Generating leads is crucial for business growth. Problem is, many marketers face a common frustration: poor lead quality. You invest time and resources into creating campaigns, only to be flooded with leads that don't convert. It's like casting a wide net and catching everything but the fish you want (annoying). This problem is especially prevalent in Google Performance Max campaigns, where the algorithm optimizes for quantity over quality.
But that’s actually YOUR fault. The way these ad platforms work, they’re chasing after the conversions that you tell them to. And you’re probably not asking them to go after SQLs.
The key lies in utilizing deal stage data. By accurately tracking and uploading your funnel data, you can guide the algorithm to focus on the leads that matter most. Instead of relying solely on pixels, which only tell part of the story, funnel data provides a comprehensive picture of your leads' journey.
Let's take a closer look at how this works. Imagine you're running a Performance Max campaign for a B2B software company. You're generating plenty of leads, but your sales team is struggling to convert them into customers. They're spending hours following up with leads that aren't a good fit or aren't interested in your product. It's a waste of time and resources.
This is where integrating your CRM tools comes into play. By using a tool like HubSpot's server-side connection with Google, you can attribute deal stage data back to your campaigns. This means you can see which leads are actually progressing through your funnel and which ones are getting stuck. Armed with this information, you can optimize your campaigns to focus on the leads that are most likely to convert.
To truly improve your lead quality, you need to continuously monitor and refine your campaigns. This means regularly reviewing the performance and quality of your leads and making adjustments accordingly.
One effective way to do this is through detailed segmentation. By creating specific segments within your campaigns, you can target high-quality leads with laser precision. For example, you might create a segment for leads who have engaged with your website multiple times or have a certain job title. By focusing your efforts on these segments, you can improve the efficiency of your campaigns and reduce wasted spend. On google, that’s different ad groups (search) or asset groups (pmax). On meta, this might be discrete ad sets - each with it’s own unique persona targeting.
But segmentation is just one piece of the puzzle. To truly optimize your lead generation, you need to establish a feedback loop between your sales and marketing teams. Your sales team is on the front lines, interacting with leads every day. They have valuable insights into what makes a qualified lead. By regularly communicating with your sales team and incorporating their feedback, you can refine your lead qualification criteria and ensure that your campaigns are targeting the right people.
One of our clients is in the custom-ADU space. We kept hearing feedback that the building budget for leads we were driving were too low. So we thought about targeting variables that would get us in front of bigger spenders. Things like higher household income, larger project interests, etc.
If you’re on hubspot - you can refer to this doc to get deal stage tracking set up.
Once you have everything set up, you'll start seeing deal stage data in your Google ads reporting. With this signal you can now attribute back to which keyword, audience, ad creative resulted in higher rates of qualified leads.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to optimization. The key is to continuously test, measure, and refine your approach. By improving your lead quality, you can reduce your customer acquisition costs, increase your conversion rates, and ultimately grow your business.
So, my question to you is: what's holding you back from improving your lead quality? Is it a lack of data? A disconnect between your sales and marketing teams? Whatever it is, I challenge you to take the first step today. Start by identifying one area where you can improve and make a plan to tackle it. And if you need help along the way, don't hesitate to reach out.
As always, share this with your team, your friends, your dog, anyone you think that might benefit. Appreciate it.
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