Lead Generation Statistics: 40+ Lead Gen Stats to Know

On this page, we’ll provide you with 43 lead generation statistics that show the impact and value of creating a lead generation strategy. Keep reading to learn more!

If you want to create a lead generation strategy after seeing these stats, our team at WebFX can help. We have over 500 marketing experts that can help you create a custom lead generation strategy. Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our lead generation services!

General lead generation statistics

First on our list of lead generation stats, let’s look at a few general lead gen stats!

1. When marketers follow up within five minutes of a desired action, they’re 9X more likely to convert leads (Source)

If you want your lead generation strategy to result in conversions, you must continually and consistently engage with users. This is also known as lead nurturing. We’ll dive into some lead nurturing stats later, but keep in mind that follow-up and engagement are essential to help you turn leads into revenue.

In particular, following up on critical actions like abandoned carts or webinar sign-ups is essential in propelling your business forward.

2. 80% of marketers consider their lead generation efforts only to be slightly or somewhat effective. (Source)

Many businesses struggle to create an effective lead generation strategy. Creating an effective lead generation strategy boils down to knowing your target audience, choosing the right platforms to reach them, and creating content that appeals to their interests — and most marketers think their strategy is only somewhat effective.

3. 79% of marketers say generating quality leads is their top goal. (Source)

Lead generation is a top priority if you want your business to grow online. You need to capture people as leads first before turning them into sales. Whether you’re business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), earning leads ensures you’re marketing to people likely to buy or use your products or services.

4. 57% of marketers say that getting targeted prospects to engage is the biggest challenge to generating new leads. (Source)

One of the biggest challenges businesses face is trying to engage their target audience with their marketing efforts. You need to capture your audience’s attention and deliver a positive experience to engage prospects and turn them into leads for your business.

5. 56% of leads aren’t ready to buy yet. (Source)

Many businesses make the mistake of pushing their leads towards conversion when over half aren’t prepared to buy yet. That’s why it’s critical to track leads as they go through your sales funnel and deliver information to them at the right time.

6. 55% of marketers say finding leads that convert is one of the biggest challenges to generating new leads. (Source)

Not all leads you generate will turn into sales for your business, making it challenging to obtain leads that will convert. That’s why you need to keep your marketing focused on your target audience so you reach the right people.

7. 53% of marketers spend at least half of their budget on lead generation. (Source)

With lead generation, a large chunk of your budget will go towards investing in strategies that help you drive leads for your business. From pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to search engine optimization (SEO), you can invest in multiple strategies to help you drive traffic that turns into leads.

8. 34% of salespeople think that prospecting and lead qualification are the biggest lead gen challenges. (Source)

Having a lead generation strategy in place can help your sales team more effectively prospect and qualify leads. If you know who you want to  target and establish qualifying behaviors (downloading a guide, joining an email list), your sales team can more easily identify and nurture leads.

Digital marketing lead generation statistics

Now that’s we’ve covered some basic stats on lead generation, let’s dive into some stats about lead generation and digital marketing strategies!

9. Less than one-fifth of marketers think outbound practices provide valuable leads. (Source)

When it comes to the question of inbound vs. outbound marketing, most digital professionals will agree that inbound marketing is the way to go. In fact, more than 75% of marketers agree that inbound practices provide valuable leads.

10. Outbound leads cost 39% more than inbound leads. (Source)

Springboarding off the fact that inbound marketing provides higher-quality leads, its also a more cost-consious way to market to your audience. Outbound leads are known to cost more than inbound ones.

11. $135 is the average cost per lead for businesses leveraging primarily inbound techniques. (Source)

When you stick to inbound marketing techniques, your CPL will likely be in the low $100 range — although every business and every lead cost is different.

12. Content marketing drives 3X more leads than traditional marketing. (Source)

When looking at these lead gen stats, you’ll find that strategies like content marketing are extremely powerful for earning leads. Content marketing is more effective at driving leads than traditional marketing because it allows you to target people precisely with the information they want.

13. 86% of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers use content marketing to reach potential customers. (Source)

Content marketing is an effective strategy for reaching qualified leads. Content allows you to share industry-related information with your audience, which drives interested leads to your website.

14. When marketers target leads based on their position in the sales funnel, they have 73% higher conversion rates. (Source)

Targeting your leads at the right part of the funnel is critical for moving leads forward. Some leads are closer to conversion than others, so they need content that fulfills their need at that time.

For example, someone who just discovered your business will want content that helps them get to know your industry better, like blog posts. However, someone at the bottom of the funnel will want information that shows them why you’re the best option for their needs.

15. 66% of marketers generate leads from social media by spending only six hours per week on social media marketing. (Source)

Social media marketing is an excellent strategy for your business to obtain leads. Since this strategy enables you to connect with prospects directly, you can understand who’s interested in your business. You can also deliver information straight to these prospects to move them down the sales funnel.

16. 60% of marketers reported that content marketing helped them nurture leads. (Source)

Content marketing is a valuable resource for nurturing leads because you can create content for every funnel stage. You can create blog posts, guides, and ebooks to help guide your audience towards converting.

17. Content marketing drives 54% more leads than traditional marketing. (Source)

Content marketing is highly effective for driving leads for your business. Since you target keywords your audience searches within your content, you drive leads to your page that are interested in what you offer.

18. 53% of marketers use interactive content to generate leads. (Source)

Interactive content is a great way to get users to engage with your business. This content includes things like games, quizzes, and calculators. The interactive elements help make users part of the experience with your brand, which can ultimately convince them to convert.

19. 50% is how many more sales email marketing drives than other lead generation methods. (Source)

When it comes to making sales, email marketing is the closer. Not only can you generate leads by creating an email sign-up list, but you can turn those leads into sales. Email marketing allows you to send promotional materials straight to your prospects’ inbox and convince them to convert.

20. Reaching prospects is a huge challenge for marketers, as it takes an average of 18 calls to connect with them. (Source)

If you’re a marketer wanting to connect with leads, you’d better be patient. Studies found that on average, it takes 18 calls for a marketer to connect with a prospective client.

21. Google gets 3.5 billion searches a day, making it prime real estate for any ad campaign, especially lead gen. (Source)

Whether you opt for highly raning organic search results with the help of SEO, or you want to use paid ads, Google is a great place for lead gen campaigns since it gets so many searches per day.

22. Inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a 61% lower cost per lead. (Source)

When agencies use inbound marketing rather than outbound marketing, they’ll see an extreme decrease in their cost per lead, or CPL.

B2B lead generation statistics

Looking for stats on lead generation for B2B companies? Check out these lead gen stats!

23. B2B blogs with educational content get 52% more organic traffic than B2B blogs with company-focused content. (Source)

When you provide educational on your blog rather than company-focused content, you’ll get more organic traffic — and organic traffic driven by your blog can help you increase leads.

24. LinkedIn is the most effective B2B social media channel for generating leads. (Source)

One of the most compelling statistics on lead generation is that LinkedIn is the most effective social marketing channel for B2B. Since you’re trying to appeal to employees, LinkedIn is a tremendous professional network to connect with those prospects.

25. 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to generate leads. (Source)

Content marketing is one of the most valuable strategies for B2B marketers. Since B2B leads have a longer sales cycle, sending content makes it easy for you to keep prospects engaged with your business.

26. 79% of B2B marketers think that email is the most effective lead generation channel. (Source)

In addition to content marketing, email marketing is another great lead generation channel for B2B businesses. By adding an email sign-up to your website, you capture leads interested in your business. Email marketing is also great for sending tailored content to your audience to nurture them towards conversion.

27. 40% of marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy by lead generation. (Source)

Speaking of content marketing, a little less than half of marketers equate leads with success when it comes to their content marketing campaigns.

28. 73% of B2B marketers believe that webinars are the best strategy for generating high-quality leads. (Source)

Many companies harness the power of webinars to help capture qualified leads. Attendees have to sign-up to attend the webinar, which helps your business capture lead information. Since these webinars are specific to your business and industry, you know the attendees are qualified leads.

29. 70% of B2B marketers think video content helps leads convert. (Source)

Video marketing is a critical component to helping your business capture and converts leads. When you create videos, you can share more information with your audience in a shorter period. This content is also visual, which can hold your audience’s attention better.

Videos are an excellent addition to other lead generation strategies, like email marketing and content marketing, and can help improve engagement.

30. 68% of B2B companies use strategic landing pages to generate leads. (Source)

Landing pages play a critical role in helping you earn leads for your business. When you run PPC ads, users arrive on a landing page if they click on your ad.  Your landing page is where you can capture these leads by encouraging them to fill out a form or visit a specific page on your website.

Customizing your landing page can help you deliver a tailored experience that generates more leads for your business.

31. Companies do see a 55% increase in leads when increasing their number of landing pages from 10 to 15.  (Source)

Landing pages are the best place for interested website visitors to turn into leads, so its crucial that you have enough of them. They act as a crucial touchpoint in the lead gen process, so its no surprise that the more you have, the more leads you’ll attract.

32. 60% of B2B marketers think social media is the second most effective lead generation strategy. (Source)

Social media is a valuable strategy for generating leads for your business. From LinkedIn to Facebook, you can use numerous platforms to connect with interested prospects and turn them into leads.

33. 59% of B2B marketers think that SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation goals. (Source)

SEO is an excellent strategy for helping you improve your lead generation goals. This strategy helps drive qualified traffic to your site that can turn into leads for your business.

34. 47% of marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads, and 45% of them gained customers through the platform. (Source)

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for generating leads and earning more customers for B2B businesses. This professional network allows you to connect with interested prospects, share helpful information, and promote your company through ads.

35. Only 56% of B2B companies verify business leads before passing it to the sales team. (Source)

Verifying leads prior to passing them to the sales team is a way to streamline your lead generation process. However, just a little over half of B2B companies verify their business leads before they make it to the sales team.

WebFX specializes in B2B client success.

Wheeler Machinery Co., saw 82% higher average time on site after partnering with WebFX for SEO, CRO, web design and development, and website content services.

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Lead nurturing lead generations statistics

In addition to statistics on lead generation, let’s take a look at lead nurturing statistics to see the impact of nurturing leads:

36. 79% of generated leads don’t end up converting into sales. (Source)

This stat is one of the most critical lead gen stats to know regarding lead generation: 79% of generated leads don’t end up converting into sales. So, why is that?

The main cause of this problem is a lack of lead nurturing. Many companies have a lead generation strategy in place but neglect the lead nurturing process. Once you capture leads, you must nurture them to turn them into customers for your business.

37. 59% of marketers say that content marketing is the most challenging lead nurturing strategy. (Source)

While content marketing is one of the most valuable strategies for generating leads, it’s also challenging to maintain. Effective content marketing requires creating content frequently, and many businesses don’t have the time or resources to do that.

To reap the benefits of content marketing, you may need to partner with a content marketing agency to create your content.

38. 47% is how much higher of an order value nurtured leads have than non-nurtured leads. (Source)

Lead nurturing plays a critical role in helping you earn more from your leads. When you nurture leads, they get more familiar with your business and learn more about what you offer.

Nurturing allows you to build better relationships with your audience, influencing how many products or services they purchase.

39. Personalized CTAs convert a whopping 202% better than basic calls-to-action. (Source)

Calls to action, or CTAs are a great way to continuously nurture leads through the sales funnel. The message you deliver with CTAs can vary at each stage to ensure that users are well on their way to becoming a lead.

When you personalize your CTAs, they’re much more likely to convert than basic calls to action.

40. 63% of leads who inquire about your business won’t convert for at least 3 months. (Source)

The road to creating a lead is best illustrated with a sales funnel since it provides a great outline of what the lifetime of a lead looks like. You’ll likely need to nurture most prospects for at least 3 months before they convert.

Measuring the metrics that affect your bottom line.

Are you interested in custom reporting that is specific to your unique business needs? Powered by MarketingCloudFX, WebFX creates custom reports based on the metrics that matter most to your company.

• Leads
• Transactions
• Calls
• Revenue

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Marketing automation for lead generation statistics

For the last set of lead generation statistics, let’s look at how marketing automation impacts lead generation. Marketing automation involves using technology to automate processes like sending emails. This software can help speed up simple processes and save you time.

Here are some marketing automation statistics to know regarding lead generation:

41. 451% is how much of an increase in qualified leads that businesses experience by using marketing automation. (Source)

Marketing automation helps more businesses earn qualified leads. Since you can automate simple processes, you can focus on other lead generation tasks that help you reach more people.

42. 80% of marketing automation users saw leads increase. (Source)

Marketing automation tools, like a customer relationship management program (CRM), help you track prospects more effectively. You can gather critical information about these leads, like what pages they visited, forms they completed, and more.

43. 77% of marketers convert more leads using automation software than those who don’t. (Source)

Automation tools, like Nutshell and MarketingCloudFX, allow you to gather valuable insight into your marketing strategies and target audience. With all this data on hand, you can make more actionable decisions that help you nurture leads towards conversion.

Our digital marketing campaigns impact the metrics that improve your bottom line.

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WebFX has driven the following results for clients:

$3 billion

In client revenue

7.8 million

Leads for our clients

5.2 million

Client phone calls

Let these lead generation statistics inspire your campaign

With these statistics on lead generation, you can see the impact of lead generation and the value it holds for helping your business grow online. Launching a lead generation strategy is critical to helping your business thrive online, but you may not know where to start.

At WebFX, we have over 25 years of experience generating leads. In the past five years alone, we’ve driven over 7.8 million leads for our clients. With our client-first approach and custom marketing plans, you can feel confident you’ll get a marketing strategy that helps you generate more leads.

Ready to earn more leads for your business? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our lead generation services!