How To Track And Validate Website Sales Leads By Marketing Channel

Guest post by Matt Cannon. Matt is Director of Web Services at Straight North, an Internet marketing agency in Chicago that specializes in SEO, PPC and web design services. Cannon manages all web development activities, ensuring that every project is applying current development standards and techniques.

How  To Track And Validate Website Sales Leads By Marketing Channel

There’s no excuse for not having all the information you need in today’s world. Internet marketing campaigns are built on information, and there’s never been more of it available than there is right now. However, despite the volumes of information out there, there is still a shocking number of Internet marketers who are trying to function without some essential information.

To make matters worse, these marketers are not even aware that they are missing this information in most cases. The problem lies in the fact that not enough online marketing campaigns are being built with a lead validation and tracking component as part of their lead generation websites.

Are you only looking at the raw conversion numbers from Google Analytics?

Here at PPC service agency Straight North, we’ve noticed a substantial number of Internet marketers relying on the raw conversion numbers they get from Google Analytics without diving deeper into the significance of those numbers. They assume that the number of conversions their websites generate is an accurate depiction of how many sales leads they have. That’s problematic because nearly half of all website conversions aren’t even sales leads. Instead, they’re incomplete form submissions, customer service inquiries, etc.

The danger of taking these raw conversion numbers at face value is apparent when you think about how important the number of sales leads can be. For instance, consider a website with two main sources generating conversions. Source A generates 100 conversions a month and Source B generates 50.

Based on the raw conversion numbers, the online marketer might assume that Source A is more successful at generating new sales leads and put more resources into it. Source B might be seen as underperforming and have resources diverted away from it or it may be overhauled to be more like Source A. However, subjecting those conversions to a lead validation and tracking process might reveal that Source A generated 25 sales leads out of 100 conversions, while all of Source B’s 50 conversions are sales leads.

That additional level of information becomes crucial because Source B actually is more successful at delivering sales leads. Source A should be optimized to perform more like Source B, rather than the other way around. Taking the raw conversion numbers at face value could result in a website that performs less efficiently than before, and fewer new customers being gained. Those conditions can spell disaster for an online marketing campaign.

Boost marketing campaign ROI with lead validation and tracking.

All of this underscores the importance of lead validation and tracking. Not only do these processes identify which conversions are sales leads and where they came from, but they also take into consideration leads generated from phone calls. The following guide illustrates the step-by-step process of incorporating lead validation and tracking into an Internet marketing campaign. Follow it, and you’ll have all the information you need to help your lead generation website deliver the highest ROI possible.