What Happens After a Google Ads Lead Arrives?

This article is part of a series on how I find high-leverage opportunities to make Google Ads more profitable..

A sales journey is usually drawn as a neat, linear funnel made up of a few stages:

Contact → quote → sale

In real life it's messy. Here are some examples from a recent audit for a multi-disciplinary law firm:

Call → operator → appointment booked → office consultation → qualified → contract.
Form → assigned to operator → contacted → appointment booked → office consultation → qualified → contract.
Call about someone in detention → intake specialist → case assessed → contract completed online.
Online consultation request → consultation booked → consultation held → qualified → contract.

Some stages appear in several journeys. Others only apply to one service or type of lead. Some leads skip stages that are essential to another journey.

Figuring this out can be tricky. I've found that while people understand that leads become sales, few have ever thought of it as a process with distinct steps.

What's worked for me is to start by asking thing like "What happens when someone calls?" or "What happens if someone fills in a form?" And then just tease it out from there.

Once I understand what individual stages there are I group them into the different journeys a lead could follow.

Why mapping the sales journey is important

This can take several hours, but it's worthwhile because it shows how leads should flow through the business. It often reveals places where leads don't follow the expected path.

It also establishes what evidence is created or lost as a lead progresses or doesn't.

Simple example. If a lot of leads don't progress because they're out of area, the ad targeting should be fixed. But, if the evidence (lead didn't progress because out of area) isn't captured and available to the person managing the ads this won't happen.

The questions in my audit template

Here are the exact questions I ask about every stage.

Name
What it means
System of record
Source evidence
How it's created
Data created or updated
Data carried forward
Progressed
Can't progress
Won't progress
Might progress

The first two make sure that everybody agrees on what the stage means.

A stage called “qualified”, for example, is only useful if there is an agreed definition of a qualified lead. Otherwise, different people can use the same label to mean different things.

System of record identifies the system that contains the official record of the lead reaching that stage. This might be the CRM, appointment system, case-management software, payment platform or a spreadsheet.

Source evidence asks what proves that the event actually happened.

These questions are relevant where lead progress is recorded in different systems. For instance:

You have a CRM but manage bookings through Outlook or Calendly.
You mark a lead as won in the CRM but the actual sale is recorded in your accounting system.

If there was a question you'd trust whatever your calendar or accounting system said over the CRM.

How it's created documents what causes the lead to enter the stage. It includes if the change is manual or automatic, who or what makes it, and the process they are expected to follow.

This matters because manual update can be forgotten or wrong and automatic updates can fail.

With the auto dealer we found that the system of record for selling a car was their inventory management software.

The person who handled the paperwork was supposed to update the CRM after every sale. They did, but in a batch around the 10th of the month. The problem was that their ad manager was working off figures in the CRM at the 1st of the month.

The next two questions examine what happens to the information attached to the lead.

Data created or updated records the new information produced at this stage. If a quote was sent, the value of a sale etc.

Data carried forward checks which information from earlier stages remains attached to the lead. For example, the CRM has a lead called John Smith, complete with ad tracking info. The accounting system has a sale recorded to Smith Inc, with no way to connect the two.

The final four questions account for every possible outcome from the stage.

Progressed means the lead successfully moves to the next stage.

Can't progress means there is a genuine reason the lead can't continue. The person might be ineligible, need a service the business doesn’t provide or be impossible to contact.

Won't progress means the lead chooses not to continue. They might decline the offer or choose a competitor.

Might progress means the lead is not moving forward now but could do so later. They might need more time, more information or follow-up on an agreed date.

Asking these questions often highlights places where leads go to die. Fixing this can be an early and easy win.

The next part of the profitability investigates what information flows from your business to Google Ads.

Most Google Ads Problems Aren't Google Ads Problems

If my writing resonates with you, I'd like to give you a copy of my book, Profitable Google Ads. The book was written for business owners, but many PPC professionals have found it valuable too.

Before you download it, what describes you best?