What’s in a Lead? Premium Vs. Source Leads
How are leads created?
Leads are created in any number of ways, including PPC (pay per click), organic search (SEO), radio, TV, affiliate network, print, direct mail, telemarketing and/or display advertising.
Which leads are the most effective?
You should really first ask yourself what is my goal in acquiring new leads, how many sales per day do I need, what is the cost per sale I need to obtain, what is the cost per sale in relation to my labor and overhead costs, how much commission do I need to payout to attract the best talent and there are a number of other variables that will be particular to your industry. How much money do I have to float before I’m in the black, what’s the lifetime value of a customer, are you selling a residual based program, are you selling a one-off, do you have the ability to up sell new and existing clients. It is imperative that you have some sense of the above in order to figure out want you need to get out of a lead.
What is a Quality lead?
Our standard definition of a quality lead is when a consumer fills out a lead form with their correct information and who is interested in the product or service offered.
There are many companies generating quality leads where consumers have shown interest or intent in the product or service offered. The next assessment of quality is measured by:
Contact rate – How many people did I talk to that were interested in my product/service from the batch of new leads.
Bad/Numbers Disconnects – How many numbers were not working, disconnected or when called you reached the wrong contact person.
Unworkable Leads – How many leads were contacted but lost interest, are no longer interested or purchased a competitors service.
Sales – How many sales were made from the leads and what was the average revenue per sale.
Using this basic data you will be able to derive metrics that will support a quality ranking from your various lead sources which will help you determine which leads measure up to your quality standards. Once a baseline is constructed it will be easy to add new sources and delete underperforming ones.
What is a lead that comes from the source?
A source lead is one that’s generated by a company where the consumer fills out a lead form that is hosted on an ad server and/or is generated from traffic redirected to your own landing page. The traffic can come from affiliate networks, display advertising, e-mail advertising, search engine advertising or could be a live inbound call to your call center that is a direct result of radio/TV/print/mobile or Internet advertising.
Typically a lead that comes from the source is going to be your cheapest lead. These leads are unfiltered and are as-is which is why the cost of the lead is lower then that of a premium lead.
What is a premium lead?
A premium lead is one that originated at the source but has undergone some type of quality control to remove disconnected/bad numbers and consumers that show no interest in the product or service. This type of lead will cost you more money because someone else’s labor was used to remove unworkable leads. The end result is you spend less labor and time filtering out your leads. A premium lead is great for organizations that have not met their lead threshold and for organizations that are running hybrid campaigns it helps increase labor efficiencies.
What Next?
Each lead type is always dependent on the company’s goals. In many cases a cheaper lead makes sense because even after you use your labor for filtering you still end up with a lower cost per lead, cost per contact and overall lower cost per sale.
We suggest that you contact us to discuss how we can help you execute your goals. Call Toll Free Today! 1-888-679-0741
