They thought is was success, but...

Most small and medium-sized businesses I talk to have a fairly familiar marketing mix: Google and Meta are almost always part of it. Many also use LinkedIn, and depending on the target audience and product, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok may be in the mix too.

You probably recognize this. Google and social media are very good at generating traffic and leads. The platforms know a lot about us, and they know who is likely to click, fill out a form or create an account.

We’ve learned this the hard way ourselves. We once ran a Google Performance Max campaign that generated more than 50 new accounts. Not a single one became an active advertiser.

But let me share a customer story.

100 leads – and no sales

A customer told me about a campaign they had run on Meta that generated close to 100 leads.

They were thrilled.

Until the sales team started following up…

They followed up by both phone and email, but out of nearly 100 enquiries, no one responded. And no one bought.

During the same period, the customer was also advertising their holiday homes in online newspapers. That campaign generated just 10 leads, and they were disappointed.

The cost per lead was high.

But then the sales team started calling.

The people who had submitted the form actually answered.

And two of them bought holiday homes.

Total sales value: approximately EUR 1 million.

Suddenly, the numbers looked very different.

Cheap leads can become expensive

It’s easy to be dazzled by the numbers in advertising platforms. Lots of leads and a low CPL (cost per lead) look great in a report from Meta or Google. But businesses don’t make money from leads that never become customers.

Following up 100 leads takes hours of work and can quickly become far more expensive than a campaign that generates 10 leads, two of which turn into sales. And the other eight may still become customers later, when the timing is right.

This story illustrates how we measure marketing – and how we often get it wrong.

I’m not saying Google or Meta are bad channels. But we need to understand the value they actually provide. Perhaps this is where the dream of owning a holiday home should be created – while the leads themselves should come from channels that attract serious buyers.

Look beyond cost per lead

Generating as many leads or as much traffic as possible is not a goal in itself. The goal is to reach the right people: those who are likely to buy from us, either now or in the future.

The strongest channel mix typically includes three or four digital channels. Maybe online newspapers should be one of them?