If you’re not getting leads, you may be getting them and losing them to a slow reply. Or people may not find you at all. Here’s what to check first. Last updated by Shaikh Amir Hussain, founder of Evensteer.
“They filled out our form on a Friday afternoon. We followed up Monday morning. By then they had already signed with someone else. That was the most expensive weekend I ever had.”Khiry Deal, on LinkedIn
He had the lead and lost it in the wait. If your leads aren’t converting, look at the wait before you pay for more traffic.
The 42 hours comes from Harvard Business Review’s audit of 2,241 companies, which also found 23% never reply at all. The 21× is from MIT-affiliated lead-response research. The 8× is from InsideSales’ 2021 lead-response report.
You may not be short of leads. You may be losing them to the wait.
Go in this order, because the first check needs only your own form and a clock.
Fill in your own contact form and time the reply. If it takes hours, you’ve found the leak. → Lead follow-up, explained
Read it as a stranger would. Can you tell what you sell and how to ask? If not, visits won’t turn into inquiries. → Lead generation, with landing pages run for you
Search for your business the way a customer would. If your website isn’t showing up on Google at all, check that your site settings let search engines see it. Old hours, a dead link or an empty profile make people stop there. → Handles and listings, corrected
If you pay for ads, check who they reach and where each click lands.
Not getting leads on Facebook, even with clicks coming in? Check who the ads reach, since a wide audience can bring clicks from people who won’t buy. Check that the form or page matches the ad. And check how fast you answer the people who message you from it. The same checks apply to Meta ads on Instagram.
“Over 60% of that spend goes towards search terms I can’t even see… I’m literally paying for clicks with zero visibility.”r/googleads (117↑, 152 comments)
That’s one advertiser on r/googleads, not an average. But it shows how much spend can go to search terms you can’t see. If your Google Ads are not getting leads, open the search terms report first. Cut the terms that don’t fit what you sell, and ask where the rest of the spend went.
Want a person to watch the spend for you? → Paid ads management
If your website is not getting leads, something breaks between the visit and the first message. Can a stranger tell what you sell, see how to ask, and get a fast answer when they do?
Some owners have no site at all: 17% of US small businesses don’t have one. For 40% of those that do, search is their top source of new leads (Clutch, 2025). The full research is on our problems page. You don’t need a clever site, just one that says what you do. → Website, built for you
You may be getting leads and losing them to a slow reply, or you may not be found at all. Check the reply first. The average business takes 42 hours to answer a new lead, and 23% never reply (Harvard Business Review, 2011). A lead answered within 5 minutes is 21 times more likely to qualify than one answered after 30 minutes (Lead Response Management study). If replies are fast, check the page people land on, where you show up in search, and your ads.
A website stops getting leads when visitors can’t tell what you sell, can’t reach you easily, or wait days for an answer. Put one sentence at the top that says who you help and what happens next. Make asking easy. Then answer fast, because leads that got a call within five minutes converted at 8 times the rate of leads called later (InsideSales, 2021). Evensteer builds the site and answers new leads under your name. AI drafts each reply from templates you approve, and a specialist reviews what goes out.
When Facebook ads bring clicks but no leads, check three places: who the ads reach, the page they land on, and how fast you reply. A wide audience can bring clicks from people who won’t buy. A page that doesn’t match the ad can lose them. And the average business takes 42 hours to answer a lead. A person watching the spend can fix the first. A fast reply can fix the last.
Or write to us. Your message reaches us the moment you send it. One person replies within one working day.