Lead Generation Statistics

Not too long ago, I dove into some of our copious data from the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report to figure out where marketers get their customers. So I thought it’d be a good idea to back up a little bit and look at not just where customers come from — but where leads come from. After all, that’s where it all starts, right?

Lead Generation & Budget by Mode of Business

leadsource

Notable Findings:

  • B2B companies get twice as many leads from telemarketing than B2C companies do (8% versus 4%).
  • B2C companies get 3X more leads than B2B companies do through traditional advertising (9% versus 4%).
  • The best three lead sources for B2B companies are SEO (14%), email marketing, (13%), and social media (12%).
  • The best three lead sources for B2C companies are social media (17%), SEO (16%), and email marketing (15%).
  • The worst three lead sources for B2B companies are traditional advertising (3%), PPC (6%), and direct mail (6%).
  • The worst three lead sources for B2C companies are telemarketing (3%), trade shows (6%), and PPC (6%).

leadsource2

Notable Findings:

  • B2B companies are allocating 12% of their budget to trade shows but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.
  • B2B companies are getting 14% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 12% of their budget to that source.
  • B2B companies are allocating 8% of their budget to PPC but only getting 6% of their leads from that source.
  • B2C companies are getting 15% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 13% of their budget to that source.
  • B2C companies are allocating 13% of their budget to traditional advertising but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Company Size

leadsourcegraph3

Notable Findings:

  • With direct mail, trade shows, telemarketing, and traditional advertising, the bigger the company, the more likely they are to get leads from the aforementioned tactics.
  • Small companies are more than twice as likely to get leads from social media than large companies (18% versus 7%).
  • Large companies are almost three times as likely to get leads from traditional advertising than small companies (11% versus 4%).

graph-4-leads

Notable Findings:

  • 9% of small business leads are from blogging, and they are allocating 12% of their budget toward this lead source.
  • 15% of leads from medium-sized companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 12% of their budget to this source.
  • 12% of leads from large companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 9% of their budget towards this source. 11% of their leads are from traditional advertising, but they are allocating 15% of their budget to this lead source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Industry

graph-5-leads

Notable Findings:

  • The Nonprofit/Edu space and the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services industry get more leads through direct mail than their counterparts — 13% and 11%, respectively.
  • The Technology (Hardware) industry gets at least double the number of leads (24%) through trade shows compared to the other industries represented.
  • Marketing agencies get the most leads from blogging compared to the other industries.
  • The Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry gets 19% of its leads from social media, the most when compared to the other industries surveyed.
  • The Technology (Software) industry gets 16% of its leads from SEO, the leader with respect to the other industries surveyed.

graph-6-leads

Notable Findings:

  • In the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services sphere, only 6% of leads come from PPC, but they are still allocating 9% of their lead generation budget toward this lead source.
  • Marketing agencies are allocating 14% of their lead generation budget toward blogging.
  • In the Nonprofit/Edu space, only 11% of leads come from traditional advertising, but they are still allocating 16% of their budget toward this source.
  • In the PR/Communications/Media sphere, only 4% of leads come from PPC, but they’re allocating 7% of their lead generation money toward this source.
  • In the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry, 10% of leads come from traditional advertising, and they are allocating 14% of their budget toward this source.
  • In the Technology (Hardware) space, 16% of leads come from email marketing, and 12% of their budget goes toward this source.
  • In the Technology (Software) industry, 13% of leads come from trade shows, and they are putting 17% of their budget toward this source.

Lead Generation & Budget by Location

leads-graph-7

Notable Findings:

  • U.S. companies get more leads than international companies for the following sources: trade shows, email marketing, and social media.
  • International companies get more leads than U.S. companies for the following sources: direct mail, blogs, SEO, PPC, and traditional advertising.

lead-graph-8

Notable Findings:

  • International companies get 6% of their leads from PPC but are still allocating 9% of their budget towards this lead source.
  • U.S. companies get 13% of their leads from SEO but are only allocating 10% of their budget toward this source.

Average Cost per Lead Benchmark Data

demographic-table

Notable Findings:

  • B2B companies have a significantly higher cost per lead ($43) in comparison to B2C companies ($15).
  • Medium companies have the lowest cost per lead ($19) in comparison to small ($31) and large ($38) companies.
  • Marketing agencies have the highest cost per lead ($58) whereas the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry has the lowest cost per lead ($6).
  • U.S. companies have the highest cost per lead ($40); LATAM has the lowest cost per lead ($15).

Travis Piepho is a founding partner at Prospectr Marketing. Prospectr Marketing is a premier lead generation company focused on providing demand generation from start to finish for its clients on a performance-based model.