For a long time, I had a hard time tracking my marketing metrics. And truth be told, I’m still working on getting better in my own business. If you use Infusionsoft, you’ll know what I’m talking about because finding the data and correct reports in Infusionsoft can sometimes be tricky, although most of the time it’s very do-able. (Here’s a quick example of finding some really good reports using tags).
I was recently working with a client who hadn’t ever used the lead source report. As we dug in, we found out that Twitter was his TOP lead source for a given month. This was a huge surprise to him because he wasn’t very active on Twitter. It turns out unbeknownst to him that a major industry influencer tweeted about their product, which generated thousands of dollars of revenue. In one month, Twitter had become their highest generating lead source and we were able to track exactly who purchased from Twitter and when. A week later, this client had developed full Twitter strategy for advertising and engaging other influencers.
I’m confident that there’s gold found in the Lead Source ROI report, when implemented correctly.
Disclaimer: This report only works if you’re recording revenue in Infusionsoft, either manually or automatically through online sales via the shopping cart or order forms. To get started, you need to be doing the following 3 things in Infusionsoft:
- Use the hidden lead source field on your different landing pages (and use the web tracking snippet)
- Add the correct expenses to the individual lead sources
- Periodically audit your purchasers’ lead sources
Use the hidden lead source field on your marketing landing pages
Using this feature in Infusionsoft is critical to track your marketing numbers. It’s a bit tricky, but very do-able. See the video below to see exactly how it’s done.
Using this feature allows you to set the lead source at the time the lead is created in Infusionsoft. For example, if you run Google PPC or Facebook ads, you can tell Infusionsoft which of those lead sources you want tied to the lead when the person fills out the Infusionsoft webform.
This lead source stays with the contact throughout the customer’s life cycle with your business. This is important because any revenue generated through that customer will always tie back to the individual’s original lead source.
Pro-tip: There’s something called attribution tracking, which allows you to track revenue based on campaigns and actions individually. Infusionsoft doesn’t yet have a good solution for this, but for most small businesses, lead source tracking should be enough.
[Video] How to add a hidden lead source field in Infusionsoft:
Add this code to your landing page URLs to set the appropriate lead source:
?LeadSourceId=InsertIdHere
(FYI: Leadpages and WordPress make this process easy. ClickFunnels is a bit more difficult)
Infusionsoft can automatically track your lead sources if you’re using their built-in tracking code, but it’s not perfect. It’s still worth adding to your site though.
Add the correct expenses to the individual lead sources
This is a hard-to-find feature in Infusionsoft, but vital if you’re using the lead source ROI report. Adding your marketing and advertising expenses to Infusionsoft is important because it gives you more clarity into what your return on those expenses will be. You’re probably thinking this is pretty easy stuff to manage in Excel, right? The issue is, once you add two trade-shows, Google PPC and a Facebook remarketing campaign to the mix (not to mention, your sales cycle is 4-6 months), you can easily loose track of which lead sources are the most effective.
This is where the Infusionsoft lead source tracking becomes crucial. Make sure to use the fields given, like when the expense occurred and the title (I usually put the name of the specific campaign here).
[Video] How to add a marketing expense to Infusionsoft lead sources
Periodically audit your lead source list, expenses and individual customer lead sources
I’d say about once a month or once a quarter, you should look at your lead source list and see what’s going on. If you have the Infusionsoft tracking snippet installed on your website, you’ll notice that your lead source list is messy from the spam traffic coming to your site. Take a moment to clean these up.
Next, make sure you’ve added any additional marketing and advertising expenses incurred that month to the individual lead sources.
Lastly, go through your recent customers and make sure their lead sources are set properly. This is easier said than done, but you’ll notice that some will have lead sources that aren’t accurate or that are pulled incorrectly. A good example is this: You get a referral from a customer, you follow up with that customer and the customer buys right away (if only business were that easy!). Infusionsoft may attribute a mail server or social link as the lead source, when in reality it was “Referral from Customer”.
How to Read the Lead Source ROI Report
Once you have your data audited and correct, then your lead source report will make much more sense. Click on Marketing -> Reports -> Lead source ROI
You can break this down by date, tag and even when a opportunity was moved into a specific stage. For now, just choose a time-frame, like the most recent quarter. This will spit out a report with quite a few columns. The first thing I do is click on the Revenue column to sort by revenue per lead source. From there, it’s easy to see which lead source generated the most revenue for the quarter.
Then, click on ROI. This will show you which lead sources are performing best. Again, if your data isn’t accurate, this report won’t show the right information. That’s why going through steps 1-3 is so important.
You’ll notice other columns that will show you other valuable information for your marketing planning, like what costs are associated with acquiring new leads and customers.
Pro tip: Save this report and add an “average” stat on your dashboard to show your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). If you know CAC and lifetime value (more on that in a later post), then budgeting for your marketing campaigns becomes much easier.
Conclusion
I firmly believe that the lead source ROI report, when used correctly, can be one of the most powerful reports in Infusionsoft. It has the ability to not show you which source brought in the most revenue, but which lead source brought in the most revenue per dollar of spend. That is gold for any marketer and business owner to know.
Do you use the Lead Source ROI report? If so, what have I missed?
