They Call It Lead Gen But It Needs To Be Measured As Sales Gen
Lead Generation is arguably one of the most popular ways to utilize pay-per click advertising and has been for quite some time. A user searches for something related to your business or offering, engages with your ad and then takes the necessary steps on your site to be considered a lead. Then what happens?
These leads, that are generated, are likely in your internal CRM that will be tackled by a sales team with the goal of converting these users into new business. Once a lead becomes a treasured sale, wouldn’t it be great to map it back to exactly the channel, campaign type or even the ad/term that caused it? Well you can and we suggest it.
Most of the top bid management tools in the marketplace today have the ability to allow advertisers to load back in sales data and match up to corresponding efforts. A simple FTP is set up with a specific file type and layout with the rest being automated.
What if I told you I could get you leads at $30 or sales at $100, which would you prefer? Most would say I want the sales unless your sales rate is phenomenal. Because of this, you should ALWAYS be measuring back to sales for all new tests & existing efforts that go on. There is also an unspoken cost that needs to be factored in, time and wages of the sales team. Just because the cost per lead or CPL is low does not mean the channel is valuable.
Too often efforts are launched and success is solely based off overall CPL. Say we test a new social campaign and see leads start to flow in at a very strong CPL. On the surface it looks great so budgets are increased to allow for maximum reach and exposure. The sales team starts chasing these leads and are unsuccessful in closing them. A few weeks go by with this new effort flowing into our existing lead mix. It could be months before anyone realizes that all the underperforming leads are all coming from one source if we aren’t sending daily reports back to our SEM team and bid tool to be measured against. Hundreds if not thousands of media dollars along with the same in wages could be wasted if a match back sales process isn’t in place.
Once running with an effective match back system in place, the cost per lead goal you once had will suddenly be able to be adjusted and you will now be willing to pay much more for the terms and efforts that perform best for you. You will be able to hone in your efforts, increase your bids, position and volumes to maximize what matters most to you, SALES.
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