The Prospektor - Uncovering Qualified Lead Generation

Google Discovers Cost per Action

This is the 3rd (or perhaps the 4th) time that Google has announced a foray into the CPA business.  Is this a good thing – for the marketer? The firms already in CPA, CPL or CPQ? What about the consumer?

I believe all these constituencies should welcome Google.  First, it is inevitable that marketers will see the ROI benefits – and shift budget – when they can decide to pay for sales, leads or other action.  Google’s presence will accelerate the acceptance of this thinking.  It will also set the pricing standards.  And marketers will gain as click fraud withers.

For Precision Prospects and others that have been in CPL/CPQ, one of the biggest challenges has been finding the people in client companies and agencies who truly embrace the ROI-based thinking.  When Google promotes an idea, everyone needs to pay attention – that will help those of us in niche areas expand our markets.

And for the consumer, Google and others will bring quid pro quo to life.  The more consumers understand that they can trade their valuable information for marketers’ information, the better potential relationships become.  Opting in can become a standard. 

Bring it on, Google…

Resources:
Google's Smart Moves 
MediaPost
by Dave Morgan, Thursday, Mar 22, 2007

FANTASY PROSPECTING

Ah Spring, when one’s fancy turns to thoughts of fantasy… baseball, that is.  I’ve had a fantasy (aka Rotisserie) team for many years.  We were even league champs one year.

If you’ve never played fantasy baseball, it works like this.  You hold a draft to bid on a group of major league players who you think in combination will lead the league in 10 hitting and pitching categories. You’re competing against other teams to select the best mix of players.  The standings depend on how your group of players does in those categories compared to the other teams.

This morning, I was working on my draft lists for the coming season and it occurred to me that the qualified lead development process is pretty much the same thing.  You decide on characteristics of the players you want (screening) to create a winning team (more business).  You bid against the other teams (market share).  You monitor the standings (conversion).

The big difference of course is that “drafting” qualified prospects equals real business growth.  Nice when fantasies become reality…

NCAA and Leads?

We tied it all together in yesterday's Performance Insider entry.  I'll be featured there every few weeks.

Using CPQ to Make That Basket.  In this article you will learn:

• What kind of products and services are best served by qualified leads programs?
• Aren’t CPQ leads expensive?
• How do I know the right questions to ask?
• How do I measure success?

LOL - YAA

No articles in over a week.  Sorry!  The flu gave us all writer's block.  And today's weather (supposed to be 70 in NYC) coupled with Saturday's prediction (snow!) will probably lead to another week of sickness.  Not good.  Well, let's think about something funny instead...

Last week I was introduced to YAA (yet another acronym), CPB (Cost per Buzz).  LOL.  I almost ROFL.  Cost per Buzz?  What the heck?  Here's a link if you want to read about it.  Relates to how much "buzz" your email marketing/campaign generates...  the article was good.  But that's not my point.

So yeah, YAA's.  We do have way too many of them.  Getting to the point that they are making me ROFL.  Since PPI is just as guilty with CPQ, I looked it up.  Here's what I found:

Cost Per Qualified (lead) * Companion Parrot Quarterly * Corrective Patch Quality * Cost of Poor Quality * Closest Pairs Query  * Chinese Painted Quail * Coastal Project Questionnaire

Cost Per Lead? Capillary Pumped Loop *Communist Party of Lithuania *Computer Programming Language * Canine Partners for Life    

So what TLA (three letter acronyms) do you have?  TTYL.