Uliana Lesiv
AuthorIn this article, we will dig deep into the lead acquisition process:
Lead acquisition is the process of identifying and targeting potential customers who might be interested in the specific product or service. It includes building a relationship with them to guide potential customers toward becoming a client.
Lead acquisition and lead generation are often used interchangeably; however, there is a difference between them. Basically, the lead generation process involves creating interest in your product or service via blog posts, live events, and some online content.
Lead acquisition is further work with potential clients, including their nurturing and segmentation. It implies building relations with leads and sending them to the next steps of the marketing funnel up to a conversion.
Although lead generation and lead acquisition are different processes, they are closely related. In some cases, a lead acquisition specialist performs the responsibilities of a lead generation specialist, so the whole process of new lead acquisition is as follows:
To gain leads that are most likely to make a conversion, it is important to understand their intent and target those leads that are more likely to convert. There are a few types of search intent:
A lead acquisition manager needs to analyze the whole customer journey and attribute the successfully converted leads to the specific channel. In this way, you can monitor what channel works the best for your business growth and refine the user experience to improve the acquisition process.
The attribution tracking starts with picking an attribution model. Below is a quick breakdown of the models available in Google Analytics 4. For more details on attribution tracking, please see our other blog post.
When you classify the leads in different groups based on some criteria (e.g., acquisition channel, buyer profile, specific behavioral patterns), it becomes easier for you to analyze them and pick strategies to build relationships.
The segmentation will be helpful to prioritize leads, select the most qualified leads, and target them with personalized content for better results.
Despite the market segment you target, one of the best-working strategies to generate leads is providing some value to them. It can be a free demo with a demo account, conducting some events or presentations. In this way, you can demonstrate your expertise and build person-to-person relations.
As for the tools you can use to monitor the lead acquisition process, you can use the following tools:
| Pro tip: due to ad blockers and browser restrictions with limited cookie lifetime, some data (including microconversions and purchases) can be lost and won't display on the analytics platform. To improve data accuracy, consider server-side tracking configuration. |
To measure lead acquisition and lead generation efforts, you should track the following metrics:
| Metrics group | Metric | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Lead quantity | Total number of leads | Overall number of leads that were generated over the specific period of time to see the volume. |
| Leads by channel | A breakdown of leads by the specific channel you acquired the leads (organic, paid ads, referral, social media, email). | |
| Lead quality | Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) | Leads that match the criteria and can be considered for further nurturing by marketing. |
| Sales qualified leads (SQLs) | These are MQLs that are ready for direct engagement by the sales team. | |
| Lead conversion rate | A percentage of website visitors/recipients of emails who became leads. | |
| Cost | Cost per lead (CPL) | To calculate the metric, you take the total marketing spend for the lead generation process and divide by the number of leads generated. |
To understand whether your lead acquisition works properly or you should give more attention to the process optimization, it is important to pay attention to the benchmarks. Below, we list the benchmarks for different acquisition channels and industries for lead conversion rate and cost per lead.
Lead conversion rate depends on the channel type, according to Umbrex:
According to Thunderbit, here are the conversion rates by industry.
| Industry | Average lead conversion rate |
|---|---|
| SaaS and B2B tech | 8.5% |
| Finance and insurance | 12.5% |
| Legal services | 4.5% |
| Travel and hospitality | 2% |
| B2B segment | 3.5% |
| B2C segment | 2% |
| eCommerce | 1.5% |
Below are the average CPL by channel and industry according to Appsflyer.
| Channel | Average cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Paid search | 175$ |
| Organic search | 35$ |
| Referral | 25$ |
| 50$ | |
| Social media | 65$ |
| Direct mail | $250 |
| Cold calling | $300 |
| Industry | Average cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Healthcare | $386 |
| SaaS | $180 |
| Business services | $144 |
| Retail | $83 |
| Hospitality | $73 |
| Education | $40 |
Multi-channel outreach is an effective strategy to improve the lead acquisition process. It includes engaging potential leads through different platforms, including LinkedIn, email, and cold calls. By spreading outreach efforts across multiple touchpoints, lead acquisition specialists can increase their visibility and chances of converting users into leads.
According to statistics, only 38% of users who interacted with a contact form completed it and submitted their information. One of the common reasons can be a complicated flow and a long form.
The only way here is to analyze the customer journey and work on its optimization. If you are using paid search as a channel for lead acquisition, you can also try Facebook Lead Ads or LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms. They help capture customer data more effectively - users can submit contact details directly on the platform without leaving it.
Before implementing AI tools in your lead acquisition marketing efforts, it is important to understand your ideal customer profile (ICP), structure the data, and share it with the AI app you use for automation.
The data includes, but is not limited to: demographics, behavior patterns, industry, and location.
This data can be gathered from analytics platforms (like GA4) and CRM systems you use.
The next step is deciding on the AI tool that fits your needs. AI automation can be used for various cases, for example:
Another step is checking whether the AI app can be integrated with your CRM system.
No doubt, AI apps can simplify the lead acquisition process; however, every specialist should take AI suggestions with a pinch of salt, as it still requires some time to study and obviously can make mistakes.
When lead acquisition struggles with nurturing leads, it can lead to a decrease in sales and ROI. So, it is essential to spot the mistakes in the process and adjust the strategy to avoid them.
Common mistakes include a lack of research on potential customers, leading to poor personalization, ineffective sales pitches that don't correspond to users' needs. To prevent these errors, it is important to create your ideal customer profile (ICP).
According to the HubSpot report, inbound leads can be up to 61% cheaper than those leads generated via outbound channels. In addition, inbound marketing and sales efforts can bring 3x more leads per dollar.
A good strategy to try and see how it works for your case is creating valuable and relevant content that covers users' pain points, it can be PDF files, eBooks, checklists, or other downloadable content, blog and social media posts, and work on SEO optimization to cover a large scope of potential paying customers.
The review of the customer acquisition process can bring valuable insights, as a one-size-fits-all approach usually doesn't provide expected results, especially if you target different user segments.
To avoid this mistake, you should build the following flow:
Lead acquisition is a critical component of the customer journey, and it differs from the lead generation process. While lead generation initiates the process by capturing attention, lead acquisition takes a more strategic and relationship-focused approach (nurturing leads, segmenting them, and guiding them toward conversion).
By analyzing lead data, using the right tools and multi-channel outreach, and building well-structured workflows, lead acquisition specialists can turn leads into paying customers. To succeed, marketers and sales teams must regularly measure performance, avoid common pitfalls, and remain open to refining their strategies.
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