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Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Trip.com Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: Trip.com
  • Industry: Online travel and booking services
  • Market Position: Global travel platform competing in a highly saturated market
  • Engagement Focus: Sustainable organic growth through white-hat link building

The Problem

Trip.com operates in one of the most competitive organic search environments in digital marketing.

Key challenges included:

  • Intense competition from global OTAs, airlines, hotel chains, and aggregators
  • High affiliate density across travel-related SERPs
  • Ranking volatility caused by aggressive or low-quality link tactics in the niche
  • Difficulty generating qualified organic leads, not just traffic volume
  • Need for strictly white-hat execution to protect long-term brand equity

The challenge was not exposure—Trip.com already had scale—but earning durable authority signals in an ecosystem crowded with short-term SEO tactics.

Strategic Objective

The engagement was designed to:

  • Drive sustainable organic traffic growth
  • Improve lead quality through relevance-focused SEO signals
  • Acquire high-quality, white-hat backlinks from trusted publishers
  • Build an off-site SEO profile resilient to algorithm updates

The Solution

Digital.Marketing deployed its link building team to execute a white-hat, authority-first backlink acquisition strategy.

Authority & Relevance Mapping

  • Identified travel topics and categories where:
    • Off-site authority most influenced rankings
    • Lead quality correlated with contextual relevance

Publisher Targeting & Vetting

  • Built a vetted list of publishers based on:
    • Editorial standards
    • Domain trust and authority
    • Relevance to travel planning and booking

White-Hat Editorial Link Acquisition

  • Earned backlinks through:
    • Editorially placed content
    • Contextual brand mentions
    • Non-promotional integrations within high-quality articles

Lead-Focused Placement Strategy

  • Prioritized placements on sites that:
    • Attracted travel-ready audiences
    • Influenced booking decisions
    • Aligned with Trip.com’s customer journey

Execution Highlights

  • Delivered a fully compliant, white-hat link building campaign
  • Avoided high-risk tactics common in the travel SEO space
  • Focused on relevance-driven placements, not raw link volume
  • Maintained consistent execution to support long-term growth

Results

While detailed metrics remain confidential, the engagement delivered:

  • More consistent organic traffic growth
  • Improved lead quality from organic channels
  • Stronger off-site authority signals across travel-related categories
  • A backlink profile designed to withstand algorithm volatility

Why It Worked

  • Treated link building as trust-building, not manipulation
  • Focused on qualified traffic, not vanity metrics
  • Maintained strict adherence to white-hat best practices
  • Built authority aligned with Trip.com’s long-term brand goals

Takeaway

In travel SEO, short-term tactics often create long-term risk.

Digital.Marketing helped Trip.com achieve sustainable organic growth and higher-quality leads through a white-hat, authority-driven link building strategy built to last.

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Freshbooks Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: FreshBooks
  • Industry: Accounting and invoicing software
  • Market Position (at Engagement Start): Early-stage startup with limited brand recognition
  • Engagement Focus: Organic traffic growth and foundational SEO visibility

The Problem

At the start of the engagement, FreshBooks was an unknown entrant in a crowded and competitive software market.

Key challenges included:

  • Minimal brand awareness in search and across the broader web
  • Strong competition from established accounting and bookkeeping platforms
  • Limited backlink profile, restricting domain authority and ranking potential
  • Low visibility for high-intent keywords related to invoicing and small business accounting
  • Need to build credibility quickly without paid traffic dependence

The core challenge was not optimization—it was establishing search trust and authority from scratch.

Strategic Objective

The engagement was designed to:

  • Increase organic traffic through sustainable SEO growth
  • Build domain authority suitable for competing with established incumbents
  • Improve rankings for commercial and informational accounting keywords
  • Lay a long-term SEO foundation capable of scaling with the business

The Solution

Digital.Marketing implemented a foundational SEO and authority-building strategy focused on long-term growth rather than short-term wins.

SEO Foundation & Site Alignment

  • Ensured FreshBooks’ site architecture supported:
    • Clear keyword targeting
    • Logical content hierarchies
    • Search-friendly technical structure

Content-Led Growth Strategy

  • Developed and optimized content designed to:
    • Educate small business owners
    • Address real accounting and invoicing pain points
    • Capture early-stage and mid-funnel search intent

Authority & Backlink Development

  • Built FreshBooks’ backlink profile from the ground up through:
    • Contextual editorial placements
    • Relevant business and entrepreneurship publications
    • Natural brand mentions aligned with content themes

Scalable SEO Framework

  • Implemented processes that allowed SEO gains to:
    • Compound over time
    • Scale alongside product adoption
    • Support future category expansion

Execution Highlights

  • Transitioned FreshBooks from low-visibility startup to a discoverable SaaS brand
  • Focused on quality-first authority acquisition, not volume tactics
  • Balanced content production with backlink development
  • Built momentum steadily rather than chasing volatile rankings

Results (High-Level)

While early-stage metrics remain confidential, the engagement delivered:

  • Significant growth in organic traffic
  • Measurable improvements in search visibility across key accounting topics
  • A stronger domain authority baseline capable of supporting future growth
  • SEO results that continued compounding beyond the initial engagement

Why It Worked

  • Built SEO the way search engines reward it: trust first, scale second
  • Focused on education and relevance, not promotional content
  • Created an authority foundation instead of relying on paid acquisition
  • Aligned SEO strategy with the realities of a growing SaaS business

Takeaway

For early-stage companies like FreshBooks, SEO is not about quick rankings—it’s about earning trust early and letting growth compound.

Digital.Marketing helped FreshBooks transform from an unknown startup into a brand with sustainable organic visibility, setting the stage for long-term success.

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Hewlett Packard Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: Hewlett-Packard (HP)
  • Industry: Computing hardware and enterprise technology
  • Market Position: Global leader in personal computing and printing solutions
  • Engagement Focus: Competitive keyword dominance for core commercial product categories

The Problem

HP faced intense organic competition for some of the most commercially valuable keywords in consumer and enterprise technology.

Key challenges included:

  • Extremely competitive head terms such as “laptops,” “laptop,” and “laser printer”
  • SERPs dominated by marketplaces, retailers, review sites, and OEM competitors
  • Algorithmic preference for authority, trust, and brand relevance over traditional optimization
  • High commercial intent, leaving little margin for weak relevance or diluted authority signals
  • Need for rapid impact without sacrificing long-term SEO stability

The challenge was straightforward but difficult: achieve top-tier rankings for category-defining keywords in a compressed timeframe.

Strategic Objective

The engagement was designed to:

  • Secure top-three organic rankings for “laptops,” “laptop,” and “laser printer”
  • Reinforce HP’s authority as a primary manufacturer and category leader
  • Execute a strategy capable of competing with entrenched SERP incumbents
  • Deliver results quickly while remaining algorithmically defensible

The Solution

Digital.Marketing executed a focused, authority-driven SEO campaign combining on-page alignment with accelerated off-site authority reinforcement.

Keyword & SERP Analysis

  • Analyzed competitive SERPs to understand:
    • Ranking patterns
    • Authority thresholds
    • Content and link expectations for top positions
  • Identified gaps where HP’s existing authority could be amplified rather than rebuilt

Authority & Relevance Reinforcement

  • Strengthened off-site signals supporting HP’s core product categories
  • Secured contextual, high-authority backlinks aligned with:
    • Computing hardware
    • Business technology
    • Consumer electronics coverage

Content & Page-Level Optimization

  • Ensured key category and product pages were:
    • Fully aligned with search intent
    • Structurally optimized for competitive head terms
    • Supported by authoritative external references

Accelerated Execution Framework

  • Applied a tightly coordinated rollout to:
    • Achieve early ranking movement
    • Sustain momentum without triggering volatility
    • Maintain compliance with enterprise SEO standards

Execution Highlights

  • Focused exclusively on mission-critical commercial keywords
  • Leveraged HP’s existing domain authority while closing competitive gaps
  • Balanced speed with sustainability in a high-risk SERP environment
  • Coordinated on-page and off-site efforts under a single strategy

Results (High-Level)

Within 90 days, the campaign achieved:

  • Top-three organic rankings for:
    • “laptops”
    • “laptop”
    • “laser printer”
  • Significant increases in high-intent organic traffic
  • Stronger competitive positioning against retailers and marketplaces
  • Durable rankings supported by authoritative signals

Why It Worked

  • Focused on authority amplification, not incremental tweaks
  • Treated ranking for head terms as an ecosystem problem, not a page-level one
  • Executed with precision in one of the web’s most competitive keyword categories
  • Aligned tactics with how modern search engines evaluate brand leadership

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Carmax Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: CarMax
  • Industry: Automotive retail and used vehicle sales
  • Market Position: Market leader in used car retail and omnichannel automotive commerce
  • Engagement Focus: Long-term, authority-driven backlink acquisition

The Problem

As a category-defining brand in automotive retail, CarMax operates in one of the most competitive organic search environments on the web.

Key challenges included:

  • Aggressive competition from OEMs, dealerships, automotive marketplaces, and aggregators
  • Highly authoritative competitors with entrenched backlink profiles
  • Algorithm sensitivity in YMYL-adjacent automotive and financing topics
  • Diminishing returns from short-term SEO tactics
  • Need for sustainable, compounding organic growth aligned with enterprise brand standards

The challenge was not awareness—CarMax is already a trusted consumer brand—but continuously reinforcing authority in a space where trust and credibility directly influence rankings.

Strategic Objective

The engagement was designed to:

  • Acquire high-authority backlinks from trusted, well-established websites
  • Strengthen off-site authority signals supporting CarMax’s core categories
  • Provide a durable organic traffic lift that compounds over time
  • Execute within a framework suitable for a long-term enterprise partnership

The Solution

Digital.Marketing partnered with CarMax through an extended, sustained backlink acquisition program focused on authority, relevance, and quality.

Authority Gap Analysis

  • Assessed CarMax’s existing backlink profile against:
    • Automotive competitors
    • Marketplaces and publishers
    • High-ranking category leaders
  • Identified authority gaps where top-tier backlinks could materially impact performance

High-Authority Publisher Targeting

  • Prioritized placements on:
    • National media outlets
    • Automotive and consumer finance publications
    • Trusted business and lifestyle sites
  • Applied strict selection criteria around:
    • Domain trust
    • Editorial quality
    • Relevance to automotive commerce

Editorial-First Link Acquisition

  • Earned backlinks through:
    • Publisher-aligned content contributions
    • Contextual editorial references
    • Non-promotional brand mentions
  • Ensured links were embedded naturally within authoritative content

Long-Term Execution Framework

  • Maintained consistency over time to:
    • Avoid unnatural link velocity
    • Support algorithmic trust signals
    • Create compounding authority benefits

Execution Highlights

  • Delivered a multi-quarter engagement focused on quality over volume
  • Secured backlinks from some of the web’s highest-authority domains
  • Integrated seamlessly with CarMax’s broader SEO and brand strategy
  • Emphasized sustainability rather than short-term ranking spikes

Results (High-Level)

While specific performance data remains confidential, the engagement delivered:

  • A sustained increase in organic traffic across key automotive categories
  • Stronger domain-level authority signals
  • Improved competitive positioning in high-value search verticals
  • A backlink profile built for long-term resilience

Why It Worked

  • Focused on authority depth, not just link count
  • Prioritized editorial trust and relevance
  • Took a long-term view aligned with search engine incentives
  • Executed with enterprise-level discipline and controls

Takeaway

For automotive leaders like CarMax, sustainable organic growth comes from earning authority in the same places consumers already trust.

Digital.Marketing helped CarMax build a backlink profile designed to compound value over time, not chase temporary gains.

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Expedia Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: Expedia
  • Industry: Online travel and hospitality services
  • Market Position: Global travel leader serving consumers and travel partners worldwide
  • Engagement Focus: Authority-driven link acquisition across travel and hospitality ecosystems

The Problem

As a dominant brand in online travel, Expedia operates in one of the most content-saturated and competitive digital markets.

Key challenges included:

  • Aggressive competition from OTAs, airline and hotel brands, and travel aggregators
  • Publisher landscapes crowded with affiliates, reviews, and deal-focused content
  • High editorial standards among top-tier media outlets, limiting promotional placements
  • Need for relevant authority signals tied to travel planning, destinations, and services
  • Requirement for brand-safe, scalable link acquisition aligned with enterprise standards

The challenge was not awareness—Expedia was already a household name—but earning authoritative placements in editorial environments that search engines trust most.

Strategic Objective

The engagement aimed to:

  • Secure high-quality editorial placements on industry-relevant and top-tier media sites
  • Strengthen off-site authority signals supporting Expedia’s core travel offerings
  • Align brand mentions with travel planning, discovery, and hospitality topics
  • Build a repeatable, compliant link acquisition framework

The Solution

Digital.Marketing deployed its link building and editorial outreach team to manage content creation and publisher pitching end to end.

Travel-Focused Content Development

  • Produced original content assets designed for editorial acceptance, including:
    • Travel insights and trend-driven narratives
    • Destination and planning-related content
    • Data-informed travel commentary

Publisher & Media Outreach

  • Identified and pitched:
    • Industry-relevant travel and hospitality websites
    • High-authority lifestyle, business, and media publications
  • Prioritized outlets with:
    • Strong trust and authority signals
    • Relevant audiences
    • Established editorial review processes

Editorial Placement Strategy

  • Secured placements where Expedia was:
    • Contextually referenced within travel-focused content
    • Integrated naturally as a trusted travel platform
    • Positioned alongside relevant industry entities

Brand & Quality Controls

  • Ensured all placements met:
    • Expedia’s brand and tone guidelines
    • Editorial integrity standards
    • Enterprise SEO best practices

Execution Highlights

  • Delivered end-to-end execution, from content creation to publisher pitching
  • Earned placements across industry-specific and top-tier media outlets
  • Focused on contextual relevance and editorial value, not link volume
  • Maintained consistency across diverse publisher environments

Results (High-Level)

While detailed metrics remain confidential, the campaign resulted in:

  • Improved off-site authority signals supporting key travel-related pages
  • Expanded presence in trusted editorial travel ecosystems
  • Increased brand visibility across high-value travel content
  • A scalable framework for ongoing authority-driven link acquisition

Why It Worked

  • Combined content creation and outreach under one strategic framework
  • Treated link building as editorial placement, not transactional SEO
  • Focused on publisher relevance and trust, not shortcuts
  • Delivered placements that compounded Expedia’s existing authority

Takeaway

For travel leaders like Expedia, visibility comes from earning trust in the same publications travelers rely on.

Digital.Marketing helped Expedia secure authoritative, industry-relevant placements through a brand-safe, editorial-first link building strategy designed for scale.

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
Shopify Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: Shopify
  • Industry: Ecommerce platforms and merchant enablement
  • Market Position: Global market leader powering millions of online businesses
  • Engagement Focus: Strengthening off-site SEO signals for core ecommerce solutions

The Problem

Despite Shopify’s strong brand recognition and substantial organic footprint, several challenges persisted at the off-site SEO level.

Key issues included:

  • Intense competition from marketplaces, SaaS ecommerce tools, and content-heavy affiliates
  • Saturated on-site optimization, where incremental gains were increasingly marginal
  • Uneven off-site authority signals across key ecommerce-related topics and use cases
  • Publisher ecosystems dominated by reviews and comparisons, often controlled by third parties
  • Need for scalable, brand-safe authority growth consistent with Shopify’s market leadership

The challenge was not generating awareness—Shopify already had that—but reinforcing authority and relevance in the external ecosystems that influence search visibility.

Strategic Objective

The campaign focused on:

  • Enhancing off-site ecommerce SEO signals supporting Shopify’s core offerings
  • Securing contextual, high-quality link placements from authoritative publications
  • Reinforcing Shopify’s position as the default ecommerce platform across relevant verticals
  • Supporting continued organic growth without disrupting existing SEO momentum

The Solution

Digital.Marketing executed a strategic off-site SEO and editorial link placement campaign designed to complement Shopify’s existing organic strength.

Ecommerce Topic & Authority Mapping

  • Identified ecommerce topics where external authority signals most influenced rankings
  • Aligned Shopify’s solutions with:
    • Merchant education
    • Ecommerce strategy content
    • Platform comparisons and tooling discussions

Publisher & Placement Strategy

  • Targeted high-authority ecommerce, business, and technology publications based on:
    • Trust and relevance metrics
    • Editorial integrity
    • Audience alignment with Shopify’s merchant base

Editorial-Driven Link Placement

  • Focused on contextual editorial inclusion, not standalone mentions:
    • Shopify referenced as a solution within broader ecommerce narratives
    • Links embedded naturally within high-quality content
    • Placement within pages already earning organic visibility

Brand-Safe Execution

  • Maintained strict controls to ensure:
    • Editorial consistency
    • Non-promotional tone
    • Compliance with Shopify’s brand and enterprise SEO standards

Execution Highlights

  • Deployed a precision-focused off-site SEO campaign, not a volume-driven link push
  • Secured placements within established, high-performing content assets
  • Reinforced Shopify’s relevance across commercial and informational ecommerce queries
  • Integrated seamlessly with Shopify’s existing SEO foundation

Results

While detailed metrics remain confidential, the campaign delivered:

  • Incremental gains in organic traffic and visibility across targeted ecommerce topics
  • Stronger off-site authority signals supporting key solution pages
  • Increased presence in editorial contexts that influence buyer and algorithmic trust
  • A scalable model for ongoing off-site SEO reinforcement

Why It Worked

  • Built on Shopify’s existing strength rather than attempting to reinvent it
  • Prioritized placement quality and relevance over raw link volume
  • Focused on ecosystem influence, not isolated rankings
  • Delivered compounding SEO value aligned with long-term growth

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
GoDaddy Case Study

Client Overview

  • Client: GoDaddy
  • Industry: Domains, hosting, website services, small business technology
  • Market Position: Category leader serving millions of SMBs globally
  • Engagement Focus: High-value service offerings with competitive search and brand visibility pressure

The Problem

GoDaddy faced a visibility and authority gap across several of its most strategically important service offerings.

Key challenges included:

  • Highly competitive SERPs dominated by affiliates, review sites, and SaaS competitors
  • Fragmented brand signals across the web, with inconsistent third-party references to key services
  • Limited authoritative mentions from trusted publications in categories where Google increasingly rewards brand authority over pure keyword optimization
  • Diminishing returns from traditional link building, particularly at GoDaddy’s scale
  • Need for defensible, brand-safe growth that aligned with enterprise standards and long-term SEO strategy

The core issue was not traffic volume—it was trust, authority, and contextual relevance in the eyes of both search engines and users.

Strategic Objective

The campaign was designed to:

  • Strengthen topical authority around GoDaddy’s most critical service offerings
  • Secure high-quality editorial mentions and references, not just links
  • Improve brand credibility signals used by modern search algorithms
  • Support long-term organic growth without reliance on manipulative or short-term SEO tactics

The Solution

Digital.Marketing deployed a highly targeted content marketing and digital PR strategy built around authority acquisition rather than volume.

Service-Level Content Mapping

  • Identified GoDaddy service offerings where authority gaps were limiting performance
  • Mapped each offering to:
    • Relevant industries
    • Publisher verticals
    • Editorial contexts where GoDaddy could be cited naturally

Publisher & Media Targeting

  • Built a curated list of high-value publications based on:
    • Domain authority and trust metrics
    • Editorial standards (no link farms or syndication networks)
    • Topical relevance to SMBs, entrepreneurship, web services, and technology

Editorial-First Content Development

  • Created content assets designed to earn references, not just placements:
    • Data-driven insights
    • Expert commentary frameworks
    • Thought-leadership narratives aligned with publisher audiences

Contextual Brand Integration

  • Ensured GoDaddy mentions appeared:
    • In relevant editorial sections
    • Adjacent to aligned topics and entities
    • As a trusted provider, not a promotional insert

Quality Control & Compliance

  • Maintained strict controls to ensure:
    • Brand-safe placements
    • Editorial integrity
    • Compliance with enterprise SEO and PR guidelines

Execution Highlights

  • Acquired editorial references and mentions from authoritative, high-trust publications
  • Focused on contextual relevance, not just link equity
  • Prioritized service-specific authority building, rather than generic brand mentions
  • Delivered placements that supported both SEO performance and brand perception

Results

While specific metrics remain confidential, the campaign resulted in:

  • Measurable improvements in organic visibility for targeted service offerings
  • Stronger brand authority signals across the web
  • Increased presence in editorial contexts Google associates with expertise and trust
  • A scalable framework for ongoing authority-driven content marketing

Why It Worked

  • Treated content marketing as authority engineering, not link acquisition
  • Focused on who was talking about GoDaddy, not just how often
  • Aligned SEO outcomes with enterprise brand standards
  • Built durable visibility that compounds over time

Takeaway

For enterprise brands like GoDaddy, growth doesn’t come from more content—it comes from better placement, better context, and better authority signals.

Digital.Marketing delivered a strategy designed for long-term defensibility, not short-term gains.

Samuel Edwards
|
January 16, 2026
10 Key Metrics for Assessing Lead Generation Performance

When it comes to growing your business, lead generation is the backbone of success. But how do you know if your lead generation efforts are actually working? You can’t just guess – you need relevant data and accurate measurement to measure lead generation performance against your business objectives and what needs improvement.

That’s where key performance metrics come in. By tracking the right lead generation KPIs, you can gain vital insights into whether your lead generation process is attracting the right target audience, producing qualified leads, and driving revenue generated through your sales funnel. Here are 10 important lead generation metrics you should regularly review to assess your success lead generation performance.

1. Lead Volume (Number of Leads)

One of the most basic lead generation metrics is lead volume – the number of leads, total number of leads, or leads generated during a specific time period. Whether you measure this daily, weekly, or monthly, you need to track the number of leads entering your sales pipeline is critical for evaluating lead gen performance.

If the total number of leads is too low, it might mean your lead generation channels, website traffic, paid advertising, or marketing efforts may not be reaching the right target audience or that your ad spend is too low. On the other hand, a high number of leads doesn’t automatically mean success – you also need to evaluate lead quality.

Focusing only on volume without generating high quality leads, high value leads, or more qualified leads can slow your sales process and hurt team morale.

A high number of low-quality leads can be just as problematic as too few leads, so don’t focus on quantity alone.

2. Lead Conversion Rate

Bringing in leads is great, but how many actually convert into paying customers? Your lead conversion rate is the percentage of leads that complete the desired action – whether that’s moving through the sales funnel, becoming new customers, signing up for a free trial, making a purchase, or booking a consultation.

To calculate it:

Lead Conversion Rate (%) = (Number of Conversions / Total Leads) × 100

A low conversion rate might indicate:

  • Your sales efforts and landing page aren't persuasive enough
  • You’re targeting the wrong audience with your lead generation approach
  • The lead scoring and lead nurturing process isn’t effective

If your conversion rate is low, you might need to optimize your follow-up strategy, refine your sales pitch, or make your offer more compelling. Improving follow-ups, tightening the sales cycle, and aligning marketing and sales efforts can significantly improve this key lead generation KPI.

3. Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Every lead generation campaign requires marketing spend – whether through ads, content marketing, SEO efforts, or sales outreach. Cost per lead (CPL) helps you understand how much you’re spending on marketing investments to acquire each lead.

To calculate it:

CPL = Total Marketing Spend / Total Leads Generated

Monitoring marketing spend, total cost, and marketing and sales costs ensures your sales and marketing campaigns are financially sustainable. If your CPL is too high, it means your marketing campaigns aren’t efficient, and you’re spending more than you should for each new lead. Finding ways to lower CPL – such as through better lead generation channels, marketing automation, and improved website traffic quality – can improve your total revenue.

4. Lead Quality Score

Not all leads are created equal. Some are ready to buy, while others are just browsing. That’s why you need to track lead quality.

Lead scoring helps categorize marketing qualified leads (MQLs), marketing qualified leads, and sales qualified leads so sales teams can focus on high value customers.

A lead quality score is usually based on specific behaviors, such as:

  • Visiting your pricing page
  • Downloading a whitepaper
  • Subscribing to your email list
  • Attending a webinar

Tracking qualified leads, more qualified leads, and high quality leads helps optimize your sales pipeline and ensures incoming sales move efficiently toward new customers.

Your sales and marketing teams should work together to create a scoring system that helps prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert.

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) goes beyond CPL by looking at how much it costs to acquire an actual customer, not just a lead.

To calculate it:

CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Expenses / Total New Customers Acquired

If your CAC is too high, you might be spending too much on ads, sales outreach, or inefficient campaigns. A high CAC can eat into your profit margins, so it’s crucial to keep this number under control.

One way to reduce CAC is by improving lead nurturing – so that more leads convert without requiring additional ad spend.

Instead of focusing heavily on legacy cost metrics, modern teams evaluate marketing and sales costs alongside average revenue generated and average revenue per customer.

Understanding sales costs, marketing spend, and total cost in relation to revenue generated allows companies to scale lead gen without sacrificing profitability.

6. Lead Response Time

Average response time plays a major role in successful lead generation. The faster you respond to a lead, the higher the conversion rate and the acceleration of the sales cycle. Studies show that leads contacted within five minutes are significantly more likely to convert than those contacted an hour later.

If you’re taking too long to reach out, you’re losing potential customers to competitors who respond faster. To improve response time, consider using automated email sequences that dynamically send to prospects based on the time they’re most likely to open the email. 

Using marketing automation, analytics software, and analytics tools helps teams accurately track response times and prioritize sales efforts that move prospects deeper into the sales funnel.

Another thing you can do is set up instant notifications for new leads. This pings everyone on the team the moment a new warm lead enters the funnel. You can then train your sales team to prioritize fast follow ups.

A shorter response time keeps leads engaged and increases the likelihood of conversion. The only question is whether or not you’re making this a priority. 

7. Email Open and Click-Through Rates

Email remains a critical lead generation channel. If you use email marketing to nurture leads, tracking open rates and click-through rates (CTR) is crucial. Monitoring email engagement provides valuable generation metrics tied directly to lead gen success. But before we go on much further, let’s make sure we’re clear on what we’re talking about:

  • Open rate: Percentage of recipients who open your emails. If you send an email to 1,000 people and 250 open it up, that’s a 25 percent open rate. Open rates tell you how healthy your email list is. While every industry is different, 20 to 35 percent is usually considered a “good” rate, while anything higher is considered “great.” If your open rate is below 15 percent on a consistent basis, this is an indication that something needs to be fixed.

  • Click-through rate (CTR): This is the percentage of recipients who click on a link within your email. Depending on how you want to measure CTR, there are a couple of different options. The most common option is to measure CTR based only on people who pen the email. So if you send the email to 1,000 people, 250 people open it, and 125 click – that would be a 50 percent CTR (125/250). Another option is to take the total number of sends (1,000) and calculate it that way. In this case, the CTR would be 12.5 percent (125/1000). You can decide how you want to calculate it, but most businesses go with the first formula.

To improve these rates, you can do several things:

  • Personalize your emails so that they appear less like they’re being mass sent to hundreds or thousands of people. You can do this by using custom field tags to include their name. You can also just write in a more conversational manner.

  • Write attention-grabbing subject lines that compel people to open your emails. Don’t give everything away in the subject line. Instead, spark curiosity and leverage open loops.

  • Use clear CTAs (calls to action) that tell people precisely what to do. This will reduce confusion and increase the amount of clicks you get.

While minimizing over-focus on tactical engagement ratios, tracking email behavior helps improve generating interest, nurture qualified leads, and support marketing and sales efforts across the sales pipeline.

Better email engagement leads to higher conversions. Pretty obvious, right? Well, it’s amazing how often we get so focused on technical details that we forget all about engagement. At the end of the day, this is really all that matters. Increase engagement and more conversions will follow.

8. Return on Investment (ROI) for Lead Generation Campaigns

At the end of the day, you want to know if your lead generation efforts are actually profitable. Tracking ROI ensures lead generation KPIs align with business objectives.

To calculate it:

ROI (%) = [(Revenue from Leads - Marketing Costs) / Marketing Costs] × 100

If your ROI is low, it might mean:

  • Your CPL is too high
  • Your leads aren’t converting into customers
  • Your marketing strategy isn’t targeting the right audience

Optimizing ROI ensures you’re spending money wisely and getting the best possible return from your marketing budget. When marketing efforts and sales and marketing campaigns are aligned, businesses generate higher total revenue, stronger monthly recurring revenue, and more predictable incoming sales.

9. Lead Retention and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Generating leads is only the beginning – you also need to track how valuable those leads are over time.

A high lead retention rate means that your leads are sticking around, engaging with your brand, and eventually converting. On the other hand, if most of your leads disengage after their first interaction, your lead nurturing strategy needs improvement.

You should also track customer lifetime value (LTV), which measures how much average revenue generated a customer contributes over the average customer lifespan.

If your LTV is high, you can afford a higher CAC, but if it’s low, you may need to lower acquisition costs or improve retention strategies.

Improving customer retention, increasing average purchase value, and focusing on best customers allows companies to justify higher marketing spend while growing total revenue.

10. Social Media Engagement and Lead Generation

Social media platforms remain important lead generation channels when paired with clear lead generation KPIs. If you’re using social media as part of your lead generation strategy, you need to track how well it’s working. Look at:

  • Engagement rate (likes, shares, comments)
  • Click-through rates on social media ads
  • Lead capture from social media campaigns

If your social media posts and ads aren’t generating leads, you might need to:

  • Improve your content strategy
  • Test different ad creatives
  • Optimize your landing pages for conversions

Tracking website traffic, engagement, and leads collected from social campaigns helps refine your lead generation approach, improve marketing efforts, and generate more qualified leads that move efficiently through the sales process.

Social media is a powerful tool, but only if you’re using it effectively to capture and nurture leads. Make sure you aren’t blindly throwing darts. Have a plan, know how to measure it, and gradually shift and pivot as the results dictate.

Marketer.co: Data-Obsessed, Results-Driven

At Marketer.co, we don’t do fluff and platitudes. We believe the only way to judge a marketing strategy is by studying the data and letting the numbers tell the story. Accurate measurement and analytics software are essential for scaling lead generation. By tracking important lead generation metrics, aligning sales and marketing, and focusing on revenue generated, we help companies hit aggressive growth targets.

If you’d like to build a better marketing strategy – one that’s based on ROI – we’re here to help. Contact us today to learn why startups to Fortune 500 brands alike testify our campaign outcomes are second to none!