In a recent post to The B2B Lead, I wrote about trade shows and asked the question: are they best for branding or demand generation? Or are they simply a waste of time and money?

Those posts seemed to hit a hot button with B2B marketers as they generated more commentary than any other topic we cover on The B2B Lead. Get ready for another hot button: Online advertising. And, when I say online advertising, I don’t mean Google Adwords. I’m talking about content syndication services where you list your whitepaper or podcast and expect to get qualified leads back.

Maybe I’m missing something, but these types of campaigns don’t seem to generate the quantity or quality of leads that I would expect for the large price-tag associated with them. In fact, after years of throwing money at these types of campaigns, I’ve basically chalked them up to brand building with a few nuggets to add to my lead nurturing program.

Apparently, I’m not the only B2B Marketer who is frustrated with the poor quality of online advertising leads. According to an opinion posted by Dave Behn on the Adotas blog:

“Anyone who participates in online lead generation is left with one of two conclusions at the end of a campaign: there are either a disproportionate number of John Smiths at 123 Main Street (phone number 555-1212, email yomama@hotmail.com); or there’s no such thing as a set of “pure” leads. No matter the brand or offer, any lead generation campaign will include leads with false or incomplete information that ultimately leaves the lead un-actionable to the advertiser. It’s an accepted and at times expensive cost of doing business in lead generation.”

Well, OK, we all know this is true, but what are our options, really? I, for one, have redirected my online advertising spend to a targeted database build and Google AdWords. But I would still appreciate the brand awareness that goes along with these services. Sadly, though, demand gen goals win out over brand so I’ve resigned myself to the fact that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Behn, on the other hand, is far more idealistic. He advocates a sort of “lemon law for leads”:

“Moving forward, the lead generation community needs to adopt standard guidelines for developing actionable leads. As lead generation grows, and as it welcomes a greater number of mature, Fortune 1000 brands, we should embrace the lemon law concept within our industry. Let’s develop a singular definition of valid and billable leads that revolves around accuracy, completeness, timeliness and actionability. It’s a logical and long-overdue next step the industry needs to confront.

An interesting thought, but not likely to happen anytime soon since we B2B Marketers continue to line up to hand over our marketing budget for junk leads.

What do you think?