Every lead is an opportunity to land a job, regardless of where it came from. Whether you generated the lead with your own marketing efforts, it was a referral from a past client, or you bought it from a lead generation company, that lead came at a cost. If you’re buying leads, you might be more aware of that amount than the cost associated with your own marketing. If you’re looking to grow your business, measuring your success with leads is critical. We look at the key factors to consider when measuring success with leads.

Why You Need to Measure Your Success With Every Lead

There are many different marketing strategies for generating leads and you should investigate using them all. However, you could be wasting your marketing dollars if you aren’t measuring your success with leads. Without data on how your marketing and leads are performing, you can’t make effective adjustments to your marketing strategy. If you do make changes, you are doing so blind.

6 Things to Consider When Measuring Success With Leads

When measuring success with leads, there are 6 main factors to consider.

1. Source of the Leads – Before you can measure the success of your leads, you need to know where each lead came from.
2. Cost of Generating the Lead – There is a cost associated with generating every lead. Plus, you can’t accurately calculate profit without knowing your costs first.
3. Quality of the Lead Generated – While it’s unlikely you convert every lead you get from any marketing channel, some produce high-quality leads than others.
4. Quantity of the Leads Generated – The number of leads you get from each channel will vary, but some may produce at a higher rate.
5. Time Required to Manage Your Campaigns – With few exceptions, running the marketing campaigns that generate your leads requires a certain amount of time.
6. Knowledge Required to Implement the Strategy – Each method of marketing your business requires a certain amount of knowledge and skill.

What is the Right Balance When Measuring Your Success With Leads

Obviously, you want your marketing channels to generate revenue and profit, but measuring your success with leads is a subjective process. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple calculation that you can use when determining the best source of leads. In fact, all of these factors are connected.

While the cost of one marketing channel might be higher, it could convert a higher rater or require almost no time to manage. The right balance for your company might not be the same as for your competitor across town or in every area of the country.

Additionally, avoid looking at the performance of individual leads. Instill, look at the performance of each marketing channel as a single unit. This way you aren’t making decisions based solely on a single bad lead.

Successful Marketing Requires Patience

Marketing takes time, money, and a little skill to produce great leads. Unfortunately, it’s easy to become laser-focused on success when you’re spending money on marketing. As a result, many contractors shut off their campaigns or cancel ads just because their first lead didn’t produce.

Regardless of the source of the leads, you should try it for at least 10 leads. This gives you more accurate data on how that channel performs for your business. After 10 leads, you should have enough data to start making some changes to the campaign.

With a little patience, you can raise your conversion rate and, hopefully, the revenue and profit from virtually any marketing channel. However, making changes too soon can sabotage your marketing and waste money.

Factors for Measuring Success With Leads

1. Source of the Leads

Before you can measure the success of your leads, you need to know where they are coming from. The easiest way to track your leads is to ask each customer how they found your company. You can then record all of the data in a simple spreadsheet.

Unfortunately, there is a risk of human error with this method. Customers may forget where they found you. Plus, you can forget to ask or write down their response. A better option is to use a call tracking platform.

While it comes at a small cost, it allows you to assign specific numbers for each market campaigns. This automates the tracking process and eliminates the potential for human error. Just create a new number for each of your marketing campaigns and the system will track the source for each.

2. Cost of Generating the Leads

From paid search to billboards, every lead comes at a cost. While you can calculate the profit of individual leads, it’s most effective to look at the profitability of each channel as a whole. This is a much more effective way of measuring success with leads because a single bad lead won’t skew the data.

Since leads will vary in quality, you should give every channel at least 10 leads so you have a more realistic idea of your costs, revenue, and profit. In addition to the cost of each lead, don’t forget to the cost of the job as well. This gives you a more detailed picture of your business.

3. Quantity of the Leads Generated

After cost, quantity is the second most common way of measuring success with leads. Although it is an important factor to consider, remember to consider all of the factors before making decisions. One marketing channel may product dozens of leads, but how valuable are they if each one is a wrong number?

4. Quality of the Leads Generated

The quality of leads is equally important when measuring your success with leads. Every contract expects every lead to be super high quality, but that’s not realistic. Depending on your industry, you should expect to convert 7 out of every 10 leads from each of your marketing channels into jobs.

5. Time Required to Manage Your Campaigns

Another important factor to consider when measuring your success with leads is the time it takes to run your marketing campaigns. While you probably aren’t paying your self an hourly wage, your time is valuable. Marketing channels like social media can generate leads with only a few minutes of work a day. Conversely, an effective paid search campaign might require several hours a week. Unfortunately, it takes a certain amount of time to generate quality leads.

6. Knowledge Required to Implement the Strategy

Just like with time, marketing campaigns require a certain amount of knowledge. While most advertisers make it as easy as possible to set up ads, it still takes some know-how to get them to perform. You don’t need a marketing degree to get good at marketing, however. There are plenty of tutorials available that can help you improve the success of any type of marketing campaign.

Start Getting More Leads Now

Whether you’re still evaluating your marketing performance or just launching your first marketing campaigns, we can send you exclusive leads to keep you busy. We offer leads for most home services and disaster mitigation contractors. Every one of our leads is sent exclusively to one partner, giving you the best opportunity to land the job. Fill out the form below and a business development manager will contact you in less than 1 business day. They will explain how our lead generation system works and answer your questions. If you’re ready to sign up, call 888-594-8381 to secure your service area now.