what a monthly lead floor is, and how to set one.

A monthly lead floor is the minimum number of qualified leads an agency commits to deliver each month, with a stated remedy if it falls short. It is the honest version of “guaranteed leads per month”. The number comes from real data, only qualified leads count, and the contract says what happens when the agency misses.

Without those three parts, a lead guarantee is a sentence on a sales page.

a floor is not a guarantee

“We guarantee leads” is easy to say. Ask what counts as a lead, what happens if there are none, and where that is written. Often the answer to all three is nothing.

A floor answers each question in advance. It names a number, it defines what is counted, and it states the consequence. That makes it something you can check, which is the point of a minimum leads agency commitment: you can tell, month by month, whether it was kept.

set it from data, not on day one

Nobody knows what a campaign will produce before it runs. The first months show how much traffic your offer attracts, how many of those people ask for something, and what each lead costs.

A floor promised before that is a guess. If it is set low, it protects nothing. If it is set high, the agency either misses it constantly or quietly loosens what it counts as a lead. Both outcomes hurt you.

The better order is to run for a few months, look at the actual figures together, then write the number into the contract. Expect an agency that works this way to say so plainly, and to tell you the first months are for measuring.

what makes a floor meaningful

It counts qualified leads only. The number is worthless if it counts raw form fills. Tie it to a written definition of a qualified lead, one both sides agreed before work began. Our guide to what is a qualified lead shows how to write one.

Both sides see the same count. Use one shared tracker that you can open yourself. If the agency reports the total in a monthly PDF and you cannot check it, the floor rests on trust alone.

The remedy is stated. The contract says what you can do when the floor is missed, in plain words, not in a clause that needs a lawyer to find.

what a sensible remedy looks like

The cleanest remedy is a right to leave. If the agency misses the floor, you can end the agreement early, before any minimum term runs out.

That beats a refund clause. Refunds invite arguments about what was delivered, what was spent and who is at fault. An exit right is simple: the agency missed the number, so you are free to go.

Set the trigger at two months running, not one. A single weak month is often noise: a holiday, a slow week, a tracking glitch. Two in a row is a pattern. The first protects the agency from bad luck, and the second protects you from a campaign that has stopped working.

how to review and reset the floor

A floor should not be fixed forever. Revisit it when something material changes:

• Season. If your business has busy and quiet periods, agree how the floor reflects them, or review it after each cycle.
• Budget. If ad spend goes up or down, the number should move with it.
• Scope. If you add a service, a location or a new offer, the old floor no longer describes the work.

Put the review in the contract too: who proposes a change, what data supports it, and that neither side can change it alone.

red flags

• A floor promised before anyone has seen your data.
• A count that includes any form submission, whether or not the person fits.
• No remedy, or a remedy of “we will work harder”.
• A remedy buried in fine print or a separate document.
• A tracker only the agency can see.

how we handle it

We set the floor from the first three months of data. If we miss it two months running, you can end the agreement early, before the minimum term. It is written into the contract. Each lead is checked against the criteria agreed at the start and handed over within one working day through one shared tracker. After the minimum term, either side gives 30 days’ notice.

You can see how this fits into our lead generation service.