call agency.
What do you do after AEP ends?
December 7 is not the end of Medicare lead gen – it's the handoff to the next phase. The affiliates who treat AEP as a standalone sprint leave money on the table for the rest of the year.
- Review your numbers. Pull qualified-call rate, conversion, and earnings by source and daypart while the data is fresh. That analysis is your playbook for next October.
- Pivot to the OEP and SEP. The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (Jan 1–Mar 31) and year-round Special Enrollment Periods keep Medicare demand alive after AEP. Volume is lower, but the traffic and call paths you built still work.
- Diversify to smooth the calendar. Pair seasonal Medicare with year-round verticals like home services so your income doesn't collapse on December 8. The scaling and diversification logic is covered in how to make money with pay-per-call.
- Keep your evergreen assets live. The SEO content and landing pages you built keep pulling organic calls year-round and compound into a stronger position for next AEP.
Treat each AEP as a compounding asset. The setup you prove this year – the sources, the screening, the advertiser relationship – is what makes next year's window easier and more profitable.
Ready to run Medicare AEP calls? Join the Aragon Advertising network for vetted Medicare offers, reliable tracking, and the advertiser relationships that get you set up before the window opens. Aragon is mThink's #1-ranked pay-per-call network for the eighth consecutive year (December 2025 Blue Book) – the track record that means the offers are real and the payouts arrive.
By Nick Davies. Last updated: June 2026.
FAQ
When is the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period? AEP runs October 15 to December 7 every year. It's when Medicare beneficiaries can join, switch, or drop Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. For affiliates, it's the most concentrated stretch of Medicare call demand in the calendar, with both consumer intent and advertiser budgets peaking at once.
How early should affiliates prep for AEP? Have your setup done by September. Lock in your advertiser, confirm payout and qualifying criteria, build and test your tracked call path, and get compliance ready before October 15. Standing up a Medicare campaign on opening day wastes the first week of the window on testing you should have finished.
How much do Medicare pay-per-call leads pay? Representative cost per call for Medicare runs about $20 in Aragon's network, and your payout is funded from that rate. The exact figure moves with caller quality, call duration, and how much qualified volume the advertiser can absorb during the window.
What compliance rules apply to Medicare AEP calls? CMS marketing rules are strict: if you fall under Third-Party Marketing Organization rules, a standardized TPMO disclaimer must be presented within the first minute of a sales call, sales calls must be recorded and retained, and consent handled correctly. Separately, the TCPA one-to-one consent rule was vacated in early 2025 and eliminated by the FCC in September 2025, but Medicare marketing rules remain strict – verify current requirements with your advertiser before running.
What's the best traffic source for AEP calls? Google call-only campaigns are the highest-intent source, since the searcher is actively looking and the only action is to call. "Call Now" social ads add reach and volume, and native warms up mid-intent audiences. SEO and content compound year over year but must be built in the off-season, not during the window.
Does Medicare lead gen stop after December 7? No. The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (January 1 to March 31) and year-round Special Enrollment Periods keep demand alive at lower volume. The smart move is to pivot to those periods and pair seasonal Medicare with year-round verticals so your income doesn't swing with the enrollment calendar.