Lead Generation: Driving the Future of E-Commerce

Russ Pechman

Vice President, Lead Generation Services

LinkShare Corporation

Agenda

Quick backgroundYour role in the chain of actionGenerating quality leadsForm-hostingPay Per Call

Lead Generation is…

“...the creation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business' products or services.”

-Wikipedia

Lead Gen Ad Spend - 2008

$1.7 billion (up 6% Y/Y)

7% of all online ad spendFinancial Services represented 13% of all

online ad spend2nd largest category after retailDrop from 15% in 2007

- IAB/PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 3/09

Where the Action Happens

The Form• Form length and

complexity vs. CPA?• Is the offer right for

your site’s audience?

Post-Form• Follow-up experience

for the customer?• Volume capacity of

Advertiser? Speed of response?

What is Your Role in the Chain?

6

AdvertiserAffiliate

Network, Affiliate, or Advertiser site

Media

Search

Co-registration

Email

Surveys

CPM

What Do Advertisers Want?

LeadsQuality Volume

• More important when closing costs are low

• Follow-up is automated or inexpensive

• Quality = Conversion• More important when

closing costs are high

What is Your Vertical Focus?

Conversion Rate

CPA

$-

$10

$20

$30

$40

$50

$60

$70

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Retail RingTones Auto Insurance Education Debt Service Investment Lending

Conversions CPAs

The Flight to Quality

Advertisers are now reducing the number of lead generation sources, working with fewer partners to obtain higher quality.

Where Do You Fit?

High Quality

Low Expense/High Volume

Low Quality

High Expense/Lower Volume

Search

Co-Registration

Banner/Text Link –

General Site

Form-Hosted

Vertical SiteEmail

Surveys

Sweepstakes/giveaways

Phone Verification

Banner/Text Link –

Targeted Site

11

Quality Can Help Drive Volume

Quality

Higher CPAs

Higher Margins

Media Investment

VolumeLEADS

Filtering & Targeting

Short Forms

• Geo• 1-3 Qualifying

Questions• Route

Prospect

Interactive Creative

• 1-3 Qualifying Questions

• Answers >> direct to deep linked page

Targeted Creative

• Data Feeds• Widgets• Source

targeted landing pages

More on Targeting

Specific URLsNiche ContentNiche Keywords

Communication with Advertisers

Leads generated

What’s closing?

Adjustments:Traffic

Sources

Creative

Keywords

Economics of Form-Hosting

15

Advertiser

Advertiser

Advertiser

• Favorable search engine positioning• Control of conversions• Stability against individual Advertiser

pauses• Multi-lead sale possibilities• Control of quality• Potential to own and re-market

Network

Is Advertiser Brand Important?

When you host forms the Advertiser’s brand is not necessarily relevant

Publishers who host forms are in charge of converting them

Quick: What Advertisers work with Lending Tree?

Ensuring Site Quality and Longevity

Differentiated, focused contentUnique value propositionContinual site updatesTips from other seminars today…

Technology Requirements

Work with a network’s lead management platform

Consider off-the-shelf platforms to manage and distribute leads

AdvertiserScoring

Algorithm/Lead Management

System

Steps for Lead Quality

Behavioral

Data

Demographic

Data

Online FormLead

Verification

Legal and Data Issues

I’m not a lawyer and not attempting to give legal advice. But, as a provider of one of the most used lead capture and tracking platforms, LinkTrust, I have seen lead generation campaigns go through dispute resolutions and negotiations. I came to realize quickly that many of these could have been avoided if both parties had a clearer understanding and better documented agreement.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when capturing consumer information is data security. If you’re capturing sensitive information like social security numbers or credit card information, make sure that you use secured URLs to post the data from your landing page to your lead capture system and from your lead capture system to a buyer. You will know if a URL is secured because it will start out “https://”. It’s easy to secure a URL, One great place to purchase a secure certificate is at GoDaddy.com. Look for their Turbo SSL. It is less expensive because it does not require verification of your business. If your website branding is important, get a standard SSL certificate which can run $100 to $200 per year.

In addition to transmitting sensitive information securely, you must ensure that the information is stored properly in accordance with government and industry standards. This means that if you capture a CC number, that it be stored encrypted in DB that is on a separate network from public accessed web servers. Your lead management platform should take all this into consideration so that you don’t have to worry about being compliant.

Secure URL to post data from a landing pageProper data storageClearly stated privacy policy on siteBrand representationEmail – CAN-SPAM compliance

Call Generation

Promote numbers online or off-lineUnique phone numbers track different

ads, keywords and media typesGet commissioned on calls lasting

minimum duration (30 sec, 60 sec, etc.)Advertisers employ IVRs to filter callersBetter conversion = higher CPAs

Off-line

Online

Dynamic Phone Number Replacement

Pay Per Call Applications

Pay Per Call Interface

ConclusionOnline Lead Gen is still in its early stagesThere is an opportunity to show value

around qualityQuality improvement may comes from

channel and vertical expertise, technology and data analytics

Find available tools to help

Questions?

Thank You

Russ PechmanLinkShare Corporationrpechman@linkshare.comTwitter@rpechman