Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tired of Lead Generation Services? Turn to Pay Per Click

By Josh Prizer

If you are like a lot of companies dependent on client leads to keep afloat, you may be noticing a trend from some of the lead generation companies out there. Not only are the leads expensive, but they aren't as strong as they used to be. We are hearing this again and again from our clients who are shifting their budgets to crank up the stronger quality pay per click search leads.

A lot of lead generation companies are using pay per click search to gather their leads. They will then mark up the cost it took to acquire them, or they will send them to multiple vendors and the quality to you is often poor. If this is your problem, maybe it's time you skip the middle man and go straight to the source.

Getting into PPC advertising is not as simple as it used to be. Sure, you can set up a website with some contact info, but the competition has gotten more sophisticated in recent years. In order to really compete and push down your cost per acquisition, you've got to throttle up your effort and skills.

When you launch a paid search campaign, you need to realize that everything in your pipeline, from what keywords to appear on, what ads to run, where to send them, how to get them to take action, etc. -- all of that can be managed and optimized. Let's examine two of these areas.

Let's start with your PPC ad copy. You can certainly just place an ad and let it ride, but with the PPC algorithms placing more and more importance on Quality Scores, you need to pay close attention to your ads. If you can't conduct daily split testing on your ads because of the time and effort, then try outsourcing to a PPC management company. A good firm should be able to double or triple your click through rates.

Maybe that doesn't sound important, but it is. Doubling and tripling your quality traffic can do the same for your number of leads. And, it can lower your costs per click in the process.

But as I mentioned, everything in your pipeline can be optimized. Let's take a look at where you are sending these people who click on ads. Do you have a contact form or just an email address? Is your phone number visible or in your footer? Are you offering an incentive for people to take action? There's a lot to tweak and test.

Fine tuning your landing pages will lower your cost per lead. We've seen small changes double conversions and drop your costs per lead in half. So, tinkering is well worth the effort.

Making the jump to PPC search may not be in your company's core competency. If not, then outsource to a PPC management company. Their experts can mine massive keyword lists, pull keywords from your competitors, conduct the necessary and vital daily split tests, and give you insight into better landing pages.

So, consider getting rid of the saturated lead gen services and heading for the source. The results can be dramatic.

About the Author:

No comments: