Lead Generation in the UK

Digital Marketing Conversations-here comes the July edition!

Hear the latest edition of Digital Marketing Conversations in association with Knexus.

Come join Niall O'Malley, Justin Rees, Dusan Hamlin, Graeme Foux and Alex Brayshaw for the latest edition of Digital Marketing Conversations discussing the very latest trends and developments in Mobile Display Advertising and the IAB's new metrics,Google's new Twitter phone and PC operating system, a birds' eye view of what the recession has done to European online ad markets and, voila- our special feature on the future of digital marketing from a technology perspective!

Click here to hear the podcast in full.

Search, Display or Email?

The conventional wisdom is that leads generated through search marketing are the highest quality leads. The theory goes that because consumers are actively searching for the product or service in question when they click on a link and fill in a form they are more likely to convert into business. However, statistical analysis of the experience of lead buyers doesn't support this theory.

There are many more factors that affect lead quality other than the method of lead origination. For example, the quality of the marketing is far more important. A good piece of banner creative with a clear message that clicks through to a similar landing page will produce far better leads than a poorly thought out search campaign on Google where the supplier is bidding on long-tail keywords.

In addition, some new research from Nielsen has shown that 76% of UK consumers do not trust online banners and 67% of consumers don't trust sponsored search results. However, the research also found that 59% of UK consumers do trust marketing in opt-in emails.

Conversion Rates versus Price

It is natural for any potential lead buyer to want to get the most leads for the cheapest price but whether you pay £5 or £20 for a lead, increasing your conversion rate is nearly always more effective than reducing the price you pay for leads.

If you buy 50 leads for £10 a lead and your conversion rate is 10% then you will convert 5 leads which means your cost per converted customer would be £100. 

To lower your cost per converted customer you could pay £2 less per lead which would reduce your cost per converted customer to £80 but if you paid the same per lead and converted 2 extra leads then your cost per converted customer reduces to £71.

The above example is a simple illustration to show that improving your processes to increase your conversion rates can often be more valuable than lowering your price per leads. So the question is, how can you improve your conversion rates?

Over the next few weeks we will be revealing some of the simplest and yet most effective ways to increase your conversion rates.