Lead Generation: Killer App?

DeSilva & Philips, an Investment Banking firm focused in Digital Media, recently published an interesting piece on robust valuations of Lead Generation sites. The author highlights the inexorable shift of advertising dollars from traditional media to performance-based, net campaigns that has created a market opportunity for 100's of companies in diverse industries. The "lead" is the thing.

This long-anticipated shift of dollars creates pressure on traditional media publishers to turn their sites into pay-for-performance lead-based models...or else.

The author also suggests that PayPerCall (PPCall) will be a significant growth engine for lead-generation sites. Indeed, the papers note that opportunity explains "the otherwise inexplicable" eBay-Skype acquisition, commented on in an earlier post. Helping advertisers actually close more sales from these leads represents an additional opportunity for lead-generation sites.

I'd certainly add presence-based ads, including contextual placements, as technology that helps traditional media and lead-generation sites deliver those hot leads to the advertisers eager to buy them. Moreover, presence-baseds marketing & ads can help advertisers get more value from the marketing dollar by engaging visitors in real-time when they're prepared to do so. Helping advertisers get more value for their dollar creates real value for the lead-gen sites redefining advertising & marketing.