Lead Generation Statistics (How Many Leads Businesses Generate?)

Are you searching for the most in-depth lead generation statistics and trends to stay ahead of the game?

Effective lead generation strategies, whether small businesses or multinational corporations, are at the core of sustainable growth and success.

Thus we touch on various approaches to lead generation, including email, content and social media.

Through a comprehensive analysis of the latest data, we aim to shed light on the crucial insights that shape how businesses attract, engage, generate and convert potential customers into valuable leads.

Equipped with all these stats and additional info, you’ll be empowered to make the right, strategic decision to optimize your marketing campaigns and take lead gen to the next level.

This post covers:

Lead Generation Statistics (Our Top Picks)

• Organizations, on average, generate 1,877 leads monthly
• Nearly 85% of marketers use submission forms to generate conversions
• B2B companies with a mature lead gen strategy see 133% greater revenue
• 80% of leads never become actual customers
• 90% of marketers use websites to generate leads
• Marketing emails’ average open rate is 21.5%
• Email segmentation can boost revenue by 760%
• 80.5% of B2B and B2C use content marketing to generate leads
• Social media helped nearly 70% of marketers generate more leads
• 92% of marketers use email to nurture audiences
• More than 75% of marketers use marketing automation

How Many Leads Businesses Generate?

1. Organizations, on average, generate 1,877 leads monthly

In a survey of 350+ companies, HubSpot found that organizations averagely generate over 1.8K+ monthly leads (of which 300+ become customers) and 1.5K+ marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

Note: The companies that took part in the survey are generating around 470,000 website visitors.

Yes, you need a lot of traffic to generate such a high number of leads. In other words, volume matters when it comes to lead gen.

Source: HubSpot

2. Most companies generate between 500 and 1K leads per month

Number of leads	Share of respondents
1-100	15%
101-500	19%
501-1000	19%
1001-2,500	17%
2,501-5,000	8%
5,001-10,000	5%
10,001+	5%

Fun fact, 12% of companies cannot say how many leads they generate in a month. If you’re one of those, you must start tracking conversions as soon as possible. This will help you optimize accordingly and scale to new heights, just like you deserve it.

Source: HubSpot

Lead Conversion Statistics

3. Nearly 85% of marketers use submission forms to generate conversions

The most widespread way of generating new leads is through submission forms, according to 84% of marketers. Around 50% of them use phone calls and 33% live chat to collect leads.

Source: Ruler Analytics #1

4. Responding in less than 5 minutes can mean 9 times higher conversions

Time is a crucial part of lead generation regarding conversions. Remember, lead gen is just one part of the game; turning leads into customers/conversions is the other part.

According to Vertigo Media, if following up in less than five minutes, you can score up to nine times higher conversions. Who doesn’t want that?

Being fast is essential if you want to boost your sales.

Source: Vertigo Media

5. B2B companies with a mature lead gen strategy see 133% greater revenue

Compared to average companies, those B2B companies with a strategic and mature lead generation process see a whopping 133% more revenue. But when compared to the least mature companies, the percentage jumps to 174%.

What’s also worth mentioning is that salespeople of mature companies spend 73% of their time selling. As a reference, sales reps of companies with an immature lead generation process spend 16% less of their time on selling.

Speaking of sales, have you seen our sales statistics?

Source: Intellistart

6. The average lead generation conversion rate is 2.9%

The average lead gen conversion rate is 2.9% across fourteen different industries.

Some of the highest conversion rates see dental and cosmetics, healthcare and industrial sectors. In contrast, the lowest rates are in B2B tech, B2C services, B2B eCommerce and travel.

The conversion rates can vary drastically on the level of maturity (as we’ve learned earlier) and what quarter we look at. Some industries have higher rates in Q1 (example: B2B services), some in Q2 (example: finance), some in Q3 (example: professional services) and some in Q4 (example: dental and cosmetic).

Source: Ruler Analytics #2

7. 80% of leads never become actual customers

If we look at the above stat comparing the number of leads and sales, the percentage of non-generated sales is even higher.

That said, don’t get too excited if you generate 1,000 leads. Why? Because only around 200 will turn into sales (but the number can be even lower if you don’t yet have a strong funnel set up).

That’s why you might want to implement a solid customer service strategy. For this reason, we prepared a list of the most crucial customer service statistics you should know about.

Source: Invesp

8. 95% of marketers know which channel generates the most leads

When it comes to ramping up your lead conversion rates, you need to know which channels work for your business best. Of course, no one size fits all rule exists, so every business needs to test generating leads on different platforms to find the best-performing one.

What’s encouraging is that 95% of marketers believe they know which channel generates them the most leads.

Source: Ruler Analytics #3

9. The average landing page conversion rate is 9.7%

When we looked at the findings from WordStream, they said that the average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 9.7%. Unfortunately, the statistics on CR vary significantly, but aiming somewhere between 2% and 5% is an excellent start.

Source: We also have a full-blown statistical roundup to learn more must-know landing page statistics.

10. 90% of marketers use websites to generate leads

When asking marketers which channels they prefer to use to drive leads and sales, most reported websites and blog content. The least common channels were influencer marketing, print, TV and radio.

Channel	Share of respondents
Website	90.7%
Blog content	89.2%
Email marketing	69.2%
Organic social	65.9%
PPC	53.7%
Paid social	48.3%
Video	47.8%
Events	32.2%
Display	28.8%
Press	28.2%

Source: Ruler Analytics #4

Lead Generation Challenges

11. Generating high-quality leads is marketers’ biggest challenge

In a survey of eleven different marketer challenges, the generation of high-quality leads ended up ranking the highest on the list. Second and third were proving ROI and tracking offline conversions.

Challenge	Share of respondents
Generating high-quality leads	37.1%
Proving ROI	31.2%
Tracking offline conversions	30.7%
Understanding lead quality	30.2%
Creating a high quantity of content	25.9%

In another survey by B2B Technology Marketing, they found even more marketers struggle to generate high-quality leads (61%).

Source: Ruler Analytics #4

12. Marketers struggle to track channels like TV, radio and print

100% of marketers said they struggle the most with tracking leads and sales through TV and radio. Print isn’t far behind, with a share of 95% of respondents saying it’s a complex channel to track.

The least difficult channels to track are PPC, email and website (don’t forget to check these website statistics and find out how many are there). It’s easier to use software that does all the heavy tracking work for these than for TV, radio and print.

Source: Ruler Analytics #4

13. Marketers’ biggest barrier to lead gen success is a lack of resources in staff, budget and time

Over 40% of marketers report that their biggest barrier to their B2B lead generation success is a lack of resources in staffing, budgeting and time. Moreover, just over 40% of them name “lack of high-quality data/lists to drive campaigns” as the biggest barrier.

The lowest on the list of barriers is the lack of support from IT and C-suite.

Source: B2B Technology Marketing

14. Nearly 70% of B2B businesses haven’t identified their funnel

If you don’t know your funnel, you can never optimize and grow as you would want to. Identifying your funnel is one of the critical elements of successful B2B lead generation.

Unfortunately, 68% of businesses don’t have their funnel identified. In addition to that, 79% of marketers don’t have an established lead scoring.

Source: Marketing Sherpa

15. It takes 18 or more calls to reach a prospect/potential buyer

One of the marketers’ biggest challenges is to reach and connect with prospects because it takes, on average, a whopping eighteen calls to get to them.

Source: Gartner

Email Lead Generation Statistics

16. Marketing emails’ average open rate is 21.5%

The open rates of marketing emails vary significantly depending on the industry and niche we look at, but the overall average is 21.5%.

Some of the highest open rates have industries like education, agriculture, financial services, and nonprofit, to name a few.

On the lower end are retail, wellness, fitness, politics and professional services.

When looking regionally, the highest open rates are in the United Kingdom (22.9%), followed by APAC (22.4%), EU (22.1%) and AMER (21.0%).

Source: Campaign Monitor #1

17. Email open rates improved by 3.5% in a year

Between 2020 and 2021, the average open rate improved by 3.5%, jumping all the way to 21.5%. However, that’s not the case for average click-to-open rates (yes, that’s getting subscribers to click on the email links) – they were down by 3.6%.

Source: Campaign Monitor #1

18. Monday’s marketing emails receive a 22% open rate

If you are doing email marketing to generate new leads, you might just want to send most of your email on Mondays. Campaign Monitor found that Mondays perform the best, followed by Tuesdays (21.8%) and Wednesdays (21.8%).

The days with the lowest open rates are Fridays (21.6%), Saturdays (20.5%) and Sundays (20.3%).

Additionally, click-through and click-to-open rates are the best on Tuesdays and the worst on weekends.

Source: Campaign Monitor #1

19. 64.1% of small businesses find success in email marketing

Email marketing (64.1%) is small businesses’ second most used marketing channel, 5.5% behind Facebook (69.6%). Direct email (52.4%) is also very popular, surpassing Instagram, Twitter, print ads and paid search.

On the contrary, the least used channels are Snapchat, billboards and advertising on Pandora and Spotify.

Source: Campaign Monitor #2

20. 30% ROI increase due to email A/B testing

Regardless of the marketing channel you opt for, A/B or split-testing is necessary if you want to witness tangible results.

According to the Litmus guide, you can improve your ROI by 28% due to A/B testing.

Friendly tip: When performing any kind of test and marketing optimizations, test one element at a time (for example: test two subject lines against each other).

Source: Litmus

You can find a lot more on email marketing and other handy information by checking our digital marketing statistics.

21. Email segmentation can boost revenue by 760%

Sending out generic emails (even if you extensively A/B test them) will eventually plateau. The real game begins when you start integrating email campaign segmentation, which is something 76% of marketers do.

This strategy can improve your revenue even up to 760% – which, I’m sure, will make you want to take email list segmentation seriously.

Segmentation makes emails more personal – and personalization WINS big times.

Source: Campaign Monitor #3

Content Lead Generation Statistics

22. 80.5% of B2B and B2C use content marketing to generate leads

Every marketer knows that content marketing is a great way to generate leads for businesses.

However, B2B organizations are more aware of the power of content marketing because 85% of them use content to generate leads. On the contrary, 76% of B2C organizations leverage content for lead generation.

Get more insights on content marketing through these business blogging statistics.

Source: Marketingprofs

23. 36% of content marketers’ goal is generating leads

While generating leads isn’t the top goal for content marketers, it still falls in third place, with increasing brand awareness (45%) and attracting website traffic (37%) being in first and second place.

Source: Semrush

24. Content marketing generates around 3x as many leads as traditional marketing per $ spent

If you want to save money and attract more leads, you might want to skip traditional marketing and switch to content marketing.

Creating and distributing the highest quality content can boost lead generating by 3x while costing more than 60% less than traditional marketing.

A content marketing strategy can improve brand loyalty, keep the reader’s attention and increase direct sales. (60% of people who read content about something are more likely to opt-in or make a purchase.)

Source: Demand Metric

25. Content marketing is most effective when targeting leads in their early buying journey

Over half of the marketers (56%) are firm believers that content marketing has the biggest effect in the early stage (creating awareness and interest) of a consumer’s buying journey (up by 5% since 2018).

Only 24% think content marketing is effective during the middle stage, and even less (8%) voted for the late, buying stage.

Source: Content Marketing Institute #1

26. Podcasts, blog posts and videos are the best types of content during the early stage

Since we now know that content marketing has the most significant effect on consumers during their early “buying” stage, it’s worth mentioning that 77% of marketers said podcasts are the best type of content, followed by blog posts/articles (76%) (check out our blogging statistics) and videos (59%).

Case studies and white papers are the least effective content types for building awareness and interest.

Source: Content Marketing Institute #1

27. Social media helped nearly 70% of marketers generate more leads

Social media isn’t only for connecting and interacting with your audiences but also an excellent solution for generating leads.

The Social Media Examiner report found that social media marketing has helped 68% of marketers (with five or more years of experience) generate more leads.

Moreover, 42% of marketers with one year or less experience reported the same positive impact of social media marketing on lead gen.

Fun fact: 66% of marketers generate leads only by spending six hours on social platforms.

Source: Social Media Examiner

28. Marketers use social media mainly for improved traffic, lead gen and growing fan loyalty

Most marketers say that the biggest advantage of using social media is increased exposure, followed by improved traffic, lead generation and growing fan loyalty.

Furthermore, three of the most common social media platforms are Facebook (best for B2B and B2C lead gen), Instagram (best for B2C lead gen) and LinkedIn (best for B2B lead gen).

Source: Statista

29. Social media’s customer engagement rate is just over half a percent

The customer engagement rate on social media is very low – in fact, it is 0.56% low, which is FAR worse when compared to email marketing. However, this doesn’t make social the worse strategy for lead generation.

Source: OptinMonster

30. 40% of CMOs report measuring the impact of social media on their business as challenging

While social media is a fantastic way to reach more leads and grow your business, 40% of CMOs report measuring its impact on their businesses as challenging.

Source: Ruler Analytics #2

31. More than 80% of social media leads are thanks to Twitter

Twitter is one of the social media platforms that generates the most leads. According to Digital Media Stream, 82% of social media leads come directly from Twitter.

Thus, if you aren’t yet on Twitter (or aren’t yet using it for lead gen), you might start working on a strategy that will benefit your business.

Source: Digital Media Stream

Check more interesting facts and figures about social media by checking our social media statistics.

Lead Nurturing Statistics

32. 92% of marketers use email to nurture audiences

The most preferred method for nurturing audiences and leads for over 90% of marketers is email and email marketing campaigns (welcome services, drip campaigns, etc.).

Second and third are paid advertising and sponsored (virtual and in-person) events. The least common are special offers, incentives and membership perks.

Source: Content Marketing Institute #1

33. Nurtured leads make almost 50% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads

If you are not interested in lead nurturing, I’m sure this stat will make you think otherwise. Invesp reports that nurtured leads are averagely making 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

Now imagine the impact nurtured leads can have on the growth of your business.

Source: Invesp

34. 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% less cost for companies that work on lead nurturing

Not yet convinced about lead nurturing?

Here’s one more great proof that it works. Those companies that excel at lead nurturing not only generate 50% more sales-ready leads, but they also do it at 33% less cost.

More leads for less money? I’m down!

Source: Invesp

35. Lead nurturing emails receive a 4-10 times higher response rate

Email marketing segmentation works wonders – that’s what you know already. But if you implement it into a lead nurturing strategy, it can take things to the next level.

Lead nurturing emails can get anywhere from four to ten times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts.

Source: Invesp

36. The biggest lead nurturing challenge is creating relevant content

Nearly 60% of marketers report creating relevant content as their biggest challenger of lead nurturing programs.

Challenges of lead nurturing	Share of respondents
Creating relevant content	59%
Targeting by decision state	49%
Targeting by prospect persona	39%
Nurturing campaign workflow	33%
Personalizing campaigns	32%
Multi-channel integration	31%
Segmenting lead data	29%

Source: Invesp

37. Social media and website analytics are the leading lead gen tools

When looking at the use of content marketing for effectively generating new leads, marketers report they use the following tools to manage their efforts:

• Social media (58%)
• Email marketing software (58%)
• Website analytics (49%)
• SEO (44%)

What’s more, most marketers use more than five tools daily to make their marketing strategy work to their advantage.

Source: Semrush, Optimizely

38. CMOs to increase their budgets in marketing technology

Even though they are shrinking the total marketing budget, 26.6% of CMOs say they will invest more in marketing technology/martech. Hey, if the competition uses technology and automation and you don’t, it’ll be hard to see the same or better results.

Source: Gartner

39. More than 75% of marketers use marketing automation

Even though different resources report slightly different percentages, HubSpot found that 76% of marketers/businesses use marketing automation. In general, the more successful the company is, the more likely it will use some form of automation in its marketing strategy.

You shouldn’t miss checking our marketing automation statistics to see how beneficial it is.

Source: HubSpot

40. 80% of marketers report a lead increase due to marketing automation

And that’s why the top players use marketing automation. But it’s not just that the leads increase when adopting marketing automation; 77% of professionals also report a conversion boost.

Source: VentureBeat

41. B2B companies use analytics tools and email marketing software to manage their content marketing

The two main tools/software B2B companies use to distribute and manage their content are analytics tools (86%) and email marketing software (85%).

Some other useful solutions are social media publishing (80%), customer relationship management (65%), content management system (51%) and content creation (48%), to name a few.

Source: Content Marketing Institute #2

Conclusion

You and your business can take an informed approach to sustained growth, increased ROI and improved customer engagement with this statistical roundup.

Explore new channels and leverage new technologies to stay ahead in the competitive landscape of lead gen.

Remember, lead generation is not a one-size-fits-all approach; every business and every audience is different.

But continuous statistical analysis and a better understanding of the industry allow for targeted and effective campaigns.

So, benefit from these insights, embrace the power of data and propel your lead generation ambitions to new heights.

Unlock the full potential of your business now.