Lead generation is increasingly a priority for any marketer. In fact, 80% of marketers say it’s their top content marketing goal. It’s a careful strategy that varies from business to business and industry to industry. It’s also one that needs careful, regular auditing to ensure that it remains successful, giving you the best return on investment (ROI) possible.
But how do you measure lead generation success?
To know if your lead generation efforts are working, tracking the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business is essential. In this guide, we’ll go through all the metrics that you should be keeping track of to ensure your strategies are working as efficiently as possible.
Why Measure Lead Generation Metrics?
Measuring lead generation metrics helps you to better understand how effective your marketing campaigns are. You want to ensure that you’re focusing on the activities and platforms that are driving the most brand awareness and capturing the most leads.
As well as this, keeping track of these metrics allows you to spot weaknesses in your sales funnel, such as low engagement or poor lead nurturing. You’re also able to spot if you’re making any lead generation mistakes. This then allows you to tweak and adjust your campaigns in order to keep the focus on strategies that work and deliver, otherwise, you run the risk of spending your resources for limited results. Keeping track of what is and isn’t working also ensures you manage your marketing budget more effectively.
Lead Generation KPIs to Measure
Now we know why measuring lead generation metrics are important, we can look at which specific KPIs you should be keeping track of.
1. Lead volume
Lead volume is the total number of leads generated through marketing campaigns within a specific period, whether that’s weekly, monthly, or annually. This metric aims to measure the effectiveness of your strategy and provides insights into the sales pipeline growth and success rate.
Let’s say your B2B organisation runs multiple lead-generation campaigns in a month, such as:
- Email marketing ads - 700 leads
- Google Ads - 2,500 leads
- Organic traffic - 1,000 leads
- Paid social - 500 leads
Your lead volume would be the sum of all the leads generated through each campaign.
Lead Volume = 700 + 2,500 + 1,000 + 500 =4,700 leads
A high lead volume suggests substantial marketing reach, but you must also assess the lead quality. This ensures you attract potential customers who are likely to convert.
2. Lead quality
Lead quality refers to how likely a lead will convert into a paying customer. Unlike lead volume, which tracks the number of leads, lead quality evaluates whether those leads fit within your ideal customer profile (ICP) and the likelihood that they’ll convert.
Higher quality leads are typically more aligned with your ICP and, therefore, more likely to engage with your sales team and make a purchase.
Lead quality is crucial because not all leads are created equal. A smaller volume of high-quality leads has more potential to have a higher conversion rate with large sales, making them more valuable than a large volume of low-quality leads.
In order to qualify your leads as being viable marketing leads (also known as marketing qualified leads, or MQLs), you need to score them against your own metrics for what you consider to be a good lead.
For example, you might want to follow the BANT framework:
- Budget — do they have the budget to make a purchase?
- Authority — do they have the authority or purchasing power?
- Need — do they need your product or service?
- Time — is there a timeframe for implementation?
Take the time to go through the leads that have been gathered to measure each against the BANT framework. If your campaign is drawing in lower-quality leads, then you know you’ll need to tweak your content in order to attract higher-quality leads that have the potential to become MQLs.
3. Lead conversion rate
The lead conversion rate measures how well you’re converting your MQLs into actual customers. Measuring this lead generation KPI allows you to evaluate how well you’ve nurtured prospects through the sales funnel, giving your sales and marketing teams the opportunity to assess their internal processes. A lead that’s ready to convert is known as a sales qualified lead (SQL).
To calculate the lead conversion rate, you need to divide the number of converted leads by the number of visitors, then multiply by 100.
Here’s how to calculate the lead conversion rate:
LCR = (Number of Leads Converted to Customers / Total Number of Leads) X 100
If you generate 1,000 leads through content marketing, and 50 of those leads convert to paying customers, the lead conversion rate would be 5%.
Having a high lead conversion rate indicates that your marketing and sales teams are working well to nurture and convert MQLs to SQLs.
A high lead conversion rate indicates that the marketing efforts are successfully attracting and nurturing leads. In contrast, a low rate suggests the need for improvements in targeting, messaging, or follow-up strategies to engage prospects better.
4. Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)
The cost-per-lead (CPL) measures the profitability of your lead generation by calculating how much you spend to acquire each lead.
Here’s how you can calculate the CPL:
CPL = Total Marketing Spend / Total Leads Generated
For example, if you spent £5,000 on a paid ad campaign which generated 500 leads, the CPL would be £10. If the total cost of sales from these 500 leads exceeds £5,000, then your lead generation strategy was profitable.
5. Lead engagement metrics
Assessing your lead engagement allows you to assess how engaged potential customers are with your content. These metrics range could be anything related to your campaign activity, from email open rates to time spent on your website.
Some lead engagement metrics you should consider are:
- Email open rates
- Click-through rates (CTR)
- Downloads
- Time spent on your web pages, per session
- Social media interactions, including comments, like, shares, and reposts
- Podcast listens
Measuring these metrics allows you to gain deeper insight into what content type resonates with your ICP. This then allows you to allocate your budget to the areas that your target audience is interacting with your brand the most.
6. Lead source
As well as measuring your lead engagement metrics, you should also be calculating your lead source. This helps you identify where your leads are coming from, and which marketing channels are the most effective, allowing you to focus your resources and efforts on the highest-performing channels.
For example, if the majority of your leads are being generated through LinkedIn Ads, then investing more budget and time to optimizing this strategy and pushing it out to a wider audience could generate even more qualified leads.
How to Measure Lead Generation KPIs
Measuring your lead generation metrics and KPIs is only easy once you know what data you want and need to look out for.
Leverage analytics tools
You can effectively track and optimise your lead generation efforts using analytics platforms like Google Analytics, as well as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, such as HubSpot or Salesforce.
These tools monitor how leads interact with your content, identify the most engaging marketing channels, and highlight areas where conversion rates are improving or declining. You’re able to drill down into specific data behind each unique KPI that you’re measuring.
Collaborate with sales and marketing teams
Both sales and marketing teams are crucial to the success of lead generation. Marketing teams can generate high-quality MQLs through targeted campaigns, while sales teams should nurture SQLs through networking and relationship building.
Regular feedback loops help refine lead scoring models, ensuring that strategies are focused on attracting prospects who are more likely to convert.
Build a B2B Lead Generation with EM360Tech
Measuring lead generation success is a crucial aspect of any marketing strategy. It allows you to see and focus on areas that are working well — as well as highlight areas that aren’t going so well. If you’re looking to start building a lead generation strategy, EM360Tech can help.
Our team offers a strategic approach to help your B2B business connect with your target audience and generate qualified leads. We understand businesses' unique challenges in content creation and lead generation.
Contact our team today to find out more. We can help identify your target audience and generate leads that align with your business goals.