Let’s face it — most marketers track vanity metrics that make them feel good but don’t actually move the needle.
This is true for lead magnets, too. Don’t get too excited about big download numbers without asking whether those downloads turned into anything valuable.
When you’re serious about optimizing your lead magnet funnel, you need to track metrics that matter — metrics that tell you not just how many people are entering your funnel, but how effectively your funnel is converting those people into qualified prospects and, ultimately, customers.
In this lesson, you’ll learn:
- Which touchpoint matter most when tracking the long-term success of your lead magnets
- Which metrics are most important for evaluating the health of each touchpoint
Let’s dive in!
The lead magnet metrics that actually matter
If you’ve followed all of the tracking recommendations throughout this playbook — excellent! That means you will have a wealth of data about how every element of your lead magnet funnel is working…or not working. And you have ideas about how to fix each step of the process.
But you can’t test and tweak every step of the funnel at the same time. So where do you start?
I recommend working from the top of your lead magnet funnel to the bottom, focusing first on these major touch points:
1. Landing Page Conversion Rate
This is the percentage of visitors who submit their information to get your PDF. A good conversion rate is typically between 20-40% for a well-targeted lead magnet. If you’re below 15%, something’s broken.
For ideas on how to measure and improve your landing page conversion rate, revisit this lesson.
Focus on continuous improvement, not perfection.
It’s unlikely you’ll ship a perfect lead magnet with stellar metrics across all touchpoints. Few teams have the time and budget to hit perfection — and that’s OK. The most successful marketers ship, track and improve. Steady improvement delivers long-term gains.
Oh, and if your landing page conversion rate is high? Don’t celebrate too quickly. Sometimes a high conversion rate means your landing page is promising more than your lead magnet delivers. Which leads us to…
2. Delivery Success & Open Rate
Track how many people who submitted the form actually receive and open your PDF. If this number is significantly lower than your opt-in rate, you have a delivery problem — either technical issues or an immediate case of subscriber’s remorse.
Use email marketing software that tracks opens and clicks so you can see if people are actually accessing your content after they’ve opted in.
For ideas on how to measure and improve your delivery success and follow-up emails, revisit this lesson.
3. Content Engagement Metrics
This is where most marketers drop the ball completely. They have no idea what happens after someone downloads their PDF.
If possible, use a document hosting solution (like Dropbox, Google Drive, or specialized platforms) that can track:
- How long prospects spend with your PDF
- How far they scroll
- Whether they return to it multiple times
A PDF that gets opened once for 8 seconds isn’t doing its job. If 80% of your leads aren’t spending meaningful time with your content, you have a value problem.
For ideas on how to measure and improve how people engage with your lead magnet, revisit this lesson.
4. Post-Download Actions
What do people do after consuming your lead magnet? This is your ultimate quality check. Track:
- Email sequence open and click rates
- Website visits from those who downloaded your PDF
- Specific page visits that indicate further interest
- Contact form submissions or demo requests
For ideas on how to measure post-download actions, revisit this lesson on creating your tagging framework.
Summary
By tackling any major issues in your lead magnet funnel at these four touchpoints, you’ll address all of the 80/20 wins for lead magnet success. Even modest improvements at each of these touchpoints can compound into a major lift in lifetime results.
Then you can decide if you want to continue optimizing these major touchpoints, tackle improvements on other pieces of the lead magnet funnel (such as split-testing design), and move onto your next marketing project knowing this one is working smoothly.
3 Takeaways
- Start with the major levers. Before you start making fine-tooth adjustments, make sure your landing page conversion rate, PDF delivery rates, follow-up engagement metrics, and post-download actions all look good.
- Work from the top of the funnel down. There are more people at the top of any funnel. That makes getting feedback on improvements faster at the top of the funnel. Fixing issues here will send more people down your funnel, making improvements on the middle and bottom of your lead magnet funnel easier to measure.
- Don’t worry about perfect. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s having a reliable growth engine for your business.
What to do next
Take your time to check and, if your numbers aren’t where you want them, improve the major touchpoints in your lead magnet funnel:
- landing page conversions
- PDF delivery
- Follow-up engagement
- Post-download actions
In the next lesson, we’ll give you detailed recommendations for approaching these improvements.