The Cost Per Lead Metric

One of the biggest questions we have to answer as marketers is how do we generate more qualified leads for our sales teams in the most cost-effective way?  Cost per Lead (CPL) is the metric at the center of that question. In short, it’s equivalent to the cost of generating all of your leads divided by the total leads acquired.

The metric’s main purpose is to provide marketers with a  tangible dollar figure so we know how much money we can spend on acquiring new leads. The CPL metric also provides valuable data that enables you to fully track your return on marketing investment. More importantly, knowing your CPL means that you can start to optimize your lead generation strategy so that you’re receiving leads by the leanest means possible.

Call Analytics for Lowering CPL

If you receive leads over the phone, a call tracking tool is a necessary when it comes to lowering your CPL. BIA/Kelsey reported that 61% of businesses rate their inbound phone calls as excellent leads meaning that optimizing to receive more quality leads from this channel can ultimately result in more conversions and lower cost than spending money on lower converting channels.

• Focus on Quality over Quantity: You might be running a click-to-call advertising campaign that is driving clicks, but what about conversions? Without context surrounding how leads are handled over the phone, you won’t be able to know for sure if an ad is driving quality leads and if you should be putting money behind that advertisement. Call analytics stop you from giving underperforming channels the benefit of the doubt.
• Full Attribution for Campaigns: Call analytics can provide you data at the keyword level so you’ll be able to see what a consumer was searching for when they come to your site before they placed a call. This enables search marketers to optimize campaigns, targeting the right leads and making it easier for them to find the tools and features they need.
• Call Routing: Routing leads to the most appropriate person or business location is key to ensuring they have the best chance for conversion. This is especially important when dealing with multi-location businesses such as franchises. CallRail allows you to build call flows that enable you to automate call scheduling and routing that determines how your calls should be managed. Automating call routing based on your business hours and staff availability also ensures you don’t miss any valuable leads and that your callers will always reach the right person at the right time.

Agency Lowers Acquisition Cost by 66% with Call Analytics

A metric you should also be measuring if you’re interested in lowering CPL is CPA or cost per acquisition. CPA is different from CPL because you are actually paying for a closed sale or action.

Top Level Management, a franchise agency, knew the AdWords campaigns of one of their clients was driving more than 50% of their leads over the phone, and they wanted to attribute and qualify the leads they were receiving. They also wanted to record calls so that they could coach and train their support teams, so CallRail was the one stop solution to meet many of their marketing needs.

The agency realized that cost per acquisition was three times as much if they didn’t use call tracking for insight into which keywords drive leads. Call tracking allowed them to optimize their ads and lower customer acquisition cost by 66%.

“With insight into which leads are valuable, we’re able to lower acquisition costs, while proving to our customers that our marketing campaigns are driving real results for their businesses. With benefits like that, the CallRail solution pays for itself – usually within a week from implementation.”

Want to learn more about how you can lower your client acquisition cost with focused spending on what really drives conversions? Learn more about how call tracking can transform your marketing with a live demo. Your marketing campaigns are waiting!