The Pontiflex Blog

Lead generation checklist for a tough economy

October 7, 2008

A Pricewaterhouse Coopers forecast suggests that while online advertising will slow down in 2008, money will continue to flow into web ads. The growth will be driven by an increased demand for performance based pricing models be it Cost-per-Click or Cost-per-Lead advertising. CPM based display banners will continue to decline.

Here’s a quick checklist for advertisers looking to move up the ROI value chain from CPM and CPC to CPL advertising. Before starting a CPL campaign, be sure to check for:

1. Transparency: Will your vendor allow you to see where your campaigns are running? This is crucial in terms of allowing you to optimize your campaign effectively.

2. Openness: Can you work with any all all publishers that are a good fit for your campaign? In a tough economy, don’t work with anyone who limits your options.

3. Creative Mix: Remember in a tough economy, people are often looking for deals. Offer-based direct response creative might often deliver the best branding experience. That said, it is important to be flexible and have a good mix of direct response and banner creative (both purchased on CPL pricing models).

4. Autoresponders: Getting leads is only part of cracking the recession puzzle. What you do with them is the more important part. Autoresponders allow advertisers to engage consumers at an additional touchpoint. What’s more, with autoresponders, this happens in real-time.

Have links to prompt actions (Click to confirm) from the consumer, to drive visits to pages on your web site and of course provide links for unsubscribes.  Check out some really well done autoresponders.

5. Integration: Is the front end of your campaign integrated with your campaign backend? Ensure that it is. You will then be able to allocate more money towards publishers that deliver the best backend metrics – newsletter open rates, conversions, sign-ups and ultimately sales.

A bad economy is a good opportunity to tighten up marketing strategies and align them closely with business goals. Happy aligning.

Entry Filed under: Best Practices, Lead Generation. .