Get in Touch

Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmarks by Industry & Channel

Reports
Grid Image (6)

Last updated: October 23, 2024

This research paper will report on the lead-to-MQL conversion rate benchmarks in 30 industries, further breaking down conversion rate by channel. As a bonus, we have also parsed lead-to-MQL conversion rate by page type.

Our data has been built over 10 years servicing marketing clients via our agency, the largest in its industry. Our research team then takes that data, segments it, removes outliers, and reports on the results.

Definition of Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate 

Visitors to a website become leads when they give their contact information in any form. Those leads become marketing qualified leads (MQLs) when they’re determined to be in the company’s target market and match one of its buyer personas.

This leap from lead to MQL is the first serious step in the marketing process, and a natural transition to the sales process. Most lead generation companies are expected to deliver a high percentage of MQLs, as they represent the minimum level of seriousness to warrant the attention of a member of the sales team.

The lead-to-MQL conversion rate is the percentage of leads that convert to MQLs. It’s a particularly important metric because it reflects the quality of leads, indicating how effective each of your marketing channels is and whether they’re worth their cost.

The diagram below shows the average lead-to-MQL conversion rate across all industries, marketing channels, and page types, which is 31%. As you can see, a healthy lead-to-MQL conversion rate ultimately paves the way for a higher number of closed sales.  

Lead to MQL Conversion Rate Benchmarks

For additional context, we’ve included in the diagram the average MQL-to-SQL conversion rate; SQL-to-opportunity conversion rate; and opportunity-to-closed conversion rate.

Limitations of Data Set

Our agency’s clients skew about 70% B2B, with a number of large B2C e-commerce companies represented as well. The concentration of industries can be seen in the table below, which contains all the industries for which we had enough data to produce conversion rates. As we are primarily an SEO agency, that marketing channel is more heavily represented in our data set.

Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Industry

Lead To Mql Conversion Rate Vs. Industry
IndustryLead-to-MQL Conversion Rate
Aerospace & Defense34%
Addiction Treatment23%
Automotive31%
Aviation37%
B2B SaaS39%
Biotech42%
Business Consulting28%
Commercial Insurance40%
Construction17%
Cybersecurity39%
eCommerce23%
Engineering35%
Entertainment34%
Environmental Services45%
Financial Services29%
Higher Education & College45%
HVAC Services42%
Industrial IoT22%
IT & Managed Services25%
Legal Services32%
Manufacturing26%
Medical Device24%
Oil & Gas32%
PCB Design & Manufacturing42%
Pharmaceutical41%
Real Estate27%
Software Development32%
Solar Energy45%
Transportation & Logistics36%

Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Marketing Channel

Lead To Mql Conversion Rate Vs. Channel
ChannelLead-to-MQL Conversion Rate
SEO41%
PPC29%
Email Marketing38%
Webinar19%
Conferences 28%
Trade Shows24%
Executive Events54%
Client Referrals56%
Social Media Marketing30%
Podcasts21%
Outdoor Advertising14%

Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Page Type

Lead To Mql Conversion Rate By Page Type
Page TypeLead-to-MQL Conversion Rate
Product Landing Page38%
Service Landing Page33%
Application Landing Page36%
Location Landing Page25%
Industry Landing Page35%
Case Study29%
Problem & Solution / FAQ Page23%
Thought Leadership Article or Blog Post30%
Hub Page20%
White Paper38%

Leveraging Lead-to-MQL Conversion Data

We hope these benchmarks are useful for your marketing department as it strives to guide its strategy with data-driven decisions. If you would like to order a pdf copy of this report or make contact with our agency, you may do so here.

Further Reading

If you’ve found this report useful, we recommend reading our other reports on conversion statistics:

Evan Bailyn

Evan Bailyn is a best-selling author and award-winning speaker on the subjects of SEO and thought leadership. Contact Evan here.