Paid leads

[AgileGuy]

Anyone used paid leads? What percentage of leads end up in a sale? Seems like so many dodgy companies out there?

 

[fisicx]

Paid leads for what?

And yes, there are more dodgy dealers than the genuine article.

 

[Michael Loveridge]

Just out of interest I signed up with Bark a couple of years ago - https://www.bark.com/en/gb/ I was very sceptical, but I've been really pleased with the leads, and having kept an accurate record I can confirm I've earned over 20 times the cost of the leads.

Of course, I may have been lucky and/or in a business where it works well, and I don't know if it works as well for others, but on the basis of my experience I'd strongly recommend them. I've also found them very helpful on the odd occasion there's been a problem.

 

[fisicx]

With Bark a lot depends on your business. Many have discovered it didn’t work for them, it just became a money pit.

 

[Mark T Jones]

As above, it depends on both your business and the lead provider.

And, of course, your marketing plan.

My core product is money. Preface that with 'easy' and 80% of businesses quickly become 'leads' - all of which will be meaningless.

Leads for businesses wanting finance to fit out premises will be more focused but, from experience still attract too much dross for my liking.

My marketing plan is about connecting with the people my customers deal with before doing their fit out. For the most part, lead-gen companies disappear quickly when you open that conversation

 

[ctrlbrk]

My marketing plan is about connecting with the people my customers deal with before doing their fit out.

So for a restaurant fit-out (say) you connect with the restaurant owner? Or is it with the restaurant customers??

 

[Mark T Jones]

So for a restaurant fit-out (say) you connect with the restaurant owner? Or is it with the restaurant customers??

Equipment suppliers
Advisors / consultants
Specifiers

 

[Socio South West]

I don't have direct experience in using paid leads, but the reason for that is that pretty much every business I have been involved in has been niche in some way, or doesnt fit well into any of the more normal business classifications. For example, one of the business was in professional photography studio equipment and supplies..... All the directories etc lumped us in a photography classification, and we were forever getting calls asking us to photograph screaming brats.

If your business does fit well into the normal classification structure, then lead generators can work well for you.

 

[UKSBD]

A lot of these things are common sense and getting out of them what you put in.

You get businesses who just set up with these places, check any leads evey couple or 3 days, takes another day to respond, just sends a plain email response and then say this is rubbish.

You also get businesses who have notifications set up, have people who are trained to respond, respond instantly, follow up, push the business name constantly, etc.

 

[Frimley111R]

I have experience paying for leads and my ex-business partner does too. Neither of us would do it again but they can work. Bear in mind you need to be highly specific with your requirements. What is a lead and what isn't?

My SM is full of lead gen companies and I tend to think that if they were that good the entire UK would be awash with business! Lead gen companies would just replace all marketing, but they don't...

 

[ctrlbrk]

Neither of us would do it again but they can work.

This makes suggests that you've found a better alternative to lead generation.

What is it?

TIA

 

[Frimley111R]

For domestic work we use PPC primarily along with some content management 9posting content related to domestic work which helps SEO). For commercial it is mostly SEO.

I don't know quite enough to generate work from social media and need to sit down with someone to get me up and running on this, but not sure who is best to do this with etc. We do FB and LI but that's more because it looks good and people expect it rather than because it generates anything (it doesn't).

 

[ctrlbrk]

We do FB and LI but that's more because it looks good and people expect it rather than because it generates anything (it doesn't).

Doesn't that take resources away from other stuff though?

If it doesn't generate anything for you, what's the business rationale to continue doing it?

 

[Frimley111R]

Not really no. We post pics up on our website and it is a 30 second job to the same in LI and FB. The business rationale is no more than 'because every business is on social media. At least the time it takes is minimal.

I am sure there's a lot more we can do with SM, it's just getting the time to focus on it quite honestly.

 

[Paul Carmen]

B2C social paid lead gen is very industry depend, things that are visual and experience based tend to work well; e.g. food, outdoor adventure etc. LinkedIn and B2B is a whole different, and complex targeting thing.

Although demographic and geo targeting is good on social media, it's a bit like flyer adverting (but much easier to track); e.g. the customer has to be pretty interested in your product/service, at that time, plus your ad has to start out from the noise and the deal/offer needs to be compelling.

This all means conversion rates tend to be much lower than search based PPC or SEO.

 

[mburdett555]

Operating in the cleaning sector, I'm wondering if lowering prices or working within the clients budget is more likely to confirm a sale using leads via Bark?

My average job cost is £60, so assuming £100 / 10 leads, based on their current price, I need at least 2 conversions to actually return on the money spent, and another 3 or 4 conversions to actually make some decent money back from the time spent on the first 2?

Given that some of these leads get a choice of 5+ businesses contacting them, it sounds like I'd need to be more flexible with time and money to stand a chance of booking them on...

 

[Paul Carmen]

Operating in the cleaning sector, I'm wondering if lowering prices or working within the clients budget is more likely to confirm a sale using leads via Bark?

My average job cost is £60, so assuming £100 / 10 leads, based on their current price, I need at least 2 conversions to actually return on the money spent, and another 3 or 4 conversions to actually make some decent money back from the time spent on the first 2?

Given that some of these leads get a choice of 5+ businesses contacting them, it sounds like I'd need to be more flexible with time and money to stand a chance of booking them on...

Bark tends to be a race to the bottom for precisely the reasons you've said; e.g. 6 of you trying to win the business from one client.

Have you ever thought about creating your own marketing plans and targeted advertising based on customer/market research?