Would A Lead Generation Service Work For My Business?

What is lead generation? If you are unsure of what lead generation is then enjoy this 1m primer. . 

Let's ask the question:

"Would A Lead Generation Service Work For My Business?"

Scenario 1 - Retail

If you are a retail shop or e-commerce store selling products then prospects for you are people that would be interested in the product you sell. You could very well benefit from advertising but for small purchases of less than 100 pounds sending people direct to your product page or to a brand awareness page can yield direct sales. Lead generation is a more complicated and strategic method, used for more expensive services and the target customer is not going to buy straight away. Lead generation is not a good fit. But simple advertising campaigns are.

Scenario 2- Travel services

If you are selling travel related services then depending on what those are and how much they cost then lead generation could work! If a family holiday to Antigua is costing 4,000 pounds and the profit is 600 pounds on this sale but considering a LTV (Lifetime Value) situation then this certainly has enough profit to consider. For any lead generation project you would need to consider that it is going to cost you quite a lot (with paid advertising) to yield a positive result. This is why it is only effective for more costly purchases such as a family holiday. There are cases where you should be exploring organic search (SEO) most probably in ALL CASES however.

Scenario 3- Financial Services

Financial services such as life insurance or mortgages offer businesses great LTV and as such are great candidates for lead generation. They benefit greatly from the strategic nature of a complex funnel with retargeting campaigns. The high relative cost of PPC campaigns is adsorbed in the LTV for the client and you can get a very healthy ROAS with high CPC.

Checklist 

1. The LTV (or product/service net profit) should be significant enough to warrant the investment.
2. If you have a need for leads but not many of them then you will most likely have to go it alone. Unfortunately an agency is not going to invest in the ads, creative and copy for a small volume of leads. Of course the agency is free to sell leads to multiple purchasers. So never say never!
3. Usually volume is never a problem in the sense that more is better if the volume exists. Some services or products will simply have low demand. Unless these verticals have really high LTV they may not be interesting enough for an agency. You might consider the case for luxury supercars as an example Vs commercial van leasing.