Understanding the Current Landscape of Lead Generation
At this year’s LeadsCon, the best from around the customer acquisition landscape gathered. As is the case with past shows, there are almost two shows in one. There is the show that takes place during the sessions where the focus is a mix of educational, informational, and pontificational were such a word to exist. It’s the intellectual soul of the event, where the day to day takes a break to talk through issues past, present, and potentially future. The other show of course takes place outside the session halls, often concurrently. It is the spiritual part of the event where connections are made, deals are done, and a different zeitgeist is exposed. Many themes run throughout both, for example, while bigger in size, it seemed there were fewer companies trying to just sell leads, companies bought and more who wanted to build more deeper integration throughout the funnel. Similarly, the show saw a marked increase in innovative technology platforms and platform approaches, e.g.., FullContact, Twiliio, and/or Datalot.
If we had to summarize the intellectual side of the business in a nutshell, we might summarize it as an Industry in Reflection.
Advertisers / Buyers – Do We Need This?
No one doubts the need for leads, and all in all, most of the verticals that rely on lead generation see growth opportunities. But, there are sectors, such as financial services, that are feeling slightly less bullish. The reasons are not unexpected either, dipping performance, perceived quality issues, and a lead fatigue from the multi-lead model. The independent agents and brands with those agents need to reach consumers, so they have thus far been more tolerant than they may like of certain practices, but their patience is starting to wear. It has yet to reach that tipping point, but what we saw expressed on stage and off is that it is getting closer than anyone would like. For the performance marketing world, it’s not a good sign, as these agents and brands are the ultimate liquidity engine for some of the best offers. All together, it means the landers and offers only do well for a piece of the equation, and it is thinking about how to balance the equation.
Consumers – Do I need This?
Perhaps the biggest overall threat to the sustainability of online customer acquisition is if the “customer” piece leaves the equation. It doesn’t matter how many buyers exist to sell something if there is no one around to buy. We might all need auto insurance to drive, but it doesn’t mean that we all need to go online and complete an offer as the entry point for doing so. As one of the buyers from the education space quipped, in the past, acquiring users has been about as difficult as holding out a bowl under a waterfall. They came in abundance and then some, but that is changing across the board, not just in sectors facing regulatory and/or secular headwinds. It is in vertical, because, just like those at the other end of the phone, the users are starting to rethink entering their information. They just aren’t falling for the promise of calculating their new payment which has thus far only meant a marked rise in calls about a service they didn’t really know they wanted. Real alternatives exist and enough bad experiences collectively exist to make the next user not as willing to engage even if their impulse tells them otherwise. They are having form-phobia and perhaps rightfully so. What’s more, they are starting to find ways to get what they need without having to jump through the hoops marketers set in place for them.
Aggregators – Am I Needed?
Historically, aggregators have enjoyed a special role within the lead generation ecosystem. Any single advertiser, even the largest, couldn’t buy enough media on their own to fulfill their acquisition needs. Most couldn’t even come close. They needed the aggregators, the marketing services specialists who could be viewed as a specialized agency except, generally speaking, aggregators don’t focus on one client in a sector but many. Their strengths have truly been in aggregation – combining multiple buyers and multiple traffic sources. It has been historically invaluable and not possible to replicate, but it has also relied on two critical pieces – the end user’s willingness to engage in the offers and the buyers desire to purchase. To date, the aggregators ability to aggregate was enough, but as consumers start to rethink their engagement and the buyers reconsider their reliance on others, all of a sudden, the necessity and security in aggregation has become less of a given. It doesn’t mean that the model will go away, but we are seeing some of the biggest brands / buyers state, even publicly, that they plan on relying less on the channel. Some aggregators might wish any buyers luck, and perhaps their confidence is not incorrect, but it is a wake-up call that means value must be given. The need for value and quality is not limited to the buyers, though, it is also the driving force behind the increased skepticism of the users. This confidence of the aggregators has historically been buoyed simply by their ability to drive traffic. It will be misplaced confidence if they have nothing to drive.
