Performance Lead Marketing: 2012 Top 6 Lead Generation Predictions

1. Mobile Lead Generation - it's not big (yet) but it is clever. Many more performance media opportunities are popping up in a good way rather than those standard annoying in-game/in-app ads that people accidently click on.
2. Content (non-incentive) Lead Generation - When premium isn't enough, non-incentivised will take over, it's a niche space but is the way ahead to achieve high conversion rates which attracts similarly high cost per lead rates. If you could get 90% conversion, how much would you pay?
3. Google does Lead Generation - Not content with promoting their own comparison ads first in travel/mortgage search rankings and buying a UK comparison site, expect their appetite for lead generation revenue to increase.
4. Client in-sourcing Lead Generation - brands are beginning to get serious, realising that buying the leads is only one part of the equation. A performance marketing strategy is required to fuse the right mix of systems, process, know-how and people to ensure long-term ROI which grows their customer base.
5. Lead Nurturing - Wham bam, no thank-you mam! Leads must be cared for, treated with respect and gently encouraged to buy. Put that conversion sledgehammer down and instead test, learn and develop a lead nurturing strategy that suit both your audience and business model within cost per acquisition.
6. CPM Advertising RIP - Its nearly 8 years ago that a certain Charles Morgan (former CEO of Acxiom) announced the death of CPM and that was when he had a UK CPM business doing £10m+!!! The argument for CPM is painfully weak unless you have super premium, context rich inventory and even then it will become a hard sell in the face of advertisers who put performance before brand in the harsh new financial reality of 2012. As the head of a large digital agency recently commented, 'the race over which agency can buy at the lowest CPM is nearly over, as advertisers look to pay on a performance basis.' Inside Facebook itself comments, 'Across the industry, advertisers are moving away from CPM models that do not ensure that consumers are truly seeing their ads. Cost-per-conversion, action or engagement are much more desirable because companies do not have to pay unless an ad is effective.'