Determining the value of a B2B "conversion" (lead)

Virtually everything I read about PPC is about B2C. What about B2B, where a conversion indicates interest but isn't a sale?

We've been doing PPC for 18 months, collecting leads for enterprise-level software. Nobody buys from us online - a sale takes weeks or sometimes a year to close, depending on deal size, which can range from a $50 monthly subscription to millions of dollars.

We're willing to raise our bids substantially but at some point we need to decide how much a lead is worth to us.

In case it matters, we use Salesforce.com to manage our contact info, and use their Salesforce for Google Adwords add-in to import ad, conversion, and keyword data directly into SF.

You have all the tools you need. You need to measure not only leads (inquiries / requests for white papers/free trials, etc.) but also *qualified* leads and closed business by keyword. With Salesforce.com for AdWords, you can pull these reports easily. Then, bid where the data tells you to bid.

For B2B, my experience tells me that the long tail is not very important for b2b in terms of generating high volumes of *qualified* leads. This is based on 3+ years of doing b2b ppc for various clients including public companies.

--Terry
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