The Cost of Marketing
Are you aware of the true cost of marketing?
Introduction
Marketing is an integral part of any brand, helping them place their products in front of the right people at the right time. As a result it often becomes a huge part of their financial strategy for the year. Whether that be advertising, promotions or PR it is something that every brand must divulge throughout the lifespan on the business
Sometimes seen as an expensive commodity. marketing is invaluable when looking for increased brand awareness and leads whilst placing yourself ahead of the competition within the space. A lot of brands budget their marketing based on leads acquired, this means how many clicks their adverts get, taking them to the appropriate landing page. These leads can come from a variety of sources, which all must be factored into the marketing budget for the year, from PR and advertising to physical events, each varying in cost and effectiveness.
So with all that in mind how much, on average, is a good amount to spend per lead, and how much is too much?
So what is the average cost of a B2B lead, are you overpaying?
The average cost per lead varies greatly by sector, but a recent report from the Integrated Marketing Association has created a useful table highlighting the key sectors. For us at Flytiful within our key sector; financial services, you can expect to pay on average $160 per lead, with $44 being the low end and $272 on the high end. Businesses within IT, computer and technical services on average pay the most per lead at $208 whereas nonprofits typically pay the least on average per lead $31
Does the marketing channel alter this cost?
The same source also informs us that online marketing is cheaper, on average, per lead than physical or traditional methods, with online retargeting and effective SEO coming in at a mere $31, bargain! Whereas more physical events and tradeshows came in at the most expensive at $811 per lead beating out traditional advertising such as TV, Radio and Print, $619.
It must be said that this doesn’t completely rule out events and tradeshows, these are often a great way to network, meeting potential clients and partners. Additionally with the large audience they offer a great opportunity to establish relationships with the media, meeting them face to face allowing you to secure interviews and PR opportunities alongside great organic social media and website content.
Do leads mean customers?
At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking that getting someone to the website or contacting the brand is all you need to do but it’s more than that, on average within the financial services industry only 10% of leads turn in a customer. Therefore it is important to maximise the amount of leads generated through each and every marketing campaign that you run.
Although 10% may not look like much, it’s actually the second highest sector from this report. Only business services having a higher average, coming in with 12%, this is as opposed to non-profit organisations who, even with the lowest cost per lead, only have a 2% conversion rate meaning they have to generate many more leads to make their campaigns worthwhile.
What have we done?
Whilst working with one of our clients, we were tasked with increasing their brand awareness, their credibility in the market and most importantly, generating leads.
To do this we created a detailed whitepaper assessing the consumer behaviours and demands across mediterranean europe, looking at how these differ throughout the countries and what this ultimately means for both merchants and their acquirers. Using a number of experts and freelancers from within the sector we created in-depth insights into the sector and what the future may hold.
We promoted it through a wide variety of means, including; social media, publications and PR newswire. Overall we generated around 12.5k impressions on Twitter, recognition from 10 industry professionals and more than 200 publications we secured over 500 downloads, equating to about £35 ($45) per download, which is ideal.
Closing thoughts
It is important that brands fully understand the meaning of a lead, and how difficult they can be to secure, appreciating the work done by an individual or team of PR & Media professionals. With that being said, however, it is important to realise when leads are more expensive than they need to be, and to stay on top of this brands must work with their marketing team to create regular reports assessing the impact and performance of campaigns to ensure they are working to maximum capacity and achieving the best possible results and leads