I don’t need to tell you that effective lead generation is vital for every good business. However, when you’re a PPC agency, generating thousands of high-quality leads every month should be a matter of course, not a run of exceptional good luck.
As a lead generation agency, FlexxDigital has worked with various businesses over the last half-decade, delivering 250,000 leads in just one incredible year.
To master the art of lead generation, we’ve had to hone our strategies to yield results we can bank on. If you’re struggling to generate leads, or want higher lead production to cater to high-ticket clients, you are not alone.
That’s why I’ve put together these 7 essential lead generation hacks to take your agency to a whole new level.
Lead Generation Hack #1: Pay Attention To Your Thank You Pages
Unfortunately, lots of PPC marketers neglect the thank you page as part of the conversion process. As far as they’re concerned, they’ve done their job (generating a lead), and it’s up to the client’s sales team to convert.
But a word to the wise: clients love it when you go the extra mile. As I said in an earlier post, most clients now value the quality of leads over quantity. If you asked any business whether they’d like 1000 cheaper leads of mixed quality or 100, more expensive, leads that convert at 25%, they would choose the latter every time.
A well-nurtured lead can make a purchase up to 47% larger than a non-nurtured one. They’re also 97% more likely to recommend a brand if they feel well-cared for during the entire purchasing process.
Use your thank you page as your final opportunity to convince the prospect they’ve made a life-changing decision. Gain their trust by confirming the conversion. Include a photo of the business owner, tell them when to expect a call or email, and from what number/address they’ll receive it from.
If you add in some testimonials (video or text) that relate to your offer, your lead will really want to pick up the phone and do business with your client. Security is an overlooked feeling when it comes to taking out the wallet – make these simple changes, and you’ll see a massive difference in your lead quality and contact rate.
Lead Generation Hack #2: Exclude Your Bad Audiences
Advertising to audiences who don’t want your offer is like throwing money into a dustbin fire.
This includes advertising to audiences who’ve already engaged with your offer and hit your thank you page.
When it comes to lead generation, some agencies are tempted to cast the net as wide as possible. After all, the more people you advertise to, the more conversions, right?
This kind of gung-ho (if logical) attitude is often more harmful than helpful. At best, an uninterested customer will just develop “ad blindness” towards your brand, and your campaign will get lost amongst everything else on their feed. At worst, users will get annoyed by the constant interruptions on their feed and react with negative comments. This is called “ad fatigue”.
Instead of wasting your budget on users who don’t want what you’re offering, use your Facebook Pixel data to hone your audience into those who do. This is called “excluding a custom audience”.
I’ve already written a blog post about excluding custom and lookalike audiences. You can check it out here for more details.
Lead Generation Hack #3: Use Surveys and Quizzes In Your Funnel
Surveys have been a game changer for us as a lead generation agency. Last year, we managed to produce a quarter of a million leads using LeadsHook quiz software, and the results for our agency rocketed.
Everybody loves a good quiz. In fact, the average quiz gets 1,900 shares across social media. We use them for procrastination, to learn more about ourselves, to get a quick serotonin boost when the outcome is one we like.
But quizzes aren’t only there to boost our egos. They’re also extremely good for business.
With a lead generating survey or quiz, you can segment leads from the word “go”. Using the user’s responses, you automatically know whether they are a suitable candidate for your offer and their potential for making a purchase. This is perfect for dividing your leads into custom audiences (see point two).
Simultaneously, your prospect will feel like they have A) been able to air their personal preferences and B) like they’ve been given a tailored result true to their individual response.
For an effective lead generation quiz or survey, don’t ask any more than 7-10 questions unless you have to. 7 questions take about 2 minutes to complete – the perfect amount of time to keep a busy internet user’s attention. Make sure you use language the average user is familiar with, as too much jargon will increase your click-back rate.
Lead Generation Hack #4: Use Official-Sounding Language On Your Pages
This is a hack for you copywriters!
No one wants to read page after page of stuffy writing. Most copywriters now advocate a punchy, yet conversational, tone that helps visitors connect with your brand and what you’re offering. It’s rare that anyone – even B2B business folk – will make the decision to buy without some emotion coming into play.
However, used sparingly, official-sounding language can make a real emotional impact. Audiences love labels and anything that sounds like its a “fact”. For example, using a label such as “government-backed” adds credibility to your service and engages with the user’s sense of trust.
These words are often called “power words” within the industry, and these are the words that sell.
To give you a brief example, consider these sentences.
“Get what you need.”
And
“Get what you’re entitled to.”
Both (generally) mean the same thing, but the second has a vastly different effect. If you’re advertising something from the point of view that the customer needs it, then all the prospect has to do is disagree. However, if you tell the customer that they’re entitled to something, you’ll stir up feelings of righteous ownership and empowerment.
There are plenty of “power word” examples out there. This one is my favourite: CopyWriteMatters.
Lead Generation Hack #5: Don’t Sell To People Who Don’t Want It
This comes back to points 2 and 3. It should be obvious, but you’d be amazed by how many people ignore this simple rule.
When you’re segmenting your leads using a survey or quiz, ask the prospect when they’re likely to take your offer. Are they ready now? Or will they need help in three months?
Too many people jump the gun with a sale and call every lead that comes in. If the customer isn’t interested at that moment (but could be later on), a hard sales pitch will turn them off from the offer now and in the future.
Use your surveys to segment your customers into who wants help now and who wants the offer later. Send your clients the leads, and make the differentiation clear. Your clients should put the “later” leads into an email sequence that tells the prospect to expect a call in three months.
Lead Generation Hack #6: Find Out Your Best Days For Leads
FlexxDigital tends to generate a lot of leads on Sunday and Monday. If you’ve got clients who want volume, concentrate all your efforts on the one or two days that your ads perform best, then deliver the leads throughout the week.
If you implement this hack, you’ll see your cost per lead (CPL) drop, and your client will be delighted to accept so many leads.
Lead Generation Hack #7: Bid On Your Brand Name
Not everyone will respond to your CTA immediately, even if you’ve got the best Facebook ads in the world. In fact, as many as 10% of potential customers will see the ad, click away from Facebook and search for the brand on Google.
If the client is worth their salt, their brand should come up as the first result on Google. This will lend their brand credibility, and a lot of customers will feel “safer” making the purchase.
To generate lots of cheap, high-quality leads, bid on your brand name and run a brand-awareness campaign on Google search.
According to Google:
“The purpose of a brand-engagement campaign is to build awareness of and positive associations with your company and its products and services. A customer can interact with your brand in a variety of ways, including watching videos, playing games, spending time on your website, or communicating with other customers.”
So, Brand Campaigns include your brand’s name as a keyword and any possible misspellings.
A Brand Campaign can help you:
- Increase interactions with your brand
- Build positive brand associations
- Increase brand loyalty by connecting with your target audience
- Motivate customers to engage with your brand and, therefore, your product or service
Let me give you a real-life example.
We are currently running Facebook and Google AdWord campaigns for Aunt Meg, a debt advice service explicitly targeted at struggling or single mothers. Unfortunately, words like “debt consolidation” are hugely valuable on Google, and the cost per click would be higher than our budget would allow.
So, instead of pouring our budget into expensive phrases such as “debt help” or “credit card debt consolidation”, we spent it on the words “Aunt Meg”. Bidding on “Aunt Meg” meant zero competition and only paying a few pence per click.
This tactic also coincided nicely with our social media campaign on Facebook. A customer would see the ad and wonder if the company was legitimate. A quick Google search would confirm this and, as a result, the prospect would be far more likely to engage with the service.
Conclusion
Lead generation hacks aren’t a magic wand that can improve your PPC results instantly. On the contrary, most of them take time and skill to implement, and you need to expect to learn lots on your personal journey.
However, if you decide now to learn along the way and try something new, I think you’ll find these hacks very useful.
What other lead generation hacks have worked for you? Share them, or any questions you have in the comments!
Related Content:
The Ultimate Guide To Lead Generation | Our B2C Book
3 Facebook Ad Hacks That Will Convert Like Crazy (2019)
