10 Top Challenges That Plague Performance Marketers

There are many unique challenges that performance marketers face regularly. Here are 10 of the top challenges plaguing performance marketers that we most often encounter when helping our customers.

1. Improving Speed-to-Lead Optimization

You know that many studies have shown that leads called within five minutes are significantly more likely to convert than leads that aren’t. But, even if your reps call and reach your leads as soon as you receive them, that doesn’t always ensure that you are reaching those consumers in less than five minutes.

How do you know exactly when the consumer actually submitted the lead to the lead creator? How can you be certain that a period of time hasn’t already passed between when the creator captured the lead and when it landed in your funnel? Without visibility into the true age of your leads when they arrive in your funnel, you can’t really be confident that you are contacting them within five minutes.

2. Lead and Consumer Duplication Issues

Buying the same lead event twice costs a lot of money and doesn’t add to the bottom line. Dupe filters have helped alleviate this issue in the industry significantly.

However, dupe filters based on contact information alone can result in rejecting some leads that actually should be accepted and worked. For example, if a lead is new, but it’s coming from an email address you already have from a prior lead it could be a highly-engaged consumer and should be worked as one who is potentially raising her hand again and saying she is interested. Traditional dupe filters do not tell the difference between the same exact lead event and engaged consumers who may be showing more intent by filling out multiple inquiries.

However, not filtering at all can result in wasting time and money working leads that have already been addressed. Figuring out how to tell the difference without wasting time and money is incredibly frustrating for performance marketers.

3. Finding Engaged Users

How do you find your most engaged users? Consumers who spend more time (but not too much time) reviewing their options and spending quality time filling out the form are more engaged in their purchasing journey and are often more informed buyers.

If you could definitively determine how long consumers spent engaged in filling out their lead forms, you would have a solid signal of their buying intent.

4. Identifying Your Competitive Position

Data shows that leads convert more highly for the first organization to receive and work the lead. But, can you be sure you are receiving your leads in real-time and are the first to receive and work leads from your lead sellers? If you aren’t first to receive leads, do you at least know you are getting them just seconds after your competitors?

If you knew conclusively how many other lead buyers already received a lead before you, you could route your leads appropriately, work with your providers to get leads first, alter call strategy or messaging if not first, and manage your relationships with your providers to ensure that they are adhering to contract agreements.

5. Effectively Monitoring Lead Sources

Many organizations spend significant dollars with compliance companies to ensure that they know how their brand is being represented online. But, how can you be sure your leads are coming from approved generators and sites? How can you be sure that they’re not coming from low quality sources, sources that don’t meet your brand guidelines or compliance standards, or from websites you don’t know at all.

Many brands have no way to ensure where exactly their leads are being generated.

6. Inefficient Lead Buying

Buying leads efficiently is critical to avoid overspending and to maintaining the best relationships with your providers. But how can you tell how much distance there is between you and the creator of the lead? How can you conclusively determine whether your leads are being provided directly from the source or are aggregated?

If you are buying leads through a partner that were actually created by someone you already have a direct relationship with, you are likely spending extra money on needless mark-ups. It’s important to have a clear view into your leads and your consumers’ purchasing journey to be able to determine whether or not this is happening to you.

7. Gaining Insight into Consumers’ In-Market Status

Knowing which consumers are most interested in buying a particular service is critical to informing the treatment of your leads. By understanding which of your consumers have been actively searching for a product or service before you received a lead, you can focus resources on the most valuable leads, which have the clearest signals of purchase intent.

If you had insight into when a consumer has been in-market previously—for example, providing an email address in a lead form— you would have a signal indicating how in-market that consumer is. If you could know things like how many times he has been searching online with the same device, you’d have another signal of that consumer’s purchasing journey.

8. Inability to Manage Lead Origin

Do you know exactly where or how your leads are generated? When buying leads, if you had a way to know how they were generated, you could confirm whether or not you are getting the types of leads you expect from your providers. Having the visibility to know if leads were generated in a call center or generated directly by the consumer on a website would enable you to know your providers are adhering to the agreements you have in place. Most importantly, you’d know that you are paying the right amount of money for the right types of leads.

Additionally, this type of insight into the origin of your leads would help you identify areas of added compliance risk, as call centers representing your brand bring a different level of risk, and having the ability to identify when you are unknowingly working with a call center would allow you manage this.

9. Absence of Proactive Compliance

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a thorn in the side of any organization that is dialing consumers. Every dial is a roll of the dice in regards to TCPA, without real-time assurance that each consumer provided the express prior written consent required to safely make that call. A TCPA lawsuit can be costly both monetarily and also to your brand image. Not to mention that you ultimately don’t want to dial customers who don’t want to be called, which will also damage your brand image.

If you had insight into whether or not each lead provided that consent, you could make proactive decisions in real time about the optimal way to treat your leads (auto-dial, manual dial, email only campaign or reject.) If you could verify whether or not a consumer saw the appropriate disclosure and provided consent, you could can manage your risk exposure when determining contact strategies.

10. Lack of Persuasive Evidence

In the unfortunate event of a TCPA complaint, you need persuasive evidence that the appropriate disclosure was seen by the consumer and consent was provided. This is an area that many performance marketers foolishly overlook or underestimate, assuming that a screenshot and some site details are enough to dismiss a consumer complaint.

Without truly persuasive evidence, your company could be at great risk from both a brand and a financial perspective. Wouldn’t you want to turn away a complaint before it becomes a lawsuit?

Luckily, there are technology solutions available today that can help you mitigate each of these challenges. For information on how Jornaya can help your company overcome these performance marketing challenges, access our overview brochure.

Patrick Lutz is a Customer Success Manager at Jornaya.