As a lawn and landscape company business owner and executive, keeping a scorecard of specific key performance indicators, or KPIs, will allow you to track lead generation. Three top-level KPIs you should track are the unique lead count, the cost per unique lead, and the closing rate of those leads. Unique leads are when someone sees your business for the first time, and the cost of those is based on the results from paid advertising platforms, in addition to what you pay the marketing agency to run those services for you. Finally, the acquisition rate of those leads is important to monitor, as it should fall between 40%-60%. 

1. Unique Lead Count

The first key performance indicator you should track is how many unique leads come into your business. Unique leads mean that someone is seeing your company for the first time, which is what you hire a marketing agency for - to get your brand out and bring more people in. Whether inbound leads come through a phone call or form submission, you'll need a software setup to determine whether that person is brand-new by cross-referencing phone numbers and email addresses with your current customer and lead database. That way, you can have a finger on the pulse of your unique lead count. 

2. Cost per Unique Lead

The second KPI you should track is the total cost per unique lead. It's important to note that you'll need to consider all costs regarding your unique leads. For example, marketing agencies will set this based on the results from paid advertising platforms, such as Google and Facebook ads. However, in addition to that, you also need to factor in the cost you're paying the agency to run those services for you. The total ad spend plus how much you pay the marketing agency will yield the cost per unique lead.

3. Closing Rate of Leads

The third key performance indicator you should track is the closing rate, or acquisition, of those leads. You should see a minimum of 40%-50% conversion, but most of our clients typically see 50%-60%. If your rates are much higher than that, it usually comes down to two reasons. The first reason is that you work up referrals; referrals have a significantly higher conversion rate than Internet-based leads. The second reason is that you don't have your price points where they need to be; companies with lower prices generally close leads more often. Most of our clients have medium to high price points, so those typically close at a lower rate because many people shop based on cost, but those won't be the right fit for you. Due to this, the sweet spot for conversion rates of Internet-based leads is between 40%-60%.

Looking at your KPIs - is your marketing agency doing a good job?

There are numerous key performance indicators that you can track, such as the lifetime value of your customers, your reputation, content generation, and social media posting. However, the unique lead count, cost per unique lead, and the closing rate of those leads are the top-level KPIs for company executives. Your marketing agency should monitor everything on your behalf, which is what we at Lawnline Marketing do for our customers. By doing this, we ensure that those top-level KPIs you're looking at bring you a return on investment. If these key performance indicators look good, your marketing agency is likely doing a great job. However, if they don't, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to dive into the details of what's causing it, as you may just have the wrong marketing agency. 

Have questions or want to know more about tracking key performance indicators for your lawn and landscape company? You can connect with Tony on LinkedIn.