How to Measure the Success of Lead Generation

There has been an ongoing debate in B2B marketing circles: Is the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) an antiquated, vanity metric?

We can all agree that the process almost always improves results. Plus, let's not forget, every customer starts out as a lead. No matter where the lead was sourced.

So, yes, MQLs matter. A lot. But how do we distinguish good leads from bad leads? How can we pursue the good ones if we don't even know what we're looking for?

What Is a Quality Lead?

To measure lead quality from your website, you need to evaluate two dimensions: fit (does this lead match your ICP?) and intent (are they ready to buy?). Track behavioral signals like content downloads, demo requests, and page visits. Then combine those with firmographic data to score each lead.

A quality lead isn't just someone who shows interest. It's someone whose interest signals both ICP alignment and buying readiness:

• Fit: Does this lead match your ideal customer profile?

• Intent: Is this lead actively researching or ready to buy?

Marketers often focus on the number of leads generated, while salespeople care more about the quality of those leads. This tension is solvable when both teams align on what constitutes a quality lead. A good lead demonstrates both ICP fit and buying signals.

How Lead Scoring Separates High-Quality Leads from Low-Quality Leads

For optimal sales & marketing alignment, the two must embrace the following tenet: Opportunity lives at the intersection of fit and timing.

Certain prospects may demonstrate buying behavior but never be a good fit. Other prospects could be ideal buyers that simply are not engaging with your marketing campaigns. Bad leads are pretty easily identifiable: they consist of any contact with a low probability of converting into a sale. This means they might have:

• Lack a use case for your product

• Unrealistic expectations/budgets

• An unspecified timeline

• Unclear understanding of what they need/want

This is where lead scoring comes in.

Lead scoring is the process of assigning values to each generated lead based on behavioral, demographic, firmographic, and technographic data. These values help marketing and sales prioritize leads, respond accordingly, and increase conversion rates.

The difference between high-quality and low-quality leads becomes clear when you compare them side by side:

• High-quality lead: Matches ICP, engages with bottom-funnel content, shows intent signals

• Low-quality lead: Outside target segment, single touchpoint, no buying signals

Just how important is a sound lead scoring system? At ZoomInfo, we require sales to follow up on all prospects who hit our MQL threshold within 90 seconds of the conversion. We're able to enforce that response time because we're confident in our lead scoring.

How to Build a Lead Scoring Model

While lead scoring may look different for each company, the common thread will always be data. A good place to start when developing a lead scoring strategy is to look at your list of current customers, and identify what they have in common. Don't forget to look at those who didn't become customers, and identify what characteristics they share.

Below are some key steps to building out a lead scoring strategy:

Build Buyer Personas That Reflect Your Best Customers

By now you probably know about buyer personas and how to use them to develop content and sales strategies. Once you have these established, you can begin to use them to identify ideal leads.

The more buyer personas you have, the more well-rounded your lead scoring system will be. A wider view of your audience reveals the multiple attributes that predict conversion.

Identify Demographic and Behavioral Data Points

Lead scoring criteria breaks down into four main categories: demographic, behavioral, firmographic, and technographic. Think of demographic data as who the person is, and behavioral data as what that person does.

You can then use this data to look back at past and current customers, see what they have in common, and target people with those same attributes.

Assign Point Values

There are a host of ways that you can assign value to rank your leads, but the most common way to do it is on a 0-100 point scale. You can then weigh the points in relation to how indicative they are about a lead's readiness to contact a sales rep.

For example, maybe your ICP is a stakeholder at a large-sized company. Your data also shows that leads typically download at least two top-of-funnel pieces of content before converting. You weigh each qualification, assign points, and calculate their total lead score.

Set Your SQL Threshold Based on Closed-Won Data

Again, quantity when it comes to leads does not equal quality. It's useful at this point to turn to data.

Look at some of your best sales, and identify the common characteristics all of those buyers had. This can help you set a benchmark for high scores.

It is also important to keep in mind that lead activity is always changing, and so should their scores. Lead management software can help you keep track of lead activity, and make sure that scoring is updated accordingly.

Key Metrics to Measure Lead Quality from Your Website

Lead scoring tells you which leads look good on paper. But to truly measure lead quality, you need to track how those leads perform downstream. These metrics prove whether your website is generating leads that actually convert:

• Lead-to-Opportunity Rate: What percentage of leads become sales opportunities? This shows whether your qualification criteria align with what sales considers actionable.

• Lead-to-Customer Rate: What percentage of leads become customers? High-scoring leads that never close signal a scoring model problem.

• Cost Per Qualified Lead: What does it cost to acquire a lead that meets your quality threshold? This helps you evaluate whether your website investments are efficient.

• Speed-to-Lead: How fast does sales follow up on qualified leads? Faster response times correlate with higher conversion rates.

• Source-Level Conversion: Which website sources produce leads that convert? Blog readers may convert differently than demo requesters.

Track these metrics by source, campaign, and landing page. You'll quickly identify which website activities generate quality leads and which produce volume without value.

How to Enrich Website Leads with Firmographic and Intent Data

Form fills alone don't tell you if a lead is qualified. Someone can submit their email and job title, but you won't know if they work at a company that fits your ICP or if they're actively evaluating solutions. Data enrichment solves this by adding context to every inbound lead.

Here's what different data types reveal:

• Firmographic data: Company size, industry, and revenue validate whether this lead works at a company that matches your ICP. If your product serves mid-market companies and the lead works at a 50-person startup, you know immediately this isn't a fit.

• Technographic data: Tech stack information reveals compatibility. If your product integrates with Salesforce and the lead's company uses HubSpot, that's a friction point worth knowing upfront.

• Intent signals: Buyer intent data shows whether this lead's company is actively researching solutions in your category. High intent means they're in-market. Low intent means they're exploring.

• Account-level matching: Connect inbound leads to target accounts. If a lead from your top-tier target account fills out a form, that's a different priority than a random inquiry.

Enrichment turns anonymous form fills into qualified leads with context. You can route high-fit, high-intent leads to sales immediately while nurturing others until they're ready.

Lead Quality vs Lead Quantity in B2B Marketing

The tension between lead quality and quantity isn't new. Marketing teams get measured on volume. Sales teams get measured on conversion. The result? Misalignment.

Volume-focused lead generation often produces low-quality pipeline. You hit your lead targets, but sales can't convert them. Quality-focused approaches improve sales efficiency. Fewer leads, but higher conversion rates and faster deal cycles.

The balance: you need enough leads to hit targets, but quality determines conversion. A hundred high-quality leads will outperform a thousand low-quality ones every time.

Watch for these signals that your lead quality is declining:

• Low contact rates: Sales can't reach the leads you're generating

• High disqualification rates: Most leads get marked as "not a fit" after initial outreach

• Sales complaints: Reps say the leads are "garbage" or "not ready to buy"

• Long sales cycles: Leads take forever to move through the pipeline

• Low conversion rates: Few leads become opportunities or customers

If you're seeing these patterns, shift focus from volume to quality. Tighten your ICP. Raise your lead scoring threshold. Invest in data enrichment. The result will be fewer leads that convert at higher rates.

Why Measuring Lead Quality Improves Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing collaboration turns lead scoring from an ambiguous exercise into a powerful alignment tool. When both teams agree on what constitutes a quality lead, you get:

• Faster follow-up: Sales prioritizes high-scoring leads because they trust the data

• Better targeting: Marketing focuses on channels and campaigns that produce quality, not just volume

• Improved conversion rates: Qualified leads convert at higher rates because they're actually ready to buy

• Reduced wasted effort: Sales stops chasing dead-end leads. Marketing stops optimizing for vanity metrics.

Lead scoring takes the guesswork out of refined lead generation. The result is predictable pipeline and revenue growth.

Talk to our team to learn how ZoomInfo can help you measure and improve lead quality.