Internet Marketing Handbook Series

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BUYER’S GUIDE

for Advertisers& Agencies

Getting started 1

What is lead generation? 3

Planning and setting objectives 4

Creativity and execution 9

Measuring success and delivery 12

10 steps to OLG heaven 14

Conclusion 16

Contents

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1

Some have argued that this rise is due in part to the changes in the economic climate and the increased desire from advertisers for performance-based marketing, whilst others simply put it down to the fact that lead generation is at long last being properly recognised as a separate discipline within the online arena.

From Richard Pollin, Head of Lead Generation, Unanimis

‘Online lead generation is the fastest growing segment in digital advertising!’ Well at least that’s what we hear from our US counterparts who saw a year-on-year increase of 71% in online lead generation spend last year accounting for 6% of 2009 full year revenues or $1.5 billion. In the UK we may not have seen such a stark increase in year-on-year spend, but it’s impossible to deny that lead generation has definitely become more prevalent in the last 18 months. Whilst we wait for the latest PwC study to help put a figure against this growth, the sheer number of companies that have entered the lead generation space in this time is testament to the fact that lead gen is on the up.

Chapter One Getting started

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Yet despite this growth, the topic of lead generation continues to generate consternation in some advertising circles and there remains a huge gap in the market’s understanding of lead generation and its advocacy of such programmes.

There are a number of reasons why lead generation sparks such debate: from its efficacy as a marketing channel, to the methods employed, right down to the most basic question of the definition of a lead.

The IAB Online Lead Generation Council has spent the last 12 months working tirelessly to break down some of these issues and provide answers to many of these questions. The aim of this buyer’s guide is to provide you with the information you need in order to better plan your lead generation campaigns and give guidance on some of the issues you might encounter whilst doing so.

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What is a lead?

A lead is a piece of information about a consumer who has stated they are interested in a product or service and given their express consent to be contacted about that product or service. This person has responded to some form of response-geared marketing because they are in the market for the advertiser’s product or service.

A lead can in its simplest form be a consumer’s name and email address but may also contain full contact details as well as a suite of information about the product or service the consumer is interested in.

Lead generation can also allow the marketer to define what profile of prospective customer they want to target. Only paying for each lead as it is received and returning leads which do not match the pre-defined criteria.

From Robin Caller, CEO, Goallover and chairman of IAB Online Lead Generation Council

Online lead generation is an online marketing activity paid for on a Cost Per Lead (CPL) basis with the stated aim of obtaining the consumer’s express consent to receive future communications from a specific advertiser or advertisers - via email, texts, calls and other advertiser initiated messaging. In the current economic climate, marketers are increasingly looking to channels that are accountable and where return on investment is easily calculable. Lead generation takes an advertiser a step closer to a converted customer than many “traditional” forms of online marketing. Ultimately online lead generation is about customer acquisition.

Chapter Two

What is lead generation?

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Why use lead gen in the first place?

As an advertiser you want to interact with consumers that are interested in the products and services you provide. Online lead generation is an effective way to get in front of these consumers but it is important to remember that a lead is just a means to an end. The value of a lead is not in the lead itself but in the value of the conversion. Whether it be a newsletter open or a high value sale. Just like in search marketing where the click is not the measure of success, it’s what you do with the leads that count.

Planning your campaign

ProcessesThe way in which you process the leads should have a large impact on how you plan your campaign. If you are using lead generation to build a prospect database for remarketing, then your campaign should be focused on a high volume of low cost leads and you might not need any more information than the consumer’s name and email address.

From Justin Rees, Director of Marketing and Partnerships, LeadPoint UK

Chapter ThreePlanning and setting objectives

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If you are using lead generation to push leads into a call centre for high value products such as financial services then your campaign should be focused on highly filtered leads that capture a much larger set of consumer data.

For each type of campaign different methodologies of generating leads might be more appropriate. For example, co-registration leads for newsletter sign ups compared to premium lead generation for call centre leads.

Quantity vs. Quality Quantity and quality aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive – you should want lots of good leads! However there is usually some trade off between quantity and quality. For example, there are only a limited number of consumers that would fill in a 30 field form generated from a search campaign.

In the end just like any marketing campaign the ultimate measure of success is Return On Investment (ROI) and if you achieve your target ROI then it is likely you have been buying good quality leads. There are however a few important key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure along the way to ensure you are more likely to achieve your targets. The most important of these are “contactability” and “convertibility”.

Contactability vs. Convertability “Contactability” is a measure of how contactable the consumer is (e.g. how many consumers answer their phone or how many open an email). “Convertibility” is a measure of the propensity for the leads to convert into business.

One of the biggest determinants of “contactability” is how accurate the lead data is and lead providers should have technology and systems in place to screen out many of the uncontactable leads.

IAB Handbook: Online Lead Generation Buyer’s Guide

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Some of these leads can be screened out with pre-submission validation where consumer contact data is validated before a consumer is able to submit their information. This can be done through things like postcode address file (PAF) validation of postal addresses and systems that prompt consumers to enter their phone number correctly if they try to enter a false number or make a mistake. The more sophisticated these systems the more leads will be contactable which will increase conversion rates and reduces waste for the advertiser.

Post-submission validation is where leads can be screened out after the consumer has already submitted their information online. This takes care of some of the things that are harder to control with technology such as wrong phone numbers or duplicate leads. Many lead providers will not bill the advertiser for these types of leads.

Lead buyer considerationsWhen planning a lead generation campaign, advertisers should consider the factors that will have the greatest impact on the ROI of the campaign.

How are leads generated?Whether leads are generated via search, display, email or co-registration each method will have its own unique advantages and disadvantages for advertisers.

For example, leads generated through search marketing usually have the highest conversion rates as the consumer is actively seeking out the product or service. However, they might be expensive to generate and there is a limited supply.

In addition to the media used to generate the lead, the marketing language and consumer incentive will play a big part in the ROI of the campaign. For example, any campaign which uses an incentive (e.g. win a holiday) to illicit a response from the consumer will impact upon campaign performance. Is the consumer filling in a lead form to win a holiday or do they genuinely want to receive an email or a phone call about your product or service?

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What should you pay for a lead?Fundamentally, you should only pay what you can afford. For example, if you have a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) target of £100 and leads convert on average at around 10% into a sale then you shouldn’t pay more than £10 per lead.

However, different methods of lead generation will result in different lead prices. For leads generated through PPC where each click can cost a few pounds there will have to be a threshold price below which leads cannot be generated. At the same time, the amount of incentivisation used to get the consumer to respond, the number of fields captured and how many other advertisers are competing for the same consumers will all impact on the price you need to pay for a lead.

How do you determine success?Lead providers can put as many systems in place to make the leads as contactable and convertible as possible but ultimately it is the lead buyer that will determine the success of the campaign.

Clear objectivesAdvertisers should always have a clear definition of what constitutes success before undertaking any lead generation campaign. Whether it’s telephone sales, newsletter click-through or some other metric lead buyers should have some benchmark to measure campaign performance against.

Top 5 questions you should ask your lead provider

1. How are the leads generated?

2. Which sites are used to generate the leads?

3. What’s the consumer incentive to fill out a form?

4. Are the leads generated and delivered in real-time?

5. Is the lead data validated before being passed on?

IAB Handbook: Online Lead Generation Buyer’s Guide

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Lead managementIn order to get an accurate measure of campaign performance, it is necessary to have some kind of lead management software that can track every lead through to sale and calculate ROI. Every piece of revenue generated from an initial sale to any incremental revenue generated over time should be tracked back to lead source.

Only with these systems can you determine the campaign performance as well as measure the relative performance of each supplier. For example supplier A might produce leads that convert quickly with little downstream revenue or cross sale opportunities whereas supplier B might provide leads with more value over time. You need to know the difference so you can optimise your spend.

Short term vs. long termWhen determining the success of a campaign you need to look at performance over a few different time periods. A campaign that looks like it’s just about paying for itself after one month might turn out to be extremely profitable if the same period is looked at again after a few months.

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Brief your supplier on the following to get a quotation and in order to compare offers from different suppliers.

From Trine Buus, International Product Director, ad pepper media

Chapter FourCreativity and execution

Question Example

What is your campaign Call centre leads for my product/service objective? test drives, newsletter opt-in, brochure request,

product sample, memberships, subscriptions, other

What data do I need to Firstname, last name, email, phone number etc. collect to convert The more fields you add the more you paymy lead to a customer? for a price per lead

Target audience Male 35+

Campaign incentive Consider if you can make your campaign stand out with an incentive that will attract users attention and choose your brand in front of your competitors. E.g. a discount or money-off coupon, a competition or free extras depending on your product/service.

Call centre leads for product/service test drives, newsletter opt-in, brochure request,product sample, memberships, subscriptions,other

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Question Example

Hosting of the Will you have users signing up on your own registration page website or will you allow lead generators to

support you in how you can obtain leads through other registration forms.

Letting lead generators host the form will increase the options of delivery channels and give you a lower price per lead.

Data transfer Realtime XML feed to your database, daily csv-batch files, FTP upload etc.

Validation Duplication, email bounce, bad words, address look-up via external data location services, manual filtering, scrub rate (%).

Creatives provided by Will you build and design your own creatives or discuss with your lead supplier if they can provide you with this service.

Creative formats Banner, email, co-reg, search, etc.

Delivery methods Text links, banners, email, newsletters etc.

Incentivised traffic allowed Yes, No.

Data capture

Online lead generation can be broadly divided into two parts. The first part is driving consumer traffic to a landing page but ultimately it’s what happens once the consumer is on a landing page that will determine the success of a campaign.

Why is the landing page so important?

• To maximise the conversions of clicks to leads captured• To support the campaign objective of collecting prospect data• To optimise the consumer journey• To reward media owners fairly by maximising the value of their inventory

IAB Handbook: Online Lead Generation Buyer’s Guide

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Some basic rules to follow when creating a successful data capture form:

• Outline a clear proposition including a strong call to action.• Manage the users’ expectations about what happens after the initial

sign up - (does the consumer expect to receive call, brochure or is there any further action needed?)

• Unique and attractive product/service benefits.• For some campaigns you might want to include an incentive to give you

the competitive edge – these should be kept relevant to the campaign and the target audience. (Imagine your offer displayed next to 3 of your competitors. What will make the user choose your brand?)

• Make it simple for the consumer to complete the form.• Only include necessary data fields and implement proper form field

validation.• Be visual! Images and colours are much more appealing than a text

heavy creative.• Fonts and images should be kept simple, clear and relevant.• Be simple. Excessive use of flash and animation will only cause mass

amounts of drop outs from users who don’t have the patience to wait for the page to download.

• Avoid long loaders and pages that are requiring many kilobytes to be downloaded.

• Avoid links that take the user away from the page even if it might be to other areas of your site or other product ranges.

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Converting prospects

Leads are worth nothing if you can’t convert them into paying, loyal customers. Therefore, make the most out of your leads by following up immediately and professionally assuring the highest conversions and a positive ROI for your campaign.

There are different methodologies for following up leads depending on your campaign objectives.

Follow-up on newsletter leads

• Send instant confirmation email (check validity of address).• Make it relevant.• Newsletter content must deliver what was promised in the sign-up process.• Avoid over-harvesting. Adjust frequency of send-outs.• Reply to any competitions/events as part of incentive schemes.• Check your newsletter layout.• Target your messages.• Track openings, clicks, conversions, unsubscribers, bounce and SPAM rates

A/B Testing.

From Trine Buus, International Product Director, ad pepper media

Chapter FiveMeasuring success and delivery

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Using online lead generation for call centre leads

• Have you seen the cost of a stamp these days? Sending out brochures and printed letters are expensive and a waste if the address is invalid.

• Make sure all leads are validated by a path address validation service to ensure the postal address is correct, postcode is valid etc.

• Send the leads realtime to your fulfillment centre so they can act immediately and get the direct mail send off to the lead.

• Direct mailings should be with the lead within 1 week• Check the design and layout of your direct mail. Is the envelope attractive?

How is your welcome letter? Would you open this in your own mailbox or consider it as junk mail?

• Track postal returns and use as a lead quality indicator. Many postal returns from a certain lead supplier indicates poor quality and is damaging your ROI

• Follow-up (use alternative channels?) perhaps you couldn’t convert your call centre leads in the first sales call. However, why not add leads to your CRM program and send them news and updates via newsletters. This way you may be able to convert your lead at a later stage.

Measuring your success

Before you undertake any lead generation campaign you should have a clear idea of what constitutes success. For example, a car manufacturer might want to track and measure the following:

• Number of valid leads (e.g. those with a valid phone number)• Contact rates• How many consumers booked and confirmed a test drive with a retailer

Car retailers will have their own metric on the percentage of test drivers with a purchase intention that convert into actual car sales. This conversion rate is dependant on a number of factors controlled by the car retailer such as the skill of the sales team, the car make/brand, available models, finance offers and so on. Online lead generation can bring leads with a purchase intention onto the forecourt but its the lead buyer that is responsible for converting these prospects into business.

IAB Handbook: Online Lead Generation Buyer’s Guide

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1. Don’t spend what you can’t measure. No.1 golden rule for any online spend. Make sure you have the systems

and reporting in place to measure the results of your lead gen campaigns. This should include the ability to measure performance over different time periods.

2. The perfect fit. Find a lead gen provider who has worked with similar brands and/or in

the same verticals to yours and ask what they achieved. Most providers have created databases around certain segments.

3. Outsourced vs. in-house. If you create and run your own lead gen campaigns this can be more cost

effective but only if you have the resource and experience. Specialist lead providers can provide you with an end-to-end solution from creatives to ROI measurement.

From Amit Kotecha, Senior Programme Executive, IAB

and Richard Pollin, Head of Lead Generation, Unanimis

Chapter Six10 steps to OLG heaven?

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IAB Handbook: Online Lead Generation Buyer’s Guide

4. Share your expectations. Have clear expectations, benchmarks and conversion targets. Discuss

them with your provider and have a realistic expectation of the results you will get.

5. To incentivise or not to incentivise. Your brand, product or service should be the primary reason for people

to submit their details and not the opportunity to win a new car or free holiday. However if you have high sign up targets, incentivised signups will deliver volume!

6. Squeeze it in. Don’t make them jump through hoops of fire and five step signups! If you

can fit the data capture onto 1 page (without scrolling down for miles) then do. Don’t ask too much, clear calls to actions are essential.

7. Be honest. This is a sleeping giant, get it wrong and it will eat you! Ensure your

leads are generated ethically, and consumer data is collected, stored and distributed securely and responsibly. Your brand is on the line!

8. Test, test and test again. Test, test, test before spending. Once you start, always communicate with

your provider to ensure numbers are tallying up on both sides regularly.

9. Be on top of it. Your campaign is up and running and leads are coming in...then what? Premium leads - you should be on the phone to that lead within minutes

of it being submitted. You won’t be the only one they have submitted to! Co-registration or emails - at the very least send an email to the lead ASAP! Ideally in real time and not the next day.

10. Feedback is essential. It’s essential to know which leads are working and those which are not!

Lead providers can optimise if you give them the necessary data.

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This book is just one step in a long process to create a wider understanding about what is an exciting opportunity for advertisers. In the world of branding, direct response is still important so that you are able to reach the right people and communicate to your consumers in the right way. So what should be learnt from all of this?

StabilityLead generation enables advertisers to generate a steady flow of new business and set lead and sales targets in line with budgets and available resources.

QualificationAdvertisers pay for qualified prospects that want to find out more about their product or service.

FlexibleFiltering enables advertisers to adjust their campaigns quickly as market conditions change.

Build your customer databaseEvery lead is an engaged consumer that has expressed an interest in the advertiser that contacts them and should be put into a CRM system for future campaigns. These can include email campaigns and voucher promotions.

Return on investment (ROI)Online lead generation provides a direct and simple channel, which enables the advertiser to calculate their return on investment

TransparencyOnline lead generation allows you to see what’s working and what’s not whilst the campaign is still going enabling you to optimise your campaign.

Cost effectivenessAdvertisers determine how many leads they want and the price per lead which enables them to budget better and keep costs down.

TargetingAdvertisers can get closer to the customers that are right for their business by using filters to narrow the customer profile. Any method of lead generation has the capability to capture very specific data to help focus the campaign on precisely the right demographics.

and Richard Pollin, Head of Lead Generation, Unanimis

Chapter Seven

Conclusion From Amit Kotecha, Senior Programme Executive, IAB

Acknowledgements

ad pepper media

ad pepper media offers individual solutions for media agencies, advertisers and websites in display, performance, email and affiliate marketing, covering practically the whole range of online advertising. The products iLead (lead acquisition), iSense (semantic advertising) and SiteScreen Network (brand protection) are unique in their market sectors. With 15 branches in nine European countries and the USA, ad pepper media is currently providing campaigns for thousands of national and international advertising clients in more than 50 countries.

Goallover

Goallover Limited was established in 2001. Since 2007, Goallover has specialised in providing online lead management solutions. The LOLA solution is licensed by agencies BLM and Omnicom. LOLA provides lead capture, data security, validation, verification, consolidation, deduplication, delivery and reporting. Brands enjoying LOLA’s competitive advantages include T-Mobile and Citroen.

LeadPoint UK

Launched in the UK in 2006, LeadPoint provides a range of lead generation solutions for publishers and advertisers through a sophisticated million-dollar lead platform. LeadPoint currently trades over 5,000 real-time data leads per day in a number of verticals including finance, legal services and cosmetic surgery. In the next 6 months LeadPoint will be launching into Voice Leads as well as adding a number of new products to the platform.

Unanimis

Unanimis is the largest exclusive digital advertising network specialising in branded and performance display advertising, across internet and mobile. Unanimis creates value from online audiences for both advertisers and publishers. Using our network of publishers Unanimis is able provide its clients with a purely premium lead generation offering, delivering not only quality but ROI as well.

Key contributors

For further information regarding this handbook or other IAB activities including research, events, seminars, presentations and training, please visit www.iabuk.net/onlineleadgeneration or email us at info@iabuk.net

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