David Howell trials lead generation platform Lead Forensics to see if it could have a positive impact on your bottom line and help you convert web visitors to sales
Developer: Lead Forensics
Solution: Lead Forensics
URL: leadforensics.com
Tel: 0203 131 0154
Price: Varies depending on level of site traffic
Direct marketers have lived with the fact they can usually expect a conversion rate of around two-five per cent on their mailings. Translated to the web B2B companies will direct prospects to their website using AdWord campaigns or other forms of inbound marketing. The problem is a company will never be able to identify all the businesses that visited their site but didn’t convert into a sale. These invisible but potential leads are the focus of Lead Forensics’ platform.
The application
The application is delivered via a SaaS platform. Set up is child’s play with a piece of code pasted into the pages that are to be tracked. If you have set up Google Analytics, you will have no problems setting up the Lead Forensics platform.
Other applications are available, however, Lead Forensics differs in the depth of information that is presented on each potential lead. We particularly liked how the customer journey can be identified as they moved through a website. This is a powerful feature but add in the detailed information that can be revealed on each visitor, and Lead Forensics could be the marketing package your business has been waiting for.
Lead Forensics should not be approached in isolation. It’s no accident that the company has forged close links with Salesforce, Microsoft, Sage and Oracle, as most businesses will use Lead Forensics with their established CRM platform to give the granular data marketers need.
Use and interface
The user interface is crisp and clean. The main screen shows the visitor details, including their vital information, and the sequence of page visits they made. Powerful filtering is also possible via the control panel, which can deliver localised businesses if this is a target for your sales team. We also liked how leads can be tagged with user-defined icons that highlight those leads for specific contact by sales.
The system doesn’t identify the person that visited the site by name, as this would contravene the Data Protection Act, but it does identify the business that visited your website and which pages interested them – all vital information to give your sales team an edge when they make first contact with the potential lead.
The question is whether the data that Lead Forensics returns is reliable and, more importantly, actionable. Human intervention is the key, where analysts constantly look for visitor patterns that could indicate a potential sales lead. Unlike Google Analytics that simply applies an algorithm to identify incoming IP addresses, Lead Forensics delivers the deeper insight that marketers and their sales teams need.
Activity such as abandoned baskets, repeated visits to product feature pages or any FAQs clearly mark that visitor as a potential sales lead. With research suggesting most businesses buy from the first company they contact even if they have a shortlist, a timely sales call or email could secure that business. Lead Forensics offers a chance to identify the behaviour that could result in that sale. We also liked the tracking of PPC campaigns and the fact the system can identify whether a competitor is clicking to use your allocated daily budget.
For B2B enterprises that are seeing low conversion from their ad marketing, want to do A/B testing of web pages, identify the journey visitors took across their site and massively increase the number of potential sales leads, Lead Forensics delivers. It’s important to place the data generated into context and wrap this in a CRM system that will then give the detailed information on which a successful sales call is based.
How we tested
Features: The key features of the application were assessed and related to the core needs of the B2B user.
Implementation: How the system is installed and rolled out onto a B2B enterprise’s existing IT platform was evaluated.
Versatility: As no two businesses are the same, the reporting and filtering options were assessed. How much control the system gives was closely evaluated.
Usability: How intuitive the user interface is, and how it can be customised was assessed.
Value for money: The bottom line for any business is how the services they buy result in sales. We looked closely at the cost of installation and the level of return the platform offers to B2B users.
The verdict

Lead Forensics is an ideal platform for businesses that want to reveal as much information as possible about the invisible visitors to their websites in order to keep their sales teams fed with potential leads. This platform is not the cheapest on the market but is functionally richer than competitors’. It can also be tested via the free trial period. Lead Forensics won’t be ideal for all companies, but could add a highly useful component to an existing CRM platform.