According to a recent survey from Eloqua, CMO.com and Software Advice, B2B marketers indicate that third-party lead generators yield the highest volume of leads, followed by search engine advertising and in-house email marketing. The survey found that 34 percent of B2B marketers around the world say third-party lead originators produce a high quantity of leads, while 30 percent say search engine advertising produces a high quantity of leads and 25 percent say in-house email marketing produces a high quantity of leads.
Trade shows and events (22 percent), search engine optimization (21 percent), third-party webinars (19 percent), third-party email marketing (17 percent) and telemarketing/cold calling (16 percent) followed. Just 10 percent of B2B marketers say they get a high quantity of leads via social media (not ads), and just 5 percent say they get a high quantity of leads via social media ads. Many respondents say the leads they got from social media channels were of poor quality.