B2B Lead Generation Analytics: Measuring What Matters

Marketing managers at every organization spend a lot of time crafting the perfect marketing strategies for their organization. 

Although they spend a lot of time coming up with lead gen strategies, organizations almost always spend little to no time analyzing those efforts to see if they're actually working. And that’s where lead generation analytics comes in. It helps to: 

• Spend less time on lead management
• Build a predictable lead generation strategy
• Automate your leads

In this article, we’ll discuss what is lead generation analytics and why it's so important to incorporate a seamless lead generation strategy. We’ve also added effective lead-generation analytics techniques to help you get started. 

Why does Lead Generation Analytics Matter?

You have a solid lead generation strategy in place and generating leads constantly; that's fantastic. But it doesn't end there. It's not just about the quantity of leads you're getting; it's about the quality. That's where lead generation analysis is crucial.

By delving into lead analytics, you're uncovering a goldmine of insights. Here's why it matters:

1. Identifying Roadblocks: Lead generation analytics helps you identify any roadblocks in turning leads into paying clients. Lead analysis can reveal the steps that are not working.
2. Channeling Your Efforts: Not all marketing channels generate an equal number of leads. By digging into lead generation analytics data, you'll discover which platforms are performing best in acquiring leads.
3. Sales Feedback Loop: An effective lead generation strategy focuses on acquiring high-quality leads (based on the ICP and buyer personas). Analytics can give you vital feedback on lead quality and improve the performance of your sales team.
4. ROI in Focus: The ultimate goal of lead gen is to increase the ROI. You can measure the effectiveness of your current campaigns and rectify your approach for maximum ROI with lead-generation analytics.
5. Future-Proofing Strategy: By analyzing lead analytics, you can understand market trends and industry sentiments which helps you create future campaigns and strategies based on the findings.

Remember, it's not just about the number of leads—it's about nurturing the right ones. 

Proven B2B Lead Generation Analytics Techniques in 2024 

1. Analyze Why Acquired Leads Were Rejected

As B2B sales directly impact a company’s revenue generation and involve multiple decision-makers, not every lead turns into a paying client. Leads can diverge from the buyer's journey at various points in the marketing funnel, or the sales team might turn them away. Surprisingly, this is a positive outcome. Rejecting low-quality leads creates space for more qualified ones.

This rejection process involves carefully documenting the reasons for closing leads in a company's CRM. You can categorize lead rejection into distinct criteria:

• Already a Client: When the lead is an existing client.
• Already Has a Solution: When the lead is committed to a competitor's solution.
• Not in Target Audience: When the lead falls outside the target demographic, such as B2C companies or students.
• Incorrect Information: When the lead's details are invalid or inaccurate.
• Can't Be Contacted: When the lead remains unresponsive for an extended period.
• Has No Immediate Plans: When the lead has no imminent intention of making a purchase.

Sales teams diligently specify the primary reason for closing a lead in the CRM. Analyzing these reasons offers valuable insights for refining your inbound marketing strategy and enhancing overall performance.

For instance, 

• If a significant number of leads don't align with your target audience, it's time to revisit your messaging and explore alternative lead-generation channels. 
• If a large number of your leads already have a solution in hand, you may have to refine your target audience.
• If a considerable number of leads isn't planning an immediate purchase, reconsider who your primary audience should be.

2. Fine-tuning Your Lead Scoring Metrics

Lead scoring, the process of evaluating leads based on their potential value is like giving each lead a grade. A lead showing strong interest and a likelihood to make a purchase might earn a high score, while a website visitor who just signed up for your newsletter might get a lower one.

While tools like CRMs and lead-gathering software often come with default algorithms for this, it's essential to remember that your business fit might be different from other businesses. Take a close look at the metrics your lead scoring tool employs. Are they hitting the mark? Do they align with your current business objectives? If not, don't hesitate to adjust them.

3. Analyze Recently Closed Deals

To understand the true potential of your lead generation strategies, examine the recently closed deals. This step provides valuable insights into what's already proven effective in your sales and marketing funnel. Consider the following aspects when conducting your analysis:

• Entry Point: Determine where these leads first entered your funnel.
• Engagement Level: Assess how engaged they were with your content or offerings.
• Specific Interactions: Did they read a particular blog post, download a lead magnet, or request a demo?
• Industry and Growth Stage: Identify any commonalities in the industries they belong to and their stage of growth.
• Acquisition Source: Pinpoint the sources that brought them into your ecosystem.
• Time on Page: Gauge how much time they spent engaging with your content.
• Early-Funnel Conversions: Track initial interactions like downloads or webinar attendance.
• Company Size: Note the sizes of the companies associated with these successful leads.
• Location and Demographics: Consider geographical location and other demographic details.

By understanding these characteristics, you'll uncover which lead-generation efforts yield the best results. This knowledge helps you focus your resources on channels that lead to actual closed deals, ensuring maximum efficiency in your lead generation strategy.

4. Comparing MQLs and SQLs: Are Your Teams Aligned?

Taking a close look at Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) is essential to turn your lead generation efforts into new client acquisition. Here's what to focus on:

• MQL to SQL Conversion Rate: How many MQLs progress to become SQLs?
• Lead-to-Close Ratio: What's the ratio of leads converted into actual sales?

If the conversion rate is low, or if leads aren't closing as expected, it's a sign to reassess team alignment. Dive deeper into your sales pipeline and dissect it by marketing tactic. Look into:

• Total MQL Volume by Channel/Tactic: How many leads are generated from each source?
• Sales Qualified Lead Volume: How many leads meet your universal qualification standards?
• Percentage of SQLs per Marketing Channel: Determined by the above numbers.
• Cost per MQL: What's the investment per lead?
• Targeted Buyer Persona: Who are you reaching out to?

Ask for feedback from the sales team (and your customer success and customer support team) on lead generation campaign performance. Identify which leads work best for them. You may find out that there are a few specific tactics that help close deals, some might take more effort from the SDRs, whereas, some might convert with low effort. For instance, inbound web leads might be more seamless compared to leads from a content marketing syndication vendor.

5. Automate Your Lead Generation Efforts

In B2B lead generation analytics, it is crucial to keep track of the right metrics. Your business type, target audience, and market niche all influence which metrics matter most. For instance, a B2B SaaS company focuses on churn rate, which is not a relevant metric for B2C eCommerce.

Manually tracking lead generation analytics, from conversion rates to acquisition costs, can be overwhelming. To save time and ensure accuracy, consider automating data collection. This not only eases the process but also provides quick insights for smarter decision-making.

Here's how automation can elevate your lead generation game:

• Streamline data gathering for overall traffic, revenue, and conversion rates.
• Automate the normalization of diverse data points for meaningful analysis.
• Utilize complementary data to pinpoint the most effective channels and campaigns.
• Optimize for key KPIs like lead volume, qualified lead percentage per channel, and closed leads percentage per channel.

By harnessing automation, you'll not only enhance your lead generation capabilities but also bolster your collaboration with the sales team, backed by solid data-driven reasoning.

Conclusion

An effective lead generation strategy requires continuous tracking, analyzing, and optimization. If a lead generation campaign is bringing the desired result, it is more important to analyze the implemented strategy to make it more effective. This way, you can generate more sales-qualified leads, nurture them effectively, and drive conversions faster.
We’d recommend you implement data collection and lead management automation to make lead generation analytics tracking and optimization more effective.