01 / The starting point
When the campaign dashboard and the sales team disagree.
Imagine a service business running paid lead-generation campaigns. The campaign reports a low cost per lead, but the sales team says many enquiries are unreachable, outside the target market or expecting a different service.
The business question is whether paid acquisition can produce more qualified opportunities at an acceptable cost. A cheaper enquiry alone does not answer that question.
The working hypothesis
The ad, form and sales process may be using different definitions of a good lead. I would check that alignment before recommending a budget increase.
02 / The diagnosis
Follow the lead beyond the form.
I would review a recent, representative group of leads with the person handling sales, then map where they stopped progressing. Each branch suggests a different next step.
Are the right people enquiring?
Check source, geography, stated need and service fit. Review whether the ad promise matches the offer and whether targeting excludes clearly unsuitable segments.
Can the team reach them?
If leads fit but cannot be contacted, inspect contact accuracy, elapsed time before the first response and the follow-up sequence.
Do qualified leads progress?
If suitable prospects engage but do not take a sales meeting or next step, review expectations, objections, the offer and the handoff into sales.
I would first agree what “qualified” means for this business: the right need, service area and buying context. The criteria must stay consistent when comparing campaign variants.
03 / The first test
Test the likely cause of poor fit.
If the review shows that unsuitable enquiries are the largest loss, I would test one relevant qualification question in the lead form. For example, a service-area question could help where location is the main mismatch.
Control
Current lead form
Keep the existing ad, audience, offer and form as the baseline.
Variant
One qualification question
Add the single question tied to the observed mismatch. Keep the rest of the journey consistent.
Where the platform supports it, use a controlled split. Keep sales follow-up consistent and document changes made during the test. If slow follow-up is the largest constraint instead, fixing and measuring that process comes first.
04 / Measurement & decisions
Judge the test by what sales can use.
Cost per qualified lead
Ad spend ÷ leads that meet the agreed qualification criteria.
Qualified opportunity rate
Qualified leads that progress to an agreed sales opportunity.
Volume & contactability
Enough suitable leads for sales, without a deterioration in contact rate.
Before launching, agree the maximum test spend, review window, acceptable economics and the minimum evidence needed to make a decision. Allow for the actual sales cycle instead of judging unresolved leads as losses.
- Continue: qualified-lead cost improves, opportunity quality holds and volume remains useful.
- Revise: fit improves but extra friction reduces useful volume beyond what the business can accept.
- Investigate further: outcomes remain unclear or sales follow-up differs between groups. Do not treat an inconclusive result as a win.
Cost per lead remains a useful diagnostic. Closed-customer acquisition cost becomes more informative once enough leads have had time to complete the sales cycle.
05 / What I would deliver
A plan the marketing and sales teams can both use.
- A lead-journey map showing the biggest observed drop-off.
- A shared qualification definition and simple lead-status tracker.
- A test brief covering the hypothesis, control, variant and decision rules.
- A measurement view connecting spend, lead source, qualification and sales progression.
- A short readout explaining what happened and what to change next.
Example test brief
Make the hypothesis explicit.
“If service-area mismatch is the main cause of poor lead quality, adding one location question should increase the share of suitable leads. We will judge it on qualified-lead cost, sales progression and usable volume.”