Marketers 'must constantly evaluate lead generation strategies'

Marketers using paid search as part of their lead generation strategy should be constantly evaluating the goals of their campaign, it has been suggested.

Writing for SearchEngineWatch.com, Jason Tabeling explained that firms cannot afford not to alter their lead generation initiative if what they are aiming to achieve from the process changes.

Such alterations could include a need to temporarily increase brand exposure or boost short-term revenue, while firms may also find themselves needing to make long-term changes so as to make paid search a larger part of their lead generation strategy.

"A campaign's goals and the metrics used to measure those goals, should be evaluated on an ongoing basis," Mr Tabeling stated.

He noted that paid search managers need to be able to "balance efficiency and volume" if their lead generation efforts are to succeed, stating that while adding generic keywords will boost the volume of leads generated, it may lower the campaign's return on investment.

Firms may wish to consider enlisting the services of a dedicated lead generation company in order to maximise the results of their lead generation initiative.

Recent research by Marketing Sherpa found that search engines are the most effective source of lead generation, with 13 per cent of leads gathered this way being of high quality and high in quantity.

Written by Julian Poulter and Copyright "Selling People 2009"