67+ Lead Generation Statistics & Trends (2024)

Mor Mester 6 June 2024

Marketers are need to generating high-quality leads to increase sales. That’s easier said than done. The truth is that finding qualified leads requires a lot of time and resources. And sales teams have to learn how to nurture leads as well.

Is implementing a lead generation strategy still a viable option in 2024? Or should marketers focus on other marketing tactics?

Here are some of the most recent lead generation statistics to help you find the answer. This list discusses ways marketers generate leads and the challenges they face when they do.

General Lead Generation Statistics

1. 90.7% of marketers use their websites to generate leads and sales. Blogs (89.2%), email marketing (69.2%), organic social (65.9%), and PPC (53.7%) round out the top 5 channels.

2. 67.8% of marketers store their lead data in a CRM. 25% use Google Sheets or Excel. 7.2% don’t store their lead data at all. You can find CRMs with email marketing to store lead data, send email campaigns, and automate messages.

3. 78.1% of marketers use “leads generated” as a metric for measuring the success of their campaigns.

4. At 4.92%, government administration is the industry with the best lead conversion rate. Other top-performing industries include public relations and communications (4.66%), mining and metals (4.62%), and non-profit organization management (4.62%).

5. The industries with the lowest-performing lead conversion rate (1.52%) are banking and manufacturing. Other industries with low lead conversion rates are luxury goods and jewelry (1.9%), computer games (1.95%), and apparel and fashion (1.93%).

6. On average, it takes leads 64.5 days to convert into a customer. 

7. Ireland has the highest cold email reply rate at 17%. Other countries with high reply rates include Slovenia (16%), Denmark (16%), South Africa (15%), and Norway (13%). The country with the lowest reply rate is Azerbaijan at 1%. You can increase cold email replies and reduce bounces by cleaning your list with email verification tools. 

8. 91% of marketers say lead generation is their most important goal.

B2B Lead Generation Statistics

1. 87% of B2B marketers successfully used content marketing to generate leads for their organizations. 

2. 78% of B2B marketers successfully used content marketing to nurture subscribers, audiences, and leads.

3. 52% of B2B marketers said that the metric that gave them the most insight into their content performance is the quality of their leads. 41% said it was the number of leads. 29% said the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, and customer provided the most insight.

4. 76% of B2B marketers said they achieved their goal of generating leads through content marketing. 63% said they achieved their goal of nurturing subscribers, audiences, or leads.

5. B2B sales representatives who perform manual lead outreach spend 28% of their time researching targets and sourcing contact details. Other tasks mentioned are cold calling intros (21%), manual email (14%), sales admin (11%), meetings and events (16%), and pitching, proposing, and closing (10%). Good email finder tools can reduce the time spent sourcing contact details like emails and phone numbers.

6. B2B sales reps with specialist agencies spend 73% of their time pitching, and closing deals. Other tasks include sales admin (11%) and meetings and events (16%). This makes them more efficient than those who perform outreach manually. Many email outreach tools have sales automation features to save time spent on research, admin, and emails.

7. The average B2B cold email response rate is 7%. The average open rate is 36%.

8. Reaching out to 2 to 4 leads per company gives you a reply rate of up to 7.8%. Contacting 5 to 10 leads from the same organization will drop the response rate between 6.1% and 2.5%.

9. 220% more leads answer B2B emails after the first follow-up. But sending a second follow-up email only increases replies by 9%. A third follow-up drops response rates by 20%.

10. Following up on a B2B email within 1 day will decrease response rates by 11%. But sending leads a follow-up email in 3 days increases replies by 31%.

11. 49% of B2B marketers said their goal in 2023 was generating more leads for their organizations. 46% said it was improving overall lead quality and conversion rates.

12. 55% of B2B marketers met but didn’t exceed their target lead numbers. 22% of organizations exceeded their lead generation targets for the top of the funnel. This means they were able to get basic contact information. Only 10% of B2B marketers exceeded their targets for the middle or bottom of their sales funnel. There are specialized sales funnel software to create and optimize funnels for higher conversion.

13. 98% of B2B marketers said virtual events are the best channels for generating quality leads. 96% said website and SEO.

14. 90% of B2B marketers said appointment setting is effective in generating leads.

Lead Generation Content Statistics

1. 34% of marketers said their key content marketing goal for 2023 is to generate leads.

2. 67% of marketers measure their marketing ROI by calculating the revenue from leads or conversions generated by content marketing.

3. 28% of marketers said leads are the key metric they use to measure the success of their content. 14% said it’s the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, or customer.

4. 33% of content marketers said they could achieve their goal of generating leads and conversions.

5. 28% of video marketers use leads or clicks to quantify their return on investment.

6. 87% of video marketers said video content helped them with their lead generation efforts. 

Marketing Automation for Lead Generation Statistics

1. 80% of marketing automation users see an increase in leads generated.

2. 34% of marketers said that marketing automation improves lead generation and nurturing.

3.11% of marketers use marketing automation for lead scoring.

4. 50% of companies want to increase lead generation with their marketing automation platform.

5. Lead management (44%) and lead scoring (40%) are among the top 5 features companies look for when buying a marketing automation platform. Integrations (53%), email marketing (45%), and segmentation (29%) are the other top features. 

6. 44% of companies have increased leads with a marketing automation platform.

7. 41% of marketers use AI in their lead magnet follow-up automations. 32% create nurture sequences based on user behavior with AI.

Social Media Lead Generation Statistics

1. 25% of social media marketers want to find the best ways to generate leads.

2. 64% of marketers say lead generation is the biggest benefit of using social media. 

3. 69% of marketers with more than 5 years of experience agree or strongly agree that they’re more proficient at generating leads through social media. 

4. 43% of marketers say Facebook contributes the most leads among social media sites. Other social media platforms that contribute leads are LinkedIn (42%), Instagram (32%), YouTube (28%), Twitter (19%), and TikTok (18%).

5. 44% of VPs and executives said the social media metrics they track regularly are conversion rates and leads generated. 43% of strategists, managers, and directors said the same.

6. 21% of brands use leads as their most commonly used metric for demonstrating the return on investment of their social activities.

Email Marketing Lead Generation Stats

1. 74.7% of marketers are actively growing their email lists. 

2. 76.2% of marketers who use opt-in forms prefer using pop-ups. Others preferred using embedded forms (59.5%), top bars (23.8%), fullscreen covers (7.1%), and scroll boxes (7.1%).

3. 54.7% of marketers found opt-in forms effective in generating leads. 18% of marketers say they aren’t effective. 

4. 79.1% of marketers who use opt-in forms will use lead magnets with them. Ebooks are the most used lead magnet with 75% of marketers using them. 25% of marketers rely on discounts and free trials.

5. 38.1% of marketers track exit intent to generate leads. This strategy includes using exit-intent pop-ups to win abandoning visitors through special offers like free ebooks and discounts.

6. 59% of marketers rate emails as the most reliable channel for driving leads.

7. 70% of marketers stop after sending one email which means they’re potentially missing out on 76% of their total leads. Four emails seem to be the sweet spot.

8. A lead is 21 times more likely to enter the sales process if you reply within the first five minutes compared to 30 minutes. 

9. 83% of B2B marketers agree that email marketing is important for lead generation.

Find more marketing stats in our collection of email marketing statistics and marketing automation stats.

Lead Nurturing and Conversion Statistics

1. 84% of marketers use form submissions to convert site visitors into sales-ready leads. Others use phone calls (50.3%), live chat (33.2%), ecommerce (30.2%), and events (16.6%).

2. 33% of salespeople said that they get their highest-quality leads from referrals made by existing customers. Other sources include social media (33%), email marketing (25%), telemarketing (19%), and website (18%). 

3. 43% of marketers believe their lead nurturing strategies need improvement. 31% said their strategies are average. 12% said that their lead nurturing strategies are excellent.

4. 26% of marketing professionals don’t have a lead nurturing strategy or plans to implement one. 35% have a working plan. 39% say they are in the planning stages.

5. 43% of marketers said that after improving conversion rates, their top priority for their lead nurturing program is improving customer retention. Others said increase engagement (43%), increase brand awareness (42%), and improve customer experience (41%).

6. 75% of marketers think their lead nurturing strategy is somewhat successful at achieving their top priorities. 9% believe theirs is unsuccessful. 16% say their strategy is very successful.

7. 43% of marketers say the biggest challenge of their lead nurturing strategy is creating targeted, engaging content. Aligning marketing and sales efforts (36%), and allocating adequate resources (32%) round out the top 3 lead nurturing challenges.

8. 69% of marketers use email during the lead nurturing process. Social media (67%), website personalization (38%), paid advertising or retargeting (34%), and mobile optimization (14%) are other frequently used lead nurturing channels.

9. 56% of marketers name targeted content as the most essential strategic element of a successful lead nurturing program. Others mention timely follow-up (49%), personalization (49%), and multi-channel nurturing (26%).

10. 41% of marketers say automation software is important to improving lead nurturing performance. 39% said it’s very important, 13% said it’s somewhat unimportant, and 7% said it’s not important at all.

11. 84% of marketers agree that allocating more time or resources to lead nurturing efforts will improve conversion rates. 7% somewhat disagree, and 1% strongly disagree.

Check out CRM statistics for more sales stats and CRM trends.

Lead Generation Challenges Statistics

1. 37.1% of marketers state generating high-quality leads is their biggest challenge. 

2. 62% of marketers who use phone calls to convert leads say they struggle to track inbound calls.

3. 53% of marketers who use live chat to generate leads say they struggle to track their progress. The same goes for the 36% who use form submissions. 

4. 17% of sales reps saw the lack of high-quality leads as their biggest challenge in 2023. 

5. 34% of sales reps said the main reason leads back out of deals is because they aren’t ready to make a purchase. Other reasons include leads aren’t convinced that the product is worth its price (31%), they don’t think the product is right for them (28%), and the sales process takes too long (28%).

6. 43% of salespeople said they need higher-quality leads from their marketing teams.

7. 45% of content marketers said attracting quality leads with their content is their top challenge. 38% of businesses struggle with finding enough resources to produce more content for generating leads.

8. 36% of email marketers said their biggest challenge is generating enough leads. 19% said the challenge is lead quality, and 14% said it’s proving ROI.

9. 96.45% of website visitors aren’t ready to buy. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 3.65% globally, which means most of the visitors aren’t ready to buy when they land on a site.

10. 80% of new leads never turn into sales. Targeting, segmentation, and lead nurturing are good tactics to increase lead conversions.

11. 24% of marketers say their top challenge is creating content that generates leads.

The Benefits of Lead Generation

There are several benefits to producing high-quality, inbound leads. Every business should have lead generation goals to help its marketing and sales team increase revenue. Lead generation will help you:

Find More Sales Opportunities

Marketers spend a lot of time fine-tuning their lead generation process just to generate high-quality leads. That’s because these potential customers are already interested in the products the businesses are trying to sell. These valuable leads are more open to engaging with a sales team. 

Reduce Marketing Costs

When your main focus is getting qualified leads, you can reduce your marketing costs. Why? Because you’re spending your budget going after the right people. For instance, with a lead generation tool you can create strategic landing pages for your outbound marketing that target qualified leads. You can find landing page builders with personalization and targeting features. 

Improve ROI

Strategies like outbound lead generation make you more efficient, especially when you use lead generation tools. That means better ROI compared to using traditional marketing strategies.

Build Customer Database

Having a list of qualified leads lets you reach out to potential customers through different marketing channels in the future. You should also use that data to create new lead generation strategies. Another advantage of having a database is that you get to know your audience. This will help you figure out what your budget for lead generation should be and what lead generation methods you should use.

If you’re looking for more stats, check out our collection of online learning statistics, ChatGPT stats, and landing page statistics.

About Mor Mester

Mor Mester is the Head of Content Marketing at EmailVendorSelection. He's an email marketing and marketing automation expert with 6+ years of experience. Having tested and reviewed 100+ email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, ecommerce, SMS marketing, email verification, online course, and lead generation tools, he knows a good business software when he sees one.
After work, you can find him riding his bike on some trails.

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