B2B campaigns: compare suitable enquiries and costs
A worked campaign example separates form submissions, duplicates and qualified enquiries, with the advertising cost of each.
Define a suitable enquiry before comparing campaigns. A form may be submitted repeatedly or ask for a service you do not offer. Sales planning therefore needs a traceable review status alongside submission totals.
Review against a fixed rule
In this fictional example, a business builds custom ordering portals. An enquiry qualifies when it describes a concrete need for that offered service and the contact is reachable for clarification. This is a chosen example definition. A qualified enquiry is not a won order.
Repeated submissions of the same transaction are linked through a stable enquiry ID. The same email address alone does not prove duplication: one person may enquire about two separate projects. Unreviewed enquiries receive their own status and are not silently counted as unsuitable.
Complete the comparison
All values below are invented, not ASES results or market prices. Both campaigns cover the same service and period. The agreed review time has elapsed for every enquiry and all assessments are complete.
Measure | Campaign A | Campaign B |
|---|---|---|
Advertising spend | 300 EUR | 300 EUR |
Form submissions | 30 | 15 |
Extra submissions of the same transaction | 10 | 0 |
Distinct enquiries | 20 | 15 |
Of these, qualified | 4 | 6 |
Advertising cost per submission | 10 EUR | 20 EUR |
Advertising cost per qualified enquiry | 75 EUR | 50 EUR |
A produces more submissions and initially looks cheaper at 300 ÷ 30. Under the same qualification definition, B produces more suitable enquiries: 300 ÷ 6 = 50 EUR, while A costs 300 ÷ 4 = 75 EUR. This includes only the stated advertising spend. Agency work, follow-up and sales effort are excluded.
Connect measurement to processing
Define the event that proves an enquiry has been successfully recorded. Clicking “Submit” does not establish this. Store the source with the enquiry where reliably available, and track later qualification and sales outcomes as separate steps.
Google Analytics distinguishes generate_lead and qualify_lead, for example. Event names do not establish whether your business definition is sound. Our example counts enquiries; it is not automatically the same as an Analytics report counting unique users. Do not copy names, email addresses or free text into this campaign analysis; a purpose-specific internal reference is enough for linking.
Compare cases on equal terms
Check whether the audience, service, measurement definition or review time has changed. A newly started campaign may still have many unreviewed enquiries. Show that share separately from older, fully assessed records.
A cheaper qualified enquiry does not prove higher returns either. Follow which suitable enquiries progress to conversations, proposals and orders. Different order values and follow-up effort can change the decision.
This small example explains the arithmetic; it does not provide a reliable winner forecast. State the period, definition, review status and cost scope in the next report. That lets you distinguish an observed improvement from a change in how you count.
Sources
Written by
- Anna NeumannEditor for Content and Digital MarketingAnna Neumann plans and writes content on digital marketing at ASES. Her topics include search engine optimisation, content strategy and web analytics, with a focus on evaluating marketing activities and their results in a transparent way.
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