1.) Targeting: Who is your audience? Knowing who your target audience is upfront is the single most important step in setting up a successful lead gen campaign. Is your audience college student from Tennessee who love NASCAR? Are they the traveling businessmen who watch the stock market constantly? Or is it simply mothers with multiple children looking to save a few bucks? The more information you can gather on the front end, the more successful your campaign will be on the back end.
2.) Forming an appropriate price point: Everyone knows there is a direct correlation between the price point of a campaign and the realistic expectations of its performance. Choose your price point wisely! Ultimately you need to know the end goal of a campaign: is it simply to grow an e-mail database? Or do you want the user to actively participate in a program? Knowing the goal of a campaign will determine if a $.50 CPL run of network campaign will be better suited for your client, or if you need to set up a $40 CPA program. Additionally, understand the cost benefit of using qualifying questions on your forms to further validate your leads up front. This might drive up the price point by 20%, but your leads might end up converting 30% better.
3.) Smart Media Buying: This final element will ultimately determine how well your program will perform. Having an experienced media buyer who can line up your target audience with the appropriate sites and networks is vital. All too often I see campaigns that would be perfect for site X but the price point is about 200% off from what it would need to be to run there. At some point, there needs to be an understanding that top content sites that match your target audience will come at a premium. Yes I know, people don’t have large budgets and don’t feel they need to pay a premium; however, if your client is SCJonnson don’t tell me they can’t find an appropriate piece of their budget to run on a site entirely devoted to moms with children! It is our job as their digital arm to make sure we are keeping their best interests in mind. If you have a set budget of $50k, spend it wisely. More often than not, less volume at a higher price point will always lead to higher converting leads and happier clients. Happy clients = long term clients.
by Michael Gerpe, VP of Media