As a marketer, you might often face questions from your sales team about lead quality. Complaints can range from prospects being unreachable, forgetting their interest in the product, or even being unresponsive altogether. In essence, the feedback might be that the lead quality is lacking.
While it’s understandable that the sales team faces frustration when trying to engage these leads, it’s also crucial for them to be aware of the strategies being implemented to enhance lead quality. This awareness can help them better appreciate the marketing team’s efforts.
Before raising concerns about the quality of leads generated from digital advertising, it’s essential to first identify the sources of these leads. By analyzing data and recognizing patterns, you may discover that some leads are generated by bots, others aren’t sourced from ads at all, and some, though submitted by a genuine person, might actually come from competitors.
When leads are generated through digital ads, there are primarily two key areas to focus on: ad targeting and lead forms. By examining these areas, improvements can be made to the quality of leads while also reducing spam. Below, we’ll explore a checklist of ten strategies aimed at improving lead quality and minimizing unwanted or irrelevant leads.
In addition to ad targeting strategies, consider checking out our previous installment on ad creative tips to enhance your B2B lead generation campaigns.
Ad Targeting Strategies
1. Refine Targeting Settings: Focus on specific targeting options like geographic locations, demographics, and audience interests. This reduces the chances of attracting low-quality leads who don’t fit your ideal customer profile.
2. Create Custom and Lookalike Audiences: Use custom audiences based on past interactions and lookalike audiences that mirror your best customers. This approach increases the likelihood of reaching high-quality leads.
3. Implement Negative Keywords: Add negative keywords to your advertising campaigns to exclude irrelevant searches that might lead to unwanted clicks. This ensures your ads are displayed only to users genuinely interested in what you offer.
4. Add Qualifiers in Ad Copy: Include specific qualifiers in your ad copy, such as budget requirements or industry-specific terms, to pre-screen leads. For instance, instead of “Get a Website Design,” use “Custom Website Design from $5,000” to target those who meet the financial criteria.
5. Use Conversion Tracking: Implement conversion tracking to evaluate which ads generate high-quality leads. This information can guide future campaign optimization by focusing on successful lead sources.
Lead Form Techniques
6. Validate Form Fields: Implement validations for form fields to ensure users provide accurate information. For example, requiring a valid email format can help filter out spam submissions.
7. Add Qualification Questions: Include qualification questions in lead forms to filter out unqualified leads while collecting essential details about prospects’ needs and budgets.
8. State Clear Instructions: Explain why certain information is needed (e.g., “We need your phone number for a quote confirmation”). Such transparency can enhance response rates and lead quality by ensuring users have a genuine interest.
9. Incorporate CAPTCHA: Use Google reCAPTCHA or other CAPTCHA solutions in lead forms to differentiate between human users and bots, significantly reducing spam submissions.
10. Verify Submission Source: Determine if website inquiries originate from organic or paid sources by reviewing the form submission source. Pay close attention and conduct further investigation if inquiries seem predominantly from paid advertising.
B2B DIGITAL MARKETING
By implementing these focused strategies across advertising platforms, optimizing landing pages, and refining lead forms, B2B businesses can significantly improve lead quality while reducing low-quality inquiries, ultimately leading to better sales results.
