Online marketing or internet marketing is the term used for business products or services traded through an online portal. Generating lead online is a similar internet marketing strategy to generate prospective customers or inquiry commercial products or services through Internet. Lead is a theoretical term used for customer contacts in the lead generation industry. These contacts are generated for variety of purposes such as building list, e-newsletter list acquisition, constructing reward programs, loyalty program and so on.

Social media platform is one of the most mandate fields for vendors specialising in lead generation services. By means of social networking websites the social media stages are used by numerous organisations and individuals to promote their products or services to a massive crowd or gain business prospects. Engaging and active social media fields like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn etc. are useful to find end number of talents or advertise and sell new commodities and amenities.

Three main pricing models to generate leads through online marketing

Apparently, there are three basic pricing models for online marketing through which a salesperson can buy advertisement and generate quality leads. Each of these models is discussed briefly underneath from a technical and business perspective to produce better understanding so that you can include it in your business blueprint.

• Cost per thousand: Also coined as cost per mille (CPM), this online marketing strategy uses pricing models that charge promoter for every time people view an advertisement. The advertisement of a product or service from a particular company is exhibited through display advertising which is commonly sold on a CPM pricing model. Although CPM is an effective method to generate quality lead, the issue with CPM advertising is that the promoters are charged even when the audience does not click the advertisement. Examples of CPM are CPM group and Advertising.com.

• Cost per click: In case of cost per click, advertisers are charged only when the audience clicks on the advertisement. On the other hand, the charges for search keywords are raised to a sky-high level because of increased competition. According to Doubleclicks Performics Search report (2007) shows that there were approximately six times as many keywords with a cost per click (CPC) for more than $1. The cost per click increased by 55% and the cost per keyword increased up to 33%. Examples for CPC are Adwords, Yahoo! Search marketing.

• Cost per action: Advertising schemes for cost per action includes TalkLocal, Thumbtack etc. This advertising strategy addresses the risk of CPM and CPC advertising by charging only by the lead. Similar to CPC the leads can bid up by demand. Disadvantage of CPA is that just like CPC, there are always loopholes for fraud transaction by manufacturing leads or blending one source of lead with another to generate qualified leads and higher profits for lead generation services For promoters who is only looking for precise actions there are two options available for CPA:

• CPL advertising: CPL campaigns, promoters only pay for an interested lead. This means that the advertiser is only paying for the contact information of a particular person who is interested in the product or the service of an organisation. These advertising campaigns are appropriate for brand marketers and direct response marketers who are looking to involve with customers in multiple sites like building a newsletter list, community site, reward program or member acquisition program.

• CPA campaign: In case of CPA campaigns, the advertiser usually pays for an accomplished strategy or a completed sale which involves credit card transaction.

Lately, there has been a massive and rapid increase in online lead generation services like banner and direct response promotion that works for a CPL pricing model. These advertising platforms allow marketers and advertisers to score, nurture and attribute leads. According to studies companies that indulge in online marketing automation on an average record increase up to 68% of customer engagement and 77% increase in converting potential customer to actual leads.

An organisations ROI depends upon the quality of leads. In other words you have accumulated leads that are actually interested in your product or services. Online marketing highly filter-out the commotional and irrelevant people online and bring those who are truly interested to your landing pages.