What’s next for lead generation?

One of the most important developments for the industry planned for next year is working with the IAB to try to quantify the size of the online lead generation market in the UK. For years, those involved in online lead generation have touted the sector as the fastest growing in online advertising but soon there will be an actual number to refer to. This will help lead generation gain acceptance as a standalone discipline in online marketing and establish CPL as the definitive currency of online lead generation.

The IAB’s Amit Kotecha, commented, “Online Lead Generation is thought to be one of the fastest growing sectors in digital marketing, however an actual figure has never been reported for its size. Next year it will be important to actually measure and create a benchmark to see the value and growth of this channel in the future”.

While this all bubbles along in the background, 2010 will also see some recurring industry themes develop and evolve throughout the year. Probably the most important of these is the whole issue of lead quality. There will be a distinct shift from quantity to quality as the year progresses with the emphasis changing from “we need x thousand leads” to “we need a return on investment of y”.

As part of this, there will be a drive towards premium lead generation. Until now, advertisers have primarily focused on the ‘pile em high and sell em cheap’ end of lead generation with co-registration leading the charge with free sim cards and newsletter sign ups the order of the day. While these methods have been very successful up until now for a lot of companies, advertisers will look to streamline their lead generation efforts and be more targeted and more efficient. Although premium leads are typically more expensive they offer the advertiser the chance to get much closer to a consumer ready to make a purchasing decision about their product or service. Advertisers using call centre fulfilment will increasingly look to these unincentivised lead generation methodologies to drive their customer acquisition.

Over the coming year, lead generation will also become even more technology focused. Technology will have an increasingly important role to play on both lead contactability and convertibility. Already, there are a number of suppliers that are starting to put in place pre-submission validation that can check phone numbers and addresses in real-time to ensure that leads are genuine. As more companies adopt these technologies these validation rules will no doubt start to become industry standard. In terms of lead convertability (the propensity for leads to convert into business), again there are already companies (mainly in the US) that have developed sophisticated lea d scoring systems which can help to determine the likelihood of conversion and allow advertisers to purchase better quality leads.

Transparency will also play a key role in the coming year. In the past, the industry has been plagued by a lack of transparency between supplier and buyer but as the market matures and becomes more competitive the whole process from lead origination to delivery is set to become more transparent. This will be driven by advertisers wanting the highest ROI from their lead buying campaigns and publishers demanding that they are paid fairly for the quality of their traffic.

2010 is set to be an exciting year for the UK online lead generation industry as it finally moves from online marketing’s best kept secret to a fully fledged industry in its own right.

Justin Rees is UK Head of Marketing for LeadPoint, the world’s first online lead exchange marketplace. LeadPoint provides over 3,000 real-time leads a day to over 2,500 customers across a range of verticals. Justin is a regular commentator in the marketing and trade press as well as being part of the IAB’s Online Lead Generation Taskforce.