Welcome back to our series of lead gen conversations with Xevio co-founder and CEO, Nadim Kuttab. In our last article, we discussed AI-powered lead generation, and how it’s transforming lead gen on the open web. In this installment, we’re looking at the ways in which authentic, valuable content can pre-qualify leads and drive conversions. Since successful open web lead generation is no longer merely about direct calls-to-action, but about building trust and demonstrating value through content, it’s clear advertisers need to invest in more robust content marketing and emphasize the quality of engagement over quantity of clicks. Here’s Kuttab’s advice for doing it right.
You’ve previously emphasized creating content experiences that feel natural on the open web. How does this approach differ from typical ad creative, especially for lead generation?
The content experience that really defines native advertising is a piece of content that’s both interesting and educational, and selling your product or what you’re doing. It’s essentially a soft pitch to a product with a call to action at the end, and it needs to be built in a way that seems natural in a content-rich environment: A blog with either an opinion or fact-based case that it’s making to the reader, and one that’s easy to navigate, especially considering that open web users tend to be a little bit older.
Even for the newer types of ad creatives that Realize offers, this funnel and this user experience still performs exceptionally well, so we always start with content pages built around native advertising. They segment the user, they introduce a problem, then they introduce a solution to the problem, then they sell a product that is a solution with some testimonials and some social proof. We’ve taken that and we’ve applied it to pretty much everything on Realize, and it works well.
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What role do long-form advertorials/landing pages play in your lead generation strategy, and how do they help pre-qualify prospects?
The landing page is effectively a way to take a cold user and warm them up. With long form advertorials, you want to keep that content as concise as possible, but at the same time, depending on who you’re trying to reach, you might need longer content — say, if your product’s hard to explain or expensive, then you might want to have the user spend more time in the funnel, warm them up more so they’re more willing to take action.
The longer somebody stays on your page, the more likely they are to buy. That’s why we have clickouts toward the bottom of the page, rather than at the top: You don’t want somebody to accidentally click on the first hyperlink in the first paragraph before they’ve been warmed up, as that’s the same as just sending them from an ad straight to the product page. It’s not an effective use of what Realize can offer.
How can advertisers effectively balance engaging storytelling with clear calls-to-action to drive conversions, without resorting to clickbait?
It’s all a matter of quality. If you deceive the user between the landing page and the offer page, they’re going to jump from the offer page — they’re not going to buy your product. They’re going to be like, “Oh, what the hell? I expected something else.” It’s the same as having an ad that says, “Click here and win $100,” and then on the advertorial it’s essentially trying to sell them a credit card. People will see through that immediately. You want to have a compelling story that doesn’t cause policy issues, because publishers will kick you out if you’re too aggressive with how you sell.
The idea, then, is to find a healthy balance between interest and clickiness. There are ethical implications as well, but from a purely financial perspective, it’s better to be clear with what you’re selling, because then the users that click through will actually want your product or service and be much more likely to buy than if you deceive them into clicking on something that they don’t want.
Realize offers its Optimize for Engagement tool, with top-of-funnel metrics. How can these engagement signals inform and improve content strategies for furthest bottom-of-funnel lead generation?
Let me give you an example. Say you have a target CPA of $100: To get enough data to test every single thing that you’re doing, you have four or five landing pages, two or three offer pages, and 20 ads live on three different devices. On top of that, each campaign on each of these devices is going to get a different mix of traffic. That means you’re going to be getting dozens, if not hundreds, of different publishers on your campaigns. You will never have enough data — you don’t have enough money to get the data you need on a $100 CPA, so, you need to look at something else.
The best initial metric to look at — obviously, you want to look at whatever is furthest down the funnel, but the best initial metric to look at when you’re starting off — is landing page CTR: How many people are clicking through your content pieces to the actual product or service that you’re selling? If you have a publisher or an ad piece that’s driving 20% CTR and one that’s doing 5%, you can very quickly kill the 5% content piece and shift your focus to the 20%. You’re then more efficiently using your ad dollars before you’ve even generated a conversion. Those things are super valuable in helping you shift your budgets more efficiently before you have enough data to definitively say yes.
Can you share a common mistake marketers make when creating content for lead generation on native platforms, and how best to avoid it?
A lot of marketers will look at what others are doing and copy them. That’s not a particularly effective way of doing it, because the others are already established in the market. If you’re trying to compete with somebody 10x or 100x bigger than you in the space, at the start, it’s going to be close to impossible, so I always say, look at what they’re doing and do it better. What are their angles? Come up with a better or more interesting angle, try different things. We always produce content from scratch and it’s been a strategy that’s worked very well for us. So, my recommendation is, look at what others are doing, but don’t copy. Trying to beat them at their own game won’t work.
Beyond the initial content, what are key elements of a high-converting offer page for leads, particularly when dealing with traffic from the open web?
You want to have one question at the beginning that’s very easy to answer. You don’t want to have people put in their zip code or type out their full name or their email — that shouldn’t be the first question. The first question is a trigger question to get them into your funnel — the likelihood of them continuing if they’ve already committed to clicking on one thing is much higher, so the goal of the first question is to pull them in, then have a couple of questions. And try to keep them short, for God’s sake! Don’t have a million complex things. Making it clickable, not typable, is the best bet until you get to the email, telephone number, and the personal details.
When you say clickable rather than typable, you’re talking about a multiple choice option?
Exactly. Think of an offer page where it asks if you’re a homeowner or a tenant, right? You want to be able to click that and then go to the next question without having to type in anything. We actually use HeyFlow for this.
How does the concept of “perceived value” (as you’ve previously discussed) translate into content strategy for lead generation, especially when the core product isn’t changing?
First off, perceived value is very subjective, which is why I say perceived value, not value. Let’s say somebody is clicking on an ad for a solar panel: It means that they are interested in solar panels in some way, shape, or form. Does it mean that they will buy one from you? No, but it means that they’re interested. They’ve taken that step, they’re reading about it, they’ve clicked through, they’ve filled out your form. You have their attention — they want to get a quote from you, otherwise they wouldn’t have clicked this far.
The idea next is to make it easy for them to get to the final answer quickly, adding a FOMO effect of, we might have something others don’t: “There are potentially offers in your area that are amazing, click here to find out.” I’m curious! I want to know more — what are these amazing offers? What are these subsidies that I don’t know about? There are companies that are cheaper than average because they’re buying new solar panels today at a cheaper cost than companies were able to buy them at a year ago, and we can connect you with those companies. Put that information in! That’s one hell of a case, with very clear and concise messaging built on facts that you can show people.
You’re educating the customer, essentially.
You’re educating the customer about the different options that they have. That’s why it’s perceived value in a way that makes you look good, like, hey, your service is going to help them get an offer.
What’s your advice for testing and iterating content for lead generation to continuously improve performance and lead quality?
You need to be creative. A lot of companies don’t send the data of the lead quality back to the platform, and that’s a big mistake. If you can get that data into the platform, it helps you really improve lead quality. We were able to improve our lead quality 30% across the board for most of our clients over the last 12 months, just by getting lead quality data back to the click.
Then, it’s about creating content that’s catchy. Just try things — we’re constantly iterating, that’s the truth. It’s not rocket science, it’s just math: You have an ad and that costs a click, then you have a landing page, then a percentage of those people go through, then you have an offer page. A percentage of those people go through, then you have a solid lead, and a percentage of those leads will go through and generate revenue. You have different drop off points and there’ll be different metrics and different costs for each one. Look at the data and squeeze or turn the little knobs that you have to improve each individual point. There’s no more to it than that: If your CTR is bad on the landing page, that’s what you have to put your effort into.
