How to measure a lead generation campaign by qualified lead and by order

Measure a lead generation campaign by following each lead source across one table: raw leads, qualified leads, quotes and orders, with the spend beside it. Then read four ratios from the same rows. A campaign judged only by its number of leads tends to look good, since raw leads are the cheapest thing to produce. The qualified lead and the order are the figures that show whether the campaign worked.

The table, one row per source

Use one sheet. Each row is a source: Google search, a directory, Instagram ads, referrals, walk-ins. Each column is a stage. Fill it from your enquiry sheet, not from the ad platform's report.

These figures are illustrative, made up to show how the table reads. They are not benchmarks for any trade.

Four ratios to read

From each row, work out four numbers.

Cost per raw lead is spend divided by raw leads. In the table, social ads look best at ₹250. That number is the one most platform reports show.

Cost per qualified lead is spend divided by qualified leads. Social ads now cost ₹3,000 each; Google costs ₹2,000. The order has reversed.

Quote-to-order rate is orders divided by quotes. This tells you how good you are at closing, and has little to do with the source. If every source has a low rate, look at your quoting and follow-up, not at the campaign. Our note on following up a quotation is the place to start.

Cost per order is spend divided by orders. Google costs ₹10,000 per order, the directory ₹25,000, and social ads have none yet. Referral costs nothing in spend, though the time and any thank-you gift are real.

Cost per order is the figure to carry to the owner. Cost per qualified lead is the early reading while orders are still coming.

Define "qualified" before you count

The ratio is only as honest as the word. Write the test on the sheet:

• a working phone number, answered when you call;
• a need you actually serve, in a place you reach;
• someone who can decide, or who can put you in front of one.

Apply it the same way to every source. If you are generous with the social leads and strict with the Google ones, the table says what you want it to say. A person who is not the owner of the enquiry should do the qualifying when possible, so that no one is marking their own homework. Our post on improving lead quality deals with what to change when the qualified column is thin.

For example: a catering-equipment dealer in Ahmedabad

This case is invented. A dealer sells steamers, tandoors and display counters to restaurants and canteens across Ahmedabad and runs three channels. The report from the ad platform shows social ads delivering the cheapest leads by a wide margin, and budget moves towards them.

Three months on, the order count is flat. The dealer builds the table from the enquiry sheet and finds that most social leads were students and home bakers asking for prices of a counter they would never buy. The mistake was reading the platform report and not the dealer's own sheet. Cost per lead had fallen because quality had fallen with it.

Budget moves back, and the social ad copy changes to name the buyer ("for restaurants and canteens, minimum order stated"). The form gets a mandatory field for the type of business. Social leads fall by more than half, qualified leads fall only a little, and a quarter later the cost per qualified lead is still higher than Google's. The table is read again after the older leads have had time to close, not the week after.

What to do when the rows disagree

Suppose one source has cheap qualified leads and no orders, while another has dearer leads and orders. Do not cut the first at once. Open its qualified rows and read the notes. If the buyers are real and the quotes were lost on price, the source is working and your pricing or follow-up is the problem. If the buyers never answered the second call, the qualification was too generous. Change one thing, such as the ad wording or the form field, and keep the table running for the same stretch again. The rule is one change per source at a time, otherwise you cannot say which change moved the row.

What the table cannot tell you

It cannot separate a weak campaign from a weak closing process when both are poor. Look at the quote-to-order rate across all sources to see which.

It will not show lifetime value. A referral that orders once and one that orders every season look the same in the first row. Add a column for repeat orders once you have enough history.

Small numbers mislead. If a source has produced four orders, the cost per order may swing a lot on a fifth. Wait for more rows before cutting a source, and for anything under about ten leads, do not draw conclusions at all.

Lastly, sources overlap. A buyer may see your ad, then search your name, then call. If you credit only the last click, you will undervalue the first. Ask the buyer on the call what they saw first, and record both.

When not to build this

If you generate fewer than a handful of leads in a period, just keep a list and read it. The table pays off once there are enough rows in each source to compare and more than one channel is running.

Build the table this week

Take your last three months of enquiries. Put each in a source row. Mark it qualified, quoted or ordered, and add spend. If your records are too scattered to start, campaign analytics and performance reporting is the service that sets the sheet up and reads it with you, and the marketing hub shows the wider picture. To start the conversation, tell us what you need.