How can I find lead generation buyers and budgets in the U.S. for long-term growth and success?

Cari Hartman, customer acquisition specialist and Business Development Vice President at Policy Jar, shared her firsthand knowledge from years as a U.S.-based affiliate and lead generator with our audience at a recent Affiliate World event.

She shared actionable tips for finding verticals, buyers, and budgets that you can apply to your own acquisition efforts, starting with how to…

1. Identify Profitable Verticals

Understanding the impact of macroeconomic factors is crucial when looking for profitable verticals in the U.S. Rising interest rates, for example, can significantly impact demand, shifting the focus from refinancing to subprime lending.

Demographics also play a vital role. For example, the aging population both in the U.S. and globally presents lucrative opportunities for verticals targeting seniors, such as Medicare and home healthcare.
Picking Verticals

That said, not every trending vertical will sustain long-term growth. Thorough due diligence is essential to avoid costly mistakes.

2. Find the Buyers

LinkedIn can be an invaluable resource for establishing credibility and building connections. When you’re looking for buyers, it’s not enough to find the right company — you have to find the right person at that company.
Finding the Buyers

With LinkedIn, you can precisely target professionals by job title, company, industry, location, and even skills.

You can explore company pages to understand their structure, discover recent news, and identify potential decision-makers. Further, tools like Datanize can identify key decision-makers within target companies more efficiently.

Offline connections are essential as well. Strategic networking, including attending industry events, building relationships with industry players (tracking platforms, BPOs, etc.), and leveraging existing networks, are all crucial for identifying potential buyers.

3. Securing Budgets

Understanding the advertiser’s budget expectations and constraints early on allows for realistic campaign planning and performance projections. This prevents overpromising and underdelivering, which can damage the affiliate-advertiser relationship.

Clear expectations also facilitate smoother onboarding. When both parties understand their roles and responsibilities, the integration process becomes more efficient and less time-consuming.

Similarly, clear expectations upfront regarding lead quality, campaign goals, and acceptable marketing angles are very important. By clearly outlining desired outcomes (e.g., lead volume, conversion rates, cost per acquisition), both the affiliate and the advertiser are on the same page from the beginning. This prevents misunderstandings and ensures that everyone is working towards the same objectives.

Finally, monitoring campaign performance, optimizing campaigns, and providing advertisers with regular feedback can contribute to successful long-term relationships, which is key to securing consistent and growing budgets.

Key Takeaways

According to Cari, these action steps can help you effectively identify and secure U.S. lead generation buyers and budgets:

  1. Identify promising verticals based on economic trends and thorough research.
  2. Enhance your LinkedIn profile and identify specific potential buyers there.
  3. Network with potential buyers at industry events and nurture those relationships.

Above all, building strong relationships and delivering exceptional results are the keys to sustainable growth and success in the U.S. market.