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Quick Read: Despite Google’s claims that broad match is more effective than ever before, many advertisers are still reeling from the loss of their beloved modified broad match type. How can you continue getting relevant traffic from your ads? 

Enter: Broad match keywords + audience targeting.

To be fair, this was always something you could do, but was not ideal due to its restrictive nature. However, now that modified broad is gone, we have to get craftier with the few match types we have left—broad match included.

So in this post, I’m going to share:

The benefits of using broad match + audience targeting (with expert input).
How to execute this funky strategy in Google Ads.
My three secrets for combining broad match with audiences effectively.
Follow my tips and tricks, and before you know it, broad match may become your best friend!

Why use the broad match + audiences strategy?

If we remember back a few months ago, Google announced it was sunsetting the modified broad match type. In that announcement, it claimed that “broad match is now more effective than ever,” as the algorithm has improved to allow broad match keywords to use context clues for triggering ads to the right searches.

Typos in last search example intended! Image adapted from Google.

Google continues its statement regarding broad match with the following:

“To help deliver relevant matches, this match type may also take into account the following:

The user’s recent search activities.
The content of the landing page.
Other keywords in an ad group to better understand keyword intent.”
This means broad match keywords will purposely overlook any grammatical errors or misspellings within a search if it’s still contextually relevant.

Despite Google’s claims of broad match efficiency, I know plenty of folks who are still wary of this match type, either due to negative experiences in the past with spending on irrelevant queries, or to the hesitation with risking more traffic while wasting an already-tight budget.

But, whether you feel like the updated phrase match type has been sluggish so far—or just have a stagnant campaign you’re looking to scale—then you may just have to resort to broad match type keywords. Don’t worry! Once you layer on audience targeting, you’ll have the secret sauce you need to avoid the consequences above.

Speaking of wasted budget, our free Google Ads Performance Grader will identify leaks in your spending and tell you how to plug them. Try it now!

 

How Google Ads broad match with audience targeting works

With this strategy, you can layer audiences to target on top of your broad match keywords to keep them in control. Now, we’re not talking a small remarketing audience, but the larger affinity, in-market, and custom audiences Google curates for us that have plenty of impressions to spare. 

Think of these audiences as a safety measure to keep your broad match keywords in check, so even if you’re not showing to the exact right search query, you at least know you’re showing to the right person. This is especially helpful bearing in mind that we can no longer see every single search term we’ve showed for in the search terms report anyway.

With the combination of broad match keywords (which will boost your reach) along with audience targeting (which will refine your reach quality) you’ll be able to scale your campaigns without the risk of irrelevant traffic or increased wasted spend.

The benefits of combining broad match keywords and audience targeting

Aside from being able to freshen strategy along with safely scaling your campaigns, this unique tactic also has a plethora of other benefits to fit any account needs. Maybe you’re not ready to scale out your campaign, but still feel like you’re stuck in a rut with duplicate searches and, inherently, leads. Or, you feel like you don’t necessarily have the brand awareness to capture searches.

This strategy solves both those problems by reaching folks who are in your target audience, but may not necessarily know they want to look specifically for you yet. Not only that, but this does that outside-the-box thinking for you to capture searches from those ideal audiences that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of to add as a keyword.

Image source

Another expert’s take on this modified broad match workaround

Don’t just take my word for it! I talked to PPC thought leader, Francine Rodriguez, who was voted a 2019 Top 5 PPC Rising Star and a 2020 Top 50 Most Influential PPC Expert by PPCHero, to get her take on this wacky strategy as well.

“This is a very good strategy. It’s like breaking normal PPC rules,” Rodriguez says. “You’re using shorter-term, broad keywords to capture any and all traffic of the desired audience. You can then use the search terms report later to come up with new terms for your other campaigns.” Notably, Rodriguez also mentions that “This is great for a hyper-local strategy as well—if you have a small area to target you want to make sure you get the biggest percentage possible of those impressions.”

So, even if you’re not looking to spend on a ton of new traffic, but you’re a small business looking to boost your local search marketing strategy, then this tactic could work for you.

How to set up this strategy in Google Ads

First, you’ll need a good, old-fashioned search campaign ready to go. This means taking an already created campaign or a new one with your settings, ad groups, responsive or text ads, and core terms for your broad match keywords ready to go. Then, follow these six easy steps:

Set all of your keywords to broad match.
Select either the entire campaign (audiences will apply all ad groups) or an individual ad group (audiences can change ad group by ad group depending on specific needs).
Click into audiences, then click the blue pencil to edit your audience targeting.
Be sure you have toggled the option of Targeting for the audiences you select.
Search through and select Google’s audience options or select a ready-made custom audience (you can try multiple for a wider reach then compare later, or pick just one to test the waters).
Hit save.
Now, your campaign will have your broad match keywords running alongside the audiences you selected to target. They will work hand in hand going forward by essentially saying “I’ll show for any search that contextually matches up to this broad match keyword, but only if it’s coming from someone in my selected targeted audience.”

Tips to make broad match + audience targeting  work

While the setup steps seem fairly easy, there are still a few hacks you’ll want to keep in mind to ensure you find success with this new strategy. Here are three tips to make this strategy work for you:

1. Review your bids

Since you’ll still have the flexibility to match up to more, you’re going to have the opportunity to serve for higher cost queries and may inherently spend more overall. That’s why, if on manual, it’s a good idea to slightly lower your Max CPC bids to play it safe while you’re collecting data during the beginning stages of this strategy.

Again, you may be matching up to more queries that, while maintaining quality through the audience acting as a filter, could result in queries that cost slightly higher in click than what you previously had been used to when doing the same old same old.

If you’re on automatic, then you luckily won’t have to worry. Google recommends using this with broad match keywords anyways, since the automatic bidding knows to bid lower or higher depending on the query relevancy.

However, it’s still a good idea to double-check your automatic bidding strategy to ensure it aligns with your goals. Meaning, if you have to set a bid limit on Max Clicks (or set a target on Max Conversions, Target CPA, or Target ROAS) you may still want to slightly lower that target as well, to encourage slightly lower bidding to keep costs in control to start.

2. Review your negative keywords

Or, add in more negative keywords if need be. While you’re giving Google just slightly more control to make the judgment calls on what queries you show for, you’re still the one in the driver’s seat of the campaign.

So, looking for other areas that you can maintain more power is key. Think of any possible words that could slip through that you definitely don’t want, and add those in as negative keywords before you start with this strategy as another safety measure.

Rodriguez also agrees this is a good idea .“You would need to have a solid negative list,” she mentioned. However, you don’t need to go too crazy. If we spent time adding negatives for everything irrelevant to our business we’d be doing it endlessly.

So, only bother for terms you think could be slightly similar to the broad match keywords you’re already using that you wouldn’t want to match to. For example, if you have the broad keyword of nurse courses or nurse classes, but you don’t offer any job placements after, then job related terms would be a good idea to add as negatives.

3. Review your campaign setup

If you haven’t caught on to the theme yet of checking your bidding and negatives, then I want to emphasize that it’s generally just a good rule of thumb to review your campaign before setting this strategy live.

Are there any other restrictions you had placed previously, like demographic exclusions or ad schedules that you think may make this strategy ineffective? Or, on the opposite end, are your location targeting and network preferences a bit loose, making this strategy a little too effective beyond your means?

Whenever changing to a new strategy, anything previously set could slip through the cracks. So, take a few extra minutes to double check the campaign is set how you prefer when executing this wider reach strategy.

Get more qualified leads using Google Ads broad match with audience targeting!

If you keep your PPC stagnant and never risk switching things up, you’ll find your account’s growth to be slim to none. When you feel you’ve tried everything and the campaign is still not performing how you’d like, then it’s time to think out of the box with something that may feel a bit risky or taboo, but can be immensely rewarding.

This is a great strategy to get to your ideal customers through those audiences without limiting your campaign via the two more restrictive match types. The great thing is it doesn’t take a ton of time to set up either, and you can always switch it back without any data hiccups if need be. Who needs modified broad, anyway? Broad match will work just fine for us—with the right audience that is!

Google Ads modified broad workaround (summary)

Despite Google’s claims that broad match is more effective than ever before, many advertisers are still reeling from the loss of their beloved modified broad match type.
The broad match keyword + audience layering strategy provides a solid workaround, allowing you to get the expanded reach of broad targeting but the quality leads of audience refining.
With it, you can resolve duplicate keywords, reach folks who may not yet know to look specifically for you, and capture new searches to target.
To set it up, select a campaign. Set all keywords to broad match. Select the entire campaign or individual ad group. Click into audiences and apply the audience of your choice. 
Check your bid strategy, campaign setup, negative keyword list to make sure this strategy will be effective, but not beyond your means.

Despite Google’s claims that broad match is more effective than ever before, many advertisers are still reeling from the loss of their beloved modified broad match type. How can you continue getting relevant traffic from your ads? 

Enter: Broad match keywords + audience targeting.

To be fair, this was always something you could do, but was not ideal due to its restrictive nature. However, now that modified broad is gone, we have to get craftier with the few match types we have left—broad match included.

So in this post, I’m going to share:

The benefits of using broad match + audience targeting (with expert input).
How to execute this funky strategy in Google Ads.
My three secrets for combining broad match with audiences effectively.

Follow my tips and tricks, and before you know it, broad match may become your best friend!

Why use the broad match + audiences strategy?

If we remember back a few months ago, Google announced it was sunsetting the modified broad match type. In that announcement, it claimed that “broad match is now more effective than ever,” as the algorithm has improved to allow broad match keywords to use context clues for triggering ads to the right searches.

Typos in last search example intended! Image adapted from Google.

Google continues its statement regarding broad match with the following:

“To help deliver relevant matches, this match type may also take into account the following:

The user’s recent search activities.
The content of the landing page.
Other keywords in an ad group to better understand keyword intent.”

This means broad match keywords will purposely overlook any grammatical errors or misspellings within a search if it’s still contextually relevant.

Despite Google’s claims of broad match efficiency, I know plenty of folks who are still wary of this match type, either due to negative experiences in the past with spending on irrelevant queries, or to the hesitation with risking more traffic while wasting an already-tight budget.

But, whether you feel like the updated phrase match type has been sluggish so far—or just have a stagnant campaign you’re looking to scale—then you may just have to resort to broad match type keywords. Don’t worry! Once you layer on audience targeting, you’ll have the secret sauce you need to avoid the consequences above.

Speaking of wasted budget, our free Google Ads Performance Grader will identify leaks in your spending and tell you how to plug them. Try it now!

 

How Google Ads broad match with audience targeting works

With this strategy, you can layer audiences to target on top of your broad match keywords to keep them in control. Now, we’re not talking a small remarketing audience, but the larger affinity, in-market, and custom audiences Google curates for us that have plenty of impressions to spare. 

Think of these audiences as a safety measure to keep your broad match keywords in check, so even if you’re not showing to the exact right search query, you at least know you’re showing to the right person. This is especially helpful bearing in mind that we can no longer see every single search term we’ve showed for in the search terms report anyway.

With the combination of broad match keywords (which will boost your reach) along with audience targeting (which will refine your reach quality) you’ll be able to scale your campaigns without the risk of irrelevant traffic or increased wasted spend.

The benefits of combining broad match keywords and audience targeting

Aside from being able to freshen strategy along with safely scaling your campaigns, this unique tactic also has a plethora of other benefits to fit any account needs. Maybe you’re not ready to scale out your campaign, but still feel like you’re stuck in a rut with duplicate searches and, inherently, leads. Or, you feel like you don’t necessarily have the brand awareness to capture searches.

This strategy solves both those problems by reaching folks who are in your target audience, but may not necessarily know they want to look specifically for you yet. Not only that, but this does that outside-the-box thinking for you to capture searches from those ideal audiences that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of to add as a keyword.

Image source

Another expert’s take on this modified broad match workaround

Don’t just take my word for it! I talked to PPC thought leader, Francine Rodriguez, who was voted a 2019 Top 5 PPC Rising Star and a 2020 Top 50 Most Influential PPC Expert by PPCHero, to get her take on this wacky strategy as well.

“This is a very good strategy. It’s like breaking normal PPC rules,” Rodriguez says. “You’re using shorter-term, broad keywords to capture any and all traffic of the desired audience. You can then use the search terms report later to come up with new terms for your other campaigns.” Notably, Rodriguez also mentions that “This is great for a hyper-local strategy as well—if you have a small area to target you want to make sure you get the biggest percentage possible of those impressions.”

So, even if you’re not looking to spend on a ton of new traffic, but you’re a small business looking to boost your local search marketing strategy, then this tactic could work for you.

How to set up this strategy in Google Ads

First, you’ll need a good, old-fashioned search campaign ready to go. This means taking an already created campaign or a new one with your settings, ad groups, responsive or text ads, and core terms for your broad match keywords ready to go. Then, follow these six easy steps:

Set all of your keywords to broad match.
Select either the entire campaign (audiences will apply all ad groups) or an individual ad group (audiences can change ad group by ad group depending on specific needs).
Click into audiences, then click the blue pencil to edit your audience targeting.
Be sure you have toggled the option of Targeting for the audiences you select.
Search through and select Google’s audience options or select a ready-made custom audience (you can try multiple for a wider reach then compare later, or pick just one to test the waters).
Hit save.

Now, your campaign will have your broad match keywords running alongside the audiences you selected to target. They will work hand in hand going forward by essentially saying “I’ll show for any search that contextually matches up to this broad match keyword, but only if it’s coming from someone in my selected targeted audience.”

Tips to make broad match + audience targeting  work

While the setup steps seem fairly easy, there are still a few hacks you’ll want to keep in mind to ensure you find success with this new strategy. Here are three tips to make this strategy work for you:

1. Review your bids

Since you’ll still have the flexibility to match up to more, you’re going to have the opportunity to serve for higher cost queries and may inherently spend more overall. That’s why, if on manual, it’s a good idea to slightly lower your Max CPC bids to play it safe while you’re collecting data during the beginning stages of this strategy.

Again, you may be matching up to more queries that, while maintaining quality through the audience acting as a filter, could result in queries that cost slightly higher in click than what you previously had been used to when doing the same old same old.

If you’re on automatic, then you luckily won’t have to worry. Google recommends using this with broad match keywords anyways, since the automatic bidding knows to bid lower or higher depending on the query relevancy.

However, it’s still a good idea to double-check your automatic bidding strategy to ensure it aligns with your goals. Meaning, if you have to set a bid limit on Max Clicks (or set a target on Max Conversions, Target CPA, or Target ROAS) you may still want to slightly lower that target as well, to encourage slightly lower bidding to keep costs in control to start.

2. Review your negative keywords

Or, add in more negative keywords if need be. While you’re giving Google just slightly more control to make the judgment calls on what queries you show for, you’re still the one in the driver’s seat of the campaign.

So, looking for other areas that you can maintain more power is key. Think of any possible words that could slip through that you definitely don’t want, and add those in as negative keywords before you start with this strategy as another safety measure.

Rodriguez also agrees this is a good idea .“You would need to have a solid negative list,” she mentioned. However, you don’t need to go too crazy. If we spent time adding negatives for everything irrelevant to our business we’d be doing it endlessly.

So, only bother for terms you think could be slightly similar to the broad match keywords you’re already using that you wouldn’t want to match to. For example, if you have the broad keyword of nurse courses or nurse classes, but you don’t offer any job placements after, then job related terms would be a good idea to add as negatives.

3. Review your campaign setup

If you haven’t caught on to the theme yet of checking your bidding and negatives, then I want to emphasize that it’s generally just a good rule of thumb to review your campaign before setting this strategy live.

Are there any other restrictions you had placed previously, like demographic exclusions or ad schedules that you think may make this strategy ineffective? Or, on the opposite end, are your location targeting and network preferences a bit loose, making this strategy a little too effective beyond your means?

Whenever changing to a new strategy, anything previously set could slip through the cracks. So, take a few extra minutes to double check the campaign is set how you prefer when executing this wider reach strategy.

Get more qualified leads using Google Ads broad match with audience targeting!

If you keep your PPC stagnant and never risk switching things up, you’ll find your account’s growth to be slim to none. When you feel you’ve tried everything and the campaign is still not performing how you’d like, then it’s time to think out of the box with something that may feel a bit risky or taboo, but can be immensely rewarding.

This is a great strategy to get to your ideal customers through those audiences without limiting your campaign via the two more restrictive match types. The great thing is it doesn’t take a ton of time to set up either, and you can always switch it back without any data hiccups if need be. Who needs modified broad, anyway? Broad match will work just fine for us—with the right audience that is!

Google Ads modified broad workaround (summary)

Despite Google’s claims that broad match is more effective than ever before, many advertisers are still reeling from the loss of their beloved modified broad match type.
The broad match keyword + audience layering strategy provides a solid workaround, allowing you to get the expanded reach of broad targeting but the quality leads of audience refining.
With it, you can resolve duplicate keywords, reach folks who may not yet know to look specifically for you, and capture new searches to target.
To set it up, select a campaign. Set all keywords to broad match. Select the entire campaign or individual ad group. Click into audiences and apply the audience of your choice. 
Check your bid strategy, campaign setup, negative keyword list to make sure this strategy will be effective, but not beyond your means.

Discussion Continues…: Read More

Is ### an Important Issue for You?
Contact us Today to discuss your concerns and options !

Quick Read: As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.  

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

Learn what a lead magnet is.
Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business. 
With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

Educational materials
Proprietary data
Prize-based incentives
Time-sensitive information
Free consultations and trials
As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient! 

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

 

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

 

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker 

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Attractive offer
Call-to-action
Form
Landing Page
Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more. 

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

Giveaways
Face-to-face field marketing
Influencer collaborations
Blog post downloads
Free tools
How-to and examples content
Podcasting
Idea generators
Cheatsheets
Webinars
Checklists
Templates
Original data reports
Product comparisons
Email courses
Case studies
Product pickers
Partner referral discounts
Event tickets
Early access
Free trials
Newsletter referrals
Discounts and promo codes
Free shipping
Free quote or consultation
Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms, we want to sign up!

As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.  

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

Learn what a lead magnet is.
Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business. 

With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

Educational materials
Proprietary data
Prize-based incentives
Time-sensitive information
Free consultations and trials

As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient! 

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

 

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

 

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker 

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Attractive offer
Call-to-action
Form
Landing Page

Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more. 

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

Giveaways
Face-to-face field marketing
Influencer collaborations
Blog post downloads
Free tools
How-to and examples content
Podcasting
Idea generators
Cheatsheets
Webinars
Checklists
Templates
Original data reports
Product comparisons
Email courses
Case studies
Product pickers
Partner referral discounts
Event tickets
Early access
Free trials
Newsletter referrals
Discounts and promo codes
Free shipping
Free quote or consultation

Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms, we want to sign up!

Discussion Continues…: Read More