Derrick Shields Blog

Looking forward, one can make a lot of assumptions about what will happen in the lead generation industry in 2010.  Undoubtedly, advertisers will continue to demand more accountability from their online ad dollars, which will in turn drive more money toward performance-based advertising/campaign models, and ultimately more revenue into the lead gen space.

Mobile Growth in 2010

Another sector that’s going to continue rapid growth is the mobile industry, or more specifically, the number of internet-enabled smart phones in use around the world by affluent, money-spending consumers.  Google acknowledges this coming shift in user engagement toward mobile, given the number of mobile-related acquisitions they’ve made in 2009, and my guess is that this trend will continue in the coming years (more on that below).  Let us not also forget the importance of better location-based advertising capabilities that comes with these new mobile advertising platforms.

While this is a very good thing for the online advertising space in general, especially for advertisers more interested in promoting brand-awareness, I don’t see a lot of lead generation dollars going to mobile ad campaigns unless some wider capabilities are introduced, and here’s why: while brand advertisers are seeing success with mobile because they’re interested in getting eyeballs to see their product, traditional performance marketing is built around the concept of user interaction; we need the end users to interact with our campaigns by providing their information.

Mobile Advertising + Lead Generation

The standard lead generation model is pretty much the same across all popular verticals; a user either fills out a number of forms or a single form with several fields, which works well on a full size monitor, however this method simply won’t transfer to mobile devices very well.

While it may only take 60 seconds on a full-size keyboard + monitor to fill out a standard lead form, this same form may take several minutes to complete on a mobile device, and users will ultimately abandon the process.

In order for the lead generation industry to fully engage itself the growing online ad world, some combination of the following events must take place:

• Drastically Shorter Forms. The industry have to introduce and accept extremely short forms that include a lot less information than is typical;  this may constitute a first name, email address and a phone number, regardless of the vertical.  Filling out a 20-field form just isn’t going to happen on a mobile device, so the idea is to keep the form short enough to keep the user interesting and engaged.  Then either the lead buyers or the aggregators acquiring the leads calls the user to fill in the gaps for data that would normally be required.


• Identity Profile Sharing. I don’t know what else to call this, but the idea is simple (and one many companies have tried to introduce in the past) -  as much of your identify is stored in your mobile device as you want, and you make it available to others at will.  Maybe it’s just simply your name and phone number, but perhaps maybe it’s a more comprehensive profile that includes your address, workplace, hobbies, etc.  The idea is that you control it, and you control who has access to it.  Advertising campaign could request information to your profile, and with a simple click you can grant that access.  It saves the user the hassle of having to enter redundant data (first name, last name, email, etc) over and over.  Give users the ability to control their level of privacy, and it will work.

I can’t believe something similar to this mobile identify profile hasn’t been introduced already; perhaps it has and has just hasn’t gained any traction, but I think for widespread acceptance it will need a big name behind it, like Google.  In fact, Google already has a “Profile” concept.  Permission-based Google profile integration with advertising campaigns would be a lead generators dream. Google, are you listening?

Google’s Mobile Ambitions

Coming full circle, let’s take a closer look at Google’s moves in recent years both in terms of acquisitions and overall strategic direction:

• Mainstream acceptance of their mobile Android OS
• Acquisition of AdMob for $750M
• Many smaller mobile-related acquisitions (see above)
• Involvement with Motorola Droid campaign
• Their own ‘Nexus One’

The list goes on… clearly, Google is poised to absolutely dominate everything mobile, and that means mobile advertising.  As technology evolves, so will the capabilities of these ad networks.  If Google controls the OS, the software capabilities, advertising network capabilities, I would be really surprised if we didn’t start to see a tighter integration between the people using mobile devices and the advertisements being served to them.

Privacy issues not withstanding, the possibilities of enhancing lead generation campaigns and techniques with mobile capabilities are endless.  I’m looking forward to 2010 and the innovations in the lead gen space that we will with without a doubt see.

Happy New Years…  Cheers to 2009, Cheers to 2010.