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How to Calculate Your Lead Generation Goals

Author: Ciente Editorial Team

Lead-Generation-Goals calculator
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How to Calculate Your Lead Generation Goals

How to Calculate Your Lead Generation Goals

A high lead gen score indicates that your marketing efforts are on point. But how do you get there?

As per Hubspot’s report, 6 out of 10 marketers struggle with lead generation— a huge challenge besetting the tech industry.

But marketing leaders can overcome this pain point by focusing on what gives the best results.

Meeting business goals requires leaders to anticipate a specific number of leads in the sales pipeline. The numbers must be practical, and the expected results should align with your company’s growth strategy. When you are setting the goal, specificity plays an important role. That’s why factoring in lead gen calculations is imperative.  

But before we dive into the calculations, let’s understand two important terms associated with leads.

Important terms associated with leads.

Lead quality:

Focuses on scoring leads based on their likelihood to convert into paying accounts. After all, it’s not just the numbers that matter. It’s also lead quality.

Lead feedback:

This gives you an idea of what the prospects think of your brand and their experience with you. Surveys or feedback forms can provide such information. These details would help improve user experience, making your campaigns more targeted.

Make a difference with a Lead Generation Goal Calculator

A lead goal calculator simplifies narrowing down the precise lead target that should come from your inbound marketing strategy.

It allows the calculation of details like:

Steps to use a lead generation calculator successfully

Set Monthly Revenue Targets:

It begins with identifying the revenue target for every month. You can use spreadsheets for this step to maintain consistency and place all information in the same place. However, remember not to miss updating the spreadsheet if the revenue goals are adjusted.

Calculate the Required Number of Deals:

Once you have a revenue number, you need to determine the number of deals you must close to hit the target. For this, brands can use marketing software to determine the average revenue generated by each customer per region. The next step is to sum up the average sale value on top of the row above each region. The lead generation goal calculator will automatically provide the value of your leads based on the percentage close rates you input in the spreadsheet in step 1.

Define Revenue Attribution Between Sales and Marketing:

Here you need to define the revenue split. This means determining the portion of revenue that comes from sales and the portion that comes from marketing. The number would depend on how your business attracts customers –via inbound or outbound strategies.

Analyze Sales Closing Rates:

This step involves evaluating your sales closing rates, i.e., the percentage of leads that turn into paying customers. Extract the data of the past six months from all marketing channels that you use to generate leads. Assess the information to have an accurate sales closing rate.

Validate All Entered Data for Accuracy:

The last step is to verify all the numbers entered in the previous steps. As you add data, the calculator automatically updates the total revenue for each customer and region. It adds all the numbers to give you an accurate monthly goal. This number generated by the calculator should match the potential revenue generated by each region per month.

This is the basic functioning of a lead generation calculator. Brands can make it more relevant by customization to match your specific requirements. For instance, you can break down revenues to reveal revenue generated per customer instead of per region to achieve more detailed and accurate numbers.

Use Lead Generation Goal Calculator

Lead Generation Goal Calculator

Lead Generation Goal Calculator

Enter the values below to calculate the number of leads required to hit your sales target.

Best practices for lead gen goal calculation

Calculating lead gen goals improves the performance efficiency of a brand’s marketing efforts, increasing the lead conversion rate. These tips and practices will maximize the effectiveness of the process.

Determine your baseline

A baseline is a good starting point for determining your lead gen goal. You must know the current lead volume and lead-to-customer conversion rate. These details provide a solid foundation from which it is easy to start and get up and running.

Understand your target audience to the T

Fulfilling lead gen goals is next to impossible if you don’t ‘get’ your audience and what they need. Parameters like audience size and niche market influence the targets you set. Brands must also consider the unique attributes of the customers that help them set achievable goals.

Evaluate your resources

The time and financial resources you invest will depend on the number of leads you are targeting. The lead gen goal will be a driving factor for budget allocation. If you have the resources planned, it prevents overspending while achieving the goals.

Understand your sales cycle

The length of a sales cycle largely influences lead-gen goals. And without keeping this in mind, the goals you set could be impractical, throwing off your lead gen efforts. For instance, if the sales cycle is long, it may take time to generate the desired number of leads. That’s why it’s important to fine-tune the goals as per the sales cycle.

Summing up

The sales teams pursue leads to drive more revenue for the brand. But keeping track of the goals could seem impossible. The lead gen goal calculator is a tool that helps businesses of all sizes to identify goals. This can be coupled with budget planning to ensure your resources are not exhausted. The tool is precise in its calculation, allowing you to focus on specific solutions and seamlessly measure sales performance efficiency. However, it doesn’t end with calculating lead generation goals. It’s pivotal to nurture leads to enhance the overall ROI generation.

It's Time to Bust Prevalent Marketing Misconceptions
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It’s Time to Bust Prevalent Marketing Misconceptions

It’s Time to Bust Prevalent Marketing Misconceptions

Businesses often underplay marketing’s role. It’s time to unravel the unspoken myths and spotlight the reality.

Marketing has always been thought of as a creative field. But by alluding to it merely as a creative space, we often forsake its technicalities and the value it brings. Fair to say, it all depends on the perspective.

Marketing is neither easy nor a one-way street in today’s buying dynamics. The level of complexity it involves can even unnerve industry experts.

For instance, a CMO might understand marketing’s role differently than a CEO. Even its external functionalities are perceived differently from the minute internal operations. Often perceived as a means to build a brand, it’s also the wheel driving an organization’s revenue.

Even being a marketer itself is not just a mundane task. It requires market knowledge and expertise of the entire customer lifecycle journey, systems, and understanding of broader business objectives. The human aspect, i.e., the team possesses such elaborate skills – one cannot highlight any single facet.

From curating strategies, outlining ICPs, and understanding stakeholders’ vision to identifying gaps, implementing campaigns, and measuring performance – marketing entails it all. The intangible definition of marketing to its tangible characteristics is dynamic and ever-transforming.

At the crux, it’s a complex landscape to define.

Marketing is technical but also experimental. It assumes tangible and intangible elements of a business. And its stunted understanding can influence the direction of an organization. Because marketing plays a pivotal role in market expansion and without full awareness of its significance, the business can take a huge plunge into the ocean. And get lost in the market noise to lose its footing.

To ensure this doesn’t happen, brands need to question their misconceptions regarding marketing. This includes stakeholders’ and other decision-maker’s misbeliefs with respect to how marketing can maximize their profitability.

Without debunking common myths concerning marketing, how does one develop effective strategies?

Unraveling Marketing Myths, Decision-makers Hold

Marketing misconceptions can prove detrimental to small businesses and start-ups. There are common misperceptions high-level executives hold that influence and create bias in their decision-making process.

And when the upper management doesn’t hold accurate information, how can the team develop the right strategies? This is a conundrum. But there’s a solution to this – break apart these fallacies and spotlight the correct stance.

Marketing is More Than Ads

Marketing is rainbows (multicolor designs) and sunshine (catchy one-liners).

Yes, marketing is indeed a creative endeavor. It consists of advertising campaigns with bright colors and catchy one-liners. But what about the uninteresting parts?

The final content might be engaging and compelling, but the process is extensive. It requires hours of research and several drafts before the final product comes through. Let’s admit that even designing and content writing might entail significant moments where the process is fun.

There’s an entirely different side – developing campaigns, strategizing, and report-making that are part-and-parcel of repetitive tasks one finds tasking. But, these facets of marketing are what drive the steering wheel to ensure actual numerical outcomes.

The other side of the story plays out differently. It attributes PR and advertising as significant aspects of marketing. However, the truth is quite different.

PR and advertising are entirely different elements of marketing. PR helps maintain and build relationships, and advertising is construed to influence prospect decisions. These are before and after – what about the middle?

This area is also what marketing takes care of. It’s more than about ads, especially traditional means and methods. The focus is actually brand building and understanding what could be the most effective ways to increase the performance of multiple marketing channels.

Long-term trust and loyalty link a brand and its clients. And marketing works as the bridge. From discovery to client support, maintaining a consistent flow of revenue takes more than traditional advertising.

Small businesses and start-ups don’t need marketing teams.

Small businesses might rely on regular customers. Consider cafes – many local cafes depend on regular coffee drinkers for consistent revenue. It’s something we are all aware of.

But this isn’t the case all the time. Different industrial domains hold varied demands – the expectations are widely different. Imagine a tech start-up. The market continuously witnesses the rise of new businesses, and it’s easy to get lost amidst all the noise.

Marketing can be a key resource to change this. It helps expand efficiently and retain a strong customer base.

Word-of-mouth marketing can only help businesses to an extent, especially in close-knit circles. It can displace the clients’ attention to another brand if a better product enters the market. New competition can get ahead of the race at any given time.

However, marketing strategies can offer a consistent means to reduce customer churn rates and expand seamlessly into new territories. Moreover, it’s challenging to forge partnerships without a proper marketing plan.

And in the long run, it may halt or disrupt the brand expansion, subtracting its recognition and reputation in the existing and new markets. It might become exhausting for small businesses, but with the ideal help, marketing can bring modest value to the brand, helping it grow gradually.

Marketing strategies only work on new buyers, not existing ones.

Having regular customers doesn’t mean they won’t pack up their interests and gravitate towards a brand with appealing offerings. That’s why the priority is establishing customer loyalty.

Remarketing to existing clients is a crucial step in marketing that most businesses skip. But it shouldn’t be the case.

Cross-selling and up-selling to existing customers helps retain them for a long time. Because once they have bought from a brand, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any doubts and challenges later on. Remarketing to them helps address their pain points and allows the brand to be on top of their mind.

These are why lifetime loyalty and retention are crucial for businesses to thrive.

Customer’s loyalty towards a brand should match the businesses’ trust in their regular ones. Not attending consistently to the clients can prove detrimental to the company, damaging the market-wide reputation.

When word-of-mouth marketing works wonders, it may affect the brand negatively, also making them lose out on new clients.

The cornerstone here is that retaining clients is not easy. So, it’s crucial to note that marketing efforts shouldn’t merely hope to engage new buyers but also continue targeting existing ones.

Social media doesn’t work for the brand or it’s everything for them.

See, social media is comparatively a new channel for marketing. Traditional methodologies didn’t consider this a major part of their functionalities. But with growing digitization, it’s necessary to sway a little to where the wind blows – to find a delicate balance between keeping up with the trends and finding what fits the brand.

Social media has become an effective and affordable tool for marketers to remain in the rat race. They leverage the consumer’s thirst for snackable and scrollable content by offering them compelling content and ads.

These are the platforms where the customers are most likely to notice the brands.

The diversity in social media users is also transforming. Beforehand, younger generations were more active, but numerous adults have also started using Instagram and Facebook. These are people who earn and have decision-making capabilities.

They are also a principal part of the consumer market, offering brands an advantage – a new audience segment to target and increase their customer base.

It can be resourceful for businesses with a meticulously planned strategy. But just because it’s been gaining traction and entails millions of users doesn’t mean brands should saturate their budgets into just one channel. It might not offer them returns as significantly as they think.

Social media with the right balance can function as a tool for marketing and advertising alongside its own embedded shoppable features.

Good quality products and services can sell themselves. Who requires marketing, right?

This misconception is rampant in the market.

It’s not a complex notion to debunk and also quite self-explanatory. Yes, the brand entails high-quality offerings and a positive buyer experience.

But what if no one knows about it?

Moreover, imagine there is excessive competition, and with access to advanced tech, how difficult is it to come up with solutions of comparable value? With the right resources and time, it’s possible. Not as if the products or services can become the talk of the town by leveraging marketing, but they grab significant attention to make the market realize – Oh hey, I’m new here and would like to make acquaintance with what I have to offer.

There are so many layers that marketing adds to the brand’s perception that it narrows down the prospective buyer’s vision to believe – this solution is curated only with them in mind. This adds a significant edge to businesses that might seem small against the industry giants.

Marketing is a catalyst. It creates awareness regarding the brand’s existence and attracts the right audience to kickstart the revenue wheel. Beyond this, it also highlights the crucial details – from what the brand does to how the solutions can help the prospect.

These steps are unskippable if one of the key objectives is to grow consistently and expand into new markets.

Traditional tools entail no influence in modern marketing.

Marketing, traditionally, is understood as a means to grab attention. And the conventional marketing tactics kept this in focus. Even if this is what most believe in, it’s false.

While modern marketing has unearthed several more complexities and dynamic buyer behaviors, traditional marketing tools still play a pivotal role.

Leveraging traditional marketing channels is a holistic approach. While automation and AI might take the front seat today, TV, radio, and newspapers still hold space in targeting a particular demographic. Or the local audience.

Technically, development and execution decide a lot of things here.

Marketers also believe that email marketing is dead. But to be frank, it’s in between traditional and digital roadways. It plays a significant part in personalizing communication with new and existing buyers. Meanwhile, it also adds a dash of sophistication and professionalism to the entire process.

On the other hand, even the radio is not dead. Podcasts can be said to be the new radio. While podcast advertising does indulge loyal listeners, radio targets the general audience. It actually boosted the reach by penetrating diverse audience segments.

The reality is marketers still leverage these channels and continue to seek effective results.

There are multiple and varying faces to marketing.

Marketing is not just one thing. For different individuals and industrial domains, it can heed varied faces. For a buyer, the perspective might differ compared to a seller. And even within the organization, marketing might mean something different to the CMO and the CEO.

While market conditioning can instill biases into decision-makers, marketers, and prospective buyers, it’s important to never negate its vitality. It’s the first and foremost rule.

Once a marketing team is hired and attributed responsibilities, they develop and execute strategies. If this leads to significant profitability, then who’s to say marketing is faux?

The answer is present within the numbers itself.

Preconceived notions can only harm the brand itself and stunt its growth. But understanding marketing will debunk this thinking.

And there’s more to learn. Especially with the emerging tech-changing society, marketing has also been majorly impacted. It will keep on morphing into something one doesn’t understand.

Rather than consuming misleading conceptions and assuming aspects of marketing, it’s necessary to take a step ahead and educate ourselves. Investigate the minute details and underline the truth.

Mapping Micro conversions for Seamless Lead Generation Website
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Micro Conversion Ideas for Lead Generation

Micro Conversion Ideas for Lead Generation

Predicting the buyer’s next step has become paramount for marketers. And tech has granted them their wish – measurable buyer digital breadcrumbs.

Focusing on each potential buyer’s attribute is necessary. Yes, the buyer journey is not as simple to track and is quite complex, but watching a prospect’s every minute step can add momentum to a brand’s conversion rates.

Every form of engagement is crucial. Negating any of them, say, clicking on a link or watching product videos, can cost the brand a potential customer.

Actions such as lead submissions or completed purchases are always under a marketer’s eye – ready to be tracked. These contribute directly to the revenue stream, affect the KPIs, or influence overarching business objectives.

On the contrary, there are particular actions the prospect undertakes that are often not considered as important – micro conversions. They are intermediate and should be mapped as the first significant step toward a potential purchase. Micro-conversions, as the name states, are minute and don’t necessarily affect the revenue stream. But there is potential here which should not be missed out on.

Tracking micro-conversions involves considering a user’s engagement journey and progression. This could comprise signing up for a newsletter, clicking on a particular link, or spending a specific amount of time on a landing page. These actions carry the essence of their interest; even if it’s not substantial, there remains a glimmer.

This is the purpose behind considering micro-conversions during lead generation. They carry the minute possibility of being nurtured and converted because fires can also be lit through merely a spark.

Micro-conversions: digital breadcrumbs to know your buyer.

While macro-conversions are paramount, micro-conversions offer a better understanding of the prospective buyer. Significant actions undertaken during the buyer journey offer glimpses into their actions, helping marketers better understand why and when users move forward during the conversion process.

It is easier to pinpoint different influences and identify the ones that lead to frequent drop-offs.

In other words, micro-conversions are significant for conversion-rate optimization. But not all conversions are of equal measure – macro and micro – as detailed above. The significance of both these forms of engagement varies, but today’s marketers say it shouldn’t.

With lead generation being one of the most complex and long marketing processes, seamless lead engagement is a requirement. So, while most brands cut down on unnecessary steps, maybe it’s time to add another – highlighting and detailing user interest.

Types of Micro-Conversion

Micro-conversions are of the following types –

Website-based micro conversion:

Website engagements are widely understood as the first touchpoint of a buyer’s journey. This can include clicking on a banner ad, signing up for a newsletter, downloading whitepapers, filling out a form, or spending time on pricing or service pages.

However small this interaction might be, it shows the level of intent the prospect holds – at least at a stage where they are still doubtful of their choice. The brand’s website could be engaging enough to attract prospects or have different but personalized offerings compared to the competition.

Content-centric:

Videos – At times, browsing multiple pages of text might not be as effective as watching a short video. The latter states that the user wants to listen to what the brand says rather than skimming through random words. It’s quite a compelling and interactive content type that resonates key information and showcases the brand’s personality.

Provided the world is hooked on snackable content, video has become the key to attracting user interest and concretizing their attention in stone.

Remember Jaguar and the conversation surrounding their first-ever campaign offering a sneak peek into their rebranding efforts? At a time when attention is deficit, it’s all that marketers want from the prospects. What’s better than curating a high-quality video campaign?

Downloads – The next step of content-centric intent is downloading. Most prospects barely spend time on a landing page, let alone fill out a form and download resources. So, if they do so, it highlights a relatively higher level of interest.

Why? Frankly, they are ready to spend a few minutes filling out the form and providing the brand with their contact details for further nurturing.

They wish to seek the brand’s opinion on a particular topic and understand their approach, thus indirectly instituting that brand as one they trust. This micro-conversion step exemplifies that these resources are valuable to the user and align with their needs.

Social media – How much of our daily routine also involves scrolling through social media platforms? Frankly, quite a lot. When users find content interesting enough to share on social media, maybe the brand is doing something right.

If prospective clients share the content on their social media, they find it authentic and compelling enough to tell their audience. It’s not an easy feat to develop highly eye-catching content that is also informative and original enough.

But marketing is all about experimentation and adding real value, right? Tracking micro-conversions such as these helps brands find the right balance.

Testimonials and UGC:

These are integral parts of social proofs centering around a brand – from reviews to social media following. It is a sign of trust and credibility for the brand, which enhances its reputation and customer experiences.

People rely on others – this is how word-of-mouth marketing held significance for a long time. Potential buyers in the current market depend on online product reviews and testimonials to gauge whether a brand is the right fit for them. The same goes for user-generated content.

However, a social media following is a bit different. When someone follows a brand, it showcases a steadfast interest and the need to keep up. Consider a scenario – a user follows Apple on Instagram after consistently buying new iPhone models for a decade. As a frequent user of Apple products, the user also wants to keep up with recent upgrades in their old models or new products that might interest him.

It adds to a positive brand image – the brand’s products or marketing tactics were able to convert a one-time buyer into a loyal customer.

While previously, marketers and decision-makers only cared about the bottom line, modern marketing has derailed them. It’s never been easy to convert a prospect, but with diverse tech advancements in tow, marketers aim to do more with less.

However, tech advancements are not available to everyone or every business. Small businesses cannot afford to waste resources on new-age tools, not knowing whether they will reap benefits or a significant ROI.

Why is it crucial to measure micro-conversions?

This is a huge hiccup for them, but what is the most effective road here? – Tracking the metrics at hand. The trivial actions taken by the prospective buyers have become quite resourceful tools for small businesses to leverage.

Both micro and macro-conversions are part of the parcel. They don’t exist in isolation from each other. Instead, it’s much simpler to say that the micro-actions lead to macro-conversions.

Micro-conversations include website visits, translate to growing interest, and result in a purchase or a drop-off. The final stage, after tracking a micro-conversation, heavily depends on the marketing efforts.

The bridge to a successful sale is not easy, even if the prospect illustrates 0.1% interest in the brand. It requires consistent nurturing and follow-ups to bear fruits. And micro-conversions offer a direction onto the facets that enable a positive buyer journey – understanding the audience.

When marketing and sales build a conversion funnel, there are several aspects to consider, but two of them remain the priority – possible friction/pain points and influences. These are addressed through personalized campaigns that directly engage the prospect.

Tailoring the approach again depends on the insights derived from the micro-conversions.

It’s all about the small interactions that keep the prospects engaged. These interactions elevate the chances of conversion and foster a positive progression down the sales funnel.

Micro-conversions map out the entire buyer journey – whether intentionally or unintentionally. These trivial actions undertaken by prospective buyers pinpoint the exact time during which they illustrated the maximum interest.

How does it add substance to macro-conversion-centric marketing strategies?

Gauging this can help marketers enhance their strategies around that specific action and time. This is one of the reasons why it’s at the wheel of conversion rate optimization. With the correct map, the insights derived from tracking the micro-conversions will provide accurate data to refine the guidance through the funnel.

The result? Enhanced user engagement and a positive experience, leading to a long-lasting relationship with the client. Thus, mapping how the browser interacts with the brand content is significant for communicating with them.

Yes, this is quite a repetitive stance, but it does not adequately illustrate its necessities.

Sometimes, users require a nudge to make the right decisions. They might download the eGuides and engage with the weekly newsletter, but this doesn’t reach the consultation stage. Why?

Even the little bouts of hesitation can deter the prospect and make them drop off from the funnel. Micro-conversions also identify the reasons for this. By addressing the challenges customers face in continuing their journey, marketing can smoothen the friction by removing the bottlenecks.

Lead generation should be intuitive rather than follow a single rule. For example, if the users’ watch time for the product video is too short, then a follow-up email can assist in retrieving their attention.

Now that we have outlined a brief explanation of micro-conversions and why they are vital to track, mapping out how to measure them is the succeeding step.

How can brands effectively track micro-conversions?

The primary step toward measuring micro-conversions is setting up the goals – SMART ones at that. SMART goals allude to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely (time-bound). Outlining these objectives locates how the results from tracking micro-converters align with the brand objectives.

The next step is pinpointing the micro-conversion stage the team wants to highlight. This distinguishes the different forms of engagement undertaken by users to define the criteria for micro-conversions.

After these initial stages, track the micro-conversions according to user segmentation – browser behavior and demographics. It assists in pattern and trend identification to derive informed insights into why a buyer might be considering a purchase. Segmenting the audience will allow marketers to set specific micro-goals based on each user. Because data insights carry vital weight in helping the brand understand who their potential buyer is/could be.

However, tracking micro-conversions is not the end road – test the waters. It highlights the areas of improvement and their effectiveness, helping to understand the differences between high and low-converting channels. This is executed through meticulous A/B testing strategies where one landing page might be experimented against another to gauge which translates to high conversion rates.

A/B testing also works seamlessly to test varied CTA positioning to improve the website experience.

Outline attainable goals => Identify the micro-conversion stage to track => Set individual goals based on audience segments => Testing alternatives for improvement.

These steps are necessary for businesses that wish to enhance their digital presence – from improvements in UX designs to landing pages. Micro-conversions help tailor the approaches for a more comprehensive user journey, especially one that boosts their conversion potential and significantly lowers the drop-off rates.

But how can a brand ensure the strategies they follow reaps benefits for them?

Most strategies do not work as guidelines and should be agile enough for brands to adopt. However, some generic best practices executed by marketing agencies can still help study the buyer progression and negate any friction in the sales funnel – leveraging micro-conversions.

What are the best practices to effectively translate micro-conversions into purchases?

Optimize user journey:

A brand’s website is the first touchpoint – the primary focus should be the UX design for linear movement. Rather than confusing the browsers, they should be able to find the right content at the right time. To do so, a clear CTA should be designed to help users progress across different landing pages and reach the required resources.

The brand website should be accessible and engaging across all available devices. This fosters a positive customer experience, enabling them to make a purchasing decision.

Personalization:

Investing in content marketing can do wonders for an organization, especially small businesses. User segmentation can effortlessly help leverage accurate data to customize brand solutions. Once the solutions and content are tailored, it is easier to boost engagement by increasing content relevancy.

When the solutions appeal and offer value to prospective buyers, it increases their inclination towards a profitable decision. The more dynamic the content strategy, the easier it is to craft messages that fit diverse user requirements in real-time.

Social proof building:

Building a strong social proof presence builds trust and credibility for the brand. It is crucial to encourage clients to leave reviews to construct a presence and a positive reputation in the market.

Especially social proofs, such as Google reviews, help instill a trustworthy factor in the brand and attract the right audience. But it’s not one-sided. When a brand engages with customers as they leave reviews and comments, it illustrates they are ready to learn from their mistakes. And entail space for improvements and upgrades.

Micro-conversions are all about the buyer experience.

With complexities and similar products rampant in the market, it’s difficult to understand what buyers want. Buyer behavior is consistently changing, and modern marketing techniques disrupt a consistent flow in the buyer journey.

This is a loop. With buyer behaviors, market dynamics also transform to equip them, and buyers make decisions differently than one might imagine – never linear but an enclosed circle.

To make this to-and-fro easier, marketers have leveraged micro-conversions and optimized their strategies. This works in real time. When users have little interaction, marketers can rehash individual steps rather than change the entire plan.

Overall, micro-conversions define a buyer’s journey, and the derived data outlines their experience. The journey has to be smooth to reach the destination safely.

In simple words, measuring micro-conversions is all about killing multiple birds with one stone, compared to focusing on a single one.

Agentic AI Human like Bots or Virtual Caregivers website
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Agentic AI: human-like tools or the birth of free-thinking machines?

Agentic AI: human-like tools or the birth of free-thinking machines?

The dawn of a tech-centric era is upon us. Every day is a recurring dream, but amidst the mundane hassles, AI has become one of the few discerning aspects.

But now, it’s metamorphosing into our day-to-day sustenance. With AI transformations keeping the conversation fresh and relevant, it has become our blinding light.

According to the leading research firm Fortune Business Insights, The global AI data center market size was valued at USD 12.95 billion in 2023. The market is projected to grow from USD 15.13 billion in 2024 to USD 94.03 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 25.7% during the forecast period.

Each day is just another opportunity to ask ourselves – what does AI have to offer in the long term? Do we actually trust it? Such questions can put tech enthusiasts in peril.

In line with the newest AI conversation in the market, the answer to this question has come to involve – Agentic AI. While you might have heard it thrown around, it’s not simply part of the tech jargon. This next step in AI innovation could drastically transform how machines and humans interact and communicate.

There’s one theme that has been consistent across the human-machine conversations – control. It’s ambitious for mankind to want control but, at the same time, forsake it all together. While humans wish to retain it, they want to relieve the decision-making chunk of it.

At large, it’s about minimizing the effort and gaining control over how much comfort we obtain.

So, we have reiterated AI as our partners instead of our tools. Where generative AI is reactive – it responds to prompts from an external stimulus – a human input; the new AI is said to be autonomous.

Was there a need for another upgrade?

Noticeably, the very first wave of AI was all about predicting – from customer behavior to forecasting market trends. Users wanted to know how to make smarter decisions instead of letting machines make them for us. The next wave carried with it – conversation and content creation.

Generative AI or AI agents lack autonomy as well as require context to function. Their decision-making is largely dependent on inputs given by humans. This is quite a one-sided interaction.

For example, consider how AI agents function as virtual helpers. They are constructed to help us with automated and repetitive tasks without a single instance to think for themselves.

After the advent of AI, we continue to overflow with uncertainty. There is a rupture to repair. The solution to this was handing over the decision-making capabilities to the machine and allowing it space to adapt.

Quite human-like, isn’t it? These functions come naturally to us; they are built into our genetics. And that’s what happened with the next transformation in AI.

The third and the current AI wave gave birth to agentic AI.

To unhand humans of complex tasks at the workplace, we could turn towards human-like instruments. Reasoning was always the determinant, but prediction and suggestive responses were the course for the initial waves of AI.

These assistants were rule-based and couldn’t adapt or act beyond the human-fed environment. How is the third wave different?

Enver Cetin, an AI expert at a global experience engineering firm – Ciklum, describes Agentic AI by defining its proactiveness. The system understands the objective of the user and the context without significant push from prompts or codes. Their priority is decision-making rather than content creation.

Another significant differentiating factor is their ability to carry out complex data sequences – from searching different databases to triggering workflows. The complex Agentic AI system is built to undertake complicated tasks with the minimum human help – from boosting sales to elevating supply chain efficiency.

But, because an autonomous machine is a complex build in itself, its system functions on an amalgamation of intricate machine learning algorithms, automation software, and NLPs. This has instigated a pivotal role for Agentic AI in the space of marketing.

It can make decisions that align with an organization’s business and brand value. Its practicality is still quite experimental, but one can only imagine the road it might take in the near future.

Where will Agentic AI end up?

In marketing, specifically, it can improve customer service by grasping their intent in a short amount of time. The customer service bots can obtain emotional responses from the customer and resolve queries based on the same. They learn from each interaction and respond accordingly.

Unique, right?

Agentic AI has transformed the age-old human versus machine debate.

From pitting one’s efficiency against the other to forming a collaborative relationship, a lot has shifted.

This innovation in AI facilitates independent action. The role of an AI model has shifted from a helper to a collaborator, with a significant amount of back-and-forth dialoguing because the need is not for another assistant that takes the commands and executes them as outlined but for a partner that takes the workload off of humans.

The simple logic?

To humanize machines to the extent where effortless automation of machines synergistically finds a balance with the human capability to think unchaperoned. Without overlapping and overshadowing the space both hold in this fast-paced society, tech wants to anchor onto each of its strengths.

The objective is to deter from the instinctive characteristics of machines and solidify their individuality – one where they make autonomous decisions. Agentic AI has the capability to process a vast amount of data, underline patterns, and derive accurate insights – ones more reliable than humans can.

They possess self-optimization capabilities in real-time in the event of fluctuations. Agentic AI can assess situations and take the most ideal course of action.

The era of this tech advancement has opened up possibilities for engineers and scientists who dreamt of this moment since the time of automation – for machines to act independently.

Glancing into a window of limitless possibilities – the future of Agentic AI.

This has instigated another discussion surrounding the limitless possibilities of AI and whether it can co-exist with humans. But techies aren’t ready to give up. The introduction of Agentic AI has transformed human-machine partnerships by fostering trustworthiness in AI and workforce specialization.

The job market is brutal, and it’s not as if humans lack specific skills, but there is a gap. Agentic AI has the power to change this. It can be behind the scenes to outline work for other agents. This form of trust across workspaces is crucial.

Generative AI has offered hallucinations and inventions out of thin air in the name of information, but Agentic AI offers the possibility to accomplish actual tasks. It has better abilities to sift through the cob-web of data and highlight reliable information to a user.

In other words, Agentic AI can work and think (close but not actually) like humans and better than its counterparts.

The promise of innovation that fosters effortlessness and convenience could be human’s downfall. It can be the bane as well as the boon. It’s too soon to derive particular conclusions because the Agentic AI system is relatively in the pilot stage. But if we could provide one single comment on its future direction, we would say – its golden future is carefully embedded within the cracks that AI automation couldn’t penetrate

White Label PPC Services: Guide
Blogs

White Label PPC Services: Guide

White Label PPC Services: Guide

PPC campaigns have the ability to boost the return on investment. But how can B2B brands leverage white label services to increase conversions?

Many brands prefer pay-per-click (PPC) ads because they allow precise targeting, generating high-value leads. It’s an effective route for accelerating the sales cycle while controlling the advertising budget and measuring results using suitable analytics. Some of the best platforms for PPC include Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Ads.

However, the B2B sales cycles are often long, so these ad campaigns may not be able to generate results immediately. Also, companies may lack adequate resources to set up an in-house team, train them, etc. That’s why zeroing in on white-label PPC services is the best bet. They are cost-efficient and give you the profit from the ads you publish.

White label PPC agents are typically third-party partner providers of PPC services for clients on behalf of a brand. Here, the term “white label” implies that an agency providing the service to a brand’s customers or prospects- is never revealed. The business model benefits both parties, allowing clients to focus on their core business objectives and processes while outsourcing white label PPC management.

With these services, brands can seamlessly purchase, rebrand, and resell advertising services as their own, without the need to invest in additional resources or personnel. It also becomes easier to deliver a focused approach to expanding offerings and client base.

The clients pay brands for the services. Keeping a portion aside, the remaining amount can be paid to the white-label agency. The process is completed as per your branding, communications, and standards.

When is White Label PPC a viable option?

White-label PPC agencies offer expert services without the need to hire in-house specialists. It’s a good opportunity to expand services and client base. These predominantly include campaign setups, keyword research, ad copywriting, bid management, and detailed analytics reporting.

White label PPC services are well suited for businesses of all sizes to purchase, allowing them to purchase from an established PPC white label reseller and sell as their own. Then, the service provider manages the entire campaign with the right tools. They also create custom monthly reports and dashboards with your company’s logo.

Transparency and evidence of results are crucial for driving performance and client satisfaction. Clients want to know that their investments produce tangible business outcomes, such as increased phone calls, store visits, and, ultimately, positive ROI. Delivering branded reports and illustrating the value of PPC ads allows companies to acquire white label clients, strengthen client relationships, and foster trust.

Key benefits of White Label PPC services

White label PPC services provide many benefits, including improving SEO rankings. Offering these services allows companies or agencies to resell PPC ads within their budget, streamline operations, and focus on other priorities. And all this can happen while ensuring that top-notch services are delivered to derive the desired outcomes. As a result, there is a spike in customer satisfaction and retention rate.

Let’s understand in-depth the strengths of white label PPC agencies that will benefit your brand:

1. Expertise

White-label PPC agents bring rich experience and specialized knowledge to the table. Such expertise improves campaign performance across different platforms like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and so on. Brands can benefit from their comprehensive understanding of the PPC landscape, increasing the ROI cycle. Entrusting PPC management white label to these specialists allows them to use core competencies while delivering high-quality services.

2. Scalability

With white label PPC services, brands can offer scalable solutions to expand offerings swiftly without incurring substantial costs. Whether there has been a sudden influx of new clients or scaling up, the agency experts help adapt to the change. The scalability feature is handy for rapid expansion as it provides the necessary expertise at no additional charge.

3. Cost-efficient

Outsourcing for PPC services saves costs for recruitment, training, and maintaining in-house teams. Their pricing models for such services differ among providers but may include fixed fees or percentage-based pricing based on ad spend. This offers companies the flexibility to select a cost-effective solution that fits with a budget plan. The best part is it also enables the delivery of high-quality results.

4. Personalized Branding

Consistency is important in maintaining a strong brand image among the audience. White label PPC service providers present solutions under your brand name, ensuring a cohesive customer experience. These experts adhere to the consistent brand voice that further enhances reputation.

Pricing models

When hiring white label PPC experts, there is no perfect pricing model that fits all brands. The ideal price model will depend on the business objectives, model, and what aligns with the budget.

Here’s a range of pricing models for brands to choose from:

a) Fixed fee

Some white-label agencies prefer to follow a fixed-price model, which cannot be negotiated. These fee services are straightforward and reduce the conflict of interest between the spend and the company.

b) Commission-based

Although this pricing model exists, it is not the most commonly presented option. The probable reason could be that while white-label PPC services attract targeted traffic to a sales page, the final lead conversion depends on various factors. These include: web design, online reputation, and page speed.

c) Percentage of ad spend

The plus point of this method is it scales as spending grows so brands can earn more with the growing investment. Usually, clients will only increase their ad spend if your services align with their pain points. When going with this pricing model, it’s best to choose the budgeted ad spend instead of the actual one. Billing in advance allows the white label PPC service providers to optimize the campaigns with relevant metrics.

d) Commission-based

Commission-based White Label pricing models exist, but often, they’re not the most optimal choice. The reason is that although White Label PPC services can guide targeted traffic to a client’s sales page, the final conversion relies on various factors like web design, brand reputation, reviews, etc. which are beyond the scope of this process.

e) Hybrid

These models, as the name suggests, combine both fixed fees plus a percentage of the ad spend. As the fixed fee expands, the ad percentage also grows.

There is another version of the hybrid model— to bundle pay-per-click management with other services. For example, you may decide to club SEO services valued at $1,500 a month with PPC services that cost $2,500 a month, for a bundle deal of both. This can be of value to the client.

How to choose the right partner for White label PPC

Selecting a white label PPC agency requires considering a couple of factors. Look into their certifications, qualifications, and relevant experience. Incorporate any alliances and accreditations they may have such as a partnership with advertising platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.

Another factor to consider when choosing a white label PPC agency is its pricing structure. Opting for adjustable pricing plans enables clients to synchronize their budgets with advertising spend, providing a higher return on investment. By selecting an agency with flexible pricing options, you can ensure clients receive the best possible value for their advertising dollars.

When searching for a white-label PPC provider, consider their experience, pricing structure, communication style, and ability to deliver results. Use this checklist as a roadmap:

Criteria for Provider Selection

Begin the process by shortlisting potential providers based on industry experience, client testimonials, and case studies. Before finalizing, brands must evaluate if the agencies have previously managed campaigns for similar businesses.

Service quality

Make sure the provider you go ahead with offers high-quality services. You can derive data about their previous campaigns, feedback, and optimization techniques. It’s also advisable to request sample reports to understand how they conduct performance tracking.

Customization capabilities

Among the many options available, select the white label PPC partner that offers customization based on specific needs and customer preferences. This feature will help you deliver consistency while maintaining your brand’s voice and style.

Transparency

This feature is a must-have when it comes to communication and understanding the reporting style of the partner. For instance, if they are hiding details like hidden charges, you must drop those options. The white label PPC provider you select should give a clear picture of the campaign performance, budgeting, and ROI metrics without hidden charges.

Customer Support

If a provider has reliable customer support, that’s a bonus. It is essential for resolving issues promptly and efficiently. Brands must verify a provider’s responsiveness and availability by researching potential client reviews and their history.

Latest tools and tech

Research to decipher whether the white label PPC service provider implements any advanced tools. These can help with data analytics and click fraud protection.

When integrating PPC management, adopt a strategic approach. These white label services help you experience better scalability while saving costs. With planning, white label PPC can be a complete game-changer for your brand. However, since there is no one-size-fits-all-all, you must identify what works best for your situation.

White Label PPC Agencies: The Top 7 Picks

In the highly competitive digital marketing landscape, brands must consider hiring the best white label PPC agencies to combat the pressure of delivering the desired results. Here’s our list of top-notch white label PPC providers.

ROI Minds

ROI Minds is a leading white label PPC agency renowned for its supreme data-driven strategies. Its commitment to delivering outstanding results is a major differentiating factor. With ROI Minds, brands can receive assistance in managing paid ads. It can give returns of up to 10 times the initial investment. They provide comprehensive services as a premier choice to empower brands and enhance sales cycles and ROIs. Brands can choose among ROI Minds’ comprehensive services like ROI-focused PPC campaigns, social ads, SEO, native ads, content marketing, and social media marketing.

DashClicks

DashClicks is next on the list offering flexible, results-driven services. They are easy to use and can be applied with SEO, social media, and web development. It’s great even for small businesses to convert leads faster, generate more revenue, and improve reputation, all in a single platform. The best feature is they offer regular A/B testing, precise tracking, and effective funnel-based media campaigns. DashClicks offers weekly maintenance to allow enough time for those changes to affect the campaign. These have several satisfied clients globally so you can rely on their efficiency. Brands can benefit the most from DashClicks by using it to create custom dashboards to work on customers’ requirements.  

Oxedent

Regarding white label PPC agencies, Oxedent is a good choice to help with your Google Ads campaigns. It integrates digital oxygen, allowing brands to thrive with a high ROI and conversion rate on ad spend. Since PPC is the exclusive service Oxedent provides, its expertise lies in fulfilling the advertising criteria and delivering a high ROI. They are also efficient with market and competition research, conversion calculations and optimization, and more. Typically, their PPC specialists assist in launching successful ad campaigns to drive more visitors to your website.  

That!Company

This service provider does more than generate reports. They are experts in delivering top-notch customer service. That!Company agency works with you to understand the requirements and challenges. This allows them to follow a focused approach to managing the ad campaigns.

Digital Hawk

Digital Hawk is renowned for its efficiency and market knowledge. They help brands improve ROI generation with regular monitoring, testing, and keyword testing. Digital Hawk’s outstanding services attract customers from all around the world seeking help. The best part about hiring this white label PPC provider is they are open to working with your monthly budget and business goals. Digital Hawk strives to understand your objectives and create the best strategies for ad campaigns.

Vendasta

Vendasta is a leading platform for channel partners to provide digital solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs. They have an AI model, that helps to seamlessly create scalable sales and marketing experiences—from managing reviews and social content to converting website visitors into leads. This agency connects businesses with the vendors of products and services and the trusted experts that implement them. Vendasta presents an end-to-end e-commerce platform to stimulate local economies by democratizing technology for small companies.

Veza Digital

What makes Veza Digital a solid choice is that they prioritize collaboration to create custom services. They follow a comprehensive model comprising a series of services including content planning, creation, and marketing on various platforms. With Veza Digital, you can implement the best social media practices, ensuring campaigns align with the specific audience. Their white label social media marketing campaigns are designed for delivering the right message to the right message.

Summing up

White label PPC services are a gateway for brands to offer expert PPC management without hiring in-house specialists. Outsourcing this expertise allows you to deliver high-quality results, improving business outcomes. All this is accomplished while focusing on what you do best.

As revenues grow and companies strive for a competitive advantage, teaming up with a white label PPC partner could be a wise decision to level up the advertising. Not only does this offer a golden opportunity to increase the ROI but also improves client retention.

At Ciente, we provide custom white label PPC services. We help through everything, from account setup and relevant keyword research to writing a compelling ad copy and optimizing it for the best results.

B2B-SaaS-Marketing
Blogs

Rethink: B2B SaaS Marketing Principles

Rethink: B2B SaaS Marketing Principles

The SaaS market is in quite a conundrum. The old playbooks aren’t working, and while it can be chalked up to the amount of content in the market, it is more than that.

The industry is facing a brand-new problem: the oversaturation of data points and an overreliance on that data. While the B2B SaaS train chugs on, is it time to rethink the marketing principles?

The SaaS marketing playbook is outdated.

Jon Miller, the co-founder of Marketo, was a pioneer in the SaaS field. Most of the common principles that the marketing world takes for granted today were perfected by him if not outright created. And he says something known for quite some time: the old playbooks and methods of SaaS marketing will not work.

If that’s a surprise to anyone, it’s time to take note of it. But what’s not working about the old playbooks? It’s the over-reliance on measurable and linear tactics. Many in marketing believe that what is working today will continue to work tomorrow.

But, historically, that hasn’t been true. From the days of Salesforce, SaaS marketing has been a disruptor. Humans crave novel experiences that help them reinforce something about themselves.

It is a very personal endeavor that speaks to our tribality. Marketing is evolving—or rather, it’s returning to its original form: forming communities around solutions and identifying markers of trust.

The marketing principles should be based on today’s culture.

Tribes and Communities

Brand building is a form of identification. But why is this brand-building necessary in the first place? First, it is to distinguish and differentiate. Apple is not Samsung. Trello is not Asana.

Second, it is to build trust. Asana has something Trello doesn’t, and vice versa. But why would someone choose one over the other? That begins by identifying with the mission and what that mission brings to the table.

Think of your own experiences. Maybe it’s a finance or marketing solution that solved your pain point—you will defend that solution. You will tell people why this solution is the best because it makes you feel heard and improves your life.

When it comes to SaaS, this identification is vital—it will keep the buyer asking for more. Anecdotally, many marketing teams have preferences for what tools they use. Maybe it’s Slack for communication (amazing community-building by them, by the way), Notion for brainstorming and writing, or even the Pomodoro timer for getting into the zone. And they swear by it.

It is in our nature to defend the things that help us—if nothing else, for the ease of it all.

Marketing teams must understand that while generating MQLs is a priority, marketing is evolving into a more organic way of communication between two parties: the customer and the vendor.

Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is something all marketers have done and continue to do daily:

  1. Addressing their ICP’s pain points
  2. Creating a campaign
  3. Working around the budget
  4. Brainstorming unique ways of reaching the audience
  5. Crafting subject lines for emails
  6. Writing unique content for blogs
  7. Composing copy that speaks to the buyer
  8. Directing the journey
  9. And so on

The foremost marketing principle is realizing that every marketer, at their core, is a strategic problem solver. And while neither strategy nor problem-solving is measurable, their impact can be. The process requires deep reflection and thinking in novel ways.

This comes from experimentation and patience—two abstract concepts that might be drifting further away in our “always-on” world.

The Attention Economy

In this “always-on” world, attention is a resource that cannot be overlooked. But that doesn’t mean bombarding prospects with indefinite messages.

Attention can be gained through creativity.

But that may not seem actionable enough to some. What does being creative mean? While it involves thinking in novel ways, many creatives start by connecting two different ideas.

Think of handwritten notes and the B2B SaaS industry. Wouldn’t that get your attention? Of course, which is why there’s a B2B company that does it: https://www.scribeless.co/.

B2C industries have it easier—human connection and impulse buying are at the forefront, and a more casual approach often works. However, gaining the attention of the SaaS buying committee can sound daunting. Every decision they make has to lead somewhere. The cost must justify what it does.

Luckily, in the workplace, leaders and even employees are looking for solutions that can ease their work. From the boom in AI-powered virtual assistants, it is evident that we want tools that save time. The challenge lies in finding the correct channels and identifying stakeholders for attention-grabbing ABM campaigns.

The marketing principle viable for the modern B2B buyer’s journey

Customer-centricity will drive the future. With an increase in automation, the need for thoughtful messages will keep increasing.

Content, marketing experiences, and everything in between serve two purposes:

  1. To build trust
  2. And eventually turn prospects into paying customers

But the buyer’s journey has evolved. Its non-linearity and long buying cycles point to the problem of having too many solutions in the market. Your competitors have the same tech stacks and the same information as you.

So, what can you do when everything else seems stacked against you?

Well, there are two ways:

  1. CMOs must lean heavily into storytelling and create an identity for the SaaS product.
  2. Get to know the buyer like you would your closest friend, and reach them in empathetic ways.

Trust your SaaS product and articulate what it does. The buyer is no longer someone who doesn’t understand the implications of tech. Tell them what it does, and do it consistently. Promise them a frictionless life and deliver on that promise.

Once you do that, you’ll realize every marketing principle says: connect, attract, and retain.