When it comes to B2B marketing, especially in the technology market, I often notice confusion among professionals between conversions and real business opportunities. This situation can generate inflated but ineffective reports.
Thus, it is essential that marketing managers understand the difference and adjust their expectations and metrics so that investment in campaigns is truly effective.
What is a conversion?
Conversions represent interactions or actions taken by a user in response to a marketing stimulus, such as:
- Download of rich content, like e-books or guides;
- Filling out forms on landing pages;
- Watching a webinar or video;
- Liking or commenting on a social media post.
Although these actions demonstrate engagement, they do not necessarily indicate purchase intent. As marketing expert Mark Ritson highlights:
“Marketing that generates activity but not qualified leads is just an exercise in vanity.”
Consider this case extracted from a form (anonymized data):
- Identifier: contact
- Name: valid
- Phone: (11) 99999-9999
- Company name: abc tech
- Message: Hello, I’d like to learn about your technology service. Can you schedule a meeting with the responsible parties?
- Terms acceptance: [“on”].
- Source: organic search | google
This type of conversion is a good example of genuine interest, but many reports present less relevant interactions as if they were real opportunities.
What is a real opportunity?
A real opportunity goes beyond superficial interaction. It is the moment when a lead shows clear signs of interest in solving a problem that your solution can address. Some typical characteristics are:
- Direct contact requesting more information about the product or service;
- Alignment with the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP);
- Request to schedule a meeting with a clear purchase decision on the horizon.
I share the case extracted from a form that shows a lead further along in the funnel (anonymized data):
- Identifier: contact
- Name: valid
- Phone: (31) 88888-888
- Company name: consultancy xyz
- Message: Hello, I work for a consultancy and my client saw your success case with company X. I’d like to learn about the solutions you implemented for that project.
- Terms acceptance: [“on”].
- Source: organic search | google
Here, we have real and contextual interest, indicating a more advanced stage in the buying funnel.
Where do conversions mislead reports?
Traditional reports often mask true performance by presenting numbers such as:
- Inflated numbers of rich material downloads;
- Growth in page views and clicks;
- Leads originating from paid campaigns or SEO, but without funnel progression.
A study by Demand Gen Report revealed that 95% of leads generated by B2B campaigns are not ready to buy, while only 5% are at the ideal stage of seeking solutions.
This means that many conversions presented as successes in meetings may be from people who:
- Downloaded an e-book because they find the topic interesting;
- Watched a webinar webinar
- Interacted with a post out of pure curiosity, with no purchase intent.
How to identify real intent in the B2B Tech market?
To differentiate superficial conversions from real opportunities, consider the following indicators:
- Complete lead profile
- Name and contact provided voluntarily;
- Well-defined company name.
- Proactive message with business context
- Source and origin journey
- Clear source such as transactional intent organic search;
- History of consistent and relevant interactions;
- B2B market decision cycle
- Assessing whether the lead lead is at the buying stage is critical to separate curious parties from buyers.
How to improve report quality?
1. Segment your leads by funnel stage
- Top of funnel: generic interest;
- Middle of funnel: exploring options;
- Bottom of funnel: ready to decide.
2. Adopt lead quality metrics, such as:
- Meeting scheduling rate;
- Percentage of Leads Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL);
- Conversion rate from Leads Marketing Qualified Leads to Leads Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)
3. Train your sales team to differentiate curious parties from real buyers.
Therefore, distinguishing conversion from real opportunity is what separates inbound marketing campaigns that generate value from campaigns that only generate nice-looking numbers in reports. The B2B Tech market, with its long decision cycles, requires marketing managers not only to attract but also to qualify accurately.
And you, how are you differentiating your metrics?
