Cheap lead generation: the secret to saving big

Lead costs go up.

The budget blows up.

And the results? They either take forever to show up or never show up at all.

You've probably been in this situation at some point. And it's fine to admit it. After all, it's more common in digital marketing than you might think. No wonder campaign optimization is a daily task for most players.

The goal of all this daily work is just one: generating cheap, qualified leads.

The thing is, even if you keep making change after change, without a strategy the results won't come. At best, you'll get an endless list of curious onlookers with no intention of buying.

In this article, we'll explain the strategy to get out of that situation and start generating cheap leads that buy a lot (including high-ticket products) without relying on luck or short-lived hacks. Keep reading to learn:

• What affects your cost per lead
• What to improve to get cheap leads
• What product to offer to get cheap leads

What affects your cost per lead

To lower your CPL, you first need to understand what makes your lead acquisition expensive. In short, the most common factors are the wrong audience, mistakes in the offer or the creatives and, finally, problems in how the funnel is built.

Let's take it one step at a time. If your campaigns are aimed at the wrong audience, whether because of broad targeting or vague interests, for example, the algorithm will have to take a lot of “shots in the dark” to hit the target.

The more attempts it takes to get a conversion, the more expensive your campaign will be. On top of that, this mistake also leads to:

• Low-quality leads;
• Few interactions and, as a result, weaker algorithm learning;

Mistakes in the offer can be in the copy, in the hook you chose, or even in what you're actually offering. Here, Cademí's experts warn:

• An offer is not the same as a discount;
• You need to offer what your customer wants and deliver what they need;

On that last point, Matheus Benatti, CEO of Cademí and one of the creators of the diamond funnel, explains:

“We spent a good part of the time building the diamond funnel strategy thinking about the offer. And we noticed that a common mistake among digital product creators is offering what the ICP needs rather than what they want. My question is: in your day-to-day life, do you choose to do what you want or what you need?”.

What to improve to get cheap leads

In general, buying behavior is driven by desire. Mainly because, in many cases, your ICP may not even be fully aware of that need.

Finally, creative mistakes usually come down to the opening hook. You have 3 seconds to grab the attention of whoever sees your ad. You need strong copy to get watched.

If the audience is right, the copy is good and the offer is strategic, you already have much of what you need to get cheap leads.

It's also important to check your sales funnel, especially the step after the creative. Where do your customers go? If it's a landing page, it needs to load fast (especially on mobile), have a clean layout, clear copy and a call to action that's direct and well placed.

What product to offer to get cheap leads

Lead acquisition usually happens through a lead magnet.

Building an irresistible lead magnet comes down to one key point: it has to deliver value. Think of it as the first contact your lead has with you as an expert. They can't finish the content (whether it's an e-book, a webinar or a mini-course) feeling like they wasted their time or that nothing in it was new. That will push them away from buying.

Invest time in a good lead magnet and think about the offer itself too. The diamond funnel, a strategy exclusive to Cademí, focuses on selling to cold audiences as a way to get cheap leads. That's why the advice is to make the offer a front-end or back-end product.

In other words, lower-priced products that require a smaller buying decision. After the purchase, the strategy continues by moving those customers up.