Why can a cheap lead be expensive?
The example is simple: thirty enquiries may produce only three conversations with people who fit the offer. Ten more expensive enquiries might instead lead to several concrete quotes. There is no universal price for a good contact; margin, customer value and the chance of closing matter. It is worth distinguishing someone who wants to buy from someone who clicked an ad by accident or seeks something the business does not offer. The ad platform cannot know that difference unless you pass on information from later stages.
What data should you collect beyond forms?
At a minimum, record the enquiry source, conversation topic, fit with the offer, whether a proposal was sent and the sales outcome. For a service business, the approximate project value and reason for rejection are useful too. You do not need a large CRM from day one. A consistent spreadsheet with a few fields completed by the person handling the enquiry is enough to start. It lets you compare campaign reports with what really happens after a call or message. The data must be simple enough for people to actually enter it.
How do you assess the last ten contacts?
Take the ten most recent ad enquiries and give each a simple category: valuable, irrelevant or no contact made with the customer. For valuable enquiries, check how many led to a proposal and a sale. For irrelevant ones, look for a common cause: poorly chosen keywords, messaging that is too broad, or missing price or terms on the website. For contacts you could not reach, check callback time and the number of attempts. This small sample is not a final verdict on the channel, but it often reveals a specific problem to fix.
When should you change a campaign, and when the sales process?
If ads attract people outside the market, improve targeting, messaging and the landing page. If contacts are relevant but the response comes days later, campaign optimisation alone will not solve it. Sometimes a business has good traffic but no clear way to qualify and guide conversations. Marketing and sales should share information: what questions are asked, which promises in the ad are unclear and why a customer walks away. Otherwise you optimise the number of submissions instead of the chance of revenue.
What belongs in a monthly report?
Alongside spend and contact volume, show the number of qualified enquiries, proposals and customers. If the sales cycle is long, do not assign the whole outcome to the month when a form was submitted. Record the stages and return to older groups of contacts. That gives decisions about increasing the budget a stronger basis. Clicks and cost per form are still useful, but they help diagnose the route to the goal; they should not pretend to be the goal themselves.
In a consultation, we can review your activities and decide on the next steps.
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