Leadpile’s Blog

The lead-gen, as many knows it so far, refers to the generation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business’ products or services – generating a lead. The characteristics of lead-gen are changing, and same as the web, it has certain phases, which makes it evolutionary. 

In the beginning of 2000, the lead-gen has become more popular in the online channel, and with it, more and more companies started to allocate a certain budget for lead-gen, finding it as a good alternative or addition to their own advertising channels. 

A GP Bulhound Research report states that from 2006-2007, the online lead generation market grew 71% YTY. That’s more than twice as fast as the online advertising market. 

The growth, it’s of course, determined by the increasing demand for leads, but also the effectiveness and low costs offered by Lead Exchanges compared to the SEM. 

The Lead-gen 1.0 is considered as being a fragmented, not scalable, where the pricing for leads and volume needs to be artificially managed in order to create profit. 

Leadpile, has started as being a lead generation company, and by knowing the ins and outs of this industry, created a unique Exchange where the price and volume are market driven. The platform has arrived to a mature state, and that’s due to the years of experience and being on the right track from the start. And so, the Lead-gen 2.0 is here. Below you will see certain tools available in the Leadpile Exchange, making it a true Lead Marketplace/Exchange with the technology to be considered Lead-gen 2.0: 

1. Real Time leads and Cherry pick leads:

- the ability to choose between real time delivered leads (Lead Direct) and cherry picking the leads (Self Select)

When it comes to Real Time leads – you can choose the preferred price, volume, schedule and any other filters you want. 

A true lead-gen platform would also enable you to filter the sources of leads (producers/lead sellers): 

No matter how small or big your company is, a true lead-gen platform would also allow you to receive the leads in your own way, that can be from the most complexed integration to the most simple delivery method, like email. 

Of course, you need to have the freedom to receive the leads whenever you want to: 

Also, a complete lead-gen platform would allow you to “talk” to your consumers as soon as they finish the application. That’s where the confirmation page, or redirect to your site, comes handy and really crucial when it comes to customer acquisition:

We are sure that more lead-gen companies will come along, as they already did, following our model. That’s the beauty of this business! We are all working together and we will inspire each other in order to create a better business model for everyone. Leadpile, as the first company to launch a real integrated system for buyers and sellers of leads, will never stop to grow and improve. Out motto is and will always be: “The Impossible is our Expertise”. 

We look forward to your comments and suggestions – We Need You!

One of the main issues when it comes to affiliates, lead generation and traffic is the fraud. The better you become in tracking your leads, affiliates and methods they use to generate leads, the better your program will work. 

Leadpile’s Lead Exchange  has been working into improving the MicroClick Form (previously known as the I-SaveNow Form) application process, storing as much data as possible, so that we identify the source and also the validity of the lead. 

Some lead verticals are easier to fake than others, and the more fields, checks and restrictions for the data, the better is to control what goes through the Exchange. 

Paid Search (Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing) are facing 20% or more fraud. The Lead Exchanges are not an exception, but the percentage is way lower. 

A click is very easy to fake and it can happen way faster and with a lot more volume than within the lead process. Also, each lead can be refunded in case of invalidity, where the traffic takes more time and sometimes is going untracked. Thinking that in certain industries we are seeing bids that are ranging between $6.00 to $50.00 per click, that can be a substantial loss for the advertisers. 

Let’s take a look at the following Click Fraud Index:

Leadpile has been producing it’s own leads in addition to the leads generated by its own publishers (partners) and that helped the Lead Exchange (Marketplace) becoming one of the top Lead-Gen companies out there. We actually are getting the hit from the PPC and take away the burden of this cost from our Lead Buyer (Advertisers). One of the most successful campaigns are still from PPC, where our Buyers are enjoying top lead quality. Of course, that comes for a price, but our service is going to make up for it, no matter how big or small your company is. 

Our team is geared up everyday to provide the top notch customer experience you (as a Lead Buyer/Advertiser) deserve! No matter what your challenge is, let us know so we can work better for you!

MicroClick Ads Turning Affiliate Marketing Upside Down, Reports LeadPile

Phoenix, Arizona -July 8th, 2008 — Within three weeks of announcing the introduction of their new “MicroClick Ads”, LeadPile has created quite a buzz in Affiliate Marketing Circles throughout the United States, Canada, and the UK. Leadpile, The World’s Largest Online Exclusive Lead Marketplace, or Lead Exchange, has reported that the MicroClick Ads have contributed to a 17% increase in production for selected Lead Publishers, and have helped LeadPile to continue its position as the leader in the Lead Exchange Revolution.

What are MicroClicks? Simply put, MicroClick Ads are very small single page mini sites that open a new window enabling Affiliate Publishers to have much more control over their own sites than with “Old Fashioned Affiliate Programs”. The MicroClick ads are a tremendous innovation for Publishers desiring to monetize their traffic. To see what everyone in Affiliate Marketing is talking about, please visit http://www.leadpile.com/microsites.html

The MicroClick Ads give Publishers total control over their own site giving them more compelling monetization opportunities for their content.  For the first time ever, Leadpile’s MicroClick Ads place Publishers in total control of their own sites, and their own income because MicroClick ads are located their own Websites, and secured on Leadpile’s Secured Servers. MicroClick Ads have been designed for those Publishers knowledgeable with HTML and JavaScript, and those who are not. Inserting the MicroClick ads into a website is fast, simple, and easy.

Andy Jacob, Founder of Leadpile, says “There is absolutely no limit to the number of MicroClick Ads a Publisher can place on a site. All they need to do with their site is to target each keyword that they want, add the simple code automatically provided by the LeadPile System, and the LeadPile Lead Exchange does the rest. Jacob says, “This could be a game changer for Affiliate Marketing as we know it.”

About LeadPile:

Leadpile, the World’s Largest Exclusive Online Lead Marketplace/Lead Exchange, offers the Lead-Gen “Space” the Largest, centralized location for Buyers and Sellers of Exclusive Leads to engage in an exclusive  Lead Exchange, or Lead Marketplace. The Leadpile Marketplace allows the Originators of Leads, and the Lead Buyers themselves, to decide what price they are each willing to sell, and buy, their leads at, and the way in which the lead delivery will take place. Visit LeadPile at http:///www.leadpile.com , or visit the Lead Exchange Blog at http://www.leadpile.com/lead-exchange-blog.

I will like to complete one of the previous posts (Lead Generation and Keyword Tracking), when I discussed Leadpile’s Search Engine Tracking as a tool for our Publishers – for those using our MicroClick Form (previously known as the “I-SaveNow Form”).

• Detailed report which provides the Publisher with the Search Engine and the “Keyword” used by the visitor to find their website.
• Displays only the visits that resulted in a transaction.
• This report is based on the “referrer” and for that reason, you don’t need to add anything in the tracking URL.
• A sample snapshot report is provided below:

One of the other features that our Publishers are enjoying, and we are excited to let you know that it has come to a mature state, is the Adwords API integration. The Publishers can create the tracking right from the account and upload it into their Adwords campaign. It will track the “client” (Adwords Account), the Campaign, the AdGroup, the Keywords and whether or not the traffic is coming from Content Network or not.

Fast, simple and terrific tracking available for every Publisher has made our Marketplace an attraction to the PPC Advertisers. With just few clicks you can control your Profit and set the appropriate bids that will lead you to your financial goals.

Please check the following link for a snapshot of the report:

How much are your keywords worth? Being involved in the PPC or SEO, you will be constantly challenged to find the right keywords to use. One way to track which keywords are giving you conversions  is to place a tracking pixel in your confirmation pages. Leadpile has made this process easier than ever before.  For those using the MicroClick Form, Leadpile provides a detailed report that will display the Search Engine and the “Keyword” used by the visitor to find the website. Only the visits that resulted in a transaction are displayed. This report is based on the “referrer” and for that reason, you don’t need to add anything in the tracking URL. Once you take the MicroClick Form and you add it to you page you are done. All the stats are being gathered and displayed for you in the account. A snapshot of one of our Publishers’ report is provided below.

It’s the only time when such tools are made available to the publishers. We believe that the affiliate marketing is changing, and the current publishers are looking for more than just ways of sending traffic to “offers”, they are looking for ways to become part of the lead-gen space.

What is an actual valid return in the a lead marketplace?  Did you know that some Companies have a certain percentage or a number of leads that you are allowed to return?  We always talk about the lead gens, but what about the companies that are buying these leads?  Are they truly returning invalid leads or are they trying to return good valid leads?

Aside from a disconnected phone number or wrong number, what is a valid reason?  It will definitely depend on the lead type.  

If your buying leads on a CPL basis don’t expect every lead to close. So you come across these companies that when they don’t make a sale they want to return the lead for any whimsical reason.  We need to be fair.  If our not buying leads on a CPS basis then take it as a cost of doing business.  Protecting publishers that are spending revenue to generate leads is also an important factor.  Advertisers must be fair in what they return.  If the lead acknowledges submitting the request but they just don’t qualify for YOUR program.  That is still considered a valid lead.

Remember that some marketplaces have certain percentage or number of leads to return.  That’s not right. If a lead a bad its bad return it.  But if its good then make the sale and buy more.  

I know that the economic crunch right now affect part of our society, but for God’s sake lets be clear on how business should be done. 

Here are valid reasons for returns:

• Not a working number
• Wrong number
• Person did not fill out request
• Bogus contact information

That’s it! Ask yourself.  Are you here to cry about the leads or work the leads?  If you have leads that are interested, CLOSE THEM! A strong company doesn’t complain they ask for more! They are here to do serious business and they need our help to increase their ROI. So get back to work an close those leads!

After receiving a few interesting calls today, I decided to write about it! Are leads another method of driving traffic to your website? Is it cheaper to purchase real time leads than to generate your own?

Many might know this but others might not. Depending on the lead type only a percentage of the traffic that’s redirected to your site will actually fill out the application online. Then you have to consider how many you have to filter out for invalid phone  numbers or bogus contact information.  It could get pretty expensive to generate your own leads. Especially for companies that are not doing a lot of marketing online.

Is it cheaper to buy leads? Depending on the marketplace, it could be!  Let’s face it, in our marketplace for example you can buy leads at great prices. We can POST the leads over to you on a real time basis. Honestly, that doesn’t sound good, it sounds great! Instead of you spending money and filtering out leads let a Lead Gen do the job for you! It’s less time consuming for you and more cost effective to just buy leads.  With the money you save, turn that around and spend on more leads, which will help you close more deals!

Increasing your ROI is an important factor that all lead buyers are looking for.  It makes perfect sense to allow a lead gen that is already generating leads to deliver them to you on a real time exclusive basis. It will also be considerably cheaper than attempting to generate them yourself.  

Just make sure you pick the right marketplace to provide you with real time quality exclusive leads! Not everyone in the industry produces quality so make sure you ask plenty of questions. 

How are your publishers bringing the leads into your marketplace? How do you make sure that, the leads they bring in, are having a reliable source? If you are playing in the lead-gen, these are important issues when it comes to your new publishers or partners joining your marketplace. Unfortunately, many out there are just a middle man, and they don’t really care where the leads are coming from as long as they are making few dollars. Well, the truth is that, following this path will shorten your life span.
By assuring that you are not getting old leads in your system (as new applications), or receiving non-exclusive leads as an exclusive lead, your buyers (end users of leads or other Lead-gen network) will be paying more for the leads, as their ROI will allow them to do so.

As I mentioned last month in the post “Lead Generation – An added value”, the B2B marketers are increasing their budgets for the lead-gen (lead exchange) companies. A survey has been carried out last month by BtoB and the Sales Lead Management Association, and they found out that almost half (45.4%) of the 273 corporate marketers that responded plan to increase their budgets during the Q3 and Q4 of 2008. The increase in budgets seems to reach 20% of their current spent in the lead-gen.

It is going to be seen how these companies will choose between all the lead-gen companies out there (lead exchanges). If the choice is going to target the exchanges capable of producing their own leads, the ones that have built an infrastructure of serious affiliates with a good control of the lead generation process, I can foresee a success for the both parties involved, and a positive effect towards this growing industry.

According to a BtoB magazine survey, nearly half (45.4%) of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on lead-generation programs in the second half of 2008. “The online survey of 273 corporate marketers, conducted in May, also found that of those planning to increase spending the majority (39.4%) plan an increase of 11-20%. Half (49.9%) of marketers say increasing lead-generation activities is their top priority, followed by proving the ROI of marketing expenditures (27.1%).

According to the survey, even though the budgets for lead-gen programs are rising, the biggest obstacles for increasing spend on such programs, the majority of respondents (47.2%) reported, was that they do not have reports to show the ROI for what they are spending. Moreover, 41.8% cited sales management lack of follow-up impeding their ability to show ROI; and 11% said the biggest obstacle was their agency’s not knowing how to prove ROI.”

This is a very interesting survey. We often find that a few simple suggestions to our Lead Buyers in terms of Sales Approach can make all the difference in the world. For many companies, it is not about lead quality, as much as it is about the quality of their Companies Sales Cycle.

According to Joseph Wiesenthal of paidcontent.org, Quinstreet, an online marketer, has acquired Vendorseek, a lead-gen firm. VendorSeek is a B2B lead-gen service targeting such areas as accounting software, payroll services, credit card processing, and other related fields. The company was founded in 2002 by Ken Wisnefski. Wiesenthal reports that he has not learned the size of the deal.

After reading the announcement by Wiesenthal, I was curious about Vendorseek. Nice concept! I would love to show them how to get vendors bidding for the leads. Congrats to all!

We are entitled to desire the best possible product for the lowest price we can pay. It is good for ourselves and it makes sense, at least for a while. This is what everyone wants, better products and services in the quickest time and for the lowest price… we do tend to love these superlatives, aren’t we? Outsourcing our work, get cheaper labor, putting as much as we can in the “hands” of the technology, we do whatever we can so the society can enjoy more the benefits and pay less for it gets. The other side of the coin is that, sometimes, lowering the price it has its consequences – loss in quality. That’s something that can be seen in the lead-gen space as well.
Often we desire the highest quality leads for pennies. Not that we are not entitled to do desire so, but it all comes with it’s advantages and disadvantages. There is for sure an advantage in paying less, but it might end up costing you more, but not until you “waste” your money for couple of months. Setting the wrong expectations when you start a new account with a lead-gen company will definitely not bring you to success. So, one the main recipients in building a long term relationship and a successful campaign is to set the right expectations from the start. The lead sources are always going to be different and you will receive mixed results in the process. It’s the same as when you are going yourself into Adwords, trying to generate mortgage leads (just as an example) that would cost you below $0.60 a click. You will know that if you set that price per click and you have chosen a competitive keyword such as “home refinance”, you will not be getting any traffic to your site, or maybe you have chosen to advertise under a different term, which is not directly targeting your industry, hoping that consumers you will be clicking your ad and will fill out your form (or give you a call). In both instances, you will know from the start that you will not be able to receive 1000 clicks a day, nor to receive a 35% CVR (from click to lead).

Having said that, your choices and the way you are pricing your leads will determine precisely the success of your campaign. Fortunately, Leadpile has been aware of this from the start and we’ve been building a proprietary system that will enable you to choose exactly what you receive, how much and from what source. Depending on your business model, how big your call center is, or the way you use the leads, you can choose the right type of lead from our Lead Exchange.

Either you buy leads from Leadpile, or you buy leads from any other vendor, setting the correct expectations is one of the most important things you can do when you start your campaign.

Leadpile, not only that has created a system that will enable you to create multiple campaigns, choose the exact lead you need and from the best converting source, but it can also provide you with a custom delivery, which will send you the leads right to your server where they can be processed by your scripts in order to manage them accordingly.