The six tactics in Benchmark Email’s 2021 article can help make lead-generation work more deliberate, but they do not guarantee a threefold return. To find out whether a change improves ROI, connect campaign cost and source to qualified leads, sales opportunities and closed revenue—and state the attribution method and time window you use.
What “lead-generation ROI” should measure
A form submission is not the same as a qualified lead, and a qualified lead is not the same as revenue. Track the path from campaign spend and source through qualification, opportunity creation and closed business. This makes it possible to distinguish campaigns that generate many inexpensive contacts from those that produce sales.
Choose a definition of ROI and use it consistently. One common calculation is (attributed return − campaign cost) ÷ campaign cost. That is different from revenue divided by spend, which is a revenue-to-cost ratio, not the same ROI calculation. Define what counts as return—such as attributable gross profit or revenue—and include the time period and costs in the calculation.
Salesforce defines marketing attribution as identifying the activities, channels and touchpoints that contribute to an outcome such as a lead conversion, pipeline creation or closed deal. Its documentation distinguishes touch-based models, which distribute credit across interactions, from funnel-based models, which track movement through defined stages. Neither tells the whole story by itself: choose according to the question you need answered, and disclose the model and lookback window because both affect which campaigns receive credit. Salesforce’s attribution documentation explains these concepts.
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Six tactics to improve the lead-generation funnel
Benchmark Email’s September 2, 2021 article, “6 Tips On How To Triple the ROI on Your Lead Generation Efforts,” presents six numbered tactics. The headline’s promise is not evidence that these tactics will triple returns: treat them as ideas to test against qualification, opportunities and revenue.
1. Nurture prospects according to their stage
Match follow-up to what a prospect has done and what they need next. Someone who has just requested information may need a clear explanation of the offer; someone evaluating a solution may need more specific product or implementation details. Use relevant messages and a defined next step rather than sending every contact the same sequence.
Set a conversion event for each stage—such as a qualified lead becoming an opportunity—and track whether nurturing helps people progress. Opens and clicks can help diagnose engagement, but they do not establish business impact on their own.
2. Align landing pages with the prospect’s journey
Make the page deliver what the campaign or link led a visitor to expect. Keep the offer, audience and next action clear, and remove distractions that compete with that action. A page for someone researching a problem may need a different message and commitment than a page intended for a buyer ready to speak with sales.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsEvaluate changes using an agreed conversion event and compare the resulting leads’ qualification and opportunity rates—not just the number of form fills. Benchmark Email’s article includes landing-page conversion figures without citations in its text, so they should not be treated as established benchmarks.
3. Follow up with existing leads and remarket thoughtfully
Review leads already in the database before paying to reach the same people again. Where appropriate, follow up with contacts who have stalled or re-engage prior prospects with messaging suited to their previous interest. Remarketing can support that effort, but frequency, relevance and the recipient’s current status matter; suppress people who have converted or should no longer receive the campaign.
Measure whether follow-up creates qualified progression or revenue, and account for other touches that may also have influenced the outcome.
4. Coordinate account-based marketing in B2B
For business-to-business campaigns aimed at named organizations, coordinate messaging around the account rather than treating each contact as an unrelated lead. Marketing and sales should agree on target accounts, useful engagement signals, ownership and the next action. This reduces the risk of sending conflicting messages to people at the same organization.
Assess account progression—such as whether engagement leads to a qualified opportunity—alongside contact-level activity. An increase in responses is not enough if target accounts do not advance.
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5. Keep workflows consistent
Document how leads are captured, assigned, qualified and followed up, including what happens when required information is missing or a lead is not ready for sales. Consistent workflows make handoffs easier to manage and campaign results more comparable. Automation can help execute those rules, but it cannot establish ROI unless the underlying events, sources and outcomes are recorded reliably.
6. Analyze lead sources together with outcomes
Compare sources using the same stages and time horizon: spend, qualified-lead rate, lead-to-opportunity conversion, closed revenue and time to outcome. Salesforce’s Sales Insights Lead Analysis documentation describes analysis involving lead source, conversion rate, conversion speed and activities associated with opportunities.
For paid search, Salesforce documents a Google Ads connector that can link advertising costs with opportunity data to estimate cost per qualified lead and search-marketing ROI. Availability depends on supported Salesforce editions and implementation; see the Google Ads Connector documentation.
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Build a scorecard that connects campaigns to revenue
Use a consistent scorecard for each campaign or channel. Define each metric before comparing results so teams are not using different meanings for “lead,” “conversion” or “return.”
| Measure | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign cost and source | Spend, channel, campaign and the period covered | Establishes what investment and activity the outcome is being compared with. |
| Qualified leads | Count and qualification criteria | Separates usable prospects from raw responses. |
| Lead-to-opportunity progression | Number or rate reaching opportunity status, using a consistent definition | Shows whether leads advance into the sales pipeline. |
| Closed revenue or defined return | Closed outcomes attributed under the chosen model | Connects marketing activity to the business result used in the ROI calculation. |
| Time to outcome | Elapsed time from campaign or lead creation to qualification, opportunity and close | Helps avoid judging longer sales cycles before they have had time to mature. |
| Attribution method and window | Model, touchpoints included and lookback period | Makes clear how credit was assigned and supports fair comparisons. |
Consider two hypothetical campaigns. Campaign A has a high ROI percentage but contributes little total return because it is small; Campaign B has a lower percentage but produces more qualified opportunities and a larger total contribution. Which is preferable depends on the organization’s goals, margins, capacity and sales cycle. Compare both efficiency and absolute contribution rather than choosing on ROI percentage alone.
How to test whether a tactic is working
- Set the baseline. Record current spend, qualified-lead criteria, stage conversion rates, closed outcomes and typical time to outcome.
- Choose one change and one primary outcome. For example, revise a landing-page message and measure qualified leads per campaign visitor, then monitor progression to opportunity.
- Keep the comparison fair. Use comparable audiences, channels and time periods where possible; record other campaign touches that may influence the result.
- Allow for the sales cycle. Do not label a campaign unsuccessful merely because revenue has not closed if comparable opportunities typically take longer to mature.
- Review quality and economics together. Check whether improved volume or conversion also improves downstream progression and the return measure you defined.
Why the headline’s “triple” claim needs qualification
The Benchmark Email article’s text includes numerical claims about conversion, preferences, personalization, repeat-customer sales probability and ad clicks, but does not cite their underlying publications. Without checking original sources, those figures should not be reused as reliable benchmarks. The article’s six sections are recommendations, not demonstrated causal findings, and its introduction refers to nine strategies despite the six numbered sections visible in the article. The title is therefore a claim to scrutinize, not a forecast.
A separate figure sometimes cited in this area also needs careful framing: Salesforce reported a 299% ROI over three years from a 2023 Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study. That result was modeled for a composite organization based on interviews with five organizations using Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It is a vendor-published account of a commissioned study, not a general expectation for businesses or evidence that the six Benchmark Email tactics produce that return. Salesforce’s announcement describes the study and its composite basis.
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