Ever wonder what search engine terms are used the most? I know I do, and search terms also tell a little bit about what is going on in the world around us. According to dmconfidential, eBay gets the award for the top terms (eBay and eBay.com)in the month of August. People trying to find bargains, or sell items they have I would say is partially responsible for this. Home depot was the next highest term used, followed by mapquest. The shopping/office supplies category received 43.15% of all paid search traffic. The fortunate thing is that this is an 8% increase from July’s 39.81%. Maybe people are staying home and doing more of their shopping online to try and get the best deal, without driving store to store. Business telecommunications and pharmaceutical & medical traffic was slightly up. However, travel and business/legal traffic was down for the month of August.
Another interesting fact, yet not surprising, is that Google accounted for 71% of all US searches in the month of August. In a distant second place was Yahoo with 18.26% followed by MSN (5.32%) and Ask (3.45%).
To truly be effective with lead generation, knowing this kind of information and detailed information about the verticals you are promoting is key to being successful. For instance, someone who is doing PPC for payday loan will loose a lot of money if they are not first aware of everything there is to know about payday loans, and also if they do not understand search engines.
Here at Leadpile, I am going to do everything I can to help publishers know what buyers are maybe looking for in a particular lead type. This helps with how the traffic is driven to the website and ultimately helps with conversions and payouts. Communication with your affiliate manager or account manger is key to running a successful lead generation campaign.

Publishers are spending a lot of money on PPC campaigns through Google AdWords.  Have you ever researched the cost of producing a real time quality lead? Depending on the vertical, it can get really expensive, especially if you are looking for quality and genuine interest.

Capturing a name, number, email, address, best time to call, can get really expensive. If you want to target geographically, by zip or state, it will increase your price and lower the amount of traffic you are getting. A lead can be really inexpensive, if you are just capturing email address, and you incentivize it, but if you are looking to attract customers that are genuinely interested in your service, its not going to be .20 cents or .50 cents, it will be way more expensive. You can expect prices as these if you are looking for lists, but why would you do that when you have the Yellow Pages and costs you nothing. You can definitely get leads for such a price, but those will be leads that are generated from the yellow pages, or aged data (lists) of consumers that showed an interest in your service years ago.  So what is the price for a good, real time, exclusive leads? It depends, it can be very expensive, depending how competitive is your vertical.  You will get what you are paying for. In other words, you are going to be happy with the return on your investment (ROI).

Advertisers have to consider that publishers or lead exchanges are eating the cost of any leads that are invalid.  Paying anywhere between .25 to $1.50 per click, or even $15, does not guarantee a conversion. Even if we get a conversion, it will not necessarily mean that you, as a buyer, will accept the lead. If you are a Debt Settlement buyer, you might want only want $15,000 and above in Unsecured Debt, which will significantly increase the price to produce that lead. 

Lead exchanges welcome advertisers to join the marketplace to HOST their offers. Paying the right price for the lead, working with the lead exchange to optimize your campaign and filter the lead sources, will ensure a successful campaign for you, as a buyer, and for the Lead Exchange and its publishers. 

Think of it this way, lets say you need to travel to a different state.  Would you rather rent a bike or a car? By renting a bike, you will save money on gas and get in a better shape If you are concerned about the time you need to get to your destination, this will not work too well for you, and renting a car might be more suited for you. Time is money, and we all know it very well.

Make great choices and you will see more money coming into your business! Buy quality, real time exclusive leads, and you can be assured that Leadpile will be on your side from start to end! Pay the price that they are worth and you will get the satisfaction that you are searching for!

Leadpile’s Motto: “Good is the Enemy of Great!” – Jim Collins, Good to Great

The Text Messages (SMS) have been always an interesting and productive way to generate leads or more business, including Branding awareness. 

We knew about it, test it with our Offers, and our Publishers are doing it as well, but we never seen such results as we are seeing in the last month. The MicroClick Ads and the Microsites are some of the favorites when it comes to our Publishers using text messaging to promote the offers. 

Just to have an idea of the efficiency, please check out the following numbers: 

The number of Impressions represent the number of people reaching the website from a text message. Out of everyone that have seen the site, almost 73% clicked on the form and 55% of them completed it – reached the confirmation page. 

The EPM isn’t too bad either, with $1,437.57 for one thousand of impressions. The highest we’ve seen ranges between $2,500 and $3,200, but that’s more from targeted traffic, new customer base (PPC traffic). 

The rule of success is to be creative and test new ways to build your customer base, offering quality and good service to consumers. Nothing is “Impossible” and things can be done in a very effective way without loosing the quality. 

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!

As you may know, I’ve written a few recent articles about the economy.  Today I heard a new marketing technique that sneaky gas stations are doing. 

Apparently, a few gas stations attract the public by promoting a lesser price per gas.  However, with the price of gas increase this year, gas stations are aware that most consumers are paying with their credit cards, considering it takes a lot more money to fill up.  Did you know that some gas stations are charging extra when using a credit card? Doesn’t surprise me one bit! For example, if you use a Visa you might have an increase of 2%.  So as an example, if you thought you were paying $4.11 you would actually be charged $4.19.  Hey, that .08 cent difference starts adding up, also consider the monthly fee your credit card is charging on top of that.  Pretty expensive gas, I must say.

How to prevent this well, make sure that one, you check that the price match up on the screen when you swipe your card, and secondly check your receipt.  This sounds tricky but it certainly real.  Many gas stations lure the consumer that are paying with cash  to come inside, instead of the little window.  Many gas stations have a mini mart with yummy treats.  Yes, I know each time I walk in I don’t only pay for gas but I grab a few goodies on the way as well, I’m sure I’m not the only one.  But its a marketing technique.  

How does this reflect a lead exchange?  It’s related in an awkward way.  We already know that a large number of consumers are in some serious credit card debt, well with the gas stations new marketing techniques this will increase consumers debt.  Meaning, more consumers will be seeking help online to clear their unsecured debt.  In addition, it reflects how marketing is not only done online, but everywhere you go.  Driving a consumer in, will get them to spend.  With our lead exchange we don’t mislead our prospects.   The consumers are driven to our websites through extensive PPC campaigns and they are knowingly submitting a request to be contacted for a specific service.

I must admit, this was news to me when I first learned that some gas stations charge higher prices for gas when paying with a credit card. 

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.

Lead buyers – reallocating their advertising budgets from PPC into the lead-gen… because it works. 

You can have your money spent on PPC and try to compete with the big budget companies over the first 10 or 15 placements, or you can choose a lead-gen company that will send you the leads you desire for a lower price. If you will start working with a Lead-gen company, ask them if they produce their own leads. The value and power of a lead-gen company resides in its knowledge of generating their own leads and the ability to increase their CVR while improving the lead quality.

Spending less for a quality lead it’s just one of the advantages of choosing to work with a lead-gen company. Another tremendous advantage will be the option you have in filtering your leads. A Debt Settlement company, for example, can filter your leads by the consumer’s debt amount, or a mortgage company can filter the leads by LTV, loan amount and even credit score. If you choose to advertise on the paid search, the same lead could cost you 3 times or more, and unfortunately, you will also be paying for leads you can’t use. 

Why a lead-gen company can deliver you the same quality leads for a lower price than producing the leads yourself? It’s all about the supply. The webmasters are choosing working with a network or a lead exchange due to the fact that they have a higher acceptance rate for their leads. This brings to the Lead Exchange a larger supply of leads for the buyers (advertisers) and more money for the sellers (publishers). 

Leadpile, producing leads in over 30 verticals for the last 7 years, has improved constantly the process from a click to a complete application, resulting in an increased CVR and a lower price per acquisition for its buyers. We wouldn’t be here if our work wouldn’t have been valuable, considering that Leadpile had no outside funds and the Lead Exchange was built entirely on the profit from producing its own leads.

Since we opened up the Lead Exchange, our publishers can use the same technology that makes the lead-gen a better alternative to the traditional affiliate networks. Instead of crowding their pages with banners, they choose to place a form on their site that will give them an instant access to the entire network of buyers. 

The lead-gen space its just in its infancy, and it’s here to stay.