While impressive conversion metrics on your channels are desirable, they can be misleading. Achieving a high click-through rate is a common goal for paid media advertisers. However, it’s crucial to recognize that a large volume of unqualified users translates to meaningless metrics.
I often advise my clients that a smaller pool of high-quality leads, primed for conversion, is preferable to squandering ad expenditure on individuals misaligned with their objectives.
Couldn’t resist. And that’s where lead qualification comes into play. This post will delve into:
- The concept of lead qualification and its significance.
- Methods to pinpoint your lead qualification criteria.
- Four lead qualification strategies I employ with my clients. Continue reading to discover how to attract leads that transform into loyal customers.
What is Lead Qualification?
Lead qualification ensures that the leads you attract through your ads and marketing efforts are the ones most likely to advance your business goals. Qualified website traffic is more inclined to take action, and qualified leads have a higher probability of becoming customers. Lead qualification is the bedrock of an effective lead generation process.
MQLs vs SQLs
In the B2B realm, you might have encountered terms like marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs). MQLs demonstrate interest in your product or service but are probably not ready to commit, making them suitable for further marketing efforts. Nurturing campaigns can guide them through the sales funnel, converting them from prospects to customers. SQLs, on the other hand, exhibit a strong interest in your offerings and are highly likely to make a purchase.
While some leads enter as SQLs directly, others begin as MQLs and transition into SQLs through effective lead management and nurturing.
The Importance of Lead Qualification
The desire for qualified leads stemming from your marketing endeavors is evident—it translates to more customers. However, there’s a financial facet to consider as well. A high click-through rate in paid advertising signifies an attractive offer and/or compelling copywriting. But does it resonate with your ideal customers? While a surge in clicks might lower your cost per click, its value diminishes without conversions. Essentially, you’re not saving money but rather wasting it on unqualified traffic. Speaking of wasted spend, find where yours is with our free Google Ads Performance Grader! Although click-through rate and cost per click are important, your conversion rates are at the heart of your ROI, and lead qualification underpins those conversions.
Identifying Your Lead Qualification Parameters
Understanding your ideal customer profile and target audience is paramount for defining lead qualification for your business. Numerous lead qualification formulas could apply, but the most fundamental one remains BANT:
- Budget: Can they afford what you offer?
- Authority: Are they the decision-maker for purchases?
- Need: Does their need align with your existing customers'?
- Urgency: How quickly do they need a solution? Your landing page copy and form fields contribute to lead qualification, but they don’t address the issue of paying for unqualified clicks. Let’s explore four ways to qualify your clicks.
Lead Qualification Strategies
These strategies help enhance your PPC lead quality before a user even reaches your landing page.
1. Specificity in Ad Copy
Directly informing individuals that they are not your target customer is the simplest approach. Using specific wording in your ads can deter unqualified users from clicking. While a lower click-through rate might seem undesirable in PPC, it’s insignificant if those leads wouldn’t convert into customers. For instance, I had a client offering a CRM solution tailored for startups and small businesses. Although they targeted keywords like “small business crm,” they also targeted generic CRM keywords lacking the “small business” modifier. In these ad groups, we pre-qualified leads by tailoring the ad copy specifically to small business owners.
Broader keyword targeting becomes feasible without excessive spend on unqualified clicks through qualifying ad copy. This approach clearly communicated that our CRM wasn’t suitable for companies exceeding 50 employees. While it decreased our CTR in those ad groups, it significantly improved lead quality and reduced costs. With lower costs and a higher conversion rate, our Cost/Conv. figures dropped noticeably. That’s the metric we prioritize. And when quality improves alongside a lower Cost/Conv, a decrease in CTR becomes inconsequential. If you’re feeling lost in the world of metrics, our Ultimate Guide to PPC Metrics will provide clarity!
2. Leveraging Price Extensions
The same principle applies to paid search ad extensions. For higher-priced products, targeting users with financial capacity is key. Highlight the price or product status within your ad extensions.
This utilizes the power of sticker shock. Users without sufficient funds will likely avoid clicking on ads displaying higher prices, allowing you to allocate your ad budget effectively. Price isn’t the only factor; you can tailor value propositions to resonate with the ideal audience. Align everything with your perfect customer profile, not just anyone vaguely interested.
3. Optimizing Lead Forms for Quality Over Volume
Both Google and Facebook offer lead form type settings that enable optimization for either lead volume or lead quality. Naturally, the default setting favors volume, encouraging more leads to make your PPC reports look impressive. However, if your tests reveal a high volume of junk leads, consider switching your optimization settings to prioritize higher quality. Here’s the Google Ads lead form extension option:
And here’s the Facebook lead ads form type option:
Google’s approach involves a slight nudge, cautioning about potentially fewer leads at a higher cost per lead, which holds true. However, I’m always willing to invest more in leads that are more qualified and easier for my clients’ sales teams to convert. Experiment with two forms, one focused on volume and the other on quality, to determine which attracts more qualified leads.
4. Incorporating Additional Lead Form Questions
Many lead forms across platforms like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora initially request minimal information, such as name and phone number, often auto-populated from user profiles. While this simplifies form completion, it might not contribute to pre-qualifying users. The good news is that most platforms offering lead forms allow for additional or custom questions. Let’s look at some examples:
LinkedIn lead form custom questions
Custom questions in your LinkedIn advertising lead forms can gather more detailed information. While this requires a bit more effort from the user, their willingness to invest time suggests stronger interest. Moreover, strategically placed questions can deter unqualified leads, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
Facebook lead ad custom questions
Similar to LinkedIn, Facebook lead ad forms offer custom question options. You can prompt users to type responses, choose from a list, or even set up conditional answers based on an uploaded CSV file.
Google lead ad additional questions
Google provides additional questions, but customization is limited to pre-set options categorized by industry or category. By incorporating multiple qualifying questions into your lead forms, you can gather more insightful information from potential leads. Many questions are multiple-choice, prompting self-selection and discouraging unqualified users from completing the form.
5. Run Google Local Services Ads
If you’re a service-based business, this is a great lead qualification strategy. In short, you create and manage ads right from your Google Business Profile and Google makes sure your ads only show for customers in your service area.
Furthermore, once a user clicks on your ad, Google prompts them to confirm the job they’re looking for as well as their service area. If you fit the job and serve that area, you’ll be matched to the searcher and they’ll be able to review your qualification, ratings, and Google reviews before calling you.
If you’re not a good fit for their job or you don’t serve their region, then Google will connect them to a more appropriate Local Service Ad.
Maximizing Your Budget with Lead Qualification
Internal CRM data is invaluable for making informed optimization decisions to target the right audience. However, regardless of CRM data availability, you can still proactively qualify leads through ad copy and lead form settings before they even land on your website. This might result in lower traffic and conversions, but by focusing on qualified users, you can achieve higher close rates and reduced churn. To summarize, here are the key strategies:
- Craft pre-qualifying ad copy.
- Utilize price extensions in your Search ads.
- Prioritize quality over volume when optimizing lead forms.
- Incorporate more or custom questions into your lead forms.
- Run Google Local Services Ads For those seeking to generate more leads, these posts might be of interest:
- 25 Lead Magnet Ideas for Every Stage of Your Funnel
- 10 Expert-Approved B2B Lead Generation Strategies
- 2 Smart Strategies to Generate Leads on Facebook Post-iOS 14