Top 5 tactics to boost PPC lead quality in 2025

Based on the hundreds of conversations I’ve had with B2B and lead generation brands over the years, this could be an annual – if not monthly or even weekly – topic. 

Lead quality remains a constant challenge, regardless of shifts in the advertising landscape.

In 2025, my top PPC strategies for improving lead quality blend time-tested fundamentals with newly released features. 

If you implement everything on this list, you’ll stay ahead of the curve – and you’ll see your marketing dollars drive greater down-funnel impact.

1. Nailing the basics

This falls into the evergreen category, but I still see brands coming up short.

To assess lead quality, you must first understand which leads matter most for your business.

That means refining your buyer persona, which includes attributes such as:

• Position or title.
• Vertical.
• Company size.
• Target company list.

Our team frequently corrects several foundational issues for new clients. The most common include:

• Understanding and leveraging the most effective targeting options.
• Defining and clearly conveying your company’s unique value proposition.
• Aligning the ad-to-landing page experience.
• Establishing and optimizing a nurturing process to move leads through the funnel.
• Understanding intent signals and aligning the call to action accordingly.

In other words, identify the leads you want, and ensure they have every reason to move through the customer journey once they enter your system. 

As you retain more high-value leads, your overall lead quality will improve.

Dig deeper: How to improve PPC lead quality for B2B campaigns

2. Offline conversion tracking

Offline conversion tracking (OCT) allows you to integrate your CRM data into ad campaigns. 

Essentially, this helps Google, Meta, and LinkedIn identify high-quality leads by modeling user data.

Using OCT means connecting a batch of users who fall within the ideal range of data density and your deepest funnel stage – such as SQLs or opportunities for SMBs. 

Successfully implementing OCT requires:

• A well-organized CRM.
• Strong data collection practices.
• Solid bidding strategies in ad platforms.

When used effectively, OCT prevents platforms from cherry-picking the easiest (and often lowest-quality) leads. 

Instead, it trains them to target users who match the characteristics modeled by your CRM lists.

That said, a couple of caveats apply:

• You may see slightly higher CPLs when using OCT, but these costs typically balance out when you assess CPQL (cost per quality lead) or cost per MQL, SQL, or opportunity.
• If you’re a new or small account focused on volume or testing value propositions, you may want to observe offline data rather than optimize for it initially. In this case, casting a wider net and bringing in leads can be a necessary first step in understanding your ideal prospects – and how to attract them.

Dig deeper: Google Ads for lead generation: A 6-step framework for success

3. Targeting refinement

If you don’t target the right users, you won’t bring in quality leads (sorry for stating the obvious). 

To keep your budget focused and effective, take the basics from step one and critically evaluate your audiences.

• Are your audience sizes manageable, or are they too broad to effectively assess performance?
• Assuming your ICP is well-defined, what’s your retargeting strategy? 

I recommend building segments based on intent level (high, medium, low), tailoring creative to each segment, and starting with your highest-intent segment to gauge performance. 

If that segment generates quality leads below target CPAs, consider expanding to medium-intent audiences and analyzing the results.

Dig deeper: PPC keyword strategy: How to align search intent with funnel stages

4. Smart ad copy

As the saying goes (I’m about to misquote something I can’t attribute), good ad copy tells the right people to click, and great ad copy tells the wrong people not to.

You can achieve this by clearly defining and calling out your ICP in your ad copy, regardless of the ad type or platform.

Here’s a great example from my LinkedIn feed today:

The copy explicitly highlights a demographic, a position, and a condition (managing two or more people). 

This company has its ICP dialed in – and ad copy to match. 

Anyone who has worked with LinkedIn ads knows that even LinkedIn’s unique targeting can’t perfectly filter for only the users you want. 

However, copy like this does much of the remaining work for you.

Dig deeper: 7 LinkedIn advertising pitfalls: Where your B2B ads setup might stumble

5. More friction in your lead forms

This is the only remotely controversial topic on my list. 

Some brands with robust business development resources prefer to bring in all leads and let their sales teams separate the wheat from the chaff. 

In my experience, though, most are more interested in keeping their CRM data clean and proactively minimizing junk by making lead forms longer and harder to fill out.

Typical lead forms ask for names, emails, and phone numbers at a minimum. 

This creates a low-friction experience and certainly increases form conversion rates.

The alternative is to add additional fields to introduce friction, which can improve lead quality. 

Ensure that the fields you require add valuable information to your lead qualification process. These could include:

• Company name.
• Company revenue.
• Number of employees.
• Company industry.
• Reason for contacting/current challenge (free-form).
• How they heard about your business (free-form).

How much friction to introduce is up to you. 

The more friction, the fewer leads, but the higher the proportion of qualified leads. 

The less friction, the greater the overall lead volume.

LinkedIn now makes it easier to minimize freemail submissions. 

A setting allows you to turn off pre-populated emails (the emails used to sign up for a LinkedIn account, which are usually freemail, like Gmail) and require users to enter a work email instead.

Dig deeper: How to optimize PPC forms and follow-ups for lead gen in 2025

Final thoughts

Before you dive into form fields, spend extra time on the basics outlined in the first lead quality initiative – and revisit them periodically as ICPs evolve.

Also, whatever stage you’re at, having a lead qualification system that is understood and referenced by everyone in your revenue organization is essential.

Before assuming everyone is on the same page:

• Do a quick sanity check on MQL and SQL definitions.
• Determine how much you’re willing to pay for each.

Then, roll up your sleeves and start bringing in leads.