Whether you’re gathering leads without landing pages or running a more traditional lead generation campaign, there’s some legwork to be done before you launch your actual lead generation ads. It can be tempting just to jump right in, especially when you can run a campaign to generate lead without setting up landing pages. Yes, fully integrated lead ad units save a lot of time and resources, but you’ll want to thoughtfully plan out your campaign for maximum efficiency and optimum cost per lead. Here are a few steps to take:
Define Your Target Audience
Start with what you know about your current customers. Who are they, and why do they buy? What might make them buy more? Who are similar people who could also benefit from your product or service? You need to define your audience based on demographics, certainly, but also on a more human level. What are their interests, their needs, their current mindset? Are you targeting new customers or upselling current ones?
In order to create the right lead generation offer or combinations of offers, you need to know who you are targeting and what is going to interest them enough to provide their personal information. Your creative will be guided by the audience makeup as well, so this is an important first step in any lead generation campaign.
Create Your Lead Generation Offer
Once you know who you’re talking to, you can begin to form what you are telling them, and eventually, selling them. Some businesses keep it simple with one lead generation offer for all, but you can also customize based on your target audience profile. Is the offer a tangible item, like an ebook? Or something they must act on, like a free trial or complimentary consult? The offer needs to be compelling enough to get them to click and provide their information so that you can follow up with the hard sell later. Make sure your lead generation offer leaves them wanting more, so they have no choice but to become a paying customer.
Warm Up Your Leads
Lead generation doesn’t work nearly as well on its own. You’ve got to introduce yourself to these potential leads first! Run an awareness campaign for maximum reach at a low cost, just so that they get to know your brand name and a little more about you. Your lead generation ad can still do most of the heavy lifting, but the CPM rates are often lower on more general ads. By running a cheaper, more efficient introductory ad first, you boost the lead completion rate of your lead ads while also lowering cost per lead. Overall, this saves you money and generates higher quality leads b excluding those not suited for your business in the initial ad stage, as opposed to the more expensive lead generation ad campaign.
Plan Your Lead Nurturing
While lead nurturing happens after your lead generation campaign has been completed, it comes up quicker than you might think! One of the key elements of an effective lead nurturing plan is timeliness of follow up after the lead form is submitted. So if your lead generation campaign is doing well (and we hope it is!) you could need to follow up as soon as the first day of your lead generation campaign. As you can see, a well-thought out lead nurturing plan is imperative before your lead ads start running, because you’ll be using it soon enough to convert those leads to customers.
Think through when you want the first touch to be, and how often you want to communicate after that. Will your nurturing emails follow a standard schedule, or be based on the lead ad form completion date? Is the email template always the same, or are there variations in creative? Consider running awareness ads alongside your email nurturing campaign as well. And don’t forget a post-conversion plan!
As you plan your lead generation ad campaign, make sure you are taking the time to define your audience and create a compelling lead generation offer that speaks to your target audience. Warm them up with an awareness-based branding campaign and be ready with a killer lead nurturing plan as soon as they submit that lead form.