Making a decision based on only partial information is taking a risk.

In the world of business, taking risks is something most of us are reluctant to do, unless the rewards are worth it.

When it comes to online marketing, however, a lot of companies are taking unnecessary risks and don’t even know it.

That’s because, too many businesses are making crucial decisions about their sales lead generation websites based on incomplete information.

Although most everyone pays attention to the conversion statistics provided by Google Analytics, those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

For example, they don’t tell us if those conversions are sales leads. Here at PPC marketing agency Straight North, we’ve found that nearly half of all website conversions are not actually sales leads.

They’re interactions that will never lead to new customers such as job applications, customer service requests and incomplete form submissions.

When businesses lump these all together with their true sales leads, they get an inaccurate picture of how well their lead generation websites generate new customers.

That inaccurate information can cause them to make some ill-advised decisions when it comes time to optimize their campaigns.

It doesn’t have to be that way, however.

By implementing a lead tracking and validation process into the campaign, online marketers can gain deeper insight into the performance of their websites.

With more complete information at their disposal, marketers can optimize their websites to deliver a much higher return on investment than they would have otherwise.

The following presentation goes step by step through the process of adding sales lead tracking and validation to an online marketing campaign.

Follow it, and you should have the most accurate information for making the best decisions for your business.

About the Author

Matt Cannon is Director of Web Services at Straight North, an Internet marketing company that specializes in SEO, PPC and web design services. He manages all web development activities, making sure that each project is applying current development standards and techniques.