15 tips on lead generation for professional services

Lead generation: for professional services companies it’s an essential endeavour. Here’s how to make sure your efforts are rewarded.

Professional services encompasses a vast array of industries and disciplines. Some can rely on retainers and repeat business. For others it’s a one-and-done kind of setup. Yet no matter what sort of professional services business you run, a steady flow of fresh leads is essential for a healthy business.

Here’s how we think you can get big results through lead generation – in fifteen steps.

One quick thing, before we start…

What if you could rely on a steady stream of fresh leads month after month, without lifting a finger? Ask for a no obligation, free proposal and we will lay out how we can bring more certainty to your lead generation efforts. It could be transformative for your revenue.

“Since working with Adbetter, our digital paid media channels have grown to be one of our most consistent generators of high-quality leads. Our lead volumes from paid media channels have increased over 1,400% whilst maintaining a low cost per lead.”

– Matthew Fawl, Director, Alesco Investment Property

1. Choose the right lead generation vehicle

Email marketing. Hosting an event. Reaching out to people on LinkedIn. There are countless platforms for lead generation. But for us the best way to generate new leads is to dive in to the world of pay per click advertising.

Here’s why.

• It’s accountable. As the name suggests, with pay per click you only pay when someone clicks your ad.
• It generates qualified leads. Why would someone click your ad unless they were at least partially interested in your services?
• You build proprietary data. With pay per click you build your own first party data – nurturing your own relationship with every lead. Much better than buying the same database of outdated ‘leads’ that your competitors are targeting.
• It’s easy to control your spend. With pay per click it’s easy to control your ad spend. You have options to automate daily, weekly, monthly or maximum budgets per campaign. You can hit the pause button at any time. And every penny is accounted for in your performance data.

2. Choose the right PPC platform for professional services

Pay per click allows you to approach lead generation from two angles. You can capture demand for your business, and you can generate demand for your business. Allow us to us elaborate.

With Google Ads you can get your brand in front of people at the precise moment they are searching for services that you provide – capturing people who are expressing demand for your services.

But you can use other pay per click platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, to raise awareness of your services – generating demand among people who are likely to be interested.

Used individually each strategy can get big results for your business. Used together, the results can be transformative.

>> Is TikTok good for lead generation?
>> TikTok vs Instagram: which is best for paid media advertising?

3. Make sure you know your numbers

If you want to succeed with pay per click advertising, you need to be across key metrics like the average lifetime value of your customers, the cost of new customer acquisition, the markup you can generate on different services and so on.

Hit and hope is a risky business. Only when you know your numbers can you refine your bidding strategy – calculating how much you are willing to pay to secure a new lead and making sure the numbers stack up positively in your favour.

4. Niche down

You might think that promoting your full portfolio of services in each of your ads allows you to hedge your bets. The reality is that it’s almost always better to run separate campaigns for each of the elements of your business that you want to promote.

When you are specific and focused, it’s easier to create ads that resonate with the right audience. And when your ads resonate, you get better results.

5. Get your targeting right

Pay per click advertising puts powerful audience targeting tools at your fingertips. With a little thought you can make sure your ads are reaching people who are highly likely to be interested in your services.

Audience variables you can work into your targeting include:

• Age
• Gender
• Hobbies and interests
• Job title
• Relationship status
• Education
• Online browsing activity

…and an awful lot more.

Think about the attributes that your target audience may share. Do they visit certain websites or have a particular job title? Did they study a specific degree at university? It’s up to you to become the detective. 

Or perhaps not. Because there’s another way…

You can feed pay per click platforms your existing first-party customer data, then let the algorithm find new people to target based on attributes they share with your existing customers. It’s called lookalike audiences, and it can be an easy way to find fresh leads that have a high chance of conversion.

6. Utilise geolocation

Pay per click platforms also allow you to target people based on their geographic location. And if you have bricks-and-mortar premises or want to drum up more local awareness of your services, then utilising geographic targeting is a no-brainer.

7. Test, test, test

Whatever pay per click platform you opt for, you will get the option to submit multiple variants for each constituent part of your ad – headlines and descriptions as well as visual assets if applicable.

That’s an option you should take. By doing so you can easily create an ad with dozens of variants. The algorithm will then get busy testing and preferentially serve the ad variants that have the best chance of getting the right results for your business.

8. Think beyond the first click

When you are paying for every click, it’s worth thinking carefully about where you’re sending your leads. For most campaigns, that’s a designated landing page. Landing pages are a major topic in their own right. But here’s a rapid run through of best practice – and remember, you should have a separate landing page for each of your ad campaigns.

• Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. Optimise for mobile and make sure the messaging that matters most is visible above the fold.  
• Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
• Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Again, try to source reviews from a verifiable platform such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
• Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation.
• Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that forces people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. Include a link to your privacy policy too.

9. Create a lead magnet

Human brains respond to incentives. Give people a reason to click and/or complete the form on your landing page. That could be a brochure outlining your portfolio of services, the offer of a free consultation or something else. Be creative.

10. Utilise retargeting

Once you have an email address for your lead you can create an automated email nurture campaign that gives your prospect more information about your services and nudges them towards becoming a customer. 

And if you are using Facebook or Instagram (or both) for your investment lead generation, you can echo this nurture activity with a new set of ads – creating new campaigns that are displayed only to people who have clicked your original ads or visited one of your landing pages.

11. It’s not about you. It’s about your reader.

Lots of businesses spend an awful lot of time talking about themselves. Put yourself in your reader’s position. Show that you understand them. Address their concerns. Resolve their challenges. Stimulate their sense of ambition. Give them a reason to believe. When you can connect on a human level with a clear, compelling message – your ad performance will improve.

12. Utilise social proof

Industry accreditations and customer testimonials are persuasive marketing tools. 

13. Track performance meticulously

Your pay per click platform(s) of choice will give you plenty of data on ad performance that you can use to optimise your campaigns. But to get the insight that will help you really shift the needle for your business, you need more visibility.

You need the ability to see what happens beyond the first click, right up to the moment your lead becomes a customer. Setting up your tracking for visibility into onward KPIs is difficult. It takes time. It takes technical skills. And that’s why many businesses don’t bother.

But this is where you will gather the invaluable data that you can use to transform revenue – optimising not just your pay per click ads, but your entire marketing strategy.

>> Why Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) is crucial for advertisers

14. Consider working with an expert

We’re Adbetter: a pay per click advertising expert that specialises in lead generation for professional services companies. We know the tactics that get results. We know what levers to pull and when. And we share all of that insight with you – via clear dashboards and custom reporting.

Ask us for a free proposal and we will outline a three-month pay per click lead generation strategy for your brand. That’s yours to keep. Then it’s your choice to work with us or walk away. Let’s get started.

>> Adbetter: officially an award-winning PPC agency

Frequently asked questions

You should also read:

>> Getting results from Google display ads for lead generation
>> The no-fluff to Facebook ads for lead generation