It’s tempting when shopping for cost-per-lead placements to seek out the lowest-cost leads –- and hope that your sales force (or your website or follow-up materials) have enough salesmanship to convert them. But initial expense is not the only consideration — you will need to take a good look at the quality of each lead. This includes both the conversion rate and the average revenue per sale. For example, it may be that leads generated from one type of media (such as paid search), turn into actual business at a substantially higher rate than other types. Given this fact, you will be willing to pay more per lead for the better ROI….

Examples:

– Campaign “A” cost = $1,500. Revenue = $3,000. The ROI ratio is 2:1.

– Campaign “B” cost = $2,500. Revenue = $7,525. The ROI ratio is 3:1.

The campaign needs to be followed through the complete selling to establish the best leads. How many leads are converting to a sale, and then what is that average sale? The latter two variables are as important a factor as the original cost of the lead.

In a B2B Lead Gen placement, lead expense occurs in 2 areas – the amount of targeting or filtering required, and the amount of data being captured.

The least expensive leads will typically be the least targeted. No filters (or few) will be applied –- this is truly putting an offer out to anyone. And anyone is exactly who will respond. Typically the only data required is a first and last name, and email address. The more targeting a publisher or ad network can provide, the more potentially targeted and hopefully responsive the lead will be.

The data fields being captured will also influence the cost. Standard “business card” fields are frequently used. But it may be important to further refine the leads. Most sales people, if complaining about lead quality, would rather have fewer, but better-qualified, leads. Keep in mind, the more data fields required, the higher the “drop off” rate. People don’t want to take the time to fill out forms, so be careful to balance the amount of data that is truly necessary versus what would be nice to have.

To further qualify the lead, add 2 or 3 questions to the lead-registration page. Frequently, this option is available if the upfront targeting is a bit more specific. Think about what additional information will assist your selling process. Examples would be: when will the purchasing decision be made?; what is the respondent’s decision-making role?

Some tips:

• Know who your target audience is for a given product or offer.
• Ask publishers for filters to reach that target, or as close as they can come.
• Ask how they are ascertaining the data –- is it credible?
• If the lead is based on contextual or behavioral data, be sure to understand completely the publishers’ methodology.
• Publishers/providers should be scrubbing leads for accuracy and hygiene — making sure all data fields are what they are supposed to be.
• Leads should be unique leads — publishers should be eliminating duplicates.
• The IAB has established best practices. Lots of good information here.
• Last thought…. Act on leads quckly. They don’t get better with age.