What is Recency in Lead Scoring?

DEFINITION
Recency in lead scoring determines how impactful an action is based on when the lead took it; strong lead scoring models will have time-decay built into the system to account for when a lead took a specific action.

💡Understanding the Role Recency Plays in Lead Scoring

Most conventional lead scoring models either look at demographic/firmographic fit, or they look at activity like website engagement or interaction with the sales team. Really, lead scoring models must account for both… but they also need to account for recency and frequency of action,

Recency looks at when users took a specific action that you’re using in your scoring models. This is a crucial part of building a high-performing lead scoring model that’s both accurate and actionable, because when matters a great deal.

If you have leads that booked a demo yesterday, they’re going to be much more likely to convert than someone who initially tried to book a demo two years ago. The latter is a lead that has likely dropped off your radar permanently (or at least for now). 

Here at Breadcrumbs, our lead scoring models allow you to implement time-decay features in your customized models so that your team can strike while the opportunity is hot. You can customize the windows of opportunity when a lead would receive the highest number of points possible for a specific action, and then choose which windows of time would see a decline off that original score. 

🖋 Takeaway

When your sales team is looking at lead scores to determine which contacts should be prioritized, it’s important that they’re acting on up-to-date data. This is why recency is so crucial; it helps your team get accurate and actionable scores based on how recently a specific lead took individual actions. 

You don’t need a lot of data points, after all, to create a great lead scoring model; you just need to know that the data points in question are accurate. 

Without recency, your lead scoring models would become inaccurate. Someone who signed up for a free trial six months ago would be ranked as highly as someone who took that same conversion path a week ago, even though it’s clear that the intent of the two is (at the current point) now definitively not equal. 

It’s important for your sales team to know which leads are ready now, and recency metrics can help them gain insight into who those ready-right-now audiences are. 

When customizing your lead scoring models and determining what time-decay features to incorporate, consider the following:

• The specific action and how high-intent it is
• The standard buyer’s journey for your business
• The window of opportunity for high-intent actions; if you don’t get a demo scheduled within a day after it’s booked, the customer will likely look elsewhere

You can always test different recency factors for different actions with split testing to determine which most accurately indicates the readiness of different lead categories. 

Most user actions can tell you a great deal about where they are in their buyer’s journey in real-time… but to take advantage of that data, you must consider it in real-time, with recency factored in. 

What is recency in lead scoring?

Recency is a key factor in lead scoring and marketing efforts. By measuring recency, you can determine how close a lead is to convert based on the last interaction they had with your content or business.

For example, if someone recently visited your website or opened an email, they are more likely to convert than someone who hasn’t interacted with you in months.

Measuring recency helps you determine where leads are in the sales funnel—it provides insight into how interested potential customers are. It allows you to prioritize leads that are most likely to convert.

Additionally, understanding recency gives you valuable information about where leads came from–which campaigns were most effective and which channels yielded the highest return on investment–so that you can invest your resources strategically and maximize conversions from each lead.

What is frequency and recency?

Recency and frequency are two metrics that consider when and how often a specific action was taken. Actions taken more recently and more often indicate higher intent, which should increase a lead’s score as it indicates qualified and ready-to-buy contacts. 

What is recency score?

A recency score tells you how recently leads have engaged with your business. The recency of interactions isn’t all that matters; the value of the specific action and how often the action was taken also matters, but recency should be factored into the equation, too. 

What is lead scoring RFM?

Lead scoring RFM assesses a contact’s value by assessing Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value of purchases made by a single customer made. While RFM analysis is an important part of the equation, it’s not the entire formula; you also need to look at lead fit and the specific activity of different contacts. 

What does high recency mean?

High recency indicates how recently a customer has interacted with or purchased from a company. For example, customers with high recency and low frequency would be brand new customers; follow-ups with high recency customers can lead to more conversions and client retention. 

What is an example of recency?

Consider if you reached out to a SaaS company to request custom pricing for their tool. If you hear back within 24 hours, you’re still interested and high-intent. If it took the company, however, three weeks to get back to you, you likely moved on and inquired about other options; you may have even converted with a competitor.