What is a Lead Generation Website? A PPC Agency Guide

What Is A Lead Generation Website?

… And how is it different from any other site?

When it comes to business websites, there are two fundamental styles: “brochure” and “lead generation”.

A brochure site functions as a digital leaflet. It showcases the company’s products or services, and are visually engaging. However, a brochure website lacks a call-to-action. The visitor (someone who’s clicked on the page) has usually heard of the company and had some sort of contact with them. The brochure site acts as brand reinforcement, proving the company is who they say they are. It’s not intended to bring in new leads.

A lead generation website, on the other hand, takes a more active approach. The purpose of a lead generation site is to take the visitor – cold or pre-warmed – and turn them into a hot lead. If a brochure site intends to provide reassurance, then a lead generation site demands attention, solves a problem and gives reassurance all at once.

Lead generation websites encourage visitors to make online enquiries. They often initiate contact by promising something small, like a whitepaper or a free telephone call. Once the company has the visitor’s contact details, they’re able to use their sales team to turn the lead into a customer.

Here are the 5 Top Elements of a lead generation website:

1. Calls to Action

2. Conversion Forms

3. Informative Content

4. A Clear Value Message

5. (Hidden) Analytics To Measure Leads and Click-Backs

Lead Generation Websites For PPC Agencies

Most “lead generation website” articles speak directly to the B2C or B2B business owner.

This post, on the other hand, focuses on the PPC agency owner. When your job is to generate leads for multiple clients, “lead generation website” takes on a slightly different meaning.

To explain what I mean, I’ll talk about a bit of FlexxDigital’s history.

When we started as a PPC agency, we quickly found out the value of building our own landing pages and attaching them to the client’s website. Using the drag-and-drop website builder, Unbounce, we could get a page up and running (and without too much interruption from the client) within a couple of hours. We’d then drive traffic to that landing page, collect the leads, and distribute them to the client over the week. We charge on a cost-per-lead basis, so the more leads we gave them, the more we were paid.

This strategy turned out to be a goldmine.

But as FlexxDigital’s success grew, we started to make mistakes. Instead of concentrating on one niche or vertical, we went after five or six at once. All of these required landing pages, metrics and separate funnels. We were working hard, but we weren’t working particularly smart.

When we found out about lead generation websites, they became a real game-changer for us.

Instead of taking on multiple verticals to make money, we took on numerous clients within the same vertical and made that niche our speciality.

We’d then set up a lead generation website that catered to that particular vertical – i.e. car finance leads. All of our funnels would go to that lead generation website. Then, depending on what the clients wanted, we would segment the leads by type and send them to the corresponding client.

How Does A Lead Generation Website Work?

The key to a successful lead generation website is lots of traffic. We want people to be able to find our website, give their details, and welcome contact from whatever client or clients we are advertising for.

As you know, there is more than one way to generate traffic. You can choose:

SEO
Organic Content
Paid Ads
A mixture of the three

Ideally, a strong mixture of the three would be the best way to generate traffic to your site. However, organic content can take months to see results, and SEO requires serious skill (plus a few months to get up and running).

Paid ads are a quick and (relatively) easy way to generate traffic for your lead generation website. If you want to be a serious game-player in the lead generation world, you and your client must be prepared to spend a bit of money.

Once you’ve got your paid ads driving traffic to your lead generation website, you can start segmenting your leads and distributing them to various clients.

An excellent way to do this is via surveys and quizzes.

Using Your Website To Segment and Distribute Leads

When the visitor reaches your lead generation website, you have several options. You could direct them to the usual form, as taking their details counts as “producing a lead”.

Or, you could take things one step further, and use a quiz to segment leads by quality and type.

Say, for example, your website is geared up towards car trade and car loans. Website Visitor A is a homeowner, has a car to trade and wants to buy a $50,000 car. They put answers corresponding with that into the quiz, and their custom is directed to Client 1, who wants that type of lead.

Website Visitor B is unemployed and wants to buy a secondhand banger. Their custom is directed to Client 2, who can make money from that type of customer.

Etc., etc. This kind of lead segmentation can go on for as many clients as you have in that vertical. Using the power and versatility of a lead generation website, you can monetise every lead that comes your way. Remember – every client wants something different, and it’s crucial you ask exactly what they’re looking for before you start generating leads for them.

Can You Sell a Lead Generation Website?

Absolutely.

Comparison websites like Compare The Market are actually hugely profitable lead generation websites, as they distribute leads to numerous companies depending on what the visitor wants.

If your lead generation website is versatile and profitable enough, you may find that clients want to buy you out. They’ve seen your success, they know you can generate great leads, and they want to take those leads away from the competition.

Selling up or not, it’s a win-win situation for you. Either way, you’ll be making money!

Conclusion

So, to sum up: a lead generation website is similar to a landing page, but it can cater to multiple clients.

To create a highly-optimised lead generation website, you can use the same tips as you would for a landing page. I’ve got 5 of FlexxDigital’s Top Tips right here.

A website will also help you to become the master of one vertical, rather than an average player in three or four. Reputation can make or break a business, and if your PPC agency can garner respect, envy and admiration in one area, you’ll find yourself with more clients than you know what to do with.

As your agency grows, you’ll find yourself niche-ing down from doing everything and anything, to solving one problem better than your direct competition. Spending time and care on a lead generation website can help you on your way to becoming a money-making master in the field you do best.

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