More Leads, Better Leads: A View from the Trenches

I regularly speak with ContactAtOnce! end advertisers to gain insights into how Presence-based Advertising is affecting their business. I place great value in hearing what works and what doesn’t -- directly from those selling to the customers. The insights provide great texture to the analytical and statistical canvas. I found one such conversation today with a Houston-based Apartment Locator service, IWantMyRentRebate.com, particularly insightful. IWantMyRentRebate has been buying contextual, presence-based ads on a pay-per-IM-lead basis since August.

More leads: IWantMyRentRebate tracks origination very closely and knows that of the 100 some odd leads delivered essentially all leads were incremental to their email and phone lead flow. In fact, through proprietary means they preferred not to disclose, IWantMyRentRebate determined 96% of the contextual leads were incremental -- meaning not cannibalizing phone or email leads they would have otherwise received. The Apartment Locator business is highly seasonal with a drop off in fall after families have moved in time for the start of a new school year. Presence-based ads have helped offset the seasonal drop and increase rather than decrease overall lead flow.

Better leads: Close rates for the Presence-based IM leads are similar to those for phone & email based leads. However, IWantMyRentRebate views the Presence-based leads as easier to close. Partly due to the immediacy of the interaction, the true buying intentions can be discerned more quickly. And the “non buyer” can be identified -- and dispatched -- more quickly than with other lead sources.

Different interaction style required: IWantMyRentRebate has identified techniques that work well … and some that don’t. Generally, the prospects responding to the contextual presence-based ads are more focused on a specific property than those leads originating in other media. Thus, answering the first qualifying question or two quickly and effectively becomes even more important than in other media. In other words, the prospect responding to a presence-based ad is more focused and demanding yet rewards those advertisers that can effectively respond by delivering their business more quickly and with less effort on the part of the advertiser -- in many respects the "internet-savvy customer". IWantMyRentRebate continually refines their set of standard messages when replying to their presence-based ads to better suit to the new media.

Interesting indeed.