This research paper will report on the lead-to-MQL conversion rate benchmarks in 15 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. The research arm of our organization 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 considered the first serious step in the marketing process, and a natural transition to the sales process. Most lead generation companies are expected to deliver 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.
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 75% 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 an SEO agency, that marketing channel is more heavily represented in our data set.
Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Industry
| Industry | Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate |
| Addiction Treatment | 23% |
| B2B SaaS | 39% |
| Biotech | 36% |
| Construction | 17% |
| eCommerce | 23% |
| Financial Services | 29% |
| Higher Education & College | 45% |
| HVAC Services | 42% |
| Industrial IoT | 22% |
| Insurance | 23% |
| IT Staffing & Services | 25% |
| Legal Services | 32% |
| Manufacturing | 26% |
| Medical Device | 24% |
| Oil & Gas | 32% |
| PCB Design & Manufacturing | 42% |
| Pharmaceutical | 41% |
| Real Estate | 27% |
| Solar Energy | 45% |
Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Marketing Channel
| Channel | Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate |
| SEO | 41% |
| PPC | 29% |
| Email Marketing | 38% |
| Webinar | 19% |
| Conferences | 28% |
| Trade Shows | 24% |
| Executive Events | 54% |
| Client Referrals | 56% |
| Social Media Marketing | 30% |
| Podcasts | 21% |
| Outdoor Advertising | 14% |
Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate Benchmark by Page Type
| Page Type | Lead-to-MQL Conversion Rate |
| Product Landing Page | 38% |
| Service Landing Page | 33% |
| Application Landing Page | 36% |
| Location Landing Page | 25% |
| Industry Landing Page | 35% |
| Case Study | 29% |
| Problem & Solution / FAQ Page | 23% |
| Thought Leadership Article or Blog Post | 30% |
| Hub Page | 20% |
| White Paper | 38% |
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:
