• Search Marketing Sage , Friday, May 23, 2008 4 PM

Many smaller advertisers aren't prepared for the influx of leads that flow in after they've launched a new PPC campaign--and can end up letting valuable inquiries (and their ad dollars) go to waste. Kaitlyn Smeland notes that having a lead management plan mapped out from the start is crucial to maximizing search advertiser ROI.

Smeland lists some steps a company can take to draft a quick lead management plan, starting with determining what a quality lead is. "Internally, a company must decide what constitutes a quality lead," she says. "Then those qualities can be incorporated into a landing page form to make the scoring of lead quality easier once they reach the database."

Once the client has an idea of the kinds of leads they want, they can decide what to do when low quality leads come in. "Some leads may not be ready to buy right away, but it might be worth it to maintain contact as you lead them through the buying cycle until they are ready to buy," she says.

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